All about the West Seattle neighborhood around Beach Drive
If you’re lucky enough to be home right now or near a Beach Drive Park, look to Puget Sound to see Native Americans participating in their annual canoe trek. This year’s event is the Power Paddle to Puyallup. The tribes plan to arrive in Puyallup tomorrow with 108 tribal nations participating.
You can hear some of the participants sing as they paddle against the current and tide as they head south.
This is always such a treat to witness!
Tomorrow’s -3.7 tide represents the lowest of the year & gives beach combers a good opportunity to see how the starfish recovery is going. Sea star Waisting Desease nearly wiped out our entire local populations starting back in 2013.
I spoke to a neighbor that had walked a few blocks of low tide shoreline along Beach Drive today. She mentioned only seeing 3 starfish clinging some of the larger rocks but was happy to report that they were making a big comeback just north of Seattle along Discovery Park. She went on to say that “biologists were stunned how fast the recovery was coming along”.
While scientists claim we’re not out of the woods yet in the Salish Sea, they’re optimistic that we’re near the end of the epidemic.
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Soil samples are now being taken at Emma Schmitz Memorial View Point. According to our intrepid reporter, Scupper, they are going down 60 feet. This is for the upcoming improvements to the deteriorating seawall.
Photo credit: Scupper
Construction of the Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook Seawall Project was projected to begin this Fall according to BDB sources from the Army Corp of Engineers. Yet, it appears that construction, ahem, “design” work will commence within a week. This info sign was just installed at the park….
Anticipated impact to neighbors and the public will include drilling/boring equipment taking soil samples from numerous locations along the 450′ stretch of seawall. Constructing the actual wall has been updated to “TBD”.
Sooner the better is my opinion for getting this done. Fall might be too late for the tattered original structure.
From the City of Seattle’s press release:
Soil borings and sampling at Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the City of Seattle, and Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) are collaborating on the Emma Schmitz seawall repair. Together we are ensuring a successful cost-sharing program to restore shoreline protection at Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook in West Seattle. SPR entered into a Project Partnership Agreement with the Corps for the replacement of the seawall. The Corps is responsible for the design of the seawall, and one of the steps in the design process is to take soil borings to inform the final design. Drill equipment will be on site for several days starting the week of June 4.
Built circa 1927, the 450-foot stretch of seawall supports important City and County infrastructure, including a 54-inch sewer main, various Seattle Public Utilities drainage and wastewater lines, and Beach Drive Southwest road. The seawall is badly deteriorated, with a 30 percent chance of failure in the event of severe storm or tidal conditions. The new seawall will be built approximately 2 feet seaward and 2 feet higher than the existing wall, thus significantly improving the grade of this scenic viewpoint for the enjoyment of park users as well as ensuring long-term stability.
The implementation cost of the recommended plan is estimated to be more than $2 million, and will be cost-shared with 65 percent federal funds and 35 percent non-federal funds. The non-federal sponsor, SPR, is responsible for all lands, easements, right-of-ways, relocations, and/or disposal areas which are controlled by the sponsor.
The Corps is designing the seawall, and SPR will be designing the park amenities on top of the wall area. SPR will be holding a public meeting to provide information and gather input on these park amenities.
For more information on the boring and soil collection please visit http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Programs-and-Projects/Projects/Alki-Erosion-Control-Project-Seattle-WA/ or SPR Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook page: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/emma-schmitz-memorial-overlook
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Although I’m not quite sure what the karma penalties would be for catching one of the dungy’s, it was a great sight to see this Taiwanese family repatriating 30 large crabs into Puget Sound.
The grandfather and father of the newborn (on left with mother) carefully remove bands from the claws before releasing the 30 crabs purchased from a local market.
This Buddhist ritual is meant to give good health and wellbeing to the newly born child and create harmony with nature. Pretty cool!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
At this time, Beach Drive Blog is fully supported by my husband, aka Scupper and me. Unlike other neighborhood blogs and news media in West Seattle, we do not rely on Beach Drive Blog as a source of income. I actually have a full time “day job” to help support our household and therefore, this blog. 🙂 I think it’s appropriate if every once in a while, we take a short commercial break to hear from our sponsor beyond the graphic on the sidebar. I’ll try to keep this short and sweet.
I have been in the mortgage industry since 2000 at Mortgage Master Service Corporation. MMSC was actually started by my in-laws back in 1976. In this photo, I’m with Marilyn Porter, President of Mortgage Master (and my sister-in-law) when we received an award from the Washington Association of Mortgage Professionals. Prior to my mortgage career, I worked in the title and escrow industry for 14 years and managed an escrow branch.
