West Seattle, Washington
14 Sunday
(May 2013 WS5K photo courtesy Tracy Brigham, whose sons greeted passing runners that morning)
Today’s afternoon sun reminded us that the countdown to spring is on, and we are exactly three months away from a big day along the beach – May 18th is the date set for the West Seattle 5K run/walk on Alki, organized by and benefiting the West Seattle High School PTSA, followed by SDOT‘s Seattle Summer Streets event (11 am-5 pm), once officially and still casually known as “car-free day.” You can sign up for the West Seattle 5K right now and get the lowest-priced registration – just go here. (As for the official start of spring, this year it’s March 20th.)
(TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Next game for WSHS set; scroll down)
(WSHS #30, Lexi Iaone; photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
4:39 PM: In postseason competition at Ingraham High School in North Seattle this afternoon, the West Seattle High School girls’ basketball team has just lost to Mercer Island, 52-49; down by nine points at the start of the 4th quarter, head coach Sonya Elliott‘s young team (no seniors) embarked on a comeback, but fell short.
(WSHS #12 Lydia Giomi, #21 Gabby Sarver, #10 Charli Elliott)
They’re not out of the postseason yet; our crew reports the Wildcats are expected to play again Friday night in Bellevue, opponent TBA. (More photos & game details later this evening.)
ADDED 11:02 PM: Coach Elliott tells WSB their next opponent is Liberty, 8:15 pm Friday at Bellevue College. Ahead, notes and a few more photos from today’s game:
First the call for help … then the dropoffs on a blustery Saturday … and now the tally: Mary Ellen Cunningham says the donations for City of Joy added up to about 800 pounds worth:
How’s that for West Seattle generosity! Fantastic. A bunch of us were elated going through everything … getting it all organized and packed up ready for the trip to Congo.
The center, which helps survivors of sexual violence in the DRC, accepts online donations too.
(UPDATED with full archived Seattle Channel video of mayor’s speech)
2:08 PM: Live online via Seattle Channel – Mayor Ed Murray‘s first State of the City speech. Watch it by clicking the “play” button. We’ll update later with the archived video as well as any notes of particular West Seattle interest. (3:57 pm note – the archived video is now viewable above.)
2:30 PM UPDATE: Several notes of interest so far – a mention of the Youth Ambassadors program active at several local schools (the mayor mentioned Roxhill, Denny, and Concord); also a nod to the Duwamish River in a climate-change mention, and a promise that he’ll do something about deteriorating street conditions.
2:45 PM UPDATE: Speech over, but Council Chair Tim Burgess asks the mayor to stay for a special presentation – a photo from Murray’s days as a council staffer. Now it’s on to the council’s meeting. A few other notes in the meantime – he touched on growth without any promises of slowing it, and called the “urban village strategy” a success; he voiced support for the expected April vote on Metro/roads funding and August vote on “sustainable parks funding”; he said he intended to call for a maritime summit; he said the city needs to rebuild trust with neighborhoods, and reiterated his plan for a neighborhood summit April 5th.
3:57 PM UPDATE: Here’s the full text, sent by the mayor’s office as a PDF. We missed another West Seattle shoutout – a mention of the recently announced 35th Avenue SW safety project. The full video is also available, so we have added that above.
That’s one of just dozens of images in a photo gallery showing unclaimed stolen property from a burglary spree – jewelry, phones, wallets, photos, sports cards, prescription drugs, more. We don’t know so far whether any of it is from burglaries in West Seattle. But just in case – we’re sharing this found-property info just in from King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West, who is asking that it be distributed far and wide:
Were you the victim of a burglary between January 2012 and July 2013? If you were and you live somewhere between Mill Creek, Washington and Tigard, Oregon, we may have property that was stolen in your burglary.
Detectives from the Sammamish Police Department and the King County Sheriff’s Office are trying to find the owners of stolen property that was recovered last July after the arrest of a couple who admitted to committing dozens of burglaries between Tigard, Oregon and Mill Creek, Washington.
