The West Seattle Junction Association's Chris MacKay and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce's Whitney Moore jointly hosted a zoom meeting to initiate planning for some means of leveraging the reopening of the West Seattle Bridge this summer. 

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) told the two organizations that there would be one month notice from the time they were were sure the bridge was going to be ready for traffic again.  Previously SDOT has said the bridge would be open either "mid summer" or "middle of the year" with no specific date yet possible. They must first complete all repair, rehabilitation, then add new signage and finally test it before a date certain can be determined.

It's unclear at this time if the bridge opening can coincide with West Seattle Summerfest which is set to happen (for the first time since the pandemic struck) July 15 through 17.

The one hour zoom meeting had more than 50 participants and ideas flowed freely ranging from 5K runs and bike rides, to a simple pedestrian walk over the 160 foot tall structure. In order to enable such people centered events atop the bridge, SDOT would need to either add to the 36 inch automobile barriers, bringing them up to 42 inches or place temporary chain link fencing approximately 4 miles in length on most likely the east bound lanes on both sides of the roadway. Mackay and Moore both said that SDOT was willing to participate in whatever way those working on a celebration effort wanted to do.

Other suggestions included a West Seattle Passport allowing people to check off places here they visited. A full Welcome Back to West Seattle campaign that would last longer than just a weekend and focus on the many attractions and businesses West Seattle has to offer. A Welcome Back to West Seattle website and other branding efforts.

Other ideas mentioned were:

A welcome back beach party at some of the local Alki restaurants with live music. A celebration featuring local leaders, live music, food and vendors at West Seattle Stadium. A clean up effort on the  approach area to the community including the Welcome to West Seattle sign that has reportedly been tagged with graffiti during the bridge closure. Some kind of maritime involvement with boats on the Duwamish. A fireworks celebration in Elliott Bay off Harbor Ave SW. Doing special "up lighting" on the bridge. Involvement with the native peoples here making certain they play a part in the reopening of the peninsula to the rest of the city. The involvement of the Seattle Mariners organization who have expressed interest.

Pursuing any of the ideas proffered will likely require financial backing in the form of sponsorship. And getting any of them off the ground will require marketing, logistics, and coordination. To that end a set of six committees were set up with meeting attendees urged to join them.

Would you like to be part of the planning and work effort to help celebrate the reunification of West Seattle with the rest of the city?

Join a committee at this link

1.       Marketing Committee –Help market the ideas and events we come up with. Also, we need a main logo and slogan. I love the idea of Did you miss us?  West Seattle. Something fun and light. We will need graphics, copy etc. We need to determine what collateral we will need.  We have a lot of talent here in WS for this.

2.       Sponsorship Committee –Paying for the ideas generated by the marketing and events committee will be the job of the sponsorship committee. We need to fund every idea we generate either with sponsorship or tickets etc. There is no budget for this, we have to create it. 

3.       Community Relations Committee –Outreach to include all neighborhoods and communities.

4.       Events Committee- The what, when, where and how will be the job of this committee utilizing some of the ideas generated at the first meeting. See below for re-cap.

5.       Advisory Committee-This committee is for those who have ideas and historical knowledge, but can’t be involved at a deeper level and would love to be a sounding board.

6.       Executive Committee – This committee will help to keep everyone on track and help communicate the bigger picture, deadlines and communication with the city and can deal with the financials.