West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
It’s Walk-To-School Month and proud families from West Seattle’s Sanislo Elementary are proud to be helping to lead the way. Sanislo parent Lisa Keith tells us their school is also part of a Feet First grant project, with West Seattle Elementary and Denny Middle School, to promote safe walking routes to school. Sanislo also will play host to City Councilmember Jan Drago for a special walk-to-school-themed assembly this Friday.
The city’s Neighborhood District Coordinator for West Seattle, Stan Lock, forwarded an alert about an unusual test in Arbor Heights (& White Center) next week:Read More
As the date for the threatened shutdown at Gee West Seattle approaches, we just heard again from the Huling family.
Sharon Huling is the wife of Steve Huling, who ran the business before the sale to Gee. She e-mailed WSB to say, “Below is a statement that I would like to make on behalf of our family to the community. … It would be greatly appreciated if you would post it as there has been additional press about the Gee’s accusations printed today in the West Seattle Herald.” (The Herald article she refers to is here; the Times article mentioned below is here.) Her statement, unedited:
To our fellow community members,
It is upsetting to see our family’s reputation attacked in the newspapers. But I remain confident that the truth will come out – it always does – and thus our reputation will be restored. The Seattle Times article was pretty brutal to us, 19 quotes from the Gees, 5 or 6 from Steve, and select few facts. If you do the math, that’s about a 3:1 ratio (Gees:Hulings). There are also several statements in the West Seattle that warrant correcting if only in the pursuit of honesty and neighborly obligation:
First; the Gees made a promise to us not to disclose the sale price of the dealership, which they have now done (though inaccurately) and in the paper. By doing so they have broken their promise.
Second; last winter our family did not give $100,000 to the victim. What happened is this; Steve, on behalf of Huling Bros. and immediately upon learning about the questionable sale of the truck to the victim, unwound the truck sale and refunded the money to the customer. This occurred over a year ago at the time of sale. Then in January, immediately upon learning from the police that 3 former employees would be charged with a crime, our family chose to act with integrity and make restitution to the gentleman for the $70,000 our employees were accused of stealing though we were not obligated to do this. But to be perfectly clear, Huling Bros. and Steve were never accused of doing anything wrong.
Third; my husband did call Ryan Gee and Cline Davis immediately (I was present) upon learning from the police that former employees would be charged with a crime and it is they who chose not to return his phone calls thus missing out on the opportunity to secure some goodwill and stand with our family together against injustice.
Ryan Gee appears to being trying to fix the blame on my husband Steve and try him in the media. The Gees have clearly stated that they have a self-serving motive; suing us. It is very sad to read because of the vehemence of their attack and its inaccuracies. Just because Mr. Gee says something doesn’t make it so. In our great country we still honor the belief that people are innocent until proven guilty. My husband is an honorable man and I encourage the media to investigate the accuracy of Ryan’s statements, their reputation and track record in business east of the mountains and especially here with the people who worked for both of us. There you will find a story of the true tragedy; the people who will soon find themselves without a job.
Fourth; I am confused about Ryan Gee saying that their partnership “ran out of money” in his press release because one of their business partners – Wolff family members (Wolff Enterprises, LLC associated with Wolff Cos, etc.) from Spokane and Arizona – are worth hundreds of millions, possibly even a billion dollars. The Wolff”s are huge developers on a national level. One can only speculate that as such they could have made other choices like staying open until they are able to sell the dealerships thus not leaving 160 employees out on the street to fend for themselves. Our hearts go out to them and their families. Again, that is the real tragedy of this story. Still I am glad to see that our old Puget Sound competitors have been calling and making offers to many of our former employees whom they obviously value.
Fifth; I think that it is disingenuous to think that you can sell 3 dealerships in 2 weeks time, especially in this down market, this is the intent the Gees expressed to their employees last week when they announced their immediate plans to sell or close the business by Oct. 7th. It took us over a year to select a broker and find a buyer.
