West Seattle Halloween ’08, report #2
Yes, Halloween is for grownups too. Those are some of the hard-working Highland Park Action Committee leaders who set up a Halloween haunt for all ages at the HP Improvement Club building tonight — replete with fog machine:
Over in The Junction, a couple parties are under way, including the Ghostly Gala at Twilight:
That last photo reminds us, Twilight’s Mary Enslow still doesn’t have her stolen motorcycle back – stay on the lookout. Meantime, one more scene from Admiral businesses’ trick-or-treat extravaganza this afternoon – big stream of families drawn to Atomic Boys, its first year to share in the tradition:
Lots more Halloween pix to come, including yours (e-mail us!).
West Seattle Gas Price Watch (etc.): Into the 2.40s
Quick note while we stop briefly at WSB HQ during Halloween coverage (2/3 of the team) and WSHS football coverage (the other third’s there, reporting frequent updates at twitter.com/wsbbizdev, score here when it’s over, plus full wrapup): Gas at Arco and 76 on Delridge, 2.49/regular. We also have been to 4th Avenue Costco, where it was 2.43 (photo left). Anyone want to bet yet if we’ll go below $2? (P.S. Back on the Halloween theme – we’ve gotten a dozen trick-or-treaters here in Upper Fauntleroy within barely 10 minutes. Big change from years past.)
Update: Verdict in 59th/Admiral shooting case: “Not guilty”
BULLETIN: Verdict for the 18-year-old defendant: Not guilty, not of murder, not of manslaughter, not of anything. His mother cried, “Oh my God,” sitting in the front row. More shortly. 4:15 PM UPDATE: Took extra time to get to “shortly” — we talked with defense lawyer Robert Perez after he went down a floor to handle paperwork for his client’s immediate release. The trial is not completely over — on Monday, jurors will return in order to decide another matter: Perez filed a motion for the state to pay his client’s legal costs if he was cleared. We’ll be there for that part of the case too. Separate full report later recapping the case and today’s developments. (Again, full archive of trial coverage is at the bottom of last night’s story.)
ORIGINAL 2:37 PM POST: There’s word the jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial that only WSB has been covering, with an Alki 18-year-old claiming self-defense in the deadly shooting of 33-year-old Francisco Bailey-Ortiz inside a car at 59th/Admiral on 10/13/07. I am now standing by in the downtown courtroom of Superior Court Judge Richard Eadie, with reporter Rachel Gabrielle – who’s been covering the trial – on the way here, and I will post the verdict as soon as it’s read. (To catch up on the story, follow the links at the bottom of Rachel’s latest report.) – TR
2 Friday afternoon notes
SHARE YOUR HALLOWEEN PIX WITH YOUR WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORS: The pumpkin pix have been great (find them all by scrolling through our Holidays coverage archive), and now, after tonight’s fun, whatever you’re up to, please send pix – we’re going to get around to as many events as we can, but we can only pedal so fast; send pix to editor@westseattleblog.com, and we’ll put together the best wrapup of West Seattle Halloween ’08, with your help! (Remember, the events are all listed here.)
FORUM FEATURES ADDED: If you haven’t been in the WSB Forums yet today, we’ve added a few features that have been in the works for a while, by members’ request; read about (and see) ’em here.
On board the Elliott Bay Water Taxi on its last day of ’08
Moments ago, that’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine and the Mariner Moose on board the Water Taxi with us and dozens of others – we’re publishing this from the lower deck (too rainy to be out on the upper deck, darn), on our way downtown for a media briefing on the WT’s recordsetting ’08 season, which ends after the last run tonight. West Seattle Chamber of Commerce executive director Patti Mullen is on board too and she will be part of the media briefing as well. More later! 11:59 AM UPDATE: Media briefing’s over. Here’s a group shot of everybody who spoke:
From left, Rob Johnson from the Transportation Choices Coalition; you know the next two; Patti Mullen from the WS Chamber; and Argosy Cruises CEO Kevin Clark, who paid tribute to the 10-year partnership his company has had with the Water Taxi program (first run, 5/23/98). The briefing, by the way, was on a bigger boat next to the Water Taxi’s mooring, Argosy’s Spirit of Seattle – the WT had to continue on its regular schedule. Councilmember Constantine, who spoke as chair of the King County Ferry District executive committee, said WT ridership has grown 70 percent in the past three years (almost 107K in 2005, almost 192K this year). It is scheduled to go year-round in 2010. Remember that hearing coming up Monday, as mentioned here; we’ll add a WT update later today/tonight with some video from today’s briefing – meantime, you can read the full, official news season-ender news release here – also added, a photo of The Moose at the Water Taxi wheel:Read More
4 notes for today/tonight: Water Taxi, Halloween, football
RIDE THE WATER TAXI WITH THE MARINER MOOSE: Reminder, that’s at 11 am today. After tonight, the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s docked till next year.
ADMIRAL DISTRICT TRICK OR TREATING: 3-6 pm. Here’s the map of participating businesses. Yes, the weather’s supposed to improve.
