West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
ORIGINAL 10:57 PM POST: Earlier today, we mentioned we’re planning on some late-night site downtime for upgrades, and thought it might start at 11 pm. That’s just moved back to about midnight. Meantime, one more reminder, PLEASE bookmark or otherwise note westseattleblog.wordpress.com, which we will use to post news during ANY WSB downtime, scheduled or unscheduled (as well as our Twitter feed at twitter.com/westseattleblog). 2:11 AM UPDATE: Site’s open again. Still some work going on under the hood, but it shouldn’t get in your way from hereon out.
On partner site White Center Now, we have posted the first part of our story about tonight’s public-safety-budget “town hall” meeting at Steve Cox Memorial Park, and will continue to add to it. For starters, we have video of Sheriff Sue Rahr explaining why she has decided not to close her department’s White Center storefront. She was joined at the meeting by (left to right after the sheriff) Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer, West Seattle-residing District Court Chief Presiding Judge Barbara Linde, and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, all of whom detailed potential cuts that would affect city residents as well as the unincorporated-area residents who made up most of tonight’s audience.
Meg sends word of two break-ins last night:Read More
The first two pix are from tonight’s West Seattle Halloween highlights: First, a Johnny Cash pumpkin, plus a spider, thanks to Laura. Meantime, from 37th and Graham (map), an front-yard display sent by Emily, who says she and her husband love Halloween and add a bit more to the display daily (nightly?) during pre-Halloween week, and more pix can be found here:
Even more jack-o-lanterns and Halloween pix tomorrow (send yours!). By the way, we dropped by the scene of Skeleton Theatre tonight and will publish that video-enhanced report tomorrow, as they get ready for two big nights Friday and Saturday (more Halloween events here). Now, one more photo – Keith spotted this at 44th/Oregon in The Junction and wondered if anyone knows who/what this is supposed to be:
Co-publisher Patrick kicks off the guessing with “Stephen King?” But if you know for sure, or have a different guess, please enlighten! ADDED 10:54 PM: Just in, two pix from the annual Pathfinder K-8 pumpkin-carving celebration; Eric Baer reports about 150 participants, and sends these photos taken by Holly Rikhof:
Eric says there were about twice as many jack-o-lanterns as could be squeezed into that shot!
Just got word tonight from West Seattle’s State Sen. Joe McDermott: Governor Gregoire, with less than a week to go in a tough re-election fight, is visiting West Seattle tomorrow; at left is a photo Sen. McDermott took of the governor with former Vice President Al Gore and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks during Gore’s recent visit. After a walking tour of The Junction tomorrow afternoon, she plans to meet with business owners and take questions at West 5; that’s expected to start around 2:15 tomorrow afternoon, and you’re welcome to stop by. (Disclosure: The Gregoire campaign is a WSB political advertiser.) 9:17 PM UPDATE: E-mail just in from the 34th District Democrats (also a WSB political advertiser) says U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee will be accompanying the governor during her West Seattle visit tomorrow.
Testimony is over in the trial of the Alki 18-year-old charged with murdering the 33-year-old man he says sexually abused him for years. WSB is covering the trial, start to finish; read on for the latest report from our courtroom correspondent:Read More
Just in from Sgt. Jeff Durden at Southwest Precinct: He says they have just arrested the woman they believe to be behind the fraudulent credit-card use we told you about two days ago; she’s being interviewed at the precinct right now and expected to be booked on felony charges later. Sgt. Durden wasn’t ready to share details of the arrest’s circumstances – but when those can be made public, we’ll bring you an updated report. He adds, “We got all the credit cards back.”
Not much change expected in the number of West Seattle students kindergarten through fifth-grade age over the next few years, according to that slide from a presentation the Seattle School Board is seeing at a work session this afternoon. The work session is about “capacity management”; the biggest problem the district is trying to solve right now is overcrowding in the north end, but then board members are expected to take a vote tonight to direct district management to start looking at closures in other areas, to save money (as reported here last week). District spokesperson Patti Spencer reiterated to WSB today that there is NO list of targeted schools at this point; district Building Excellence program manager Don Gillmore had said at a meeting about the future of the Denny Middle School site, however, that there is talk of building an elementary school at that site — after Denny moves to its future new building on the Chief Sealth campus — while closing three unspecified others (WSB report here). If you want to see the entire presentation about district capacity, as shown to board members today, click here.
