September 2020

By Patrick Robinson

One of the characteristics of people who self actualize is the ability to finish what they start.

I didn’t understand this for a long time.

I once worked at a variety store in Burien called House of Values. I sold cameras and jewelry and guns (they were all in the same area) even though I knew nothing about two of them. But people would come in and ask me to fix their watch bands. Truly an annoying task. But I would try and fail. The line would build up at the cash register so I’d pass that job off to a co-worker. This however became a habit for me…So one day I was called into the store manager’s office and he told me. “Knock it off. Finish what you start. Ask for help on the register but stick with the customer. It’s what they expect and deserve”

By Ken Robinson

Managing Editor

More or less stuck at home, we rarely utter the word ‘pandemic’. But the restrictions on movement in the community have become a bitter reality.

Now, we think twice about dashing off to the hardware store for a home project. When we have gone recently, it is to marvel at the grim masked faces of shoppers there. The scene has changed a little bit since the governor told us all that we have to wear a mask in every business establishment.

It is now more difficult to tell who is a republican and who is democrat unless one is also sporting a MAGA cap. The Democrats have no symbol of affiliation that we know of.

King County has long been a bastion of politeness when it comes to declarations of political choice. There now seems to be some cracks in the “why can’t we all just get along” ethic.

information from the City of Seattle

Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine announced the opening of a new healthy air center in SoDo for people experiencing homelessness during the wildfire smoke this weekend. The SoDo site will open this afternoon and will provide approximately 80 people with healthy air and shelter. Over the last day, new forecasts show shifting wind patterns that are causing some of the dense smoke produced by the wildfires in Oregon and California to move into Western Washington, creating unhealthy to very unhealthy air quality in the Puget Sound Region that is expected to last for the next several days. You can follow updates to impacted City services here. 

The wildfires pushing smoke into our area have finally reached a level that covers not only the Seattle area but the entire state of Washington.

Seattle Mayor Durkan has closed all Seattle parks, boat ramps, athletic fields, public golf courses & beaches through end of Sunday 9/13 due to unhealthy air quality from wildfire smoke.

Normal reopening times on Monday morning are expected, unless air quality takes a turn for the worse.

Rest rooms in parks will remain open.

The "super massive" pall of smoke the Washington State Department of Ecology warned about early on Thursday has only moved a little.

In the meantime air quality over the Seattle area is still in the Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups range moving into unhealthy tomorrow. The visibility due to the smoke is limited in the area.

They report that air quality in the Vancouver, WA area has begun deteriorating while the rest of southwest WA is seeing primarily moderate air quality.

They provided a map of what Friday will bring.

Dear Editor

FYI,  below is copied a letter I just submitted on Gov Inslee's website:

I'm writing in support of the open letter by Daniel Austin, Owner/Operator of restaurants in West Seattle and Boulevard Park.  He makes excellent points in support of the request to extend business hours for restaurants during the pandemic, and I strongly encourage you to implement the changes he suggests.

Yours truly,

Martha McLaren

Seattle

Stolen gun spotted in car at Don Armeni Boat Launch

On 09/07/2020 a SW Precinct Patrol Officer was conducting a directive patrol of the Alki Beach area, when he noticed two vehicles illegally parked in a trailer only parking stall of the Don Armeni Boat Ramp. 

A charity golf tournament The Don Bereiter Classic is happening Sept 10 at the West Seattle Golf Course to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank. The event honors Don Bereiter who recently passed away from cancer.  Don was well-known and loved in the West Seattle community, where he was the managing broker at Prudential NW Real Estate (later Berkshire Hathaway) and most recently the branch manager at Windermere in the West Seattle Junction.  

The organizers already have all 18 holes sponsored, and nearly a full course of golfers.  Raffle tickets are still available