West Seattle, Washington
10 Tuesday
Also in district basketball postseason play tonight, the Seattle Lutheran High School boys lost to Lummi Nation, 62-48 in Mount Vernon. They play again there tomorrow, facing Tulalip Heritage at 6:30 pm.
(WSB photo: Foreground, WSHS & Juanita’s leading scorers, Emily Fiso and Tea Adams; background at right, Charli Elliott)
7:58 PM: So close – but not close enough. In a game that just ended at Bellevue College, the West Seattle High School girls fell just short against Juanita, which got the district semi-final win, 51-48. The Wildcats were down by as much as 13 but fought back in the second half, falling just three points short. They play next for district third place, 1:15 pm Saturday vs. Cleveland, also at Bellevue College.
ADDED 1:12 AM: Here’s how Thursday night’s game played out:
Updates were the order of the night at last night’s Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center:
(WSB photo from January, when the barricades/cones went up in the future work zone)
DELRIDGE/ANDOVER PROJECT: Alicia Molina from SDOT said the start of this six-week project – originally planned for this week, as previously reported – has now been postponed until March 2nd. Once the work gets under way, the first three weeks will be focused on the Delridge/Andover intersection, including some pedestrian detours; then “the sidewalk section” will be the focus of the second three weeks, and the connection from Delridge/Andover/23rd will be closed for part of that time. 23rd will be closed to vehicle traffic at times, she says, but there won’t be much other effect on vehicle traffic. The sidewalk – to be shared by walking/running/bicycling traffic – will more than double in spots, six feet to 13 feet, she said.
(First 3 photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Before his appearance tonight at the Central Library downtown, basketball legend turned award-winning author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made a side trip to West Seattle, delighting the students of Sanislo Elementary School, even autographing a basketball (held by Sanislo principal Bruce Rhodes, photographed with 5th grader Robert Chambers, student host for the event).
Right now, he’s promoting his newest book written for a youth audience, “Streetball Crew Book Two: Stealing the Game.” An earlier book, “What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African-American Inventors“, won the NAACP’s award for Best Children’s Book.
Sanislo third-graders are reading “What Color Is My World?” for Black History Month; Abdul-Jabbar asked if anyone could tell him who invented potato chips, and when a student gave him the answer (George Crum), he said he was pleased she’d paid attention to the book and would see her at her Ph.D. graduation someday. By the way – that was part of his message to the kids: It’s never too soon to start thinking about college. One student declared he wanted to play basketball in college and Abdul-Jabbar said, that’s great, but what are you going to *study*? P.S. If you’re trying to remember, we’ll save you the search – he left the NBA in 1989, at age 42, with a long list of achievements you can read about here.
P.S. Here’s a Sanislo library pic from Abdul-Jabbar’s feed, with a reminder about his SPL event:
7:00p PT—Reading / Talk / Q & A / I'm signing at the Seattle Public Library 2nite
1000 4th Ave
Seattle, WA 98104 pic.twitter.com/97RmHoLvgc
— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (@kaj33) February 19, 2015
And a pic our crew Instagrammed while there:
Seated, center, in the IG photo is Sanislo librarian Craig Seasholes, who’s brought many a memorable event/writer to the library over the years.
The list of contenders for the new District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) City Council seat has just grown again: The ninth person now in the running is Tom Koch, who describes himself as a “land-use expert(,) former preschool teacher, and current small-business owner.”
In his announcement, Koch says, “Having worked on land use issues for 29 years, I can tell you there is much more we can be doing in our city to protect our neighborhoods. … No one currently in this race has the same level of ‘hands-on’ experience I would bring to the council when dealing with issues of affordability and development. I am not afraid to say that developers aren’t paying their fair share and we can do a better job promoting smart and fair growth in our city. … Currently, we subsidize developers through a combination of higher taxes and degraded services. We can’t afford more massive projects which refuse to pay their own way. Let’s do the right thing, use our authority to mandate development impact fees and end this absurd practice.” Koch says he also has worked for “both a democratic congressman and county supervisor” and “is a seven-time game show contestant including Jeopardy, Sale of the Century, and Wheel of Fortune.” Like the other eight candidates, he is a West Seattle resident.
IN THE DISTRICT 1 RACE NOW: Tom Koch (declared 2/19/15), Dave Montoure (declared 2/17/15), Lisa Herbold (declared 2/11/15), Shannon Braddock (declared 2/11/15), Brianna Thomas (declared 2/11/15), Phillip Tavel (declared 2/4/15), George Capestany (declared 11/11/14), Amanda Kay Helmick (declared 10/20/14), Chas Redmond (declared 12/20/13). Filing deadline is May 15th; primary election is August 4th. Along with voting on the D-1 position, West Seattle/South Park also will vote on the two “at-large” spots, Positions 8 and 9.
In case you’re about to head outbound – from the scanner, there’s word of a gravel spill on the eastbound bridge, possibly tracing all the way back to The Junction, and police are saying they’ll likely be closing the middle lane on the bridge near the 1st Avenue South exit. On the 1st/Spokane SDOT live-video camera (find it from the lower right of the travelers’ map), you can definitely see traffic stopped on the inside eastbound lanes and flashing lights starting right before the 99 overpass.
