West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
It might have been the beautiful evening weather, or maybe the convoluted topic, but only one person — perennial district-property-sale opponent Chris Jackins — showed up at tonight’s Seattle Public Schools public hearing at Gatewood Elementary School to take comments on the pending sale of air rights at Jefferson Square.
The school district will continue to own the land and the commercial buildings, but, because of a lawsuit (explained in this WSB report), is planning to sell the air rights — not any buildings or land. The school district receives $173,226 annually in rent for the commercial property, and that will continue.
The air rights will be sold for $500,000. The school board is expected to vote on the proposal July 1.
Ron English, deputy general counsel for the school district, said the district doesn’t own the apartment buildings, but it owns the air that they are built in. The building owner is leasing the air rights through 2083.
English said he sees it this way: if the district doesn’t sell the air space, they will own a building come 2083. If they do sell, they have $500,000.
The money from the sale could be used for capital improvements, but not for teacher salaries, said English.
Jefferson Square, which includes a Safeway and Bartell Drugs, is built on the spot where Jefferson School once stood. The brick schoolhouse was named after President Thomas Jefferson, according to school district history. It was enlarged with a new addition in 1928.
The school closed in 1979. The property was declared surplus and leased in 1982 for 99 years
to a developer who demolished the brick building in 1985 and built Jefferson Square shopping center and apartments on the site.
We won’t be able to get full details from prosecutors till tomorrow – but wanted to let you know that the bail’s been raised for the 31-year-old man arrested in connection with the Morgan Junction-area hate-graffiti vandalism: Originally there was one “property destruction” count listed on the jail register, with bail of $380; tonight, six property destruction counts are listed, with $5,005 total bail.
(From left, SPD Capt. Joe Kessler, Alki Community Council officers Paul Carr and Randie Stone)
ORIGINAL 7:13 PM REPORT: At the Alki Community Council meeting, Lt. Steve Paulsen is talking about summertime police presence and of course the May 1st shooting — in which, he has just revealed, another suspect is still being sought. Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler is here too, and acknowledging “it’s not acceptable to have children shooting children.” He says they’ve been “working on some additional plans” regarding possibly obtaining more overtime funding for staffing in areas such as Alki, but adds that “the key for us is, we look at it on a daily basis.” The captain and lieutenant are taking questions now. Capt. Kessler says the shooting victim on May 1st was “an intended victim.” (The 17-year-old suspect is still in jail, in lieu of $250,000 bail.)
ADDED 7:44 PM: One question: “What was the deployment the night of the shooting?” Capt. Kessler acknowledged there were no officers in the immediate area where it happened, but said there were officers in the area, such as down Harbor Ave; Lt. Paulsen added, “That call flushed the precinct” (which had officers ready for the imminent next shift change). Capt. Kessler adds that Community Police Team Officer Ken Mazzuca is primarily assigned to Alki for the duration of the summer – “this is his place” – and says he’ll be on his bike sometimes, confirming there will be additional bicycle-officer presence too.
8:19 PM UPDATE: Many of the questions are related to what can be done if they are being hassled or feeling threatened by beach visitors – that’s being voiced more than concern about out-and-out crime. The police leaders here have had to say, there are no laws against “being rude” or “saying a vile word,” unless it veers into a threat. More info from the meeting as it happens.
Just received from the Southwest Precinct — publishing it as-is, since Highland Park is a “burglary hot spot” right now as reported during our coverage of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council the other night:
A burglary pattern has been identified by SW Detectives affecting the Highland Park Area of West Seattle. Even though the Highland Park neighborhood has been the recent targeted area, this activity can have other West Seattle implications if residents do not remain vigilant to suspicious activity.
The basic M/O for these particular burglars is as follows,
• Car carrying 2-4 A/M males parks in the neighborhood.
• Passengers exit car and begin to walk neighborhood. Driver stays in car.
• Passengers approach houses and knock on doors to see if anyone home, or to see if surrounding neighbors look out windows.
• If no answer at door, the suspects walk around the house and rap on windows loudly enough to elicit a response from surrounding neighbors or the homeowner.
• If no response from either the home owner or surroundings neighbors, the suspects walk to back of house and rap on rear door a final time.
• If still no response, suspects force entry via any accessible door or window. Suspects look for anything of value that is small enough to exit with without attracting attention, and easy enough to sell on the street within a day or two.Residents can assist police by reporting any activity in their neighborhood they believe is suspicious in nature. If residents observe any activity in their neighborhood that is consistent with the M/O list above, they should call 911 to at the very least, allow police to attempt to identify the persons involved in the suspicious activity. If possible, residents should attempt to be good witnesses by writing down susp descriptions and plate numbers.
