55 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: $150,000 bail for Alki shooting suspect; community meeting Wednesday"

• JayD August 20, 2012 (5:03 pm)

  Whelp, nothing particularly surprising about that follow-up. Maybe we’ll get around to cleaning up Bamboo before the beach gets completely ghetto-fied.

• Bamboo Bar and Gill August 20, 2012 (5:19 pm)

  The staff and management regrets being involved with this violent event and apologizes for any fear the community has suffered. We would like to host a community meeting this Wednesday between 5:30 and 7:30 to share the steps that we have been taking to promote a safer environment and to hear any suggestions West Seattle locals may have to offer. We truly care about keeping Alki safe, and want to make Bamboo Bar and Grill and place patrons can feel good about visiting. We look forward to improving and would like to accept any help the community has to offer.

• Jack August 20, 2012 (5:34 pm)

  At least have a bouncer on Fri/Sat. On the extreme you may want to consider a remodel/renovation and rebrand. There is a stigma that only Bamboo Grill can get rid of…their choice.

• Rob August 20, 2012 (5:36 pm)

  What are they supposed to do? Stop anyone from KENT from heading to Alki? Why is this not the shooters fault and nobody elses? Why do we need to point fingers at people that were NOT the shooter? Don’t allow him to bail out. Don’t allow him to plea deal away to a few months. Charge him with a felony, enforce the laws that are in place NOW and let it be known the punishment of your actions. Other than Bamboo being able to some how succesfully profiling thugs from down the street, how do people blame them? Now if bamboo put on an All you can drink night, while showing UFC fights and handed out guns… I could see the blame. But let’s punish THE SHOOTER.

• JanS August 20, 2012 (5:41 pm)

  I think the residents of the area should fill the place. This is not the first time this has happened at Bamboo…and it has a reputation as a place where punks, etc. hang out. They really need to rethink their evening format. I won’t go there, not during the day, esp. not in the evening. I will frequent other places around them, but their clientele leaves a lot to be desired. Do they really care about Alki and making it safe? Words are good…actions are better !

• Alki_Birthright August 20, 2012 (5:44 pm)

  Bamboo is a nuisance, and MUST be shut down. Too many shootings/stabbings, and acts of violence and crime have emmanated from this disgusting house of disrepute. How long until a child is mowed down by a stray bullet? Bamboo has no place in our community. They are terrorizing us. This has gone on too long. There has been too much bloodshed. ENOUGH! ENOUGH!

  The fact is that Bamboo isn’t taking steps to promote a safer environment. This most recent shooting occurred after they took ‘steps to promote a safer environment’. Bamboo is a nuisance, a danger to our community, and MUST BE SHUT DOWN by every legal mean at our disposal.

  Blame the shooter? YES. Blame Bamboo Bar and Grill? YES.

  How many shootings until we say enough? Or until one of us is killed? One of our babies? They’re too cheap to hire an off-duty, armed police officer. They’ve gotta go.

• Missy August 20, 2012 (5:48 pm)

  There supposedly is a bouncer/security there. My friend and I went one night and an obnoxious drunk guy kept bothering us and tried to pick a fight with my friend….then dumped a pint of beer on the bar. Completely ridiculous that we had to flag the bartender down because she was too busy talking to friends. The bouncer guy did nothing and when I told the drunk guy to just leave us alone…the bouncer told US to back off! He said he was watching the guy and waiting for him to do something. Well he did something alright…made us want to leave and not return to Bamboo. Had too many bad experiences with drunk patrons and inadequate service. They definitely need to make some serious changes!

• alki neighbor August 20, 2012 (6:44 pm)

  Thanks to Bamboo for organizing the meeting. It would be great if a representative from all of the Alki restaurants that serve alcohol were in attendance as well. This is not just a Bamboo issue.

• comment August 20, 2012 (6:46 pm)

  Bamboo should follow in the steps of several places in the junction, such as PV. A few years back they had a similar reputation as the Boo, with fights happening often. Then they started 86ing anyone with a history, and stopping confrontations before they got out of hand. The cops walking from bar to bar also helped, as did hiring real bouncers who took their job seriously. I stopped going to the late night bar scene on Alki about a year ago because of all the worthless d-bags with testosterone issues, and I won’t be attending the Boo ever again.

