West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
No injuries or arrests reported in a shots-fired incident tonight in the Ocean View area. So far the only official police information is from a tweet, but Tom has sent a firsthand report and photo of one of the casings found afterward:
At around 8:30 pm (tonight), a silver Acura Integra (with spoiler) stopped at the south end of 37th Ave SW where it meets 35th Ave SW. Inside the vehicle was a couple having a heated argument, drawing the attention of neighbors. They then continued north on 37th Ave SW and stopped a few houses south of the intersection of 37th Ave SW and SW Ocean View Drive where the argument continued and the male driver exited the vehicle and fired 7 shots in rapid succession into the air, leaving 9mm shell casings in the street. By this time the female was in the driver’s seat and noticed a neighbor looking out the window and warned the male to get back in the car, at which point they drove away from the scene eastbound on SW Ocean View Drive. SPD arrived and took statements including good descriptions of the 2 persons involved, and the car. No one was able to see the license plate.
(Tuesday photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
One day after police arrested 32-year-old Alan Polevia in Arbor Heights, he remains jailed in lieu of $35,050 bail, and we have more information about what police found when they arrested him after rousting him from a hiding place. $10,050 of the bail is because of warrants that were out for Polevia’s arrest, including his failure to appear to answer charges of burglary and theft filed last March. Then a judge set $25,000 more bail at a hearing today, in connection with a possible firearms charge. We have obtained the probable-cause document in relation to that, and it outlines what we first reported yesterday – that he was spotted riding a bike with another one “attached” to it, and had multiple bags. An alert neighbor spotted him and called police to report suspicious behavior. Though that neighbor had lost track of him by the time police arrived, another one had seen him and taken photos of him and the bicycles; she helped police track him down at the house where he was eventually found “under the house, in the crawl space, under the flood wrap, in a small dug-out hole.” Those photos show him with the bags – in which police say they found:
*Carbon-loaded pellet gun
*2 fully loaded Glock 40-caliber magazines in a leather magazine holster (loaded with hollow-point bullets)
*132 Winchester Wildcat 22-caliber bullets
*8 Trapmax shotgun cartridges
*17 Peters brand 30=30 rifle rounds
King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Ian Goodhew tells WSB they have until Friday to decide whether to file new charges. He adds that Polevia will go before a judge in connection with the warrants, too, and says his office will argue for him to be kept in custody rather than released, given his history – even before the burglary/theft charges were filed last March (in connection with this September incident) he had been on the run after escaping from police at Harborview Medical Center while handcuffed.
(State Sen. Ed Murray, right, speaking with four local political leaders at his side)
We’re at the 34th District Democrats‘ biggest meeting of the year – 139 voting members here, making endorsements for the year’s big races, starting with Seattle Mayor.
SEATTLE MAYOR: Five of the nine candidates were nominated to be in the running for the endorsement. They spoke in this order: St. Sen. Ed Murray, Peter Steinbrueck, Mayor Mike McGinn, Councilmember Bruce Harrell, Kate Martin. (Video added:)
The first two drew no speakers in opposition; a 34th member identifying himself as a longshoreman spoke against McGinn because of his arena support, and McGinn defended the plan – “There (will be) union jobs building it, and union jobs working there’ – which otherwise had not been mentioned. A woman who spoke against Harrell accused him of not coming to neighborhoods except when he’s campaigning. Speaking in rebuttal, Councilmember Harrell apologized for disappointing her, after a defender countered the allegation. No one spoke against Martin. Now, we’re waiting for the vote and results.
8:01 pm update: Murray 1st, McGinn 2nd after the first ballot. So there’s a 2nd ballot. To get a solo endorsement, one will have to win 60% of the next vote.
8:22 pm update: On the second ballot, Sen. Murray gets 70 percent, Mayor McGinn 30 percent. Sole endorsement for Murray, a former West Seattleite.
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL: First up, position 2, with incumbent Richard Conlin taking the floor first. “I really want to do some great things for West Seattle, great things for the region,” he says, having arrived moments earlier – another LD has an endorsement meeting tonight on the other side of the city, it seems. Challenger Brian Carver follows. … Mike O’Brien speaks but his challenger Albert Shen doesn’t get here in time to … 8:20 pm update: Conlin is endorsed. … 8:32 pm update: O’Brien is endorsed.
BLOCK ENDORSEMENT: In a block “yes” vote toward the start of the meeting, the 34th endorsed a slate including Seattle Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw and Nick Licata, City Attorney Pete Holmes, the King County Parks levy, County Sheriff John Urquhart, Port Commission members John Creighton and Courtney Gregoire (see the full block slate here).
MEETING ADJOURNED … just before 9 pm. We have video from the mayoral candidates’ speeches and are processing it now. The primary election, by the way, is August 6th. And before the 2009 primary, datapoint, the 34th gave a dual endorsement in the mayor’s race to McGinn and then-incumbent Greg Nickels.
From five 17-year-olds to one 62-year-old, 864 people received degrees or certificates in today’s South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) graduation ceremony. SSCC’s communications director Kevin Maloney says Benaroya Hall downtown was packed for the big event this afternoon, and shared the photo. Their commencement speaker was Geo Quibuyen from the hip-hop group the Blue Scholars, the Town Hall Seattle artist-in-residence for the past three months. Congratulations, graduates!
