August 2010

Seattle Citizens Against the (Deep-Bore) Tunnel, or SCAT, began collecting signatures for their Initiative 101 west of the sports stadiums Friday, Aug. 13, and have begun to fan out in West Seattle, and other neighborhoods. You can read our story on the initiative here:

"We are sending a strong message to City Council," said SCAT-man Bud Shasteen of West Seattle. "We're telling them 'you can disregard our votes all you want.' But once we have some power with our signatures that is the one thing they will pay attention too when they consider reelection."

Shasteen collected over 100 signatures in two hours Saturday, Aug. 14, outside Thriftway at the Morgan Junction in the 90-degree heat.

"You're bypassing the entire city with this tunnel," said West Seattle's Mabel Aide of SCAT. "If you want to go to strores you can't. It's a stupid thing."

"It's going to be complete chaos," said Guy Gallipeau, also of West Seattle.

By Bethany Overland

It’s mid-August, and the new school year is less than a month away. New clothes, shoes and school supplies can be hard on the budget of any family—that is, if you’re lucky enough to have a budget.

For homeless parents, back-to-school can mean back-to-wondering how they’ll meet their children’s needs for the new academic year. But thanks to Project Cool, more than 1,800 homeless students across King County will enter the year with a brand-new backpack, binder and other basic supplies necessary for success in school—and eventually in life.

More than 30 volunteers met Aug. 11 at a former Baptist church in Crown Hill to stuff backpacks with school supplies. Thousands of packages of crayons and markers and stacks of notebooks littered the hall, and brand-new backpacks waited reverently in the pews.

West Seattle music therapist and counselor Sha'ari Garfinkel and her practice, Inner Listening, gives new meaning to the concept of the "gong show." The name of her garage-turned-cozy meditation space is the "Hummingbird Studio," situated behind her house at the end of a meandering stone walkway necklaced with flowers. This may seem an ironic cocktail, quiet meditation, small, gentle humingbirds, and nine boastful gongs with mallets at the ready, and most even larger than those giant pizza pies served at Talarico's in the Alaksa Junction.

But Garfinkel, who also works in the emergency room at Swedish Hospital, Cherry Hill, is board-certified as a music therapist, a licensed independent clinical social worker, among her bevy of credentials, and seems to pull the elements together as one unifying force as she preps her class with a quick overview of her various gongs, and instructs her pupils to relax, become empty like a claranet with holes to let it all out, and take in the vibes of the gongs. .

Seattle Public Schools has sent an invitation to attend the grand opening of Chief Sealth International High School on Sept. 7 at 9:30 AM.
Attendance at the event is limited however so you must RSVP to Dick Lee at 206) 252-0476 or email at rjlee@seattleschools.org

Sealth has been undergoing a $50 million remodel and renovation for the last 2 plus years and will be ready to open for students.

Here's the official invitation wording:

Seattle Public Schools and Chief Sealth International High School
cordially invite you to help celebrate the:

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
9:30 a.m.- 10:30 a.m.
Please assemble at the main entrance
At 2600 SW Thistle Street at 9:15 a.m.

Please R.S.V.P. to Dick Lee
at (206) 252-0476 or email at rjlee@seattleschools.org
by Monday, August 30th, 2010 - 4:00 p.m.

Smugness and I told you so aren’t exactly conversation starters. It is, however, hard to not be a little smug and to remind you that I told you so when I consider the state you must be in on the mornings that you commute by car from West Seattle to points east of Harbor Island. I’m referring primarily to those of you who to go over the low bridge and across Harbor Island, not that the high bridge is any improvement. Ugly choice, that. Still, even knowing how smug and I told you soish this makes me appear, these are two characteristics that applied to me on a recent morning’s bicycle commute.

Editors Note: Stacey Riley is a West Seattle Interior Design consultant. She brings her training, taste and common sense to the questions that interior design presents. This is her first column for the Herald.

by Stacey Riley

The West Seattle Herald has decided to add an interior design column to their paper and website and they have asked me to do it. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to share my style and ideas with you!

Let’s begin by putting aside common misconceptions about Interior Design. It’s not just for bored housewives or indifferent wealthy professionals. Design is for everyone! All of us have a space we inhabit, so why not make it reflective of who we are as individuals or as family? We often downplay the benefits a well-designed space can provide. It’s dismissed as unnecessary luxury or frivolity. When our home reflects us we feel an extension of self-expression and pride. A well designed space affects our mood.

Bill Stubbs, the “Stubby” of Stubby’s Infield Camps, doesn’t advertise—but word still gets around.

Some consider him to be the best infield instructor in the Pacific Northwest. Many of his campers have won college baseball scholarships, and about a hundred have played professionally. Former Seattle Mariners infielder Jeff Cirillo trained with him during the off-seasons, and Jay Buhner’s son is a current camper.

Stubbs has been running camps in the Seattle area for twenty-five years, the last three in White Center. He takes the show on the road throughout the summer and winter—this year’s locations include North Carolina and California. His camps have such a good reputation that kids travel across the country to attend them. This summer’s White Center session included boys from Oklahoma and Michigan.

A wildfire that began a week ago is burning in the Olympic National Forest according to a report by KING5.com. They report that it is burning near the base of Mt. Hopper near Staircase. The fire was started by lightning.
The north wind is forcing the smoke south down the peninsula and is visible from West Seattle.

A recently completed pedestrian corridor connecting new homes and a growing commercial area in the White Center neighborhood has been so badly vandalized that King County must close it for safety reasons.

Vandals ripped out the stainless steel railing and knocked out lights along the 98th Street Corridor, which was just opened in mid July. The corridor’s steep stairway is unsafe for use at night without the lights and handrails, however the ADA-accessible ramp that runs through the corridor remains open. The area was also vandalized with graffiti.

The 98th Street Corridor sits between the new Greenbridge community and the Central Business District along Southwest 98th Street. The corridor was developed as a result of the Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality and Health Study, which found that people who live in walkable communities are healthier.

King County collaborated with the White Center Community Development Association on the project. More information is available athttp://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/whitecenter.aspx.

SDOT has shared this update:

The contractor working for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will close all eastbound lanes of the Spokane Street Viaduct from First to Fourth avenues S overnight, beginning Sunday night, to prepare for the Monday morning opening of the Fourth Avenue S Off-ramp. The closure is necessary to remove the concrete barrier and to patch surface concrete where the barrier was connected to the viaduct deck.

Crews will place temporary barriers where the new off-ramp meets with the upper roadway to allow for a daylight opening of the ramp.

All eastbound lanes will be open by 5:00 a.m. Monday and the new Fourth Avenue S Off-ramp will be opened after the morning commute.

The overnight closure begins at 10:00 p.m. Sunday, August 15, and will be complete by 5:00 a.m. Monday, August 16.