Reader reports: Metal thieves; door-to-door alert
First, from Karen:
Warning for the Westwood area – 18th Ave SW. A neighbor just stopped by to let me know that he saw two men going down the street in a pickup truck and taking anything metal they found. That included walking into our fenced front yard and taking the kitchen sink that was sitting out there while we put up new sheetrock. The police were notified but did not offer any hope of recovery.
And from further west, Amy sent in a door-to-door alert – might be perfectly innocent, always hard to tell, in which case comments might prove reassuring:Read More
Cafe Revo update: And now, the neon
Driving by the under-construction Cafe Revo (former Murphy’s) site on Avalon this evening, we noticed the new neon sign was lit — which indeed was supposed to happen this week, per an e-mail update sent to the Revo mailing list a few days ago, which also said:
We are waiting for our building permits to be finalized. In the meantime we have finished building all of our tables and the custom bar is halfway done. The exterior of the building is finished and the neon sign made for us at Western Neon, has been put up. … We plan to add some nice planter boxes in the front of the building soon as well. We currently are working with artist Glenn Case on some murals for the interior and our busy working with our vendors to get our equipment and front of house items chosen and ordered. Our cousins in Italy have e-mailed Sean more authentic recipes, including some recently from our close family friend in Cuneo, in the Piedmont region. Our hope is to be opened no later than early October, but once we have our permits in hand we will have a more clear opening date.
Cafe Revo proprietors Sean and Sofia Zadra Goff also have posted more in-progress photos (even their tables!) on one of their webpages (see it here); if you missed it earlier this summer, we talked with them for an in-depth preview back in June (read it here).
Alki alert: Shoremont sign says police to train there tomorrow
The first tip came from a post in the Alki Beach Community Yahoo! group, after someone spotted that sign on the front doors at the vacant (demolition permit still pending) Shoremont at 57th and Alki. And behind the building, police tape is up:
We’ve been trying since last night to find out exactly what kind of training you’re likely to see there tomorrow; it’s not being coordinated from the Southwest Precinct, as our contacts there didn’t know, but were trying to find out. So for now, in case you are in the area tomorrow and happen to see a heavy police presence, we thought we’d at least pass on the news about the posted signs. (The Fire Department uses vacant buildings too, as this webpage reminds us.) 7 PM UPDATE: Just heard back from the precinct – it’s tactical training: “Washington State Tactical Officers Association is conducting training at this site tomorrow. The training is being sponsored by SPD SWAT.”
West Seattle Weather Watch: Monsoon arrives
In case you’re away from home and it’s not doing the same wherever you are: Monsoon-quality rain here now. Plus, from the Sound, the unmistakable boom of ship horns – not as high-pitched as ferry horns. Soupy out there! P.S. Good news in the latest “forecast discussion” — it says, in part, “Saturday will likely be the warmest day of the next week.”
Missing pugs update: Definitely stolen
New information today on the missing pugs we told you about yesterday, gone from their Arbor Heights home after a burglary — Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden just called to say a witness who read about it on WSB has told police the dogs were definitely stolen – they were seen being loaded into a vehicle. Police are still working to see what kind of description of that vehicle they will be able to publicly release without jeopardizing the investigation. We’ll let you know when more information is available. 1:10 PM UPDATE: And here it is — Sgt. Durden says neighbors saw a dark blue SUV stopped near the house Monday afternoon around 2 pm, with a male driver and male passenger. They saw one of them come out of the home’s front yard, pick up the pugs, put them in the SUV, and drive off. They didn’t realize at the time that anything was wrong, so they didn’t call police until they read here about the burglary and missing dogs. They didn’t get a license plate, and not very much detail on the people in the SUV, except that one appeared to be in his late teens/early 20s, “dark complexion,” possibly Asian or Hispanic, close-cropped hair or shaven head. The police non-emergency number is 206/625-5011, or you can call 911 if you have a tip that needs immediate action.
