May Day & other ongoing PM commute updates

(Police presence downtown – photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
As promised, we’ll be publishing updates on whether May Day marching/rallying is affecting the commute through downtown, and this way. (Right now, a bout of wild weather has hit – with a hail-infused deluge hitting West Seattle about 10 minutes ago and headed east – though it looks like the sun will return once it moves through). Stay tuned for toplines.

ONGOING COVERAGE: Our partners at the Seattle Times have been publishing quick, short updates here. … The Seattle Police SPD Blotter has published a roundup of vandalism damage and arrests (2 as of 3 pm) ad promises updates … (added 4:21 pm) KING 5 also has ongoing online coverage incorporating tweets, photos and other quick updates from their staff and other local media. … To check on Metro delays, you can watch their commute-updates website (we’re checking it too).

4:28 PM UPDATE: KING reports via Twitter that a group of marchers is at 1st and Bell. This would be separate from the prescheduled march that was to gather south of downtown half an hour from now. One other note: The Times mentioned school-bus delays; we checked with Seattle Public Schools and that’s ONLY the buses running in downtown/Capitol Hill – no effects here.

4:37 PM UPDATE: Only “minor” delays downtown for transit, Metro reports.

UNRELATED TRAFFIC UPDATE AT 4:57 PM: Just got a tip from Lisa that there is a car vs. semi crash at the west end of the “low bridge,” no injuries reported so far. We’re en route to check.

(Photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand – car is up against right side of the semi, right side of photo)
5:22 PM UPDATE: That incident is causing some trouble coming off the low bridge, but traffic’s being routed around it. Adding a photo in a moment. Meantime, we just got a text from someone saying southbound 99 is actually LIGHTER headed this way than usual. (Here’s a new SDOT camera we will be adding to the WSB Traffic page – looking north at the southbound Viaduct flow at King St.)

And from downtown, we are adding photos taken by WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli, who says the biggest effect he noticed while downtown was the increased police presence.

5:46 PM UPDATE: Police now report eight arrests so far since this morning. The city, meantime, says it’s activated its Emergency Operations Center to help with public-safety concerns. The prescheduled march is heading eastbound on Pike from 4th as of right now.

6:25 PM UPDATE: The rally downtown is under way. We’ve been monitoring the scanner and the ongoing coverage from citywide media. Metro says marchers are northbound on 4th and that some buses are stuck in a jam downtown.

Stacy May 1, 2012 (4:20 pm)

Thank you for posting updates. I’m sad to see this. Let’s clean Seattle up. It’s sad to see protesters smashing downtown Seattle stores and graffiti-ing areas.

Remember the Vancouver riots after that hockey game? (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/should-vancouver-rioters-be-publicly-shamed-148365205.html)

Seriously. Really?! Let’s actually do something GOOD for the city, because there’s a bunch of us who love Seattle. Only love conquers hate. There’s more people who LOVE Seattle than those protesters. Let’s meet at Niketown in Downtown Seattle at 8:00 AM. Clean up starts at 8 AM and lasts until 11 AM or more. Bring cleaning supplies and things to board up windows.

Travis May 1, 2012 (4:29 pm)

Semi-car incident on west side of lower bridge. It’s blocking right turn onto west marginal.

Mack May 1, 2012 (5:47 pm)

Buses going south along 3rd Ave were mostly on schedule. Northbound buses were backed up from Pike St all the south to Madison.

garden_nymph May 1, 2012 (5:48 pm)

Whatever happened to May Day being about flowers, Spring and being a good neighbor!?

WS Born & Bred May 1, 2012 (5:57 pm)

My normally crrowded rush hour bus from downtown was on schedule, nearly empty and got me home in record time.

Cclarue May 1, 2012 (6:52 pm)

Eight arrests?? They need to be arresting way more than eight people.

Mn May 1, 2012 (7:08 pm)

To all the people unhappy here
Leave !!!!!!!

Julia May 1, 2012 (7:35 pm)

Hey, what is with all this negativity? I was at Westlake this afternoon. The 5:00 gathering/march was calm, supportive of immigrants, good music, a peaceful march, there was no breaking of windows, no tear gas. Some great signs about caring for the 99% (and I’ll bet that includes all of us). Don’t let a few bad apples spoil the 99% message. (And, it is speculated that those bad apples were “plants” to cause trouble). Typical of the media to exaggerate the very small amount of damage.

Silly Goose May 1, 2012 (7:51 pm)

Come on people what happened to leaving paper cone baskets full of flowers you cut on neighbors doors for May Day? These stupidly coward acts by loosers that cover their face and destroy our city mean nothing but just that, you are a looser with no life. Go live some where else, Seattle doesn’t want nor need you.

jedifarfy May 1, 2012 (8:28 pm)

Took an hour to get home because everyone was hitting I-5. I work fairly close to it, and though the Viaduct is faster, it was nearly impossible to get to. Made it, am happy for it, and hope the city can recover without too much lost to taxpayers.

Diane May 1, 2012 (8:46 pm)

went downtown at 5; a whole block of businesses along 6th, north of Nike, were covering windows with huge boards, as preventative measure; it was so strange to look down entire block all boarded up

Mark May 1, 2012 (9:01 pm)

Our Mayor has encouraged this behavior by previously criticizing our police for trying to maintain order.

snowball May 1, 2012 (9:04 pm)

Julia, were you downtown before 5 or did you watch the news to see what happened around lunch time? I had to get through the chaos to get to my bus. My building was evacuated because of trouble makers who trying to do the same thing to the building that they did at the Court of Appeals. I don’t know where you come from, but smoke bombs, fire bombs, paint bombs, and blocks of broken windows on businesses and cars, as well as slashed tires, is not a “very small amount of damage.”

Jim May 1, 2012 (10:01 pm)

Of course it is a few bad apples causing all the trouble. The problem is that Occupy has not realized/learned that that their only method (protest) will always be subject to the tyranny of the bad apples. They have to come up with something else, something that they can control.

Of course it’s possible that we are seeing them at their best and most creative. No sarcasm intended – they’ve had all winter to come up with something better than a protest march.

skeeter May 2, 2012 (9:28 am)

Curious about the truck/car accident at the west end of the low bridge. Was the truck or car at fault? It looks to me like the truck decided too late to make that turn and crunched into the car. My coworkers disagree – they are sure the truck was straddling the lane to make a wide turn and the car tried to sneak past and crashed into the truck. Any feedback appreciated because I drive that route every day and I’m curious which driver was at fault.

WSB May 2, 2012 (9:55 am)

Don’t know and frankly we will likely never find out – we had to rush from there to the fire on 20th SW. And traffic investigations are not handled out of the SW Precinct. We just mention non-major crashes like this mostly so that people will be aware of traffic problems at the time … sorry … TR

skeeter May 2, 2012 (11:18 am)

I am genuinely curious about fault on the car/truck accident. I’ve made an inquiry to the Seattle Police Department (I think I used the correct form) and I will report back if I hear anything.

A May 2, 2012 (12:02 pm)

I drove past the car v semi accident RIGHT after it happened. I couldn’t even begin to guess who was at fault — it could have just as easily been either one of the above scenarios — but I did see that the front driver-side corner of the car, up to approximately the windshield, was entirely underneath the semi. I’m very surprised the driver wasn’t badly injured.

Sorry, comment time is over.