WESTWOOD VILLAGE TRICK OR TREATING: 5-7 pm. Full Halloween list is on the Holidays page; West Seattle Weekend Lineup‘s coming up shortly too.
FOLLOW THE WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME TONIGHT VIA OUR TWITTER UPDATES: In case you can’t get to the big game at Memorial Stadium — by popular demand, we are moving the updates OFF the regular westseattleblog twitter account. Co-publisher Patrick, who has been reporting on the games in recent weeks both during and after, will have running updates on his account, wsbbizdev – watch it on the Web at twitter.com/wsbbizdev, and you will also see it on our WSB Twitter page, which explains a little more about what Twitter is if you’re not using it. We’ll also temporarily add a sidebar box to this page below the turquoise one where our latest Twitter update can always be found.
Update: Bus loses wheel on Fauntleroy, nobody hurt
(WSB photos added 8:50/9:13 am; #1 by Patrick Sand, #2 by Christopher Boffoli)
Thanks to Manuel for the tip that the 54X bus had broken down (headed for downtown). We’re at the scene – it’s at Edmunds, blocking a lane so traffic is diverting around it. According to Manuel, a wheel fell off; we’re working to verify exactly what went wrong. 8:32 AM UPDATE: Metro supervisor at the scene confirms a wheel did come off, but the bus had a veteran driver who got it safely to the side of the road. Nobody hurt; everybody transferred to another bus relatively quickly; the bus will be towed shortly, but till then, it’s still slower going heading northbound on Fauntleroy. 9:20 AM UPDATE: Keri, who was on the bus when it happened, e-mailed this:
The bus seemed to shudder and skid a bit, as if it was trying to stop on wet pavement and couldn’t. It came to a halt and felt tilted. One woman suddenly said “tire!” (I thought she said “fire!” yikes.) She then said, “our tire just rolled by us!”
As we were getting off the bus, the driver said we actually lost two. We were all extremely grateful that this didn’t happen while we were on the viaduct.
West Seattle Halloween: Start the day with WS pumpkin pix
Happy Halloween! No pix of this yet, but last night, Walking on Logs at the end of The Bridge was surrounded by glowing jack-o-lanterns. Didn’t see it far enough in advance to pull over for pix. Eddie e-mailed that he saw cars there just after 8 pm. Let us know if you know who did it – and/or if you have pix! Now, the latest WSB’er pumpkins:
That’s from Meredith in Admiral. Next, a jack-o-lantern group from Benjamin at 13th/Webster:
And two from John Moore of Northwest Insurance Group (WSB sponsor):
John also sent an Obama-o-lantern — one of several we have, along with two other celebrity (nonpolitical, more or less) carvings; just click ahead:Read More
59th/Admiral shooting trial: Jury deliberations begin
Jury deliberations have begun in the trial of the Alki 18-year-old charged with murdering the 33-year-old man he says sexually abused him for years. This is the third week of the trial that WSB is covering, start to finish, as followup to our initial coverage of the 10/13/07 shooting (and updates in the ensuing months); read on for the latest report from our courtroom correspondent:Read More
He’s big, he’s green, he’s … stolen: Be on the lookout
He’s been on our Holidays page – and now sadly we have word that this inflatable “Boogie” (from “Nightmare Before Christmas”) is in the hands of thieves. Brian just e-mailed:
Unfortunately within the last 90 minutes, somebody came in our front yard near 42nd and Andover and stole him. We are checking with our neighbors to see if they saw anything or captured any footage on their security cameras.
Please send a message out to the wonderful people in West Seattle letting them know to be on the lookout for Boogie and alert the blog if they see him. And for those that may be reading this and know
anything about this, returning Boogie back to our front porch would be the right thing to do.
West Seattle Halloween: “Skeleton Theatre” preview
That’s probably the only front yard in West Seattle with not one, but two pirate ships (and our photo doesn’t even show the BIGGER one). It’s the scene of the third annual edition of the 36th/Hanford Halloween hit Skeleton Theatre; the final stages of construction were going fast and furious when we stopped by last night to check in with its creators, and what they’re assembling sounds more Hollywood than ever. The skeletons themselves were still in semi-hiding; more on them in a moment. During our visit, Chris Walker, wife Maia Low and a continually growing cast of friends, neighbors, and family members (meet some of them here) were toiling away to finish transforming the front yard into the stage for the free show that is bound to delight visitors Friday and Saturday nights – video clips just ahead, starting with the skeletons themselves (and the explanation of one skeleton’s mysterious origins):Read More
Gov. Gregoire in The Junction: Alaskan Way Viaduct promise
Co-publisher Patrick is just back from Gov. Gregoire‘s whirlwind tour of The Junction. (With her in that photo, State Sen. Joe McDermott at left, State Rep. Sharon Nelson in back, and Skip Dreps, local veterans’ advocate and 34th District Democrats member.) After her group Q/A event at West 5, we got a quick one-on-one exclusive as she headed across the Walk-All-Ways intersection and asked her whether there’s REALLY going to be an Alaskan Way Viaduct (Central Waterfront) decision by the end of the year. She said, “Yes,” repeatedly, then offered some elaboration when we asked if there’s any direction in which she’s leaning – read on for for that video clip, and more on this afternoon’s West Seattle campaign stop:Read More
Crime Watch: Credit-card scammer followup; another break-in
Two West Seattle Crime Watch updates for you right now: First, a followup on yesterday’s arrest of the woman accused of using stolen credit cards for 
$2,000 worth of purchases at local businesses. Southwest Precinct Officer Brian Ballew tells WSB that the item involved in the biggest of those purchases — a $700 fountain from West Seattle Nursery (WSB sponsor) — has been returned to the nursery today. The 53-year-old woman was booked into jail last night; as for how she got caught — Officer Ballew says she had pre-purchased some items at a local business, and before she returned for them yesterday, they and police had matched her to the investigation. Meantime, in separate Crime Watch news, we just got word of another break-in with the “method of entry” involving a BB gun – for those details and what police are saying about this apparent burglary wave, read on:Read More
Ride the Water Taxi tomorrow with the Mariner Moose!