• Amrakx August 20, 2012 (6:59 pm)

  Bamboo Bar and Grill is a blight on Alki. It needs to reformat it’s business product. As a 15 year resident of the immediate area that frequents local establishments, it is the only place I steer clear of. There are bad vibes there and rowdy behavior during the night time hours and weekends. I would like to see this business closed. It’s pretty sad when one has to cross the street to avoid walking by this “establishment” during the evening hours.

• Ron August 20, 2012 (7:02 pm)

  Should the place be shut down? No, I don’t think so. Should the shooter be held responsible? Yes he should. Is the bar responsible for the negligence of not providing a safe atmosphere for its patrons? Yep they certainly are.

  Did the bar fire all of there security on Friday and Saturday? Yep the did.

  Do they over pour drinks and over serve? Yep the do

  Has the over all service quality gone down over the last year ? Yep just check the bars Yelp page to see that.

  I used to dj at this location. Actually used to dj here for about 8 years straight until early March or so. Believe it or not within that 8 years there were a hand full of times where the crowd got out of hand. I can’t say that I am not surprised by the shooting but I can say that I can see how this happend without having adequate staffing. I feel for the victims and the hard working staff that had nothing to do with this. Hope it gets better for them.

• Guy August 20, 2012 (7:19 pm)

  Get a dress code, and get a bouncer that says no. When a bartender keep serving drunk people, bad things happen. I agree a rebranding is a good idea too. Oh and I would stop serving “Bamboozles”. Number one it’s corny. Number two they get a person extremely drunk.

• Bob Loblaw August 20, 2012 (7:45 pm)

  Struggling to find something to say about Bamboo that won’t get deleted. Maybe it’s good to keep it open simply to function as a fly trap. No local I know steps foot in there more than once.

• WTF August 20, 2012 (8:34 pm)

  Thank you Bamboo for taking the first step in doing the right thing. I look forward to seeing you guys on Wednesday.

• longtime resident August 20, 2012 (10:27 pm)

  I predicted this when this whole bar scene began to evolve down here. It really wasn’t so very long ago that we had no businesses of this type on Alki. This will only get worse if we don’t take a firm stand and demand that liquor licenses be granted only to bona fide dining establishments that are an asset to our community, where the primary product is not drunkenness. Which do we want — the continued evolution of a rather fun and classy beach community, or do we went to go down the toilet like Belltown did?

• datamuse August 20, 2012 (10:44 pm)

  I hope you all are planning on attending the meeting Wednesday.

  Seems like this place does well enough to be able to afford real bouncers.

• Mike August 20, 2012 (10:54 pm)

  Last time I went to Bamboo, I just went to pick up food. The first two ladies didn’t know how to work the computer to accept credit cards (they looked like models and obviously didn’t know how to use the computer for accepting payments). So they called their manager, who’s built like Aleksandr Karelin (most bouncers are small compared to that manager), and he got it to work. I stopped going after that.

• NW Momma August 20, 2012 (11:16 pm)

  Amen longtime res. No to belltown on alki (aka drunkenness and lots of drug sales). Not in my neighborhood.

• B-squared August 21, 2012 (6:38 am)

  I stopped patronizing Bamboo as well due to the clientele that they seem to attract. Even if you aren’t a customer – perhaps just walking by on the sidewalk – you never know if insults, taunts, etc won’t be directed at you. no thanks.

• miws August 21, 2012 (6:45 am)

  Guy, do you think it would help if they offered karaoke? ;-)

  .

  Mike

• Carol August 21, 2012 (8:05 am)

  Switch background music from hip-hop to rock and roll. There problem solved.

• Heather August 21, 2012 (8:40 am)

  It’s time for some city official to take the lead on this. City Council members where are you? Where is the Precinct Commander?
  One of the largest beaches in the city has become unsafe for the community.

  Where is the leadership?

• AIDM August 21, 2012 (8:47 am)

  Bamboo Bar was kind enough to support our school auction last year with a donation. Its good to see that they are proactively addressing the community’s concerns with this meeting. The manager is thoughtful and receptive to input, so I would encourage the community to participate in this process as we can likely build a key ally in creating the kind of community that we all envision.