I love working here. My underwriting manager’s office is about 25 steps from mine and we have worked together for 18 years! I share my office with my sister, who also cares for my client’s transactions.
We are a correspondent lender, which basically means that we’re like a combination between a bank and a broker. Like a bank, we underwrite, process and fund mortgage transactions from our credit lines. Like a broker (and unlike a bank), we have several lenders to chose from to shop interest rates and mortgage programs. Unlike a bank or broker, this all takes place at our local office by Southcenter (most banks have large processing centers out of state). It’s nice to have more control over a mortgage transaction and to be able to work directly with our underwriter and the president of the company. 🙂
We offer conventional, FHA, VA and Jumbo mortgages for home purchases and refinances. I can help you with your primary home in West Seattle, second home in Bellingham, investment property in Bellevue or anywhere located in Washington state. We lend on 1-4 unit homes, including homes that could use a little tlc/rehab work, condos and select manufactured homes.
I would love to help you with your next mortgage. Please feel free to check out my other blog at www.mortgageporter.com and my reviews on Yelp.
Thanks for reading Beach Drive Blog! And now… back to our regular programming.
Rhonda Porter MLO-121324
Mortgage Master Service Corporation NMLS ID#40445
UPDATE: Bernie and Manny live in the neighborhood and are indoor/outdoor cats. No worries! 🙂
These two sweet cats are hanging around 61st and Beach Drive. Are they yours? If so, let us know or visit the West Seattle Connection group on Facebook to be reunited.
If you haven’t been watching the afternoon news or reading West Seattle Blog, you might be wondering what’s up with the helicopters overhead all morning… and I guess if you’re on that portion of Beach Drive without power, you just might be in the dark (so to speak).
Apparently there is an ongoing standoff taking place at 42nd and Findlay. It appears that the SWAT team was called out for an eviction possibly involving family members. The home was registered having a large amount of firearms which is likely why SWAT was called. The home was set fire and areas of West Seattle have lost power.
I don’t know if the area on Beach Drive is a cause of the fire or if it’s just a coincidence.
Many nearby streets are blocked off.
West Seattle Blog has ongoing coverage of this event.
With the tease of warmer weather on the way, I imagine many Beach Drive area neighbors have tomatoes on the brain. I’m usually too late to the party and end up choosing from the picked over scrawny or wounded plants at the local nursery. Other years I’ve resorted to picking a few plants up from a big box store and wondering what type of “unfriendly” processes might’ve been used to create this mass produced Early Girl??
With that in mind, I stumbled into tomato paradise during a dog walk to Lincoln Park yesterday.
I figured this sign on the 6500 block of Beach Drive was leading the way down a driveway to a few card tables of plants. Boy was I wrong. Instead I found a couple of people working around a small green house with raised beds and several varieties of toms spread out along the garden. A polite young man greeted me and asked if he could Answer any questions I may have. I’m pretty sure he could sense that I was a tomato novice with the questions I asked… “do you have anything that thrives near water in a, um, medium large like pot about so big?”. Kyle didn’t miss a beat and grabbed a tom labeled Hot Tub. He explained that it accidentally sprouted on the west side of their house near their hot tub by the water and absolutely thrived. “Ok, I’ll take that one and also looking for a good tomato for salads?”. Kyle picked a yellow variety and explained that it retains it’s moisture better than most so it won’t mush out on your greens. He then went on to pick another variety that works perfect on a piece of bruschetta with mozzarella and olive oil… SOLD! Then came the detailed instructions in how deep to plant, prune, and size of planter/hog wire to use for stabilizing each plant for it’s anticipated size.
As was walking home with the plants, a neighbor down the block saw me and said “ah, looks like you’ve been by Kyle’s!”.
Kyle working on his many different varieties of tomato starters
Ok, so maybe I’m the last to know about Kyle Winslow’s Nightshade Nursery on Beach Drive. Just in case I’m not, this young man is a great source for answering any questions you may have for what toms to plant this year … and send you off with a few plants to put in the ground!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Jacobson St (4700 block of Beach Drive) is currently closed due to a large tree that came down along one of the bends. Our intrepid reporter, Scupper, is on the scene and will have more info for us soon. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 9:01 AM: Scupper talked to a Seattle Police Officer who stated he does not know when a crew will be out to remove the tree.
The only access for locals is west of the down tree.
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