day : 31/10/2009 14 results

Seattle Police officer killed in the Central District

This is of citywide magnitude – and West Seattle officers are part of the investigation – so if you have not heard the tragic news, a Seattle Police officer has been shot to death tonight in the Central District, according to the latest from our partners at the Seattle Times. Our fellow community-collaborative independent news source Central District News also is covering it closely. No word yet on an arrest – if there is any information to share regarding vehicle/suspect(s) to watch for, we will add it here. The officer, not yet identified, is the first Seattle PD officer fatally shot in the line of duty in 15 years, since Officer Antonio Terry, and the first to die of any cause in the line of duty in three years, since the crash that killed Officer Joselito Barber. The full list of Washington State law enforcers killed in the line of duty is here. 1:44 AM UPDATE: Journalists at the scene are still awaiting an official statement; on the scanner, police can be heard arranging the procession and honor guard for the slain officer’s body to be escorted to, and into, the Medical Examiner‘s office.

More West Seattle Halloween scenes, including Skeleton Theatre

Bravo to the crew of Skeleton Theatre, the ambitious animatronic production in an Admiral front yard, bedeviled last year by stormy weather and a few other speed bumps. This year, they decided to give their pirate-themed production another try, and when we stopped by to watch the 8 pm edition, it was perfect – the video snippet above is just a tiny taste. They’ll do it again tomorrow night between 6 and 9, 36th/Hanford (map) – tons of behind-the-scenes info at skeletontheatre.com. Meantime, trick-or-treating is all but wrapped up for the night (we only had one – how about you?) – Steph in Sunrise Heights sends this cute shot of a group of little ones before they went out:

The adult parties, of course, will go on into the wee hours, including “Come As You Aren’t” at Skylark Cafe and Club (WSB sponsor) and “Hive Mind Halloween” at Youngstown.

Non-Halloween headlines: Flag desecration; TV truck trouble

FLAG DESECRATION: Highland Park community activist and ex-City Council candidate Dorsol Plants wrote about this incident on his Facebook page; we asked his permission to share it here, and he said OK. He wrote on FB, “Last night someone shredded the American flag I hang in front of my house. I woke up this morning and could clearly see knife cuts and they had tied it in a knot. That’s just pathetic.” (Plants, by the way, is a U.S. Army veteran who did two tours of duty in Iraq.)

TRUCK TROUBLE: Nick got this photo late today north of ActivSpace on Harbor Ave (including the uncroppable person he described as “zombie lawyer”):

We have no official report on what toppled the truck, but the KOMO news desk confirmed to WSB that everybody’s OK.

Saturday sports: Sealth football; moved cyclocross; kiteboarding

FOOTBALL: Thanks to Jodi for sending word that Chief Sealth High School beat Lakeside 37-14 this afternoon; we’ll post an update when we get news of their next game.

CYCLOCROSS: Remember the canceled-at-Lincoln-Park, then moved-to-White-Center, race?

Thanks to Jim Clark for sharing photos – the rest of his gallery from today’s race at Lakewood Park is here. (Check out the semi-costumes!)

MORE KITEBOARDING: In addition to the photo and Flickr link we shared earlier, Rhonda‘s got more photos up at Beach Drive Blog – and she uploaded video to YouTube, too, including this clip:

As pointed out in comments on the earlier item, this was a planned event for the Puget Sound Kiteboarders Association – though they hadn’t planned to have it in West Seattle waters, that’s where the wind and the waves turned out to be!

Halloween Howl: West Seattle’s canine costume contest

At Hiawatha this afternoon, Halloween Howl wrapped up with those five costumed canines taking home a variety of prizes. And their owners deserved prizes for the fun they had trying to corral all five to sit still long enough! The folks at West Seattle Dawg compiled the full winners’ list:

1st Place Buddy dressed as Mr. T – Mini Poodle
2nd Place Sydney dressed as a Scarecrow – Mixed Breed
3rd Place Jin Jing dressed as Lady Bug – Sharpei
4th Place Daisy dressed as Angel – Golden Retriever
5th Place Seamus Shovelpaws dressed as Pumpkin

While we were there, we got a closer look at Seamus S., who did a great job of posing:

WS Dawg shared a few of their photos, too – including this one featuring Buddy the winner with King County Council Chair/County Executive candidate Dow Constantine, who was on his way out the Hiawatha door just as we arrived:

Local pet-related entrepreneurs showed their wares at the event too – Bette Allen (one of your editor’s channel 13 co-workers long ago and far away) has come up with a handy new way for dog owners to get the scoop:

WS Dawg’s Rex Post says, “We raised over $116 in cash donations and 102 lbs of food donations at the event and will pick up some of the participating locations food donations on Monday to get our grand total. … The event was a great success.”