• John Y August 21, 2012 (8:50 am)

  Operating a small business today is hard. I’ll bet most of those who so easily condemn the Bamboo ownership have never run a business, and expect the government to protect them from all evil. I for one nearby resident appreciate their investment in our community and think they have a decent core product where I’ve enjoyed taking my family many times with good service and good food. I think a community meeting shows they are prepared to make changes to improve their culture. Number one suggestion I would make is to improve their alcohol policies. Every bartender has personal liability for over-serving patrons, and cheap shooter drinks don’t help. Tighten up security, retrain bartenders, spruce up the curb appeal, bring the music back to center, and keep on rolling.

• Amrakx August 21, 2012 (8:52 am)

  I would add that the smokers in the bar overflow onto the storefront sidewalks and immediate area, throughout the evening, adding to their distasteful presence. Also it would help to have their storefront area pressure washed now and then, much like the well kept and polished fish and chips neighbor bordering them to the east. I have also witnessed several of their patrons relieving themselves across the street in the park area, while walking my dog in the vicinity. Personally, I would like to see this circus leave town…

• Rats August 21, 2012 (8:53 am)

  Amen longtime res.

• datamuse August 21, 2012 (9:08 am)

  Switch background music from hip-hop to rock and roll. There problem solved.
  .
  Oh, please.

• sven August 21, 2012 (9:26 am)

  Each time I go to Bamboo I hope for something different, but it’s always crappy service and crappy food. That’s the restaurant’s fault. However, a patron getting in a fight and shooting another guy isn’t their fault. I suppose a bouncer could have done more or the bartender could have served less, but when a guy comes in with a gun (which in a bar is illegal anyway), the restaurant itself gets into a bad position.

  Alki has gotten so scummy lately.

• Tony S August 21, 2012 (9:41 am)

  “Switch background music from hip-hop to rock and roll. There problem solved.”

  Wow. Impressive display of ignorance.

• ManintheStreet August 21, 2012 (9:51 am)

  A complete change in format would solve this. Lemonade and orange juice only, Bible study every evening.

• Erika August 21, 2012 (11:52 am)

  I have been a bartender for the better part of 5 years at the Bamboo and of course it hurts to hear these comments. We are under new management/ownership and for the last year we have been struggling to make better choices and clean up the bar’s reputation. This year we have changed the entertainment, which was not a popular decision amongst our customers. We will not play hip-hop, if it’s on it’s because we use Pandora and it’s random. We have worked to bring in live bands that could be enjoyed by a wider clientele base.

  I say this next part risking my own safety but I am a 27 year old women and many nights I walk out alone. If anyone can benefit from a safer environment it’s me. At the end of the night over service to less the desirable clientele is bringing danger to myself. Therefore, I tend not to over serve if I can help it. (Everyone shows intoxication differently)

  Believe me, maybe if we could profile our customers it might be to all of our benefit but unfortunately you can’t do that. Not to mention how terrible it would be to turn people away for how they dress, or look. We are happy to turn people away for how they act, but unfortunately people are unpredictable and we were unable to prevent this event. However, these people had been refused service and that was part of the reason they were upset.

  If you are attending the meeting please keep an open mind and know that there may be things that we aren’t able to do. We can improve our liquor service, we can hire bouncers, we can continue to play reggae music. We want to make peace with the neighborhood and become a bar and grill that people like. We want to hear your opinions and are willing answer questions, but coming with negativity to no way to handle a problem that stems from negativity. We are reaching out to the community, this is our olive branch please be as respectful as possible.

• John August 21, 2012 (12:34 pm)

  Erika, while I understand people trying to change I find it odd that with your changes down there you have had even more violent situations than the past.

  As you stated “We will not play hip-hop, if it’s on it’s because we use Pandora and it’s random. We have worked to bring in live bands that could be enjoyed by a wider clientele base.”

  So are trying to say that the hip hop crowd was still down there shooting or is it your wider clientle base???????????

  I think it seems a bit more deeper than the music choices at your establishment.

