Before we go into something resembling holiday-news mode (we’ve got some great stories to share during the day, plus we’ll be on standby for breaking news, 24-7-365 means 24-7-365), we’ve got 6 Crime Watch reports to share. First some good news: In the WSB Forums, The Velvet Bulldog reports progress in the search for the hit-run driver who caused her big trouble six months ago – here’s her update; here’s the original post. Next – Unsolved (so far) cases, starting with one we found via Twitter, putting out the word about another work truck stolen, this time in West Seattle: 1980 GMC 4-door green full-size pickup with black racks. “Two ‘kids’ drove it off,” according to the truck owner’s spouse. It’s been reported to police, so call 911 if you’ve seen it. More ahead, including uniforms missing after a car break-in at the beach – read on:Read More
Thanks to Matt Weiner, teacher candidate at Sanislo Elementary, for sharing photos from a fun event there last week, along with the story:
On Thursday, November 19th, Sanislo Elementary School held its annual Family Game Night. This year’s Game Night was organized by the four Teacher Candidates (formerly known as Student Teachers) from the University of Washington. This event draws together the school community to engage in a fun-filled evening of eating, good conversation, and of course playing games with one another. There were a wide variety of games being played, from old classics like Booby-trap and Scrabble to more contemporary games like Harry Potter chess and a fishing game based on the movie, Cars. This year, other activities were incorporated into the evening, including face painting, guessing game jars, a bake sale to support the fourth grade trip in the spring, and even a large walk on chess game.
Here’s the pic of that:
Matt continues:
Even on a rainy Seattle evening there was an estimated crowd of 150 people. This evening was even more successful with all the help of the volunteers and wonderful donations to additionally support the dinner option of pizza and prizes for the guessing game jars. This event continues to be a sought after evening of bringing together the community in a fun and interactive way.
(That gives us the opportunity to plug future Family Board Game Afternoons at Southwest Branch Library – more info here.) And at Madison Middle School, high-flying fun today:
Finally got some official information about a power outage in the Westwood Village vicinity. We got a text about a “spotty” outage in a few places at the center earlier tonight – went over and looked around, didn’t see any obvious evidence of an outage. Seattle City Light didn’t have anything on its outage line. But now they’ve sent a short tweet saying 148 customers – businesses and residences – are affected by the outage, and they may not have the power back till 3 am. In a comment on this morning’s holiday supermarket hours story, “Voodoo” reports that QFC has had some effects – including the ice-cream case.
Coffee and cooking just seem to go together. So once again this year, we’ve compiled a list of which coffee shops will be open Thanksgiving (and when). Click any spot on the map and you’ll see the name, address, and hours. These are the ones we have confirmed – by phone or in-person visit – are OPEN tomorrow; those we know are closed, are not listed. Note that the green arrow marks WSB sponsor Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, which is offering coupons for freebies during the 4-day holiday weekend (see them, and print them from, our Coupons page). Use the plus sign on the left side of the map to zoom in, and to go to the fullpage Google Map (including a text list on the left side), click the VIEW LARGER MAP link under the map above. Thanks yet again to Sue Scharff (who works with the zesty Zippy Dogs) for research assistance. There are a few places that didn’t pick up the phone and didn’t have hours posted – so if you know of one we missed, please leave a comment or e-mail us, and we’ll add it. This will also be linked from the WSB West Seattle Holidays page, where you’ll also find standing links (through tomorrow, anyway!) to the list of West Seattle restaurants open tomorrow and the list of West Seattle grocery stores open tomorrow.