“Flower Houses” tree tussle: Trimmed today
Got a tip that the tree-trimming had finally commenced at the Alki “Flower Houses” (original coverage here). Got there just moments after the trimmers left. Owner Randie Stone was there but declined to comment, citing legal advice. Photo momentarily. 1:25 PM UPDATE: Here’s one of the angles we shot today – we don’t have an exact comparison in the “before” photos:
Here’s another photo from today, followed by one of the two we received at the time of the original report. On getting a report of tree-trimming in action, we rushed out so fast there wasn’t time to revisit the original story so that we’d be sure to shoot the EXACT same angle, but we’re hoping to be back out that way a little later today.
(that’s another WSB photo taken today)
(that’s a July photo from Alma Taylor-Smyth, who lives in one of the “flower houses”)
West Seattle Crime Prevention Council: Updates from last night
We weren’t sure whether to chuckle or cry when we found out last night’s Seattle Police Department Citizen Appreciation Awards event would keep us from visiting the Southwest Precinct to personally report on the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, which we consider a monthly must-cover. Luckily, we were able to draft previous WSB contributor Evan Baumgardner into service for the occasion – and he brought back important info, including an update on a recent business break-in, other West Seattle crime trends, and a request for ideas from YOU – here’s his report:Read More
On KUOW this afternoon: A truly hot topic
We were lucky enough to meet some of the folks at KUOW public radio earlier this summer, during their June 30th broadcast about local “neighborhood blogs” (archived here). Looks like we may get a moment or two on their airwaves again this afternoon – for “The Conversation,” they are interviewing one of the country’s best-known political-blog operators, Daily Kos‘s Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, and one of the topics is going to be “anonymous online comments,” which he allows and so do we — as do the majority of websites that enable and encourage discussion. The show is scheduled 1-2 pm (94.9 FM, or listen online) and as one of the people who might provide a “local perspective,” we’ve been told to expect a phone call in the last quarter-hour. (In the meantime, we’ll be busy trying to distill our heartfelt but rambling philosophy into a potential soundbite.) 2:01 PM UPDATE: Clarification for anybody who listened: We would describe our comment policy as “partially moderated” – your comment is held for review if it contains something from a list of words we have programmed into the system, mostly profanity; if it is from an IP address that’s never had a comment approved before (and that can throw regular commenters into the filter all the time); if it has 2 or more URLs, which can be a sign of spam. This site is hit with more than 2,000 spam comments a day — usually horrible nasty mega-X-rated stuff – and our filter keeps all but a fraction of a percent from ever going through, but it does also occasionally, for unknown reasons of technological temperament, throw legitimate comments into, not the moderation queue but the spam basket, which we try to graze quickly at least once daily for such instances — however, we are sure that it’s accidentally eaten a few legitimate comments that we never even saw. Once in a rare while, we turn on “moderate all comments” for a while if the spam filter seems to be acting up, which happened earlier this week, and that may mean a delay in review/approval of your comment.
Also happening tonight: Admiral “play area” update
We last checked in July 24 on the volunteers organizing to create some type of “play area” at or near the North Admiral mini-park shown at left, California Place (northwest corner of California/Hill, just east of Admiral Congregational Church; here’s a map). One of the organizers, Manolita Slye, just wrote to say they’re meeting again tonight (as we mentioned in last month’s story, they’re meeting twice monthly as the effort gets off the ground) — 7 pm at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. She mentioned something we’d also been told in a recent note from someone else — apparently opponents are starting to organize — so she is hoping that more of the families who have expressed support for the potential play area will show up tonight.
Midway through “Runway,” another viewing party tonight
In case you lost track of this somewhere along the way — Blayne the barista from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) is still in the running as the latest season of “Project Runway” arrives at its sixth episode tonight; after designing for Brooke Shields last week and Olympic athletes the week before that, tonight’s challenge involves creating something for drag queens. Must-see TV, on the big screen at Ginomai (bring a dessert to share and see what other sweet treats turn up) on the southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee, doors open @ 8 pm, show’s on at 9.
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