West Seattle Halloween scene: Politics turns spooky

A clever melding of Halloween and the impending election — Bob Anderson sent us that photo of his North Admiral decorations. That part of the peninsula must be the political epicenter this Halloween – North Admiral is also where Mike McGinn had a town hall this morning, and where we bumped into County Council Chair/County Executive candidate Dow Constantine this afternoon (he was just leaving Halloween Howl at Hiawatha – our photos from that are up next).

West Seattle Halloween 2009: Trick or Treat at The Junction

The costumed Junction businessfolk participating in Trick or Treat at The Junction – on till 3 pm – are as much fun to see as the kids. Maybe more. Above, the crew we found outside Windermere (where current listings include advertised-on-WSB 10419 18th SW). Next, outside West 5 – the candy crew includes recently feted bartender Jo-Ann (right):

More scenes from along California SW – some hotdogging going on outside Village Woodworks:

The treats included cider as well as candy outside Next-to-Nature:

And we spotted a surprise at the corner of California/Alaska – campaigning:

Hutchison’s West Seattle-residing opponent in the King County Executive race, County Council Chair Dow Constantine, will be in The Junction tomorrow for one last big campaign bash – 4 pm Sunday @ West 5. As for Halloween – events into the wee hours are all listed here. Next trick-or-treating event, Westwood Village, 4-7 pm. And if you’re in the south-of-Admiral area, The Swinery is giving out bacon caramels:

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli)
ADDED 5:56 PM: Thanks to Diane for sharing the photo of what she declared to be the cutest costume she saw in The Junction:

West Seattle scenes: Lowman Beach, WS Nursery, WS Thriftway

Rhonda from The Mortgage Porter (WSB sponsor) has put up a Flickr gallery of kiteboarders riding the wind off Lowman Beach this morning – see more photos here. Meantime, the Halloween fun continues – the Growing Gardeners Appreciation Event at West Seattle Nursery, continuing till 2 pm:

The little toy trucks in the lower right of this next photo are among the treats for nursery visitors:

And till 1 pm, there’s trick-or-treating at West Seattle Thriftway

Thriftway employees joined the fun too. Love, peace, and produce!

Plug in to what’s next via the WSB Halloween page.

West Seattle Halloween 2009: Pathfinder pumpkin party

October 31, 2009 12:16 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Halloween 2009: Pathfinder pumpkin party
 |   Fun stuff to do | Holidays | West Seattle news

Too bad the magic wand doesn’t work when it comes to gutting pumpkins! These are photos shared by Holly Rikhof (thank you!) from last night’s Pathfinder K-8 pumpkin-carving party – perhaps the biggest en-masse jack-o-lantern carve-a-thon on the peninsula each Halloween. And a good chance to get face-to-face with the end result:

Then, of course, the classic group shot:

We’ll be out and about today but would love to include your pix in the WSB Halloween coverage too – e-mail them, tweet them, share them on the WSB Flickr group or share them with us on FB (we’re at facebook.com/westseattleblog) – thanks and have fun – more coverage to come, with Trick or Treat at The Junction coming up 1-3, Halloween Howl at Hiawatha 2:30-4:30 pm, Westwood Village trick-or-treating 4-7 pm, and more ….

Happening now: Mike McGinn “town hall” at Admiral library

October 31, 2009 10:29 am
|    Comments Off on Happening now: Mike McGinn “town hall” at Admiral library
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

About a dozen people are in the basement meeting room at the West Seattle (Admiral) Branch Library (and two citywide-TV photojournalists), where mayoral candidate Mike McGinn is hosting his third WS “town hall,” till about 11 am – he’s moving on to another area of the city at 11:30. He’ll be doing Q/A after the opening speech he’s giving right now – we’ll add highlights later. 11:07 AM: The town hall’s over. Always a big difference between in-person events and what you see in the “media” campaigns (TV and other forms of advertising) – he didn’t say anything about his opponent Joe Mallahan until more than a half-hour into the session. Most questions were about transportation, business and schools. *We will publish details of this as a separate article and will add the URL here when it’s up.

