Reader report: Rocks thrown at Admiral-area cars
Just out of the inbox from Meredith:
Just seen at Grayson & Belvidere (just north of Admiral): Three police cars with one teen in custody (Caucasian, about 14-years-old). Chased down after caught throwing rocks at cars. Officer says this kid, plus two others have been reported in 20-30 incidents along the Admiral Way corridor (37th – 41st). Two kids still at large, reportedly around 14- to 15-years-old, one Hispanic, one with longish red hair. PLEASE alert drivers for their own safety, and ask residents to keep an eye out for these kids. Their actions could case an accident, perhaps a death for one of those b*****ds speeding up the hill. Kids are also suspect in the knifing of a neighbor’s tires, theft from vehicles in the area, and rocks thrown thru home windows.
The area and description are similar to the 1/11/08 reader report we published on the Crime Watch page, involving a brick thrown through a front door, after three teenage boys were seen “cruising” the area.
Suspect in Delridge, CD shootings just booked into jail
23-year-old Rey Davis-Bell (photo left) has just been booked into the King County Jail within the last 40 minutes, according to the KCJ register, for investigation of homicide, assault, and drive-by shooting. Almost every citywide source that has posted about this has a different nugget – the Times has the most thorough information on his criminal background, for example. It’s been widely reported that the Longfellow Creek Apartments unit on Delridge where he allegedly fired shots through a window 
yesterday morning (photo from WSB contributor Sage K) is where his girlfriend lives; exactly what ties he had to the Central District restaurant where he is accused of opening fire half an hour later, killing the restaurant’s owner and wounding another man, is still not clear, though the owner’s niece is quoted as saying her uncle did “know” Davis-Bell somehow. The suspect was captured after a manhunt that is said to have involved more than 100 officers, many of them out on the streets all night.
“Megawatt’s Legacy Lives On” – and we/you are part of it
As you may recall, the community-building organization Megawatt decided last month to disband, but its leaders were hopeful that its legacy, and its best-known events, would carry on, with new organizers. As just officially announced in Megawatt’s last e-mail bulletin, that’s going to happen:
Megawatt’s Legacy Lives On
Megawatt is thrilled to announce that the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day and the Gathering of Neighbors will continue in 2008 and beyond under new leadership.
The West Seattle Blog is the new organizer of the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. Tracy Record and Patrick Sand have a lot of creative ideas for this beloved West Seattle event. Check out the West Seattle Blog at www.westseattleblog.com for ongoing updates.
The Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association will take on leadership for the Gathering of Neighbors. DNDA is a trusted West Seattle steward and under their guidance GON will continue as an inspired community event. Contact Derek Birnie at www.dnda.org for more information.
Megawatt is officially signing off. Thank you for making all of this important work possible.
Here’s to community. Here’s to West Seattle.
Congratulations to Megawatt founder Mary Ellen Cunningham, her board, and their colleagues for everything they’ve accomplished. And to DNDA for taking on Gathering of Neighbors, which is an awesome way to find out more about community resources and opportunities. And now, about those garage sales — We are thrilled that Mary Ellen and the Megawatt board decided to trust WSB with Community Garage Sale Day. It’s something that truly and literally all of West Seattle can be part of – as sellers and/or shoppers (and we’re hoping for some community partners in other roles too) – and something that also can draw people from other areas to come visit our fabulous peninsula. Plus, we can all talk a lot about it online before, during, and after. Megawatt created an instant tradition by launching this event in 2005, and we hope you will help make the 4th Annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day ’08 a ton of fun. If you were a seller or buyer last year, and you have a thought on what you hope won’t change and what you think would make it an optimal experience, please leave a comment here or e-mail us any time at a special mailbox we’ve set up: garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Oh, and mark your calendar – we want to continue the Megawatt tradition of scheduling this for the second Saturday in May – that’ll be May 10th, 2008! We’ll talk more about this soon, and we’ll set up a forum topic when it gets a little closer.
There’s breaking coyote news too
Two things, actually. First is that we actually got a coyote PICTURE for the first time after all these coyote reports. Thanks to JF for sending the photo taken this week of his neighborhood’s “resident coyote.” Second thing, the Discovery Park coyote just got a reprieve. According to this article, instead of trapping/killing the coyote, authorities will work on educating the public to co-exist with wildlife.