Sixth; besides breaking their promise of confidentiality, the Gees, as my husband stated in the WSH, broke other promises like changing the closing date for the sale at the last minute, more than once, and now they have broken their lease agreement. There have been other broken promises like saying they would meet to discuss differences, then not showing up or canceling at the last minute. Ryan has stated that they chose not to use the Huling name when in reality they did not buy the rights to use the Huling Bros. name, we purchased our name back during negotiations. What happened, happened to us, to Huling Bros. – the Gee’s are not us – a message they failed miserably at communicating to the public, a responsibility that lies with them.
Despite all of the negative press initiated by Ryan and his team, our family is doing well. There is nothing that I have written here that isn’t common knowledge, but I would like to add some additional perspective; in June the Gees – through their lawyer – wrote to Steve and his brother Tom saying that if they did not sell to them the properties the dealerships stand on “for less than market value” then they would sue us. My husband still has this letter. Ryan’s recent actions, with his threat to sue us in the Gee’s recent press release, lend credence to this statement.
We are thankful for and we welcome the positive reinforcement from our friends, former employees and former satisfied customers whom we cultivated through our good standing in the Seattle business community for over 60 years. Under Steve’s leadership our dealership sold thousands of cars a year over the course of many years. Huling Bros. consistently earned the highest ratings for customer service in the industry from the manufacturers and the public. Steve was also was awarded the Time Magazine Dealer Quality Award for the state of Washington and belonged to many civic and business organizations. We will continue to support and be active members of the community. We are deeply saddened that 3 men, who only worked for Huling Bros. a few short months, have caused so much heartache, for the victim and for everyone involved. We are people of integrity and we will continue to hold our heads high.
Most sincerely,
Sharon Huling
We are e-mailing Gee Automotive with a link to this post and offering them the opportunity to publish an unedited statement here too, if they so choose. Meantime, the clock ticks to this Sunday, when we will see if one of West Seattle’s biggest businesses does indeed close, costing more than 100 people their jobs.
(Our original report is below.) This is at least the third one since mid-June, that we know of; the other two didn’t get much attention elsewhere (here are our posts from June 19, and September 27) but this one is all over the rest of the “conventional media” because the man who killed himself first pulled a gun at his doctor’s office on Queen Anne. Here’s the Times story; the P-I story; the KING story; the KIRO story. No further details about the man’s identity so far except that he was 30 years old; we heard a radio report some time ago that he jumped while “driving home” so that could mean he lived in WS.
The Aurora Bridge has gotten all the local attention in this sad arena but it may be time for some signs and phones on our bridges too. One of the people who wrote us about the deadly West Seattle bridge jump last week just e-mailed to say “it’s happened again” (she works in the area). The 911 log shows a “7 per rule” call (which usually means life-threatening injury/illness suspected) for that vicinity an hour ago – SW Spokane/Delridge. (1:15 PM update, just received another report from the area, so we’re taking the question mark off the headline). National suicide-prevention hotline: 800/SUICIDE. Local Crisis Clinic: 206/461-3222. Suicide is an epidemic and needs to be addressed, not hidden in shame-ridden reticence to talk about it. If you didn’t read it when we posted it last June, read this 2004 Seattle Weekly article (whose author, Philip Dawdy, has an excellent blog about mental-health issues, Furious Seasons), which addresses it better than anything we’ve ever seen. 1:35 PM UPDATE: Unlike last week’s jump, this one is getting “conventional media” coverage — this story just posted says the person committed suicide after confronting his psychiatrist.
First, a couple updates on this morning’s “doomed duplex” post. Seems demolition permits must be after-the-fact formalities unless all this happened in the hours after the permit was issued yesterday … the duplex and its former neighbor are already gone:
We also heard back from the ex-duplex’s former tenants. They found another rental just a block away; not as small as the ex-duplex (900 sf) but comparably priced per sf (less than $1 per). The kicker … it’s a townhouse. 2 stories, 8 years old. So perhaps some of today’s teardown replacements are tomorrow’s affordable rentals. Meanwhile, in future Fauntleroy construction news, a week after we mentioned the “one of the last (lots of its kind)” listing on the curve, a sign just went up:
A few highlights from the Events page (additions welcome; let us know!):
4:30 PM: Celebration scheduled to mark the start of construction phase 2 @ High Point; park at West Seattle Elementary, event at 31st & Holly (hope the weather clears!)
