January 2015

information from Feet First

Feet First will be hosting the 3rd Annual Stairway Walks Day on Saturday, February 7th from 10 am -12 pm. This event features fourteen simultaneous walks across the region, which celebrate the legacy of several hundred publicly accessible stairways.

What: Stairway Walks Day 2015—Featuring fourteen unique stairway walks across the Puget Sound Region
When: Saturday, February 7, 2015, from 10:00am to 12:00pm
Where: Fourteen walks in various neighborhoods throughout Seattle
RSVP: Space is limited to 35 people per walk.

Participants can RSVP in advance at www.feetfirst.org or http://stairwaywalksday2015.bpt.me/

By Jeremy Martin

Tuesday night, Chief Sealth welcomed Roosevelt High School to West Seattle for a boys wrestling showdown. The niceties however were not returned as the Rough Riders rode away with a 61-6 drubbing of their hosts.
The Seahawks lone win was a Gonzalo Cruz victory due to forfeit in the 113 lb weight class.

Despite the final score, Sealth put up a fight with four of its grapplers holding off Roosevelt into the third round including; Oliver Jackson at 160lbs, Antonio Chiles at 170lbs, Daron Camacho at 190lbs and Frank Brown at 220lbs.

Likewise, the Rough Riders came away with three pins on the night including; 182 lb Matt Dickenson over Morigon Blacklongue in the first round, 285 lb Nathan Forst over Ismail Chavez in the first, and Spear Kajumvlo over Brown in the final round.

It was a difficult outing for the home team, who not only faced a difficult metro league opponent, but found itself digging out of a hole throughout the match as the Seahawks were forced to take six forfeits, accepting losses in five of those matches, with the sixth being a double forfeit at 106 lbs.

by Paul Moseley

The West Seattle Wildcats boys hosted Bainbridge Spartans in a varsity basketball match-up Friday night and came up just short in a fast paced game that was undecided until the final seconds.

West Seattle, entering the game with a 7-5 record, came into the game having won 5 of their last 6 contests, suffering their only loss in that stretch to Metro powerhouse Eastside Catholic.

Bainbridge Island, after going 1-5 in their first 6 games, turned their season around and were 5-1 in their next 6 games - matching the West Seattle streak and setting the stage for a game between two evenly matched teams.

The Wildcats set the pace in the first half. They relied on their superior quickness and worked the full half of their court - driving the lane as well as draining four 3-pointers (2 by Sophomore Tyler Lenzie). They were up by 6 until a last second half court swish by Bainbridge sent the teams to the locker room with the Wildcats up by three 20-17 at the half.

The UW Center for Ecogenetics & Environmental Health (CEEH) sponsors a quarterly Public Health Cafe held at West Seattle Chaco Canyon Cafe. The topic for the Public Health Cafe on Feb 3rd is the Duwamish River Cleanup plan, with speakers Allison Hiltner, EPA Duwamish Cleanup Project Manager, and James Rasmussen, Coordinator, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition and Duwamish tribal elder.

Public Health Cafe: Cleaning up the Duwamish River: What’s Next?
with Allison Hiltner, EPA Project Manager, Duwamish Superfund Cleanup
and James Rasmussen, Coordinator, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition
Tues, Feb 3rd, 7:00-8:30 pm
West Seattle Chaco Canyon Cafe, 3770 SW Alaska St.

Update 5:25 Jan 22
Canceled due to Conflict with Peter Steinbrueck Measuring the Success of Seattle's Urban Village Strategy

Original Post Jan 20

With development in West Seattle rapidly changing the face and character of Seattle's largest neighbhorhood the West Seattle Land Use Committee which launched last fall with Vlad Oustimanivich as its founder, hopes to preserve what's good about the area and guide development in a thoughtful way. The His intention is, according to the group, that it should be inclusive of all of West Seattle, be a non-adversarial forum and welcoming to all residents, businesses, developers and the various parties with a stake in the future Land Use Planning, Community Impact Assessments of potential development.

The WSLUC January Meeting:

West Seattle Public Library (Admiral) Lower Meeting Room
Wednesday January 28st, 2015
6PM - 8PM

Agenda

Introductions

• Review of November Meeting Notes (see Notes at end of this Newsletter)

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

High schools
Boys basketball
Highline hosts Tyee for a 7 p.m. game Wednesday as Evergreen entertains Lindbergh, Foster hosts Hazen and Kennedy Catholic goes to Renton.
Mount Rainier pays a 7 p.m. visit to Thomas Jefferson on Thursday, and Friday's schedule includes Ballard at West Seattle and Lakeside at Chief Sealth at 8 p.m.
At 7 p.m. that day Evergreen hosts Foster, Tyee entertains Renton, Highline goes to Hazen and Kennedy to Lindbergh.
Seattle Christian gets a 7:30 p.m. visit from Bellevue Christian.
Seattle Lutheran visits nearby Shorewood Christian at 7 p.m. Saturday at Chinook Middle School in SeaTac and Federal Way visits Mount Rainier at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday's schedule has Shorewood Christian at Quilcene at 6:30 p.m., Decatur at Mount Rainier and Vashon at Seattle Christian at 7 p.m., and West Seattle at Blanchet, Chief Sealth at Ingraham and Auburn Adventist at Seattle Lutheran at 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball

Meet Your Sustainable Ballard: the 2015 Board Members, Project Leaders and Staff — bend our ears … we want to hear what you have to say about Sustainable Ballard, your ideas and hopes, where you’d like to see us prioritize our resources — we’ll be there to listen!

• Be part of the celebration as we toast Sustainable Ballard’s leaders

• Hear about our priorities for the new year, and tell us about your open house

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• Learn more about the projects we have cooking … come find out what we’re all about and sign up for something that interests you

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, is filing legislation this week to align the currently unregulated medical marijuana system and that of the regulated recreational marijuana system.

In addition to addressing the two conflicting systems, the bill streamlines the newly enacted I-502 system and contains provisions for patient access, public safety and law enforcement efficiency.

“My colleague on the other side of the aisle, Sen. Ann Rivers, is also working hard on this issue and her legislation has many commonalities with mine,” said Kohl-Welles. “I anticipate that we will find a way to pass legislation that combines the best of both of our proposals.

“The main intent of my bill is to simplify and unify the two systems so that complex gray areas and dangerous illicit markets will eventually cease to exist.”

By Peggy Sturdivant

“Why didn’t you have a column last week?” a friend asked.

“Because I was in a funk,” I answered. She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

Here’s a problem though. My column deadline is always Friday, and even though it’s been another week, I’m still in a funk. Not that I’m alone. It seems that despite clear skies between the rains and fog, January is simply a tough month. We’ve either fully enjoyed the holidays or gritted our teeth through the events (usually a mix). We’re either taking down the cheerful outdoor lights or letting the wreath molder on the door, dropping needles with every open/shut.

“Where’s your staff?” I asked the husband and wife owners of Market Street Shoes after being drawn in by the Sale sign. The woman smiled rather ruefully, “Actually, they all have the flu.”

By Kyra-lin Hom

The latest Obama news spike to hit the air is his proposal for 'free' community college nationwide. If the proposal passes Congress and then the states, community college will be funded 75% by the Federal Government and 25% by the relevant state. The total estimated federal cost would be $60 billion over the next 10 years. Of course there are a few more details than that, but you get the gist.

Since its announcement, the mud has been flying back and forth on whether or not this is financially feasible, socially acceptable or even just some big political ploy to make the opposing republicans look bad. All of that aside, at least it's brought the issues of college tuition and student debt back into the political mainstream.