Ending Easter on an optimistic note …
Photographed early this evening from Lincoln Park’s south parking lot, looking east.
ADDED MONDAY MORNING: Jill was taking pictures during the evening sun/storm mix, and caught this intriguing scene that managed to make utility lines look almost picturesque:
And we couldn’t resist adding this golden-lit photo from Lincoln Park beach:
Crime Watch reader reports: Brazen taggers; gas siphoning
Two Three West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports to share — as discussed elsewhere, primarily in the interest of all of us watching out for each other. First from Erik in Westwood:
My neighbor’s house just got vandalized. Their fence was tagged by graffiti vandals at 8:15 tonight at the corner of 16th and Trenton in plain view right across from a street lamp. I scared the vandals away (before I got their license plate! D’oh!) but called 911 and the police took a report and were circling the block. I think other neighbors should be aware of this, and I think it’s worth sharing the “tip” that I should have gotten the license number before scaring them away. Keep an eye out for a red Mazda or Toyota with three vandals out looking for property to destroy and property values to drop.
ADDED MONDAY MORNING: This one from Shannon may be related:
There was a lot of tagging going on behind our townhouses on 18th Ave SW near Barton. We didn’t see it happen and, surprisingly, our dogs didn’t bark but we saw flashing lights when the police officer arrived. The vandals tagged our fences and a van parked in the lot of the apartments across the alley with the “M13” gang sign. The neighbor who reported it said they were driving a white car. His daughter saw them and he ran outside. When he did run outside, they drove away quickly before he could get their plates.
Just wanted everyone to be on the lookout. The officer says this is a known gang sign but, for some reason he didn’t make very clear, he believed it was a fake… not that he had any evidence that it was a fake he just said he had a “feeling” it was a fake. Needless to say, that didn’t make any of us feel any better.
(back to the original Sunday night post) And from Dunsany:
Last night, someone broke the lock off my gas cap and siphoned my tank. We’re in Highland Park near 12th and Holden. Savages, I only had maybe 5 gallons in the tank. I hope it was worth it.
Remember, police stress that if you see someone or something suspicious NOW, call 911. If you want to report something that happened some time ago, the non-emergency number is 625-5011.
Search off Alki tonight – UPDATE: Surfer OK
Thanks to Cleat for that shot of a Coast Guard boat heading westward against the major chop early this evening, bound for a search that happened in the 6 o’clock hour near Alki Point. We have been trying to get official info on this and haven’t been successful yet; reader reports say there was concern about a possible missing windsurfer. We hope “no news is good news” in this case; hard to believe it wouldn’t be widely, and officially, reported, if someone were still missing right now. 10:05 PM UPDATE: Thanks so much to Guy, who saw the original post here and just sent this note:
The kite surfer is okay. We live near the point and had seen him out there. All of a sudden we saw the kite go by very fast with no rider. I called the Coast Guard and reported it. They called me back later and said the surfer had had a life jacket and wet suit on and had made it back to shore but had lost his kite. He saw the CG helicopter and thought maybe they had spotted his kite. He called 911 and thus there was a happy ending!
Viaduct reopens early (as usual)
As usually happens during the weekend closures, The Viaduct has reopened earlier than expected — the state Transportation Department says it was back in business as of about 3 pm. Inspection results are due out later this week; some repair and maintenance work was done during the weekend downtime, shown here as listed by WSDOT:
*Smoothing out the roadway surface on the Columbia Street on-ramp
*Searching for and removing loose concrete on the viaduct
*Repairing expansion joints and damaged bridge rails
*Applying a protective covering to exposed rebar
*Servicing drainage systems and traffic cameras
*Washing the walls of the Battery Street Tunnel, and inspecting the lighting, fire suppression and ventilation systems
WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham went on the public walking tour of The Viaduct during the closure and sent these photos, explaining the lower one as “simple technology measuring the movement of The Viaduct’s joints and cracks with a sliding rule attached across two points of contact”:
(Prints of Matt’s WSB photos and his other work are available through his site, MattDurhamPhotography.com.)
Here’s the list of West Seattle parks getting recycling bins
You may have heard that Seattle Parks will soon put out 
their first recycling containers for park visitors, beginning with parks in West Seattle as well as the city’s southeast section. They’ll collect glass bottles, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans. Suspecting this didn’t mean ALL West Seattle parks, we asked the Parks Department for a list of exactly where those containers will go, and Dewey Potter from the communications team obliged:Read More
UCC churches’ Alki sunrise service: Truly “rain or shine”
Those intrepid Easter-morning beachgoers at water’s edge were worshipers from the Admiral, Alki, and Fauntleroy UCC congregations who clearly meant it when they said “rain or shine” for their sunrise service on Alki Beach. We took this photo from a distance, with zoom, so as not to intrude; just as we walked off the soaked sand at about 7:25, we noticed the group breaking up. The rest of today’s West Seattle services are listed here.
West Seattle Easter Sunday 2008
(photo of that always-festive Lowman Beach house by WSB contributor Matt Durham)
WEST SEATTLE EASTER SERVICES: Here’s our list, one last time. It starts with Freedom Church at 6 am, continues through the Alki and Forest Lawn outdoor services, and onward from there.
EASTER REMINDERS: All Seattle public-library branches are closed today. So is The Viaduct for the continuation of its weekend inspection, 6 am-6 pm (sometimes it reopens early, we’ll keep an eye out during the afternoon to let you know if that happens this time).
Early-morning bridge death on Fairmount
A big but brief rescue callout early this morning to the stretch of road you see above, Fairmount beneath the Admiral Way bridge – brief because the person, described by police as an “adult male,” was dead at the scene, according to WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, who went there to investigate the callout. The King County Medical Examiner will investigate the death, but crews at the scene told Christopher it appeared to be suicide. As we’ve reported before, suicide is an epidemic that needs to be addressed, not ignored as is the policy of some media, so we report it here along with other means of violent death. For those who have thought about it — the local Crisis Clinic is there to help: 206/461-3222. There’s a national hotline at 800/SUICIDE. MARCH 28 UPDATE: The King County Medical Examiner’s Office confirms the person found under the bridge was a suicide victim, a 54-year-old West Seattle man.
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