Perhaps you’re among the thousands who’ve seen their “Bassets for Obama” video — now, meet Buddy, Barkley, and Stevo up close and personal, with one day to go in The Big Vote:Read More
Seattle Police have just released that photo of the man they’re looking for in connection with the stabbing at the Stewart Manor apartment complex in High Point on October 17th. (Original WSB coverage here.) Here’s the information they sent along with the photo: “On October 17th, 2008 Daniel P. Ward (DOB 2/6/57) and his 42-year-old girlfriend were in her apartment in the 6300 block of 34th Avenue SW. After a brief verbal argument, Ward attacked his girlfriend. Ward stabbed her several times with a box cutter causing severe injuries to her neck, arm, and face. Ward told her that he would kill her and then kill himself. The victim was able to get away from him and seek help. Ward fled the scene and remains at large. The King County Prosecutor’s Office has since charged Ward with Assault 1st degree – Domestic Violence. Anyone with information regarding Ward’s whereabouts is asked to contact 911.”
NIGHT OWL ALERT: As of right now, we are 95% likely to be offline for a while starting around 11:30 tonight, to do some upgrading. We will continue our commitment to 24/7 news by using our backup site (westseattleblog.wordpress.com) if/when necessary, so please bookmark or otherwise make a note of that – anything major that happens while WSB is down (that goes for any unscheduled trouble as well as things like this), we’ll post it there, not only the latest news but also updates on what’s up with the site. You can also check in on Twitter during such times (twitter.com/westseattleblog) and when needed, we will post alerts on our partner site White Center Now (whitecenternow.com) too.
WANT TO WORK FOR WSB? We have just proudly posted our first-ever WSB job listings. Two roles we’re recruiting for — both detailed here.
SEATTLE MAGAZINE FEATURES WSB: WSB Forums members scooped us on this days ago when the magazine hit mailboxes, but since it’s finally on the newsstands, please indulge us a mention: Seattle Magazine‘s November issue includes its annual “Power List” of those whom the magazine’s editors and a guest panel consider to be some of our area’s trendsetters. Only by the grace of the trust, collaboration, and support you have invested in WSB — as the place to get 24/7 West Seattle news and to share news, information, opinions, photos, etc., with your West Seattle neighbors — has this turned into an interesting-enough enterprise for them to have approached your editor here about being part of the “Power List” feature. So we turn up on page 98, with a photo from this shoot we mentioned in August, or you can read the entire “Power List” article’s text online – we’re around the middle of the second page. Also featured on this year’s “Power List” are West Seattleite Anne Levinson, now leading the Seattle Storm, and Duwamish River hero BJ Cummings. Please let us know if you recognize anyone else on the list as a West Seattleite or someone with major WS ties (neighborhoods of residence generally weren’t mentioned in the features), so we can give them props here too. Thanks!
(August 2008 photo courtesy Nancy in North Delridge)
Don’t let the current round of unseasonably dry fool you – sooner or later, it’s going to rain. That’s why the city put on a show-and-tell this morning with the mayor and Seattle Public Utilities, to get the word out about keeping storm drains clear, as part of 7 steps you can take now to make sure you survive the next deluge:Read More
The Parks Department has just announced a round of open-house meetings in December to update the city’s Golf Course Master Plan as well as the economic analysis that’s on record for all four municipal golf courses. One of those open houses is set for West Seattle Golf Course, 10:30 am-noon on December 6; see the flyer here.
EARLY DISMISSAL DAY FOR SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Most schools are out two hours early; a few have made different plans, such as Chief Sealth High School, which has no classes today but does have parent/teacher conferences 1-8 pm.
SCHOOL BOARD TALKS ABOUT POSSIBLE SCHOOL CLOSURES: Seattle Public Schools‘ board members have a work session on “capacity management” 3-7 pm, followed by a voting session 8-10 pm. As part of that discussion, they are expected to take at least the first step toward another round of school closures, and since some schools in the north end are jampacked, it’s speculated that some West Seattle schools could wind up facing the ax. The work session is 3-7 pm, the “legislative session” 8-10 pm; agenda’s here, and the meetings are all at District HQ in Sodo.
PUBLIC SAFETY DOLLARS: Tonight at the “log cabin” building in White Center’s Steve Cox Memorial Park, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, and other leaders will convene a town-hall meeting to talk about how the county budget deficit is likely to affect public safety. (We covered Sheriff Rahr’s early warnings about this at a SeaTac meeting last June.) Remember that cuts will affect city residents as well as unincorporated-area residents, because the county provides services for all in areas such as prosecution, public defense, courts, jails. The meeting’s at 7 pm; here’s a map to Steve Cox Park.