P.S. Coverage coming up later from tonight’s two high-school graduations.
Just in from SDOT:
Next week, a Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) paving crew will be working on California Avenue SW between SW Myrtle Street and SW Frontenac Street. On Tuesday and Wednesday, June 18 – 19, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., the crew will grind down and then repave the street surface. There will be no parking in the work zone. Sidewalks and crosswalks will remain open. During the work, the roadway will be reduced to two lanes and bicyclists will merge with vehicle traffic. Motorists should expect delays moving through the area.
2:10 PM: If you click the “play” button above, it’ll take you to the live feed from City Hall, where the City Council’s Housing, Human Services, Health, and Culture Committee is starting its meeting, with the agenda including an item on the “Nickelsville” site. More to come.
2:18 PM: Public comment is beginning. Those who speak can address anything coming up on the agenda. The first two speakers voiced support for SHARE, the organization that runs shelters around the city. The third, Trace De Garmo, is speaking specifically to Nickelsville: “If you want to speed up our move now, please temporarily provide us with water and electricity hookups.” He says they want two religiously controlled sites, for up to two years, to house up to 200 people. The committee’s chair, Councilmember Nick Licata, is questioning him to verify that Nickelsville has not yet found such sites. The next person says Nickelsville found out about the 7 councilmembers’ “close it by September 1st” letter when media crews started showing up later Monday. She is reading its official response letter – see it here, or here:
The next person says shutting Nickelsville down “would be doing a great disservice” to the city as well as to the encampment itself; followed by another person who says “Nickelsville is badly needed” because of the shelter shortage, and mentions Nickelsville’s vision of being an “eco-village.” Dorli Rainey, speaking next, tells the council, “What you are doing is splitting families.” The next speaker says he is ashamed of having to turn people away from shelters.
A representative of the Low-Income Housing Institute next tells the council they are considering making land available for an encampment. She is followed by a woman who says she supports homeless people but has seen problems with SHARE and has tried to talk with the city – which contracts with SHARE – about it, but contends no one will do anything about it.
2:47 PM: Another commenter points out the police presence at City Hall and is contentiously accusing the council of being unfair to the homeless people who have spoken. Minutes later, public comment ends, and the chambers are all but clearing, though Licata reminds everyone that the Nickelsville-related item is coming up third on the agenda.
3:04 PM: The committee is now discussing the Nickelsville-related item – which isn’t up for a vote, but more a decision on which way they want to proceed. Outside City Hall, the pro-encampment protest has begun; Emily Heffter from The Seattle Times (WSB partner) tweeted this photo showing demonstrators on the steps.
Back inside, Licata is saying that the Monday letter from seven of his Council colleagues did not seem to him to be “anti-encampment.” One of the signers, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, is agreeing. She says she believes Nickelsville residents “have created community.” She wonders if the proposal to expand possible encampment sites could also include property owned by nonprofits. The philosophical conversation continues.
3:21 PM: Licata says he wants to talk now about specifics about “what we’ll be facing in the next couple months” – specifically, the mayor’s response that if the council wants the camp cleared by September 1st, he will follow their directive to evict anyone who’s left then. And he envisions that not everyone will have left, “so we’re going to be faced with not a good photo op.”
3:44 PM: They’re still trying to shape what the rules would be. Licata notes that Nickelsville has 125 people now. Should legislation, they’re discussing, put a limit on the number of sites? Councilmember Bruce Harrell says, what about people who choose to live in tents? Licata assistant Lisa Herbold says it’s not like they have an option to go into long-term housing, because it has waiting lists: “The function of a tent city is not an alternative to long-term housing, it’s someplace you go while you wait for long-term housing.”
4:04 PM: The document accompanying this agenda, by the way, is here. Option 2, the committee agrees, possibly leaving Nickelsville at the current site, “is off the table.”
The “snack shack” used by West Seattle Baseball at Riverview Playfield has been broken into, reports parent volunteer Michelle, who sent the photo. She says someone broke in Monday night, “damaging the building and making a huge mess” along with making off with some money. “We are so bummed someone would do this. … Fortunately it’s the end of the season, and not more was taken.” It’s not the first time the “shack” has been targeted, though; Michelle says volunteers have spent time painting over graffiti vandalism.
The crane is going up at 3922 SW Alaska, almost a year since we uncovered the new name and plan for “The Hole,” which stalled in fall 2008 under previous ownership, followed by a court fight and a foreclosure auction. Though the new owners of what’s now called Spruce have been mum on the project – except for what was said/shown at the Design Commission meeting we covered in December – construction equipment showed up five weeks ago and, as noted here, work resumed. Wondering what it’ll look like? Here’s one of the images shown at the aforementioned December meeting:
If you’re just tuning in, Spruce will include apartments and an L.A. Fitness health club.
(Mayor McGinn at Diva Espresso on Tuesday; photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Though you haven’t heard much about it lately, there’s still a chance West Seattle will get light rail, some years down the line.