Krystal Sweetman, 27 of Puyallup and Steven Tipton, 27 of Tacoma were arrested last July after an investigation that revealed the couple had committed more than 80 residential burglaries between January 2012 and July 2013. The couple sold many of the stolen items at area coin shops, netting over $346,000 in the 18-month crime spree.
Detectives also discovered that the pair had a storage unit that was packed with property taken from the burglaries. Many of the stolen items from the storage unit have not been claimed and detectives are hoping to reunite victims with their property.
In January, Sweetman pleaded guilty to multiple charges and was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 36 months in community custody. Tipton is expected to plead later this month.
Detectives have photographed the unclaimed property and have provided a [password-protected] link to photos for the public to view. Detectives are asking anyone who was the victim of a burglary between January, 2012 and July, 2013 to look at the photos to see if any of the property belongs to you.
If you have questions please call 804-885-KCSO (5276) – do NOT call other police department numbers. If you see property that you believe belongs to you, follow the instructions on the link. You will be asked to provide the case number of your burglary and will need to provide some proof the item is yours.
If you have trouble accessing the site, please try at another time. We expect the site to be inundated with viewers and access may be limited during the initial release of information.
Here again is the photo-gallery link; the password is SammamishPD – and it IS case-sensitive.
Thanks to Eric Bell for the photo of a hard-working bird he describes as “one of the sparrows that bus the floor of the Metropolitan Market outdoor seating area — free of charge.” Before we get too much further into this hard-working Tuesday, six things you might want to know about, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar.
METRO FARE HEARING: Just in case you don’t usually read our regular morning traffic-watch reports (where we include transportation-related news as well as traffic alerts and ongoing commute notes), details on today’s 1:30 pm Metro-fare-proposals hearing downtown – and how to comment online if you aren’t going – are in today’s edition.
STATE OF THE CITY: Also downtown – but you can watch live via Seattle Channel, online or on cable – Mayor Ed Murray presents his first State of the City speech to the City Council, 2 pm.
TUESDAY TUNE-UP BENEFITS MARY’S PLACE: Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor) invites you to come listen to pianist Victor Janusz and accordionist Robertson Witmer tonight, 6:30-8:30 pm, and raise money for Mary’s Place – details in our listing. (1936 Harbor SW)
ARBOR HEIGHTS ZONING-EXCEPTION MEETING: 6:30 pm at the Arbor Heights Elementary library, it’s the first meeting of an advisory committee considering whether to recommend approval of zoning exceptions needed for the new AHES – explained in our calendar listing. (37th/104th)
MEET NEW PRECINCT COMMANDER: 7 pm tonight at the Southwest Precinct, the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council‘s monthly meeting will start with an introduction and crime-trends update from Capt. Steve Wilske, the precinct’s new commander (here’s our recent interview with him). All welcome; the agenda also includes a primer on Seattle’s unique Mental Health Court. (Delridge/Webster)
‘BLUES TO DO’ AT THE FEEDBACK: The Blues To Do Tuesday night series continues at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) at 8 tonight, with Steve Bailey and the Blue Flames. (6451 California SW)
(Sunday morning photo courtesy Jason)
Since information was scant when we checked out the Roxbury/Olson one-car crash early Sunday (original report here), leaving multiple questions unanswered, we just followed up with media liaisons for Seattle Police and Fire. Police do believe the driver fled the scene, through a window; the three people found in the car were in the front-passenger and rear seats. All are described by Seattle Fire as men in their late teens/early 20s; though they were taken to the hospital, none had serious injuries. The report also notes that while police tried to talk with them at the hospital to find out more about the crash and the apparent hit-run driver, none would respond. The ownership of the crashed red Lexus wasn’t clear, either; the report says the person on record as its registered owner had sold it to “a presumed auto dealer” a month ago. It was totaled, and impounded; other damage involved the shrubbery into which the car crashed – the officer writing the report noted, “It appears as if the vehicle was traveling in a northeasterly direction on Olson Place when it drove up over the curb and struck a tree on (a) planting strip. The car continued across the sidewalk, where it struck the shrubbery in (a) front yard.”
P.S. That intersection is West Seattle’s top spot for collisions, according to an SDOT presentation covered here last fall.