Received this from the Technology Access Foundation, which has a major student event in White Center next month:
On June 13, 2009 Technology Access Foundation (TAF) will host our Robotics competition for TechStart, our after school program. Six classes will be participating: five from Highline (grades 4th-6th) and one from Seattle. (Grades 6th-8th) The event will take place at the White Center Boys and Girls Club, 9800 8th Ave. SW, Suite 105, from 9 AM to 1 PM. The students will be required to build robots that compete in four events:
1. Tug of War (head to head) (30 minutes)
2. Archery – 2:30 for each run w/ 5 min between rounds (35 minutes)
3. Basket Bot (16 minutes)
4. Drag Race (7 minutes)
The verdict’s in at the trial of three teenagers who attacked Southwest Precinct Officer Jason McKissack in High Point last June: Guilty, according to this seattletimes.com report, which also says they face no more than a month in jail when they’re sentenced in June. McKissack is still on leave, recovering from injuries including getting kicked in the head (we summarized the police report in this WSB story last June).
That’s Micah Shapiro from Grindline, the firm designing the future Delridge Skatepark, explaining its newly unveiled “schematic design” to the Seattle Design Commission this afternoon at City Hall downtown. We’re expecting a digital copy soon so we can give you a closer look at the design, but this will have to do for now. It has one “bowl” with both beginner- and expert-suited areas, and the half-circle-shaped park will have “skatable paths” around its perimeter. Design Commission members were unanimous in their approval of the “schematic design,” which won’t make way for a “final design” until after one more community meeting (which project manager Kelly Davidson said today is expected to happen in late June), though they did ask for a safety feature between the skatepark and the nearby wading pool so that small children don’t dash from the pool into the skatepark’s bowl. Commission members also were impressed by what the project team described as the “phenomenal public support” for the skatepark; Davidson said she hasn’t received a single call from someone upset about it – instead, she said, she keeps getting calls asking when it’ll be done. As for the answer to that: First, the funding has to be nailed down; as reported here recently, even though the original funding was taken out of the city budget, replacement money has been found from two sources: $500,000 saved from two other Parks Department projects (including the Hiawatha Playfield renovations) that came in under budget, and $250,000 in Parks Levy dollars that will be moved from a proposed “skate spot” at Myrtle Reservoir (where neighbors previously expressed strong opposition to a skate feature), if the Parks Levy Oversight Committee (which meets next week) and City Council approve. Delridge Skatepark would be about 12,000 square feet, which the project team says would roughly tie with the upcoming Seattle Center skatepark for second biggest in the city (largest is the recently opened Lower Woodland Skatepark, at 17,000 square feet).
WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is back from covering this afternoon’s rally at Pier 66, outside the EPA’s public hearing on whether to designate climate change as a threat to human health. His first photo shows some of the youngest delegates from West Seattle’s CoolMom chapter to attend; the CoolMom kids spent some time up on stage, and other West Seattleites were there, including a delegation from Sustainable West Seattle. Here’s an overview of the rally:
Among the speakers, Mayor Nickels:
The hearing is scheduled to continue until at least 8 pm; here’s how to listen to live audio. ADDED 5:08 PM: From the mayor’s office, his “written testimony” submitted during the hearing:Read More
With four Seattle Public Library branches in West Seattle, it’s likely a lot of people will want to know about this – so we’re sharing the announcement just in from SPL re: proposed “rules of conduct” changes (with a public hearing set for next week). If you remember a WSB Forums thread about someone who said they got in trouble for taking off their shoes in a local library, one of the rule changes will be of note:Read More
(photo replaced 1:15 pm with better shot of police when Delridge was blocked)
Thanks to those who have e-mailed and called about police, reportedly with guns drawn, at Delridge/Holden. On our way to check out.
12:02 PM UPDATE: Northbound traffic is being turned around at Kenyon a couple blocks south of this scene, and according to the scanner, Delridge also is about to be blocked at Orchard (Arco intersection) – so avoid the area. Because of the roadblock it will take us a few more minutes to get close – just talked to Seattle Police’s media unit and they don’t have much information yet, aside from “We have the SWAT team out attempting to locate some people.”
12:23 PM UPDATE: The “command post” for this is a stone’s throw from the precinct, at Delridge/Webster. But we still have no information on exactly what the search is all about. We’re told a media-unit officer is on the way to deal with us and the rest of the media.
