West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
Just out of the inbox from Megan:
Our house was broken into today. We are in the 7300 block of 28th ave SW. They took the typical stuff … mostly electronics. The most disturbing part was all the rummaging they did; everything was thrown out of drawers, and the house was completely torn apart. They even tried to drill through a window, leaving it cracked but not broken out and broke our new plasma tv when they realized they couldn’t take it with them. The police indicated that this fit the profile of just wanting to damage property, not necessarily steal anything of value (nothing that they couldn’t walk away with). We are super bummed but no one was hurt, our pets were scared but safe and this is what insurance is for. It’s just a bummer that people are so disrespectful.
Here’s a map of that area.
You usually know him for his party coverage (like WSU and OLG), but correspondent Rock Steele, Man About Town, has a way with wildlife video too, allowing us to call your attention to this irresistible clip he got over the weekend of baby hummingbirds in their Alki-area nest.
If you don’t know them already, meet Dawn Leverett and Patti Mullen — board president and executive director, respectively, of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. As changes aplenty propel West Seattle into a bigger, busier future, they are among the key people looking at “the big picture” and fighting to ensure WS is more than a bedroom community whose residents have to squeeze through a worsening bottleneck to work and shop elsewhere. WSB sat down with them both a few days ago for an in-depth chat:Read More
The latest in the thrilling new series of “weather video from outside WSB HQ’s front door” — hail that moved through about 5:30. The forecast promises sun and mid-50s within a few days; we’ll believe it when we see it.
TONIGHT: If you commute from or through downtown, one last reminder that the Mariners are playing their home opener right now (follow it live online), and since it started at 3:40 pm, it’s likely to break up during the evening commute, with attendant effects on popular West Seattle-bound routes including The Viaduct, Alaskan Way, 1st and 4th Avenues.
TOMORROW: Speaking of the Mariners — tomorrow is Salute to Armed Forces Night at Safeco Field. On that same night last year, many West Seattleites were rattled (literally and figuratively) by the aircraft queueing over WS before their Safeco flyovers. (Here’s what we posted that night last year.) So this serves as your early warning for tomorrow night.
ALSO TOMORROW: The first cruise ship of the year will be visible from West Seattle shores – it’s Celebrity Cruises’ Mercury, the one with the “X” on the funnel seen at right of the photo below (taken toward the end of last cruise season; see this year’s full Seattle cruise-ship visit schedule here):
Thanks to Scott for that photo of a sizable police/fire response early this morning in the 6000 block of California. In case you heard the sirens too, here’s the word on what happened, from Lt. Steve Paulsen @ the Southwest Precinct: Police were called about a fight in the street involving two men (Scott says there was plenty of shouting even before law enforcement arrived); when officers intervened, they themselves were attacked, and had to use a Taser to get one suspect under control.
Thanks to Stan Lock, Neighborhood District Coordinator at the city’s West Seattle Neighborhood Service Center in The Junction, for sending the agenda for this Thursday’s city Design Commission meeting, 
which will include a presentation of the latest schematic design for the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza (archived WSB coverage here) as well as a design-development update on the Myrtle Reservoir park, which as we reported a month ago is apparently definitely slated for 
some kind of skateboarding feature. Here’s the full agenda for Thursday’s meeting, which is open to the public; the Statue of Liberty comes up at 1 pm Thursday, Myrtle Reservoir at 2 pm (followed by a design update on the south Viaduct replacement project at 3 pm), all in room L-280 at Seattle City Hall (600 Fourth Ave. downtown). One more Statue of Liberty note – today’s the last day to order a brick for the plaza; find out more at the Plaza Project site.
Quick teardown at that site, 60th and Admiral, just a week after we told you about the permits for two duplex townhouses. Not too far away, permits are in for one duplex and two single-family homes at 6106 SW Stevens (map; project pages here and here), where a backhoe (not pictured) is already stationed behind this house:
On to the south side of West Seattle:
That’s 5933 California, which we’ve been watching for a while now (not torn down yet unless it happened this morning – we’re about to head out to check) — The latest Land Use Information Bulletin, out today, features the permit granting a seven-unit subdivision at that site (next to the townhouses at the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda site). And the Delridge building boom continues, with a permit in today’s LUIB for four 2-unit townhouses at 8444 Delridge (map).
(1st photo from King County Assessor; 2nd by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
We have been reporting for almost a full year now on the fate of Charlestown Court, the 81-year-old brick fourplex across the street from the Charlestown Cafe. As we first told you last October, it is under review for possible city landmark status (or possible teardown); on February 20th, we covered the city Landmarks Preservation Board hearing downtown at which board members agreed to consider its exterior architecture for possible landmark designation. Now, it’s decision time — this Wednesday (agenda), the Landmarks Board is scheduled to listen to public comments, and vote. (The process is explained here.) If you want to tell the board what you think, e-mail comments to board coordinator Beth Chave before Wednesday at beth.chave@seattle.gov; you also can speak at the public hearing this Wednesday, 3:30 pm on the 40th floor of the Municipal Tower downtown. This process was set in motion by a proposal to tear down Charlestown Court and replace it with a 4-story mixed-use building (official city project page here), a project that’s still in the pipeline pending the outcome of the landmark review.
You won’t see many “school zone” lights this morning — it’s Spring Break for all Seattle Public Schools and some private schools. Speaking of SPS, families are starting to get fall assignment letters; for those seeking info about any WS school, an upgrade is in progress for our West Seattle Schools page – each public elementary listing now has a link to archived WSB coverage of that school. (We’ll add the same feature for the other schools later today.)
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