(Seattle Pride photo: 8th grade/freshman players at Portland showcase last year)
More youth-sports news: Tryouts start this weekend for Seattle Pride basketball. From Jason Vann:
This is our 5th season as a local West Seattle program. We have kids from Sealth, West Seattle, Seattle Lutheran, Hope Lutheran, Denny, Madison, and Holy Rosary. We have teams and tryouts for girls and boys, from 5th grade through juniors in high school, ages 11-17.
Tryouts are scheduled for the next two weekends – read on for the schedule:
(More cameras, and other info, on the WSB Traffic page)
Holiday’s past, so most things are back to the usual baseline – except for Seattle Public Schools, which are out all week, so take that into account.
COUNTY COUNCIL HEARING ON METRO FARE CHANGES: At its 1:30 pm meeting today, the King County Council plans a hearing on the fare increase that is part of the proposed package to avoid transit cuts, in legislation that also creates a special low-income fare. From the KCC website:
The fare increase, which would be implemented in March 2015, would raise fares by 25 cents for all fare categories for Metro Transit bus service. It would also increase fares for Access paratransit service by 50 cents.
The legislation would also authorize the creation of a reduced fare program for transit riders. It would set the fare at $1.50 and establish the eligibility threshold at 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, currently $22,980 for an individual and $47,100 for a family of four.
If you can’t be there, you can send in your thoughts via this form.
8:27 AM: Comment and e-mail mention that the Highland Park Way hill is closed to traffic. 911 log has a notation about a fuel spill.
8:50 AM: Per scanner, Highland Park Way is now open again.
10:03 AM: We asked Seattle Fire about the “spill,” since they responded – Lt. Sue Stangl says, “It was a small trail of fuel up Highland Park Way that ended near a fresh pile of gravel.” So, a mystery spill so far.
Just in case you’re driving this way overnight – the southbound I-5 lane closures south of downtown are over a few hours early, according to an e-mail alert just in from WSDOT. (Next week’s closure involves the southbound collector-distributor lanes and two on-ramps; details here.)
Though school is out all week, West Seattle High School seniors have a clothing drive going for area shelters, with two auxiliary locations until the WSHS campus reopens – donation boxes at the Old Navy stores downtown and at Southcenter. Class of 2014 rep Madison Miller says, “Some items we are looking for (as recommended by shelters) are packages of men’s socks, underwear, and T-shirts, but we are also accepting any kind of clothing donation as well.” Madison says you’ll also be able to bring donations to WSHS when school resumes next week, Monday 2/24 through Friday 2/28.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
If you’ve been to North Delridge’s Brandon Node business district – home to a cluster of businesses including Pho Aroma and Olympic Pizza restaurants – in the past four days, you might have noticed the “no parking” signs that went up Friday afternoon in what’s been a perpendicular-parking area on the north side of SW Findlay, west of Delridge (map).
The “no parking” signs alongside the mural on the south wall of the Super 24 store have a double meaning: Not only “no parking” because of an impending roadside project, but “no parking” in those spots permanently, once that project is done.
It’s a community-proposed, city-funded project, but Pho Aroma’s owners Melinda Nguyen and Scott Dang say business owners didn’t know about the project until a flyer arrived a few weeks ago announcing it was happening.
The project will remove the six perpendicular public parking spaces along the wall alongside Super 24. As explained by SDOT’s John Vander Sluis:
Early Canada goslings! We showed you Karen’s photo on Sunday – and today, David Hutchinson, who’s photographed the Canada goose families over the years, shares a closer look:
All 7 goslings with their parents were hanging out near the Water Taxi dock today. Photo shows everyone trying to crowd under mom’s wing on this cool February afternoon.
This makes the seventh year David has shared gosling photos here. Quick selection from the archives:
*First 2013 photo
*First 2012 photo
*First 2011 photo
*First 2010 photo
*First 2009 photo
*2008
Two local youth sports leagues have asked us to remind you that it’s signup time:
WEST SEATTLE SOCCER CLUB: 650 players and 100 coaches already have signed up for the Spring 2014 “World Cup” season of WSSC – but there’s still room in U-6 through U-11; signups continue until March 1st, and the season runs from early April through early June. Here’s where to go to sign up.