Words and their meanings came into play more than once during Tuesday’s all-day hearing downtown for the Alki neighbors appealing the city’s approval of eight more cell-phone antennas for the “nonconforming” apartment building near their homes (photo above; previous coverage here). Dictionary definitions even were introduced as evidence, and the bottom line to the city and cell company’s arguments seemed to be “more” means “less” – read our full report to see why, including dueling simulations of what the new installation might look like:Read More
Thanks to Susan and Kevin for sending that photo of their pirate pumpkins, from the wild seas south of The Junction. Next, a spacey creation:
“That’s no moon – that’s …” Stephen‘s Death Star pumpkin. Last but by no means least, two jack-o-lanterns from Myrbob:
Got one to share? Or spooky decorations? E-mail your pix to WSB! One more Halloweenish note – Remember the Thrill the World zombie dances on Saturday? Turns out that for the “official” world-record attempt – the West Seattleites (and their cohorts from the rest of the city) were the THIRD BIGGEST GROUP IN THE WORLD! Read all about it (and see more pix and video) at the Thrill the World-West Seattle blog.
As WSB continues covering the trial of the Alki 18-year-old charged with murdering the 33-year-old man he says sexually abused him for years, the defendant has concluded his testimony, and members of his family have taken the stand. Read on for today’s report from our courtroom correspondent:Read More
3 break-in cases in the latest update — a house (in an area where neighbors have just gotten word of a “48-hour burglary spree”), a car, and a store:Read More
West Seattle artist Kay Kirkpatrick is about to see her work “Salute” (design at left) installed at Boise State University‘s expanded student union, during a Veterans’ Day commemoration. “Salute” is a veterans’ memorial, created from a design chosen by BSU’s art advisory board after a search that initially targeted thousands of artists; the Nov. 11 ceremony will include an Apache helicopter flyover. Kirkpatrick has public-art installations much closer to home – most notably at the Southwest Precinct, with interior and exterior pieces (including the building’s stone “sign” at Delridge/Webster) that reference nearby Longfellow Creek (see photos here).
Now to a West Seattle author who’ll be at centerstage in Oregon next month: North Admiral resident Michael 
Stusser (photo at right) sends word he’s reading from his book “The Dead Guy Interviews” at the WordStock Festival, 5 pm November 9th at the Oregon Convention Center. He says, “It’s an amazing gathering of authors, hippies and literary types in Portland – if you – or anyone you know is within 400 miles that weekend, you should check it out.” Given that Portland is fewer than 200 miles away, that means all of us. Here’s a page on the WordStock website featuring his “interview” with Mark Twain.
So we just returned from a post-sunset neighborhood walk (hillside east of Lincoln Park), during which, clouds of tiny flies seemed to follow us every step of the way. Thought maybe it was just us. Then, as soon as we walked into the house and checked e-mail, the WSB inbox yielded this note from “DC”:
I live right near Ercolini Park and there have been a TON of nasty little flies all over the place this evening. Anybody know what causes that phenomena, and why this time of year? Seems weird.
We’ll fly into research mode – but in the meantime, maybe you’ve already got the answer? ADDED 6:55 PM: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli wonders if these might be the culprits – he says there were “millions” in his garden this afternoon:
Thanks to Luckie for that video of the roof getting torn off 3038 44th SW (map) today. It was a century-plus-old house, to be replaced with a new house (city project page here); Luckie also uploaded another clip, showing the front of the house coming down. And she sent this photo of the end result:
Meantime, another demolition is apparently impending:
That’s 4532 42nd in The Junction (just north of Alaska), discussed here several times before, with comments describing its storied history – once upon a time, it was even a small hospital. After previous development plans went on hold for a while, the site plan reactivated earlier this year with a Design Review Board session (WSB coverage here); the demolition permit was granted a week and a half ago, with one tipster telling us the backhoe is reportedly expected this Thursday. As discussed at that DRB session in June, the project is set to be about 65′ high, with 35 residential units and 3,000 square feet of retail.
Looks like Arbor Heights resident Edda Mellas will have to spend a lot more time in Italy – her daughter Amanda Knox is now ordered to stand trial in the murder case that’s drawn international attention over the past year-plus. Here’s the latest, via the P-I.
We’ve been reporting since June (most recent WSB update here) on the proposal for “improvements” – likely a “play space” – at California Place Park in North Admiral (California/Hill; here’s a map). The city has just finalized November 6th as the date for the first of four public meetings. (P.S. Tonight’s the organizational meeting for an area Block Watch, 6:30 pm at the Admiral library branch.) Click ahead for the official park-meetings announcement, just in from the Parks Department:Read More
| Comments Off on Downtime update: WSB’s up and running again