Cafe owner: “Looks like Charlestown has won the first round”
So says Charlestown Cafe owner Larry Mellum, 
in an e-mail response to our inquiry about a note that a reader saw posted at CC, saying it looks like the project that posed the most immediate threat to the restaurant’s future is indeed stalled, or maybe even dead. (Background: First word of CC losing its lease was a year and a half ago; the community started rallying to save it last March; most recent Design Review meeting on the Petco store proposed for the cafe site was last August our last report on the project’s nonprogress was in December.) Tonight — here’s what Larry just e-mailed to WSB:
By all indications it appears that Madison Development has pulled out of the project. The Landlord’s agent, Rick Megenity, and I spoke last Friday and that is what he said.
Further, he indicated that Madison has not responded to the Landlord’s requests both in writing or verbally to tell them what is going on. Nor have they been able to meet the formal time lines for development that were laid out in the agreement between them. All that being said, Madison has NOT and I repeat HAS NOT formally backed-out. I don’t however believe that they have to. Because by virtue of their non-performance the contract likely has been breached. What this means without putting words in anyone’s mouth is that the Landlord is likely to proceed in finding some other means of re-development at the Charlestown location. They have indicated that this is how they would hope to proceed. In my conversations with them, we discussed putting some type of multi-use facility here that would include space for a restaurant suitable in size for a “Charlestown-like” location to be included. Although they cannot or will not lock themselves into anything at this juncture, I believe they would like it developed in that way.
So, there you have it. It looks like the community and ‘Charlestown has won the “first round” and by all indications we could be here for a long time to come. If not in our current form it will be in a form suitable for the landlord to receive what he wants — which is more rent out of the property, BUT STILL HERE situated with a couple of other retail and/or office tenants.
Thank you for your inquiry … and to all of West Seattle, thank you for your overwhelming support. It is truly humbling.
Best wishes,
Larry Mellum
Charlestown Street Cafe
We had checked both with Petco and with city planners in the past few weeks; Petco said only that they hoped to stay in West Seattle one way or another, city planners said they hadn’t heard anything in quite some time. (Previous WSB coverage of the Charlestown Cafe situation is all archived here.)
Two more West Seattle coyote sightings
It bears repeating, we share these e-mails about coyote sightings NOT to fan any flames of anti-coyote hysteria, but just to remind everyone that West Seattle is full of wildlife large and small, and if you think “well, not in my neighborhood,” think again. We’re going to try to save them to share in bunches, though, rather than one by one, unless there’s something truly urgent to report. First, Charles sent this yesterday:
We live in Arbor Heights and around 2 AM were awakened by the yips and yaps that are common to coyotes. I have heard them before when I was in Arizona, but never in West Seattle. Looked out the window, and 2 or 3 were running through our yard and down to the ravine that empties out at Seola Beach.
And today, Mary sent this:
My neighbors have been sending e-mail out this week about a coyote that has been seen on Maple Way in the Lincoln Park Annex area (the Annex is just two blocks north of the park). She/he just showed up in my back yard and was a good size ‘doggie’ and is not afraid of people. It appeared she was headed for the park since she trotted south along our easement. On occasion we have heard of one, usually this time of year but only one or two sightings. This one has been in our neighborhood for over a month now and is frequently out during the day.
Once again, here is our favorite official state link about co-existing with coyotes.
Bank merger closes this week
Didn’t realize till reading this post on The Mortgage Porter (WSB sponsor) that Washington Federal is acquiring First Mutual. Both have West Seattle branches, both on California Ave; WF’s newly renovated branch in Morgan Junction, FM’s newly built branch is just north of The Junction. The acquisition closes on Friday.
Fire on 32nd SW
Heavy smoke reported from the first units arriving at 9724 32nd SW, which is described as a single-family house. Everybody is said to have gotten out OK.
UPDATE: Here’s two pictures from WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli who also writes,
“Fire was out by the time I got there. Firefighters on the scene told me there were no injuries and they have not yet determined the cause of the fire. Every window in the house was totally blacked out from smoke damage.”
Update on the Delridge shooting suspect (possible CD link)
ADDED 3:20 PM: Thanks to WSB contributor Sage K for this photo of the bullet holes in the window at Longfellow Creek Apartments (map), from the shots 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell (photo at bottom of this post) is suspected of firing (nobody was hit/hurt) before the deadly Central District shooting in which he may also have been involved:
ORIGINAL 2:19 PM POST: OK, here’s more of what we’re piecing together from various sources regarding who police are looking for in the shots-fired case at the Longfellow Creek Apartments a few hours ago that is apparently linked to the shooting that seriously injured two people at a restaurant in the Central District (2:50 PM UPDATE: one of the victims there is now reported to have died):
-According to Scott from Central District News, police are looking for “a 2002 black Lincoln, 4 door, with license 210 XMJ.”
