All about the West Seattle neighborhood around Beach Drive
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.
We had some anxious neighbors wanting us to make everyone aware of some changes to the earth in Emma Schmitz View Point. We did encourage them to contact the City of Seattle.
This is at the southern part of where the rock bulkhead and the metal seawall meet. It looks like it could be a possible water line leak? Our intrepid reporter, Scupper, took this photo and commented that the grounds are quite spongy.
UPDATE 9:36 AM:
Scupper talked to Seattle Public Utilities worker who mentioned that the nearby water meter is spinning. He was in the process of contacting Seattle Parks to ask for direction of how to proceed. Apparently the parks department is in control of everything beyond the public sidewalk where there is a park.
This spongy bulge (aka the Beach Drive Bulge) should be resolved soon.
Blake Island is closing off the island to visitors this Wednesday through Friday to deal with thinning the enormous rabbit population.
Like many of the larger islands in the San Juans, Blake has seen it’s rabbit population grow out of control. Much of the island’s daucus carota has been decimated which could spell disaster for the beloved deer population. Hundreds of traps will be set mostly on the southeastern and northwestern ends of the island where burrowing is most pronounced.
Park officials have organized volunteer veterinarians from both King and Kitsap counties to spay all females caught during the 2 day closure. “Our goal is to thin the rabbit population by at least two thirds.” said long time ranger Peter Hare. An adoption rescue line has been set up for local residents to provide homes for many of the exiled bunnies. Peter’s team has currently secured homes for 375 rabbits (at the time of writing this article) however, anticipates the need for a few hundred more. They’ve also made this link available for any interested hosts that have questions regarding care for this particular species of San Jaun rabbit. Please contact the bunny rescue effort at islandbunnies.gov or call 360-Bun-Home if you’re interested in the rescue efforts. Hop to it!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Right now Delta Marine has a mega yacht cruising around our “back yards” off the shores of Beach Drive.
There are not a lot of details about this yacht via Marine Traffic. I can tell you she is a whopping 210 feet long and 29.5 feet wide.
Maybe she belongs to the owners of the 11,000 square foot mansion that’s being built on the 6000 block of Beach Drive.
It was brought to our attention that the “Bart Simpson” house on Alki Point has been listed for sale.
The home has a fresh coat of exterior paint which covered up the fun painting of Bart doing some graffiti on the home.
If you look real close, you can barely see where Bart entertained passers by for years.
Hopefully the new owners of this Alki home will be fans of The Simpsons so that Bart can return!
Ay carumba!
This just in from our intrepid reporter Scupper, you can expect delays while repairs are being done to the sewer line by 4100 Beach Drive SW.
This stretch on Beach Drive is notorious for it’s sinking pot holes which makes for rough driving. Scupper asked if this section of road would be repaired while the sewer work is taking place. He was told that would be up to the Seattle Department of Transportation.
So drive safe, try to be patient and mind those potholes neighbors!
We spied this lone duck swimming off of Beach Drive this morning. Any idea what type it is?
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