1:24 PM: After a brief full closure, all eastbound lanes are open again, per SDOT.
2:09 PM: Metro Routes 21 and 50 were routed off the 1st Avenue South offramp for a while, too, and have just returned to normal. Regarding the gravel, MistiLynn tells us via Twitter, “It was heavy gravel, more like plum-sized rocks …”
11:39 AM: If you’ve been on the Alaskan Way Viaduct this morning and noticed a dust cloud – the Highway 99 tunneling machine is “preparing to break through” the wall of its repair pit, according to a Twitter update a few minutes ago. Earlier this morning, WSDOT published a web update saying the machine had moved 14 of the 20 feet it needs to go to break into its repair pit. It had warned that they expected the machine to overheat and have to stop down, but aside from a stopdown reported last night so other work could be done in the pit, there’s been no word of that happening. WSDOT says it’s switched the pit camera to more frequent updates – every five minutes – so you can check in here (left-center frame).
12:44 PM: And while we were away from the desk for a bit:
The top of my cutterhead has broken through the wall. I'll dig 2 more ft. before stopping to build a ring. pic.twitter.com/SVcThsimnv
— Bertha (@BerthaDigsSR99) February 19, 2015
Online, WSDOT adds:
This is just the beginning of the repair effort being led by Seattle Tunnel Partners and manufacturer Hitachi Zosen. The machine will continue to move forward in 6 ½ foot increments, stopping to build rings on its way into the pit. When the front end of the machine is fully exposed, crews will begin the disassembly process. STP has told us that taking the machine apart and lifting it to the surface will take significant time and effort.
ADDED 5:22 PM: WSDOT offers this video including the first glimpse of the machine’s cutterhead (most visible around 1:15 in):
Two reader reports start today’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup:
STOLEN BIKE: Sonya hopes you’ll be on the lookout for her bicycle:
Sometime in the evening of 2/17/15 at 10 pm to the morning of 2/18/15, my Ivory Raleigh with a pink stripe and two different tires was stolen from Fauntleroy Way SW and Hudson SW.
It’s been reported to police, so if you see it, please call them (and you can mention it in comments here too, but PLEASE make the call to police first).
POSSIBLE PROWLERS THIS MORNING: From Chris:
Just wanted to give Morgan junction residents a heads up. Around 9 am today there were two white men in all black with hoods and backpacks walking up and down 42nd Ave and Holly St, back and forth peering into cars and yards. Once they ran into a few pedestrians and realized the street wasn’t deserted, they called their third buddy who picked them up in a light blue 1970s Plymouth or Lincoln with a white vinyl roof. They slowly cruised the block once more and then rolled through the Thriftway parking lot. SPD said they’d send an officer to the area, I haven’t seen anyone yet. All three were white, in their 20s. Black pants, black sweatshirts. Car had a dog in the passenger seat too. Wasn’t sure of breed.
From recent police reports:
SUPERMARKET ROBBERY: As precinct Capt. Steve Wilske explained at this week’s WS Crime Prevention Council meeting, many incidents classified as robberies start as shoplifting. What happened last Saturday night at the Jefferson Square Safeway is one of them. A cashier told police a man walked past her with a bottle of vodka. She asked, “Are you going to pay for that?” He replied, profanely, that he didn’t have to. Another man then walked by with a 20-ounce Coke and claimed he’d already paid; the cashier knew he didn’t since she was the only one open. Finally, a third man tried to buy a bottle of vodka with a credit card that wasn’t working, possibly as a distraction. The store manager went out into the parking lot and while writing down the suspects’ plate, he told police, one of the three men got out, asked him, “Is there a f—ing problem?” and then said, “You’re going to die tonight,” before telling one of the other men in the car, “Get the gun.” The manager went back into the store and called 911. The three men are described in the report as black, 18-21 years old, 5’3″, 5’5″, and 5’7″, slender, and their car was a 2007 silver Toyota Camry.
BURGLARY NEAR LINCOLN PARK: Sometime between 10 am and 8 pm last Sunday, a house in the 7500 block of Fauntleroy Way SW was burglarized. The report says items taken included a TV, computer, and drum set; police noted that “every room in the house” and “every closet, dresser and cabinet” had been looked into by the burglar(s).
LICENSE-PLATE THEFT: This can be so subtle, it’s not noticed, so check your plates every so often. Last Friday in the 2300 block of Alki SW, a parking-enforcement officer called a patrol officer after finding a maroon BMW with plates that checked to a VW van owned by someone nearby (on Bonair). The BMW’s owner lived in the same area and didn’t know his plates had been stolen and replaced with the stolen plates. The police report concluded, “It appears someone stole the other plates to put on the BMW so they could take the BMW plates without the (owner) noticing.”
CAR STOLEN, THEN FOUND: A 1996 Honda Accord was stolen from the 6500 block of California SW in Morgan Junction last Friday night. It turned up in Tukwila on Monday night.