-Another source tells us that the suspect, 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, has a long rap sheet. Police say he’s who they’re looking for in the Delridge shots-fired case, though they’re not yet ready to definitively link him to the CD shootings. Here’s his photo as posted on Slog:
Dillard/Coxwell verdict is in
The King County Superior Court jury found ex-Huling Bros. employee Adrian Dillard not guilty of burglary, 
but guilty of theft and guilty of money laundering. His former co-worker Ted Coxwell was found guilty of burglary and theft. All this in the scheme that came to light a year ago, involving stealing money from a mentally incapacitated customer and also taking the truck he’d come to the dealership to buy. Verdict came in just after 1 pm – details to follow later. 2:25 PM UPDATE: The jury, 3 women and 9 men, deliberated about 5 hours total — 2 yesterday, 3 today, reaching their verdict just before noon, breaking for lunch, then delivering it at 1 pm. As reported here earlier this week, prosecution testimony lasted more than a week, but defense testimony took only a day. In addition to the verdicts as mentioned previously, there also was a special finding that Dillard should have been aware that the victim, Richard Grey, was particularly vulnerable. Sentencing is set for late March; one other development of note, the judge granted the request of Coxwell’s lawyer to set his client free — Coxwell has been in jail ever since his arrest in mid-January of last year — he’s already served more than the maximum possible sentence for the crimes of which he has been found guilty.
Police investigate shots fired
Police are investigating shots fired at the Longfellow Creek Apartments at Delridge and Juneau. Nobody hit but some damage done. Updates later. 1:30 PM UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters who pointed out that this is believed to be connected to a shooting in the Central District – we were downtown at the courthouse for the Dillard/Coxwell verdict and away from our usual immersion in the rest of the mediasphere.
Also happening tonight in West Seattle: “Spanglish Potluck”
Not the kind of potluck you’re probably thinking of – though there will be cookies! It’s a writers’ reading and music event tonight at Cafe Rozella (on the southern edge of West Seattle, 9434 Delridge), 7-9 pm. Here are more details, forwarded from Cafe Rozella’s Ricardo Guarnero:
This Spanglish Potluck features readings in Spanish & English by Hedgebrook alumnae Wendy Call & Maria Victoria. Also featured will be traditional Cuban music from Irene Mitri & her Charanga Danzón. This will be a reading like none other. There will be live words & music along with freshly-made Hedgebrook cookies and an opportunity to sing Las Mananitas (the traditional Mexican Birthday Song) to Wendy’s godchild. So come, bring a friend, bring your family and be a part of the fun!
If “Hedgebrook” doesn’t ring a bell – it’s a writers’ retreat on Whidbey Island (read more here).
A question in search of an answer: Where to donate?
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Denise:
I’ve got a giant garbage bag full of my three teen sons’ castoff stuffed animals. Most are in excellent condition. Do we know anywhere to donate these other than Goodwill or “the truck in your neighborhood”?
Good question, and we don’t have a West Seattle-specific answer. Do you?
Happening tonight in West Seattle: Kindergarten Fair
If you have a child who’s going to start kindergarten next fall — or maybe is still a year out, but you’re already thinking way ahead — there’s an event tonight you won’t want to miss. The 10th annual West Seattle Kindergarten Fair, 6-9 pm in the Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College (which, yes, if you haven’t been there, IS in West Seattle). Organizers gather principals, teachers, and parents from public and private schools around West Seattle, so you can talk with them to find out more. Kay Yano, a WSB’er who’s been in kindergarten-choosing shoes, confirms it’s a don’t-miss:
With the confusion and abundance of information that School Choice often brings, it is worth going to the Kindergarten Fair just in order to have all the options in one place at one time and to clarify which schools you have to go visit in person. I know that you made mention of it in the calendar of events, but it is really such an important event for those parents of 4 and 5 years olds that I thought that I would bring it to your attention. It is also early enough in the year that not everyone who is facing Kindergarten in the fall is quite focused on that decision yet to have even looked for something like the fair. It is put on by the Co-op Preschool Program that is based out of the SCCC Campus, but it is free and open to the public. It is also at a different time than it has been in the past, it has always been on Saturdays, and people may not be looking for it to happen on a weeknight, so it might sneak by them accidentally and a reminder would probably be helpful.
I went when my daughter was a year out from Kindergarten, and it was TOTALLY OVERWHELMING, and I left informed and exhausted, but it gave me info to chew on for a year before I really had to make my decisions, and then went again when it was getting to be choice time when she was 4. I love the school that she attends and that was really where I clarified much of my thinking about what we as a family needed out of a school.
If you haven’t been to SSCC before, here’s a map to its location in east West Seattle. WSB school resources: List of all public and private West Seattle schools, with web links and maps, here; school discussion opportunities in the forums here.
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