12:47 PM UPDATE: This is winding up and the road is being reopened. Police say they have arrested a male suspect in his mid-20s in a car, and that he is believed to have been involved in a “robbery with force.” SPD is now more actively using Twitter, and described this in a tweet as a “warrant service” in the 7500 block of 21st SW.
1 PM UPDATE: Listening to the short video clip we’re uploading from Officer Renee Witt‘s brief briefing at the scene – the robbery in which the suspect was wanted was a “takeover-style robbery” that she says happened on May 12th. Checking for incidents resembling that description.
1:11 PM UPDATE: Here’s the entirety of what Officer Witt told us and other media at the scene:
2:43 PM UPDATE: Checking back with police, Officer Witt tells us they have NOT confirmed possible reports that someone else might have been involved in the same case, so this arrest closes the search for now.
4:47 PM UPDATE: SPDBlotter has a short item – the only new information is that the suspect’s age is now specified as 24.
10:42 PM UPDATE: Tony Wright took photos at the southwest edge of the “containment zone” during the search. He and we happened to notice that some of the action was outside the same house where we (and he) photographed a Bellevue SWAT team visit a month ago – here’s his photo from today:
We don’t know if the house (where WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli also covered a story earlier in the spring) is directly linked to anyone involved in the case.
Work on the multimillion-dollar project to repave and reconfigure a long stretch of Fauntleroy Way is scheduled to start next week, and area residents have just gotten a new flyer with the latest specifics on what it’ll be like for area driving – thanks to Sue for sending the flyer so we could share it with anyone and everyone who drives the stretch slated for repaving over the next few months (south from SW Alaska, to SW Holly in Morgan Junction). See the flyer here. ADDED 1:29 PM: Sue wondered how bus service would be affected and followed up with Metro SDOT – here’s the reply she received:
There will not be any changes to transit operations that we are aware of. At certain times and locations, temporary bus zone relocations may occur. If temporary bus zones relocations are necessary, Metro Transit will put out advance notice.
ADDED 4:30 PM: The city has now issued its official news release announcing that work will start Tuesday – read on:Read More
One of three major items on the Delridge District Council agenda last night: Presentations by three groups seeking city Neighborhood Matching Fund money for their projects – the final three that the council has forwarded into citywide competition. The presenters — including a Chief Sealth High School group (photo above) had a high-profile audience — not just a good turnout (more than 2 dozen people) for the meeting, but also the president of the City Council, Richard Conlin (who later quipped that he thinks it may be time to allot more money to the NMF – the funding request from these three groups is among $2.5 million total requested citywide, but the available pot of money is less than half that). As Pete Spalding, former council chair sitting in for current chair Pablo Lambinicio, described all three as “pretty remarkable projects” — and that was even before their presentations. Read on to hear more about what’s presented and what happens next:Read More
Happening right now, the crew in the background of that photo is hard at work in The Junction — and has been since about 5:30 this morning! — hanging baskets of summer flowers (like the ones in the foreground). Here’s some of what else is happening today/tonight (in addition to the poetry slam and Pier 66 EPA hearing/rally we re-mentioned last night):
TODAY: Next step toward the Delridge Skatepark (most recent WSB coverage here)- its schematic design goes before the Seattle Design Commission at City Hall, 2 pm today.
TODAY: Great weather for a car wash, and SafeFutures Youth Center will clean yours in the U-Haul parking lot at the northwest corner of 35th/Morgan (map), 4-7 pm.
TONIGHT: At 5:30 pm, Seattle Public Schools is holding a public hearing at Gatewood Elementary about the proposed sale of part of the property it owns at Jefferson Square. The hearing has only been announced in a fine-print public notice, but we reported details of the proposed deal (which involved a legal fight) two weeks ago; if you have anything to say about it, be at tonight’s hearing.
TONIGHT: Also at 5:30, a potluck kicks off the rescheduled Pathfinder K-8 Multi-Cultural Night (full details here), with performances starting an hour later.
TONIGHT: 7 pm at Alki Community Center, the Alki Community Council meets with two big items on the agenda: Crime concerns in the wake of the May 1st shooting (and looking ahead to summer), and this Saturday’s Alki Community Wildlife Habitat celebration.
TONIGHT: Do a good deed while having a good time — at 7 pm, lend a hand (or two) for WestSide Baby‘s monthly “sorting frenzy”; details here (including how to RSVP).
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