Remember those big roundups from SDOT before the big summer weekends? They’re back for the holidays and with so many activities around the city, we’re thinking you’ll be interested. Among them, as mentioned here a few times, Friday morning (8:45 am start)’s Macy’s Holiday Parade with the Denny/Sealth bands (here’s the official route map, courtesy of Macy’s). Read on for the full traffic alert for the next four days:Read More
Just posted at SPDBlotter: Southwest Precinct investigators who’ve been working on dental-office break-ins in West Seattle and citywide are asking your help in finding the man shown at left. Here’s the text of the alert: “Seattle Police detectives are seeking the public’s assistance in locating Shane L. Carlson, 26, in connection with the recent pattern of dental/medical office burglaries in recent months. Carlson in the prime suspect in these burglaries, most of which have occurred in North and West Seattle, but also in Bothell, Shoreline and Bellevue since May of this year. Carlson has multiple warrants for his arrest, including a $100,000 Burglary 2nd Degree warrant and a $150,000 Possession of Stolen Property and Violation of Uniformed Controlled Substances Act (drugs) warrant. He is described as a white male, 26 years old, 5′6″, 155 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thin build. He has a scar on his face and tattoos on his left shoulder, upper left arm and back. He may be driving a green 1998 Range Rover or a champagne-colored 2001 Cadillac DeVille. He may frequent North King County or South Snohomish County.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to call either 911 or Detective Bauer at (206) 233-7830. Those wishing to remain anonymous are encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a text to CRIMES (274637). Your text message should include “TIP486″ to ensure proper routing. If a tip leads to an arrest and the filing of charges, callers may qualify for a cash reward of up to $1,000. Calls are taken 24 hours a day.“
First, one more pre-Thanksgiving food bank pitch. The West Seattle Food Bank is open till 3 pm today – one more hour – the White Center Food Bank (which serves part of southern WS too) is (THIS IS AN UPDATE) open till 7 pm. You’ve probably seen our pitches to help make sure your neighbors have a happy holiday. Here’s one we received from Rob:
Just wanted to let you know that I spoke to Audrey at the WC Food Bank last night and she said they still need large turkeys, dinner rolls and cranberry sauce. When I dropped off some cranberry sauce this morning they told me that had run out of it altogether.
I didn’t even know there was a WC Food Bank until I read your post mentioning the need for the turkeys and such. A bit embarrassing to say that since I live only about 25 blocks from it, but my point is that I didn’t know and your post made me aware of it. Here’s hoping it opens more people’s eyes.
The WC Food Bank is at 10829 8th SW; directions here. The WS Food Bank is at the southeast corner of 35th/Morgan. (3:01 PM NOTE: We went to WCFB to clarify when they’re open and what they need. Director Rick Jump says they’ve got what they need for holiday distributions and thanks everyone who’s helped. Our note: Both local food banks have a tremendous ongoing demand – donating $ to them online will give them the most buying power, as they have a lot of bulk deals.)
One more story of giving. It’s a tradition for Seattle Lutheran High School students – a day of giving right before the holiday. Today, they’ve been working on a variety of projects around West Seattle – including painting a mural in the nursery at neighboring Hope Lutheran Church/School:
Other groups of SLHS students did work including pulling invasives at Me-Kwa-Mooks and performing music for local elders. ADDED 2:16 PM: One other giving option we meant to mention – it’s among the “ongoing” listings on the WSB West Seattle Holidays page – as of today, there’s a Pet Giving Tree at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor):
Many other giving trees in West Seattle too – we’re continuing to add to the listings on the WS Holidays page – let us know if we’re missing any!
A crash is blocking the turn lane from 35th SW northbound to The Bridge eastbound at Fauntleroy – doesn’t look like a serious injury situation, but traffic is backing up on 35th.
Continuing our pre-Thanksgiving info roundups (yesterday, we published the restaurant list — and have made some additions/changes since then; thanks to everyone for collaborating!) – now, here’s the West Seattle grocery store list, with who’s open/who’s not on Thanksgiving:
P.S. Amazon Fresh (WSB sponsor) is NOT making Thanksgiving Day deliveries. Still to come – the coffee map; all Thanksgiving info will be linked from the WSB West Seattle Holidays page too (as well as the growing-daily array of other activities between now and New Year’s!).