RACKS TAKEN: In the 4500 block of SW Hemlock, east of Lincoln Park, someone stole racks from a car in a driveway the night of February 9th/10th, a Yakima rack system including three bike mounts.
FOLLOWUP ON STOLEN-ITEMS REPORT IN LAST ROUNDUP: We’re getting more police reports with full narrative info these days via public-disclosure reports, with the help of an automated program written by Tim Clemans, who has been working with SPD on ways to get more information out to more people, faster. Here’s an example of how more information can make a difference: If you read this recent roundup, you might recall we mentioned a box of stolen items found in Gatewood, including a bowling trophy with a name on it. WSB commenter HelperMonkey was at the bowling alley a few hours after reading that item, happened to look up at the screen for the alley next to her group, and saw what looked to be the same name. She went over, found the man, showed him the story on her phone, and asked if it was him. It was. (Keep in mind, we published only the first and last letters of his six-letter surname.) We hope he has his items (which had been taken by SPD to put into evidence) back now, or will soon. What made the difference here was the name we got from the official report – looking back in our archives, we think this reader report involved the same items.
The same method of obtaining more reports which otherwise have NOT been routinely available also led to the much-discussed recent story about tax-time scam calls. Not a new scam, but there was a reason to warn people about it again, once we obtained a police report about someone who actually had been victimized.
We’re still only able to access a fraction of local police reports, so reader reports matter *massively* in terms of continuing to get the word out. And while we know some reports are shared on neighborhood-specific, non-public lists, it also helps to get that kind of information out more widely because criminals seldom restrict themselves to one particular neighborhood – what happens in Admiral might be important for Arbor Heights to know, etc. Send info to editor@westseattleblog.com any time. Thanks!
(Downtown, from West Seattle Elementary; photo by Joe Wolf, shared via WSB Flickr group)
Good morning! Some of what’s up today/tonight, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar (where you can browse ahead days/weeks any time):
NEW LAFAYETTE FAMILIES’ TOUR: 10 am at Lafayette Elementary, next year’s incoming families are invited to come take a tour. (California/Lander)
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Not in West Seattle, but with West Seattleite involvement – Irene Stewart developed the script; Edgar Riebe of Captive Eye Media produced it: “Our Elders, Our Selves: Visiting the Past, Planning for Our Future,” described as “a 45-minute documentary about the evolution of aging programs and services in Seattle-King County.” Free premiere showing 10 am-noon today at City Hall downtown – details here. (5th/Cherry)
(added) ALKI ELEMENTARY BENEFIT AT MARINATION MA KAI: 4-8 pm, a portion of food proceeds at Marination ma kai will be donated to the Alki Elementary PTA. (1660 Harbor SW)
KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT EVENT: Incoming kindergartener for Seattle Public Schools? 5:30-7 pm at West Seattle Elementary, you can get help in signing her/him up now (the sooner, the better, for schools’ planning purposes among other reasons). Details here. (6760 34th SW)
WSHS GIRLS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFF GAME: 6:30 pm, the West Seattle High School girls play Juanita at Bellevue College. (3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue)
WEST SEATTLE TIMEBANK: 6:30 pm potluck, 7 pm meeting – even if you’re not involved with the Timebank already, come find out how it works – details here. (Oregon/California)
ALKI COMMUNITY COUNCIL: 7 pm at Alki UCC, the ACC talks about topics including the early arrival of visitor-noise season “on recent warm weekends.” (62nd/Hinds)
BELLYDANCE SHOWCASE: 7:30 pm, free and all-ages at Skylark, the monthly Alauda bellydance showcase shakes things up. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
SLHS BOYS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFF GAME: 8:15 pm, the Seattle Lutheran High School boys play Lummi Nation at Mount Vernon Christian – as you’ll see on the SLHS website, you can call to ask about being on the fan bus leaving at 5:30. (820 W. Blackburn Road, Mount Vernon)
NIGHTLIFE … the music starts at 5 and continues into the night. Venues and listings are on the calendar.
(WS high/low bridges and Highway 99 views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
Good morning! We start with transit and transportation news, while keeping an eye out for trouble spots.
FERRY SWITCH: Washington State Ferries says that starting today on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run, “the 87-vehicle Evergreen State will replace the 124-vehicle Cathlamet for approximately two weeks while the Cathlamet moves to Seattle/Bremerton to replace another vessel undergoing emergent repairs. Passengers should note that the Evergreen State has been moved back into service to maintain the three-boat schedule on the route. The Evergreen State is an older, slower vessel and passengers are advised that the vessel may not be able to maintain the schedule during periods of heavy commuter traffic. During the weekday, the Evergreen State will remain in the #2 sailing position. The vessel will not have Wi-Fi, galley service or vending machines on board.”
TRANSPORTATION NEWS, IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The tunnel machine is moving again! … Metro-funding followups, including RapidRide split
DELRIDGE/ORCHARD: The work that led to the flashing traffic signals earlier this week is indeed Seattle Public Utilities work related to the CSO project nearby, we confirmed.
7:01 AM: Crash reported at 17th and Roxbury.
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