Community Blogs
Art Wolfe photo of Mt. Rainier
Longfellow Creek
Strength of Place Village
West Seattle Foodbank
Sanford Brown
Dow Constantine
Dorothy Bullitt
Greg Nickels
In 1851, a group of white settlers credited with founding Seattle landed on Alki Point. Today Alki Point in West Seattle is a popular UW Department of Biology field trip site and Alki Beach a popular recreational spot for UW students, with a sandy beach and spectacular views of the downtown skyline. Other southwest neighborhoods include Admiral, Fauntleroy and Arbor Heights.
Some Neighborhood Notables
The Marine Biology program at the University of Washington may have solved the mystery of a loud, ominous humming sound that has been keeping a portion of West Seattle residents awake at night – the Midshipman Fish. (Photo credit of allkayakfishing.com)
The Neighborhood House at High Point Center was designed by Environmental Works, a non-profit architectural firm founded by UW architectural students in 1970 to provide sustainable planning services to low-income community groups. Neighborhood House helps diverse communities of people with limited resources attain their goals of self-sufficiency, financial independence, health, and community participation.
The West Seattle Food Bank and Neighborhood Resource Center was also designed by Environmental Works. Through this mixed use program of affordable housing, food bank, offices and meeting rooms for a variety of social service agencies, both the immediate community and larger community are served.
Environmental Works also designed Strength of Place Village, a new housing project in the White Center neighborhood of West Seattle that includes 30 units of affordable rental housing close to public transit, shopping and services.
A team of five UW mechanical engineering students worked with Providence Mt. Saint Vincent in West Seattle to learn how mechanical lifts for patients work. They used the information to design a less expensive version for developing countries. Visit the West Seattle Blog to learn more and to see more photos.
King County Executive Dow Constantine graduated from West Seattle High School and the University of Washington, where he earned post-graduate degrees in law (1989) and urban planning (1992). He resides in West Seattle.
Former Husky All-American and NBA All-Star Brandon Roy grew up in a small West Seattle duplex with five other family members. He is a regular participant in the annual UWAA Husky Night with the Trail Blazers event.
Mayor of Seattle from 2002–2010, Greg Nickels is an Evans School Visiting Committee Member and is listed among the top ten elected officials leading the transition to a low carbon economy. Nickels attended the University of Washington and is a resident of West Seattle.
Dorothy Bullitt, Phi Beta Kappa in History and English and graduate of the UW Executive MBA program, led volunteers from the High Point Housing Project and members of the downtown business community to renovate High Point’s YMCA, adding a teen center, sound studio, children’s playground, outdoor basketball court and sports field.
Sanford Brown, social justice advocate and executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle in Southwest Seattle, is a UW alumni.
Longfellow Creek in West Seattle is featured in a four-part Our Big Backyard series by KUOW Radio 94.9 on the magic of Seattle’s urban creeks.
Brian Atwater, UW affiliate professor of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, describes a land-heaving earthquake along a newly discovered Seattle fault running through downtown Seattle that once caused parts of West Seattle and Bainbridge Island to rise higher than 20 feet in some places.
Boosting Local Economies
Ken Hughes and his business partner, John, both UW alums, started the original JaK’s Grill in 1996 in the Admiral District of West Seattle. The two Huskies, both economics majors at the UW, are proud of the restaurant’s local roots and the fact that it supports roughly 100 employees working in the JaK’s community, which now includes two other neighborhood restaurants.
The Community News Lab in the Department of Communication and local news outlets give advanced journalism students an opportunity to build a dynamic clip portfolio by writing for any of 25 to 30 community and ethnic newspapers and online news sites in the greater Seattle area.