New West Seattle development proposal for 4435 35th SW


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A new project has just appeared on the city’s “upcoming Design Review” schedule — a Southwest Design Review Board meeting November 19th to look at a proposal for 4435 35th SW (map). According to what’s on the city website, this would be a six-story building with 100-plus units and more than 12,000 square feet of commercial space. Till we can track down somebody to ask about this proposal, it’s not crystal-clear which part of the site is proposed for this – the land under Redline, as well as the lot immediately south, are both owned by former car-business-operators the Hulings; Redline’s address is 4433, while the King County Parcel Viewer shows no address for the lot to the south. The “applicant” contact on the city website is an architect with the Roger Newell firm, whose portfolio includes the Golden Crest project that will go up north of Capco Plaza (the building with the new QFC). There’s also a hint on the city website that this has been on the drawing board a while, a mention of a “pre-application site visit” in August of 2008. The November 19th Design Review meeting is scheduled for 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle in The Junction.

Today/tonight: West Seattle Halloween 2009 – and more

Thanks to Keri for sharing a shot of the “pirate ship” that will be the main set of Skeleton Theatre again this year, tonight and tomorrow night, 6-9 pm at 36th/Hanford (directions & map) – West Seattle’s one and only animatronic Halloween extravaganza (2008 coverage here; 2007 coverage here; tons of behind-the-scenes info and videos on the ST website). That’s just one of the Halloween events in store — we have two separate ways for you to check the complete list of everything that’s going on this morning, afternoon and evening:

GROUPED BY TYPE OF EVENT – See the WSB Halloween page
ALL EVENTS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER – See the West Seattle Weekend Lineup

As for the non-Halloween happenings, there’s mayoral candidate Mike McGinn‘s “town hall” at West Seattle (Admiral) Branch Library at 10:15 this morning, the third one he’s had in West Seattle. And remember that today’s the last day of the 2009 season for the King County Water Taxi‘s West Seattle-to-downtown run; here’s the schedule, if you want to catch one last ride.

Friday’s football: West Seattle HS loss, Seattle Lutheran HS win

October 31, 2009 3:09 am
|    Comments Off on Friday’s football: West Seattle HS loss, Seattle Lutheran HS win
 |   West Seattle news | WS & Sports

Two of West Seattle’s 3 high-school varsity-football teams played last night. First – West Seattle High School lost to Seattle Prep 28-13, in a game that saw both sides get off to a slow start. Though it wasn’t raining, the game began with both teams having trouble hanging onto the ball. Prep fumbled twice and West Seattle coughed up the ball on the second play of the night, only to have the loose ball picked up and run in for a Prep score. Prep did manage to find a groove starting in the second. Their defense managed to control most of the game except for two lightning-quick series in which West Seattle scored each of its touchdowns. The Wildcats’ shortest series of the night lasted little more than 30 seconds, finishing with a 37-yard pass from quarterback Ellison Tran to receiver Markeem Adams. Next weekend, West Seattle moves on to play a team from the northwestern Washington. Time and location have yet to be announced. Meantime, at West Seattle Stadium last night:

That’s just part of why Seattle Lutheran High School had a big night, beating Chief Leschi 47-14. Both of Leschi’s touchdowns came toward the end the game. The Saints controlled the game offensively, led by quarterback Fred Lisko and running back Jake Lovely. Lovely had 154 yards rushing on the night and 76 yards receiving. Lisko had 42 yards rushing and 76 yards passing. Lisko and Lovely had three touchdowns each. Also adding to the Saints score was Lucas Driscoll, who had an interception that he ran 50 back 50 yards for a score. Next Thursday night, Evergreen Lutheran comes to West Seattle Stadium to play the Saints in the last regular season game of the year, which is also Seniors’ Night.

More Halloween Eve scenes from around West Seattle

October 31, 2009 2:39 am
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 |   Holidays | Luna Park | Seen around town | West Seattle news

Blustery outside but ghoulishly warm inside at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) tonight, for the second consecutive night of pre-Halloween partying … last night, Nightmare on Morgan Street to benefit West Seattle Helpline; Friday night, Zombie Dance Party on behalf of local roller-derby teams. P.S. Congrats to The Feedback for winning “Best Cocktail” in the “Best of Western Washington.” Now, off to Luna Park Cafe for a dayside scene:

Heleyna Holmes photographed Batman and Batgirl after they found the Batmobile at Luna Park. Also in the costume realm, a scene from a classroom:

That’s Seattle Lutheran High School English teacher Leslee Myers taking the occasion Friday morning to dress in period garb as if the classroom were a radio studio, playing the classic “War of the Worlds” from exactly 71 years ago. (That classic, by the way, also happens to be the inspiration for West Seattle High School Drama Club‘s fall play, which has a 2:30 pm matinee today.)