WEST SEATTLE BASEBALL: It’s priority registration until Wednesday (February 19th):
Time is running out to register for the 2014 baseball season with West Seattle Baseball. There are still open spots in all divisions, 5 years old up to 14 years old. The following divisions are open for registration.
Shetland (ages 5-6)
Pinto (ages 7-8)
Mustang (ages 9-10)
Bronco (ages 11-12)
Pony (ages 13-14)Registration is available online at the West Seattle Baseball site.
By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
This edition of The WSBeat contains summaries written from reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers – generally cases that (usually) have not already appeared here in breaking-news coverage or West Seattle Crime Watch reports, but that might at least answer the question “what WERE all those police doing on my block?” Or on the bridge, or the beach, or …
*Early one recent morning, on the street near Roxbury and Delridge, a woman asked a man to quit leaning on her car. The man punched her in the face and also sent her male companion to the ground, punching him in the face four times and stealing his cell phone. Then along came the suspect’s female friend, who punched the female victim. The victims were also threatened with death. The man was described as black, light-skinned, 5’10”, in his 20s, medium build. He wore a red and black checkered hat with ear flaps, a red sports jersey and dark jeans. The woman was described as about the same age, black, 5’6″, and about 140 pounds, wearing a blue knit cap, an “old-style” gray Seahawks jersey, and carried a large black purse.
Seven more summaries ahead:
Though school is out this week, we suspect many young readers are in training as the Global Reading Challenge continues. We showed you Arbor Heights Elementary‘s winning team last week; today, we have a report from Concord International Elementary 4th-grade teacher Marina Pita:
My 4th Grade Dual Language Students (The Black Mythical Mustangs) won our school’s Global Reading Challenge and will advance to the Semi-Final at the Seattle Public Library on Wednesday, March 5th. Attached is a picture of the team with our principal Dr. Zavala, our Librarian Mindy Terr, and our local librarian Ms. B. Our whole 4th Grade Dual Language team (students included) will be at the library to cheer the team on for the Semi-Final!
Concord is in South Park but is part of the district’s West Seattle region. To be ready to compete in the GRC, students have to read 10 books – see this year’s list here. They get to choose their own often-whimsical team names. Other participating schools in West Seattle and the rest of the city are listed here; the city final is March 18th.
(Photo by Lloyd Moody)
No salmon, no Puget Sound resident orcas. Find out how the fish are doing at The Whale Trail‘s next event, just announced:
The Whale Trail Presents: Salmon Recovery Efforts in Puget Sound
Presentation by Jeanette Dorner, Puget Sound PartnershipThursday, February 27, 2014, 7 – 9 PM
C & P Coffee Company, 5612 California Ave SW
$5 suggested donation, kids free.
Tickets available: brownpapertickets.comSalmon are the key to the recovery of the endangered southern resident orcas. How are the salmon populations of Puget Sound doing, and what can we do to help?
Jeanette Dorner, Puget Sound Partnership, will discuss the current health of salmon populations in Puget Sound, what kinds of challenges salmon face for their continued survival, and what people are doing to recover salmon populations to healthy harvestable levels in Puget Sound.
Jeanette is the manager of the Ecosystem and Salmon Recovery Program at the Puget Sound Partnership and coordinates the regional partnership to implement the federal ESA Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan.
Join us on February 27 to learn more about this iconic species.
Buy tickets ahead of time and we’ll save you a seat! And hurry – this will likely sell out.
This is the second in a series of Orca Talks 2014 presented by The Whale Trail. The event also features updates from Laura James (tox-ick.org) and Seal Sitters, and photography from Judy Lane.
Don’t wait to get tickets – it’s usually a sellout crowd.
Stormy as it has been lately, we’ve seen beautiful morning moonsets; thanks to Don Brubeck for the weekend photo. Now the weather has calmed for a mostly, but not entirely, quiet Presidents Day. A few calendar notes:
OPEN AND CLOSED: Most government facilities are closed today, libraries included. No banks, no USPS mail. In the non-WS areas with paid street parking, it’s a free-parking day. Seattle Public Schools are closed all week; most if not all independent schools are closed today too.