6:30 PM: North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting @ Delridge Library
7:00 PM: Southwest District Council meeting @ South Seattle Community College
7:30 PM: Opening night @ ArtsWest for “Bat Boy” (through November 10th)
Among the newly granted permits in the city’s latest “daily issuance report”: demolition of this duplex at 5935 Fauntleroy, which we wrote about exactly four months ago after hearing from its saddened, and surprised, tenants:
What’s replacing it? The usual. Meantime, we’re going to see if we can dig up the ex-tenants’ e-mail address and find out where they landed.
Brand X may be giving away music, but Tully’s is giving away money. To a good cause, that is. Starting today, through the end of the month, Tully’s is donating part of the proceeds from several items — including an Alki Bakery-created cookie — to the battle against breast cancer. (Tully’s has two WS locations, Fauntleroy/Cali and Alki across from the Bathhouse.)
This P-I article today reminded us of something similar along West Seattle’s waterfront Condo Row about 10 years ago — a Harbor Ave condo complex that went up in a U shape around one semi-ramshackle little house whose owner refused to sell. We managed to find an archived P-I article mentioning the Harbor holdout, photo included (scroll down this page). According to city permit records, the house finally came down, and the condo buildings came together, in 1999. Haven’t yet found a record of how much the holdout house finally sold for, though.
Saw this at 7 am today, resolved we wouldn’t mention it unless it was still there at 6:30 tonight. It was. Where are the banner police? On the campaign payroll, maybe? WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: Still there …
… we debut a new WSB feature. Thanks to the cool folks at Clementine who agreed to help (after we explained this requires expertise which we don’t have, as the least fashionable people ever), and thanks to the readers who suggested WSB should feature fashion from the streets of West Seattle. (A la Pike/Pine, the city’s premier “fashion seen on the street” site.) First, the photo – then, the narrative, and a request for you:ÂÂ
Narrative from Clementine owner Linda Walsh: “Diana Mucci, seen on California Ave rockin’ polka dots socks and retro high-top sneakers. The contrast of pattern works well with simple black and white. I like how she mixed it up. Nice on the eyes.” (The Clementine blog, by the way, is here.)
Thanks again to Linda, and now our question for you: Got a snappy name for this feature? Leave a comment or e-mail us! Sorry we still don’t have WSB swag for prizes, but maybe we can post YOUR photo on the site … or something.
A month and a half after major work finished up, the city says Sylvan Way is scheduled to close this Saturday for a one-day paving project, weather permitting.
Lots of police activity on the high bridge right now – 911 site mentions a “motor vehicle accident” – avoid it for a while if you can. 1:50 UPDATE: Just got a note from WSB frequent contributor Christopher Boffoli, who says it was a “three-car accident caused by road debris.” As of a few minutes ago, he says, traffic wasn’t moving, which our eyewitness verified too. 2:30 UPDATE: No new eyewitness reports but the bridge cams look good, so it appears to have been cleared.
Five weeks from today, it’s General Election Day (and one of the last times you’ll see signs like the one below, taken on Primary Election Day at our polling place). You can prepare by reading about the candidates and the ballot measures online — and by going to any of the candidate forums coming up around the area. Here are a few: At 6:30 tonight at the Georgetown Ballroom, all 9 city council candidates are scheduled to appear. Next week (6:30 pm October 11), the school-board candidates will appear at a forum at school district HQ. Then on October 18, the Alki Community Council will host a Q/A forum with the candidates for West Seattle’s open school-board seat (District 6) as well as the candidates for the open City Council Position 3 seat. TUESDAY EVENING ADDITION: Just heard about the Sustainable West Seattle RTID Forum on October 16.
Remember SeventyOne, the condo-converted 1-bedroom apartments south of Morgan Junction, once proclaimed by signage as “midcentury retro”? A similar complex less than a mile north on Cali has just appeared in for-sale listings: The Cal-Ray Apartments at 6000 California, offered for $1,995,000. Its official flyer (photo below is from that flyer, created by the listing-holders at Summerfield) doesn’t mention conversion but does suggest “strong potential for redevelopment.”