Mayor Mike McGinn came to West Seattle on Tuesday afternoon to get that message out, and we took the opportunity to ask him about other issues related to West Seattle’s transportation challenges.
It was his third visit to West Seattle in a week, and tonight will be his fourth visit in eight days, as the 34th District Democrats decide who to endorse for this year’s election races, including the one in which he’s vying for re-election against eight opponents. His series of visits began June 4th with the Madison Middle School briefing on dental care for students citywide and continued Sunday as he breakfasted at Chelan Café with five community activists.
That brings us to Tuesday afternoon.
The mayor and two staff members – SDOT transit expert Michael James and communicator Aaron Pickus – came to Diva Espresso in The Triangle to offer a West Seattle-specific briefing on the state of light-rail planning, though the conversation turned to other things.
He said that after talking to West Seattleites – including the group with whom he had breakfast on Sunday – he realized people here might not be aware that light rail is at least a bit beyond pipe-dream status.
We recorded the entire briefing/discussion on video – keep in mind it was at a busy coffee shop, so you’ll hear the espresso machinery in the background now and then:
If you don’t have time to listen, the key points are ahead:
Just out of the WSB inbox, from West Seattle Food Bank volunteer Eve:
The West Seattle Food Bank distributes books of all kinds to their clients. Children’s picture books and toddler board books are especially needed right now. If you have books in good condition, please consider donating them to the Food Bank. You can drop them off Monday through Friday 9 am to 3 pm, or Wednesday until 7pm (Monday and Wednesday are the best drop-off times) The Food Bank is on the corner of 35th Avenue SW and SW Morgan St. (enter through the garage on Morgan). Cookbooks and adult fiction and non-fiction are also welcomed. YOUR DONATIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
(Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on red valerian, by Danny McMillin, from the WSB Flickr group)
It’s graduation day for more than 1,000 high-school and college students in West Seattle! Three ceremonies are part of our highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
First, the graduations:
SSCC GRADUATION: 2:30 pm, more than 800 students receive diplomas and certificates during the South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) commencement ceremony at Benaroya Hall downtown. (200 University St.)
WSHS GRADUATION: The West Seattle High School Class of 2013 graduates at 5 pm, Southwest Athletic Complex. Reminder that concessions (including flower and candy leis) are on sale as a Music Department fundraiser. (2801 SW Thistle)
SEALTH GRADUATION: The Chief Sealth International High School Class of 2013 graduates at 7:30 pm, Southwest Athletic Complex. (2801 SW Thistle)
Now, the rest of the highlights for today/tonight:
COUNCIL COMMITTEE TALKS ‘NICKELSVILLE’: Though what transpired on Monday (WSB coverage here) might seem to render this all a moot point, the City Council Housing, Human Services, Health, and Culture Committee is scheduled to discuss the “Nickelsville” situation at 2 pm today, Council Chambers at City Hall downtown. (4th/Cherry)
‘NICKELSVILLE’ PROTEST: Meantime, outside City Hall, encampment supporters promise a “die-in” protest starting at 2:30 pm.
SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS: West Seattle Girls Softball has playoffs tonight at Lincoln Park at 5:30 pm.
BIKE MASTER PLAN MEETING: The city’s next Open House on the draft revised Bicycle Master Plan is intended for the south areas of the city, including West Seattle. (Here’s a map showing what it envisions for this part of the city.) It’s at the Columbia Branch Library, 6 pm, presentation at 6:30 pm. (4721 Rainier Ave. S.)
JOURNALISM AND DATA: Special event at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library, 5:30 pm, explained on the Seattle Public Library calendar. (2306 42nd SW)
34TH DISTRICT DEMOCRATS’ ENDORSEMENT MEETING: Mingling at 6:30 pm, speeches and votes start at 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy. See the detailed agenda here. (9131 California SW)
Seal Sitters‘ Robin Lindsey shares that photo as an example of a pup still displaying “lanugo,” a long, wavy coat that is a sign of premature birth since it’s usually shed in the womb. She’s asking you to be particularly watchful around West Seattle’s shorelines, not just because pupping season has started in this area, but because a motherless newborn might turn up and need help:
Sadly, we responded to an adult female seal (Monday) that died shortly afterward. The WDFW necropsy (Tuesday) revealed that she had given birth probably two days ago. This means it is possible that there is a newborn pup in West Seattle or one of the neighboring communities. A newborn harbor seal pup can live about a week and a half without nutrition from the mother. If the pup indeed survived, he would be extremely weak and vulnerable – most especially to off-leash dogs.
We are asking everyone to please be on the alert for this pup – or any pups on shore. And, of course, to stay away, keep dogs leashed and call our hotline @ 206-905-7325 (SEAL).
Additionally, we heard rumors of a “mom and pup” resting on the rocks off of Lincoln Park the other day. No one called our hotline, but we are told that many people were taking photos. If anyone has photos of the pair, please email us in hopes that we can determine if truly it was a mom and newborn pup and possibly identify the adult female.
Thanks so much. This is truly where the community makes a huge difference!
There’s more info on the Seal Sitters’ Blubberblog.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
Today’s commute is under way with nothing unusual in the routes around/through our area. Updates to come if/when that changes.
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