Didn’t get to photograph the most spectacular intervals of fog this morning, but this view looking south from the top of Genesee Hill shows some of the lingering fog as it drifted over the water. Nothing extraordinary in the holiday weekend forecast – a break right now, but then some rain, some breezy conditions, according to the “forecast discussion”. (If you’re going downtown for the Macy’s Holiday Parade on Friday morning (theChief Sealth High School and Denny International Middle School marching bands are in it! here’s the route map), looks like rain is possible.)
(cameraphone photo added 6:16 am) ORIGINAL 5:55 AM REPORT: Big response to a house fire in the 4200 block of Beach Drive [map]. More shortly. 6:15 AM: Beach Drive is blocked off from La Rustica to Me Kwa Mooks because of the callout, which is – as noted in comments – at an under-construction home on the water side of Beach. 6:21 AM: The fire’s tapped. Fire Department spokesperson Helen Fitzpatrick is there and confirms that nobody was inside at the time and that no one’s been hurt – the fire appears to have originated on the second floor; they’re trying to reach the building’s owner. 6:26 AM: Note that the Beach Drive closure is affecting the 37 bus – via Twitter, @crm4444 advises that it’s being rerouted up Jacobsen and, “Looks like 37 riders north of Jacobsen need to catch at 63rd/Admiral till fire action clears.” 6:59 AM: Adding video of ladder crew working once the flames were out. When our camera pans back to the truck, you can see why the entire road is closed at that spot:
No word yet on the cause. 7:06 AM: SFD spokesperson Fitzpatrick now says one firefighter suffered an arm injury and had to go to the hospital. 7:18 AM: Heading back to the scene for an update. Beach Drive is still closed at Weather Watch Park on the north side. 8 AM: Still closed both ways; incident commander at the scene tells us northbound Beach Dr should reopen within an hour, southbound (the side the burned house is on) will be a bit longer. No word on the cause yet; investigators are in the house now:
In the daylight, it’s clear that the new construction where the fire happened is actually a two-story add-on in front of the old house.
10:30 AM UPDATE: Investigators say this was an accidental fire – damage estimated at $250,000. SFD says they haven’t zeroed in on exactly what sparked it, but it’s clear it was not deliberately set, so that’s the ruling.
We stopped by to check out the Triangle site (38th/Alaska) where work has begun on Link (background here), taking these photos just as day 2 of demolition work was concluding at mid-afternoon Tuesday. The old Huling repair-shop building (which more recently had been used to build/store Hi-Yu floats) is about half-gone – above, the view from SW Alaska, looking north; next, the view from 38th, looking east through what’s left of its customer-service area (note the slogan on the wall):
And on the north side of the site, the remaining ex-school buildings are just a pile of splintered wood:
The head of the construction project, developer Harbor Properties tells us, is the same one who ran Mural (WSB sponsor), the apartments/retail building that opened this year across from Jefferson Square. Right now, this is the only project Harbor – which works around the city – has under construction. Before they started work on Monday morning, they visited nearby homes and businesses, they say, to make sure everyone knew who to contact in case of concerns about anything at the site.
Before we go into something resembling holiday-news mode (we’ve got some great stories to share during the day, plus we’ll be on standby for breaking news, 24-7-365 means 24-7-365), we’ve got 6 Crime Watch reports to share. First some good news: 
citywide are asking your help in finding the man shown at left. Here’s the text of the alert: “Seattle Police detectives are seeking the public’s assistance in locating Shane L. Carlson, 26, in connection with the recent pattern of dental/medical office burglaries in recent months. Carlson in the prime suspect in these burglaries, most of which have occurred in North and West Seattle, but also in Bothell, Shoreline and Bellevue since May of this year. Carlson has multiple warrants for his arrest, including a $100,000 Burglary 2nd Degree warrant and a $150,000 Possession of Stolen Property and Violation of Uniformed Controlled Substances Act (drugs) warrant. He is described as a white male, 26 years old, 5′6″, 155 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thin build. He has a scar on his face and tattoos on his left shoulder, upper left arm and back. He may be driving a green 1998 Range Rover or a champagne-colored 2001 Cadillac DeVille. He may frequent North King County or South Snohomish County.
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