The park-in-progress west of The Junction is already known, albeit unofficially, as Ercolini Park, so you might wonder if you read the second item here today (or saw the original city press release), what’s up with the “name search”? The neighbors whose time, toil, and $ have gone toward making the park a reality, Friends of Ercolini Park, plan to submit their own proposal before the November 1st deadline and are hopeful the final official result will honor the land’s previous owner, as does the park’s current unofficial name.
-Our city utility bills are all going up. (Side note, did you know you can report a missed trash/recycling pickup online?) TUESDAY AFTERNOON CORRECTION: The city has just posted a note that the original newspaper report was wrong; City Light is not proposing an increase.
–Capitol Hill Seattle suggests we could cut those bills a bit and make an energy-saving statement by joining L.A. and S.F. in shutting off everything “nonessential” for an hour at 8 pm October 20. We’re in, how ’bout you? (And how about West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician; anybody asked him about this yet?)
–The West Seattle Little League website now has a photo up of proud WSLL reps at the Safe last Friday night, accepting the big $100K Boeing/Mariners Care check for Bar-S Playfield improvements.
–Endolyne Joe’s fans can take this as a hint of which food theme is likely to follow the currently featured “prairie” menu.
-Besides Trader Joe’s (someday, someday), this is the grocery chain we would most like to see expand into West Seattle.
Today was Seattle’s last multi-cruise-ship day of the season, according to the Cruise Seattle schedule; from the north-facing WS shore, we caught Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas and Celebrity’s Mercury heading out together about an hour ago:
From hereon out, Mercury is the only cruise ship expected to be seen here again before next spring; between now and November 4th, it will travel Elliott Bay (can’t miss the distinctive “X” funnel) every few days as it comes and goes on short jaunts through WA and BC waters.
The listed phones for both Coyotes on Alki (923-2554) and Chuck & Sally’s Tavern (932-9830) are now both disconnected. You suppose it’s safe to speculate reopenings are unlikely?
The popular, cozy Italian bistro on Beach Drive has been closed since the kitchen fire 10 days ago. La Rustica‘s owners were first hoping to reopen tomorrow, but we just checked with the family, and they say it will be one more week:
La Rustica will reopen Tuesday Oct. 9th. After assessing the damage from the fire and the time it would take to repair, we decided this would be a good time to refurbish and update the kitchen. Since it is such a small kitchen we are looking forward to the better use of space and efficiency. Thank you all again for your continued support and patience during this fire repair/remodel. We will see you all soon!
Truly,
The Pellegrini family
(THURSDAY 10/4 UPDATE: Looks like these are both closed cases. See the comments for the dog update; cat update will be on the home page soon when happy reunion is confirmed.) We haven’t launched a separate pets page yet since we haven’t been swamped with pet alerts since our last flurry of activity — but today, we’ve received separate notes about a found dog and found cat, so in hopes of finding their owners, here goes. E-mail us if you have any idea about either pet’s ownership, or leave a comment. First, the dog:
We just found a dog out wandering SW Barton and 18th SW. She’s black and looks like a lab mix. She’s got a choke collar on but no tags. We’ve got her in our front yard right now to keep her off of the street but we’d love for her to find her home!
Next, the cat. This one turned up at 35th/Thistle more than a week ago and its finder has taken it in, but would like to find its real owner (or, failing that, a new adoptive owner). it’s a neutered male, 9-10 years old, no collar, affectionate. Here’s a pic:
Again, e-mail us if you know anything about either of these pets, and we’ll put you in touch with the people who contacted WSB.
The Times has a big article today about biodiesel with a citywide map purporting to show where it’s available – including two spots on the eastern edge of West Seattle — but that map omits two more-centrally located spots in WS where we know biodiesel to be available (though sadly we don’t have a car capable of using it): The Admiral Safeway service station (as first mentioned in February) and Hans VW (35th/Graham). Anywhere else?
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