• Val Vashon August 21, 2012 (12:44 pm)

  Maybe they were fighting about wether or not the “steak” they ordered was a piece of beef or a piece of pork. The last time I went there my steak was an unidentifiable, tasteless piece of grey meat, and I seriously didn’t know what animal it was from.

  I about spit out my coffee when I read the comment from the person who went there “…just to pick up food”. Since the grey meat incident I’m not sure I’ve ever been that hungry.

  Undoubtedly they over serve (which leads to the fights, public urination, etc.) because nobody goes there for the food!

• jiggers August 21, 2012 (12:44 pm)

  Talarico’s used to have hip-hop weekends and trouble came with it. But they got rid of it and stii are busy and there are still drunks and fights that happen now and then outside. It comes with the territory. West Seattle used to be a happy hardcore crowd back when I first moved here. Not anymore..

• Alki Mom August 21, 2012 (12:55 pm)

  I like the sounds of Erica’s letter, it sounds very reasonable and balanced.

  As an Alki area resident I have to say that I am not a fan of Bamboo but I am a fan of the new leaf they are trying to tun over. Just last month the new manager asked my feedback on what I thought they could do to improve their reputation. He told me they were already toning down the music and wanted to reach out to the community and turn themselves into more of a neighborhood bar and grill. Believe it or not my suggestion was to write an open letter to the W.S.Blog letting the neighborhood know their intentions. I also suggested reaching out to more school and church fundraisers, cleaning up the outside look, and better training of the staff.

  My biggest suggestion would be to CLOSE EARLIER! I think a midnight closing time would only benefit us all living and working down on the beach…most of the negative attention Bamboo gets happens after midnight.

  It is sad that it took another tragedy/act of violence to get this dialog going with the community, but at least now we are all talking.

• Carol August 21, 2012 (2:00 pm)

  Still think a music change to rock and roll would cut down on the violence since it would attract a different clientele. Nothing wrong with that.

• Seattlite August 21, 2012 (2:57 pm)

  Just the fact that the Bamboo needs a “bouncer” doesn’t fit with a residential neighborhood. City should shut Bamboo down and reassess what the Alki neighborhood’s future should look like: rowdy that attracts criminal element or low-key family oriented.

• boy August 21, 2012 (3:54 pm)

  They need to go on the show bar rescue.

• datamuse August 21, 2012 (5:16 pm)

  Carol, the last rock show I attended at Studio 7 featured a bar fight that ended in a shooting. Try again.

• ttt August 21, 2012 (9:26 pm)

  Sounds like rebranding would really help change the Bamboo into the type of bar the community would appreciate and the new owners are trying to achieve. It has a reputation and one way to change that is to change the name and front. i hope that people that want change on Alki will go to their meeting to make a positive change for the community. My family and I steer clear of Alki in the summer (especially in the evenings) due to the hoodlums that seem to wander in from undesirable places.

• Alki Mom August 21, 2012 (9:34 pm)

  I passed Bamboo at 9:00pm on my way home tonight and I noticed that all the staff had matching tee shirts on (a nice uniform dress code can add to professionalism)and there was a staff member outside sweeping…I think they are really trying. I yelled out my car window ‘Good job” and the waitress looked so grateful and yelled back ‘thanks’…perhaps we can all work together on this.
  It feels so much better when we work as a team instead of just getting angry at each other.

• Carol August 21, 2012 (11:07 pm)

  datamuse, I not talking about trash rock and death metal thats featured at studio 7 but classic rock and roll.

• Rob August 21, 2012 (11:18 pm)

  Carol. There was live music on that night. Drums, guitar, singer… Not what you call Hip Hop. It was a drunk idiot that was walking Alki looking for trouble and found it OUTSIDE Bamboo when he went after someone tougher than him. He wasn’t in the bar. He wasn’t served by the bar. He wasn’t the victim of drunk Bamboo thugs. Lets get the story right please.

• forrealtho August 21, 2012 (11:31 pm)

  Carol – I feel so sorry for you. Words cannot express how offended I am by the ignorance in your statement. Do yourself a favor & keep those thoughts to yourself. Ssssshhh.

• Carol August 22, 2012 (12:32 am)

  just getting real.

• jiggers August 22, 2012 (8:17 am)

  I prefer rock or Hawaiian music. Nothing makes me happier than sucking a few suds down while listening to Hawaiian music.