16 CATS NEED HOMES: Holdover from this weekend’s adoptathon, 8 cats and 8 kittens are hoping to meet their new humans today at Kitty Harbor, 10 am-2 pm. (Harbor Ave. just north of the bridge)
PACK A.D. AT EASY STREET: Live, free in-store performance by Pack A.D., described by Easy Street as “two gals from Vancouver BC who never fail to tear it up with their bluesy garage rock explosions!” 7 pm at Easy Street Records in The Junction. (California/Alaska)
SNAKETOPUS AT SKYLARK: Free live music at Skylark Café and Club with Snaketopus, 9:30 pm. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
(More cameras, and other info, on the WSB Traffic page)
Notes as the day begins: Though it’s a holiday, Metro is on a regular weekday schedule; its most recent service change took effect Saturday – details here. No Water Taxi service today, West Seattle or Vashon. School’s out for most (if not all); Seattle Public Schools is on midwinter break all week.
ROAD WORK: The southbound I-5 expansion-joint-work lane closures on the south side of downtown are scheduled to continue through today.
10:29 AM: Crash on northbound I-5 at the Convention Center – so probably a good idea not to go that way for a while.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Will Metro‘s next “service change” include a service cut?
Decision time is down to the wire. The King County Council has to decide soon whether to ask voters to approve a local tax package. Various Metro-related conversations are on its schedule this coming week.
With West Seattle and White Center bus service having the most to lose, because of Highway 99 “mitigation” money expiring as well as the $20 tab fee, local groups are taking their official stands.
The one taken by the 34th District Democrats this past week was a little unusual.
Famed climber and former West Seattle resident Chad Kellogg, 42, has died in Argentina after a rockfall in Patagonia. A WSB reader wrote to share the sad news as early reports surfaced such as this one at Climbing.com; tonight the news also has appeared at SeattleTimes.com (WSB partner) and TheNewsTribune.com. Mr. Kellogg lived in West Seattle seven years ago when a climbing mishap killed his 38-year-old wife Lara-Karena Kellogg (mentioned briefly on WSB in April 2007), whose family are longtime West Seattleites. The person who e-mailed us says Mr. Kellogg “should be recognized and remembered as a great man who accomplished incredible things, most notably — speed ascents, summiting peaks, defeating cancer, to name a few.” The Times story details many of those accomplishments; the Climbing report notes that “in recent years he had accomplished many superb ascents.” No word yet of memorial plans.
(Click image for larger view)
Dennis Cheasebro shared that photo of what he believes was a humpback whale, spotted off West Seattle today:
Photographed at 1:34 PM, February 16, 2014, from the Lincoln Park bluff. It was breaching, tail flipping and swimming fast southward, close to shore. I’ve never seen a humpback before, but the small, dull-pointed dorsal fin on top of a low hump seems to be diagnostic.
8:05 PM: Our experience with humpbacks is limited to their distinctive flukes, through binoculars, in Alaska. We’ve looked around at various whale-sighting sites and no other reports of this today; the species-ID page on The Whale Trail‘s site seems to affirm Dennis’s ID. Any other confirmations/opinions/sightings?
9:04 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Kelly for pointing out, in comments, photos published to TWT’s Facebook page not long after we published this – so, humpback it is!
Another stolen car to look for – Trevor reports:
My tan-colored Nissan Maxima ’92 was stolen last night from right in front of my house on SW Cloverdale and Delridge [map]. Police says thieves often take older cars like this for a ride and then abandon them. If you happen to see mine, #275USV with chrome rims, please shoot me an e-mail at trevorny (at) gmail.com. Thanks!
Since it seemed anecdotally as if we are receiving more auto-theft reports than usual – knowing that we don’t hear about them all – we checked the Seattle Police Reports map to get a sense of the trends. Here’s a screengrab showing West Seattle auto-theft reports for the past week, February 9th through today:
10 reports in 7 days is about the same a year ago, 43 reports for the Southwest Precinct in February 2013, averaging 1.5 a day. Crime stats are published for last year through November; the lowest month for auto theft in 2013 was July, with 25, fewer than one a day, while the highest was January 2013, with 61, almost two a day.
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