West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Sat in on tonight’s monthly meeting of the Southwest District Council and brought back lots of quick updates on West Seattle goings-on plus heard new and interesting things from the group’s guest speaker, City Council President Richard Conlin (left), who also spoke to the Alki Community Council’s last meeting (WSB coverage here):Read More
We’re overdue for a Southwest Precinct report review but today it seems most of the reports are coming directly to us, too, anyway – like this one just out of the WSB inbox:
SW Stevens and 46th Ave SW Break-In
Today, Wed. March 5th, our high school son came home for early dismissal and found our house ransacked. After giving the police a report, we are realizing we were lucky no one was hurt. After kicking in our back door the thieves had time between 9 and 11:30 am to go through, search and make a mess of 6 different rooms in our house. They took coins, cash, cameras, and I-Pods. If you saw anything suspicious in the neighborhood 2-4 blocks west of PCC today please call the police.
One side note, thanks to everyone for clearly describing their location when sending in these types of reports. It really helps alert your West Seattle neighbors to exactly where things are happening so they can be on the lookout too.
It wasn’t criminal court, but at times it felt almost that contentious — with occasional interjections of OBJECTION! — as the city Hearing Examiner heard the first witness today in the fight over whether homebuilding will be allowed on the expansive front lawn of Beach Drive’s “Painted Lady.” The home — an official city landmark — is also known as the Satterlee House, and its former owner David Satterlee was the first witness to testify, several days before lawyers on both sides will present the bulk of their cases. We went to the Hearing Examiner’s windowless room on the 40th floor of the Municipal Tower downtown to see how this would unfold:Read More
Just out of the WSB inbox:
I would like to report the following incident that occured around 5:10pm today:
I noticed 2 cars speeding down our alley between Lander & Stevens while I was working in the backyard. I looked up and saw the male driver of the first car (not sure if there were others in that car) who evidently noticed me. The second car was driven by a female and had 4 people in it.
I heard the cars stopping by my neighbor’s house. I looked to see what was going on and saw the people taking firewood from a stack by the garage and throwing it into their cars.
I told them to stop stealing the wood and they just stared at me. When my husband came around the corner, they got back into their cars and left.
One car is a white sedan, the other one is is a beige sedan with a license plate number (ending in) TQW. I’d guess the age of the people high school age to early 20’s.
The SW precinct told me to call 911, which I did.
Attention, bike riders – this city announcement is for you:
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) released today a Special Edition Bike Map highlighting 20 miles of new bicycle facilities and promoting the 2008 International Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference coming to Seattle this September. Seattle and the northwestern region have embraced sustainability and are making major investments in bicycling and walking. The conference will showcase some of these accomplishments and inspire hundreds of other communities around the United States to undertake similar programs. The map identifies bike lanes, climbing lanes, the new section of the Burke-Gilman Trail from the Ballard Locks to Golden Gardens Park and the Chief Sealth trail starting at S. Dawson Street and ending near 51st Avenue S. It also includes information on ‘sharrows’ and illustrates routes where they are used.
The bike map is one of SDOT’s most requested informational pieces. Thanks to Bridging the Gap SDOT has funding to implement many of the recommendations in the Bicycle Master Plan. As a result, updated versions of this popular cycling tool will continue to be released. This will help the city reach its goal of tripling the number of bicyclists over a period of 10 years.
Bike maps are available:
· at the Bike Expo this weekend, March 8 and 9, at Pier 30
· by calling the Bike Alliance at 206-224-9252
· by contacting SDOT online at
www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikeprogram.htmThis fall, a second version will be printed that will include 30 miles of new bike facilities being installed over the summer. If you have any suggestions or corrections for the fall printing, please email SDOT at walkandbike@seattle.gov.
Additional information on the 2008 International Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference can be found at www.bikewalk.org/2008conference/index.html.
We checked the SDOT link listed as a bike-map source – can’t tell if the downloadable map there is the new one or not (the page declares “the map was updated in 2003” though it also has an icon for that upcoming conference).
The removal of a whole row of big evergreens along two lots lining the east side of 41st between Rose and Southern (take your pick whether this is south Gatewood or north Upper Fauntleroy) had several people e-mailing us today — one calling it a “tree massacre” — to ask “can they DO that?” We checked it out and the answer appears to be “yes,” since the trees were on private, already-developed property with older houses – if that defines your property, you can cut down trees without a permit. Both lots on the block appear to be real-estate listings no longer on the market; the site shown in the photo still has an aerial-photo map that gives you an idea of how many trees were there before. The parcel now likely has a major view, as it’s on the west-facing slope, looking toward the Sound, Blake, Vashon, Olympics, etc. No development permits filed for either lot so far.
E-mailed by Mark, who then promptly headed off to get the glass replaced:
At around 1:30 this afternoon, I was driving down the 3000 block of 61st Ave. near Alki when my car’s front passenger-side window exploded. Apparently it had been struck by a really fast rock, or else shot with a pellet gun or something similar. I phoned in a police report on the spot, and they responded quickly by showing up and taking down details. Didn’t see the %$#*$@ who did it, although after I pulled over and went to the impact spot to see what I could find, I caught a glimpse of at least two people running behind the houses there, with a male voice shoutingsomething as they ran. The two police officers who responded mentioned that four youths have been caught in connection with the recent similar incidents in the Admiral neighborhood, and although the punks have some little bit of time in juvenile detention coming up, they are currently not being held anywhere. Whether or not this incident is connected to them is anyone’s guess, but the officers did say they were going to check out the nearby streets to see if they could find out anything more.
So that’s that. The good news is that neither my wife nor anyone else was in the passenger seat, otherwise they would have been sprayed with glass.
Sorry for the dearth of updates today, have just spent four and a half hours away from the keyboard (remote connectivity temporarily not available) at two events, including key testimony in the Satterlee House (Beach Drive “Painted Lady”) development appeal. Will file shortly; also checking out an Alki Crime Watch update and what one tipster describes as a “tree massacre” in Gatewood. Stand by and thanks.
So says the city, citing 2006 stats. Still a ways to go to the 60 percent target rate.
8 o’clock sharp this morning, we took that photo from Spokane/Marginal, with truck traffic backed up three ways while the low bridge was open about a mile ahead. Two days ago, we told you West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen was intensifying his push to restrict bridge openings during AM and PM rush hours, in hopes of cutting down on situations like the one you see above; today, there’s word of progress on the proposal — according to the Times, the regional U.S. Coast Guard district plans to publish a notice that will start a 60-day period for comment from the marine industry, after which another 30-day review period would be required before the restrictions (7-9 am and 4-6 pm) would potentially take effect. We have a call out to the USCG to find out more.
The state boys’ basketball tournament starts tonight, and West Seattle plays Squalicum (from Bellingham) at KeyArena at 9 pm. (Here are the brackets.) If you can’t go to the game but you want to follow closely online, it appears that’s possible through this site ($10 for tournament-long access).
So said one member of the team, looking out at the ice on the street-parked cars. Hope you didn’t mothball your scraper yet.
After a day of forum and comment turbulence, a referral from here turns up in our site logs (one of our police-report summaries is referenced in the thread). We’ve never heard of that site before so forgive us if it leads you anyplace even stranger, but we just had to share.
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