• Lisa August 22, 2012 (8:24 am)

  Maybe a complete change of business model would help.

  I live near Bamboo and Alki could certainly use more variety in the food and beverage options.

  To succeed here, a restaurant needs to have a business model that will work year round, and that is a bit tricky. On the other hand, there are very very few restaurants that deliver to this part of Seattle, so adding delivery service alone (even if only in the winter) would increase the market.

  Some businesses I think would do very well in that location (year round) are:
  – An upscale burger place with really tasty burgers (like Zippys or burger madness?),
  – sushi/Japanese,
  – Italian,
  – a really good deli-sandwich place with subs, sandwiches, pepper steak etc., and soups and stews and casserole type dishes in the winter
  – a great barbeque restaurant,
  – chinese food (not the gloopy MSG filled type – think Lees restaurant at the junction).
  – a gyros, falafel type middle eastern place (that has nice sit down but also to go and is faster than the one at the Admiral Junction).
  – a place like “Noodle Zen” (I think that was the name) that was (or maybe still is) on capital hill and had a pan-asian menu, heavy on noodle dishes.

  Personally, I’d vote for the sushi/Japanese – perhaps something like cutting board in Georgetown, where the sushi is good, but still quite affordable. Take-out sushi would be a huge hit during the summer, and a winter menu, with delivery, could be developed (maybe with the addition of other Asian foods) that kept the locals happy.

  There are plenty of places that sell food and liquor and have active and financially successful bars that are not rowdy, “go there to get drunk” sort of places.

  I think cheap liquor laden drinks which serve primarily to get people very drunk just lead to trouble. A “party” atmosphere, regardless of what type of music is played, is probably out of place in a residential community.

  It would be nice if the restaurant’s main draw was the food, with the liquor as an extra bonus, rather than the main attraction.

• JG August 22, 2012 (8:34 am)

  Frankly I”m not sure what you’re meant to do to prevent idiots from fighting and shooting each other. Video Cameras and security guards might help. Flood lights around the back etc. A no loitering policy. If you’re not smoking, you need to leave or come back inside etc.

  I don’t mean this rudely, but the staff there doesn’t seem very savvy or mature. Everything seems sort of come as you are and there isn’t a sense that any grown ups are in charge. For one thing they need training on how to cut people off and how to spot potential dangers. These things usually start inside before they drift outside.

• datamuse August 22, 2012 (12:15 pm)

  …you mean the same classic rock and roll that supposedly caused the loose morals of an entire generation? THAT classic rock and roll? (As a bonus exercise, compare the claims that used to be made about Elvis and the Beatles in the 1960s to what was said about hip-hop in the 1990s.)
  .
  Please. Next you’ll be suggesting that booking a Led Zeppelin cover band would’ve prevented that shooting at Folklife.

• Carol August 22, 2012 (1:27 pm)

  datamuse that entire generation did very well in society as a whole as they matured. Can say I would feel safer going to see a Led Zepplin cover band at a lounge then a Hip-Hop band, where the average age would be 50 and up not nineteen like the shooter at Folklife.

• Tony S August 22, 2012 (1:41 pm)

  Naw, D-Muse; she’s “Just Keeping It Real (ignorant)”

• Carol August 22, 2012 (2:20 pm)

  Think what you will, long live rock and roll.

• Craig August 22, 2012 (2:21 pm)

  Yes Carol, we get it, you don’t like Hip Hop.

  As Ericka stated, Bamboo is no longer featuring Hip Hop on the weekends.

  I think the front of the house staff is great. They try hard, and seem to genuinely care about people.

  I am hopeful they will find a way to stop these events from happening at Bamboo. It’s not just your safety, it is their own safety as well, so everyone has something at stake here.

• Ace20604 August 22, 2012 (3:59 pm)

  Not much said as to how this all went down. Details a very important just as emotions. Look at the sad incident recently with the off-duty Chicago police office who hit the little girl, because of acting emotional rather that with deliberation and thought. There are no winners just survivors.

  • WSB August 22, 2012 (4:08 pm)

    We have the information in charges JUST filed against the suspect. Story to come in a few minutes.

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