Just got word from King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s office that not only will there be free coffee and donuts on the final morning of the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s 2008 season tomorrow (6:30-9:30 am), you also have a chance to ride the Water Taxi with the ever-popular (no matter how the team’s doing) Mariner Moose. On the 11 am Water Taxi run tomorrow, the Moose will become this year’s recordbreaking 182,000th Water Taxi passenger by accompanying Councilmember Constantine on a WT ride from Seacrest to Pier 55, where the trip will be followed by a media event celebrating the WT’s big year and looking ahead. They’d love to have company onboard, so if you’re able to ride the WT at 11 am tomorrow, join the fun.
Meantime, the invitation is also renewed for you to come speak to the King County Council on Monday at its public hearing about the King County Ferry District. 
That’s the agency created last year to oversee the Water Taxi, the Vashon passenger ferry, and an exploration of more water-transit routes around the metro area. Its money comes from a countywide levy that totals about $22 a year for the owner of a home worth $400,000, but that levy has to be renewed each year, and there are some in county government who are interested in scaling that back or even eliminating it – so if the Water Taxi is important to you, this is the time to speak up, because the reauthorization vote is just a few weeks away. Monday’s public hearing is at 1:30 pm in the County Council chambers on the 10th floor of the courthouse (map) downtown (more information on this flyer, which also notes that if you cannot be there in person, you can e-mail your opinion on reauthorizing the KCFD to info@kingcountyferries.org).
West Seattle food ‘n’ drink updates: Feedback Lounge, Bohemian
Feedback Lounge, you may recall, is what’s in progress at the old Beveridge Place Pub space in Morgan Junction, next to the ex-Corner Inn/future Zeeks Pizza space. Just found this new MySpace blog update from its proprietors, saying they’re still targeting January for opening, and that they’ve hired “99%” of their staff.
Meantime, in the “recently opened” department, The Bohemian has updates to share. When we heard they’d launched live music, we asked them to let us know as soon as there were specific listings on The Bohemian’s website – and word just came in, those listings are up now; see them here, with details on some of the regular musicians and other artists here. Jason and Terri tell us they’re also launching Jazz Sunday Brunch on November 9th, 10 am-3 pm, with “daytime lunches” soon to follow.
COMING UP: New information about Fresh Bistro, the restaurant that’ll be a big part of the ground floor of Mural, the Harbor Properties project across from Jefferson Square.
Helping hands: Needing yours; celebrating theirs
YOUR HELPING HANDS NEEDED: 10 am Saturday (11/1), you can pitch in to help JuNO make The Junction a cleaner place — the group’s periodic Adopt-A-Street Cleanup time is here. Meet in front of 4527 41st SW (map) to, as JuNO president Erica Karlovits puts it, “pick up supplies, find a partner, and start cleaning up our hood.” Usually some free treats, too. (JuNO’s next meeting is coming up 11/11, 6:30 pm.)
Now to some folks whose handiwork helps fight hunger:
(Left to right, Providence Mount St. Vincent residents Sandy Rose, Chuck Dambrosio, Lynn Cappiello, Dorothy Smith)
That photo is courtesy Cynthia Flash of Flash Media Services, who tells the tale:
Earlier this month, Providence Mount St. Vincent resident Chuck Dambrosio decided he wanted to do something to help others. So he proposed that he and some of the other residents on his floor at the West Seattle long-term care facility make sandwiches for the homeless. The residents voted on it and agreed! Providence Mount St. Vincent’s dietary department provided the supplies and eight residents participated with lots of love and laughter. They were proud of the fact that they could make 32 sandwiches in just one hour. Activities director Eileen McCloskey took the 32 sandwiches to the Union Gospel Mission on 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle and was greeted by very gracious and appreciative volunteers who seemed moved by the fact that the seniors at the Mount were thinking of them. The seniors had so much fun they plan to make sandwiches for the homeless every month.
The biggie, of course, 
Just posted on the city webpage that provides
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