West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
We published a question earlier today, on behalf of a reader who asked, and anyone else who might be wondering: Who’s still accepting toys for Christmas gift donations in our area? Alice Braverman replied:
Navos, a nonprofit organization located in West Seattle and Burien, serves the most vulnerable children and youth in our community. Our clients include school-age children who have been removed from their homes due to neglect and abuse as well as older youth with serious mental health issues. We also serve all ages of low income children and youth with outpatient services in their homes and in over 40 schools. We would be pleased to accept donations of toys to distribute to our clients. We can arrange to pick them up tomorrow morning before noon if anyone in our community would like to donate to Navos and the children we help. Contact us at development@navos.org. Community support is vital to sustaining our programs and services so thank you for your consideration.
If you know of anyone else also still accepting toy donations (or other gift items) tomorrow, please e-mail us and/or comment.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports, starting with a followup on the Friday robbery/attack first reported here on Tuesday:
ROBBERY/ATTACK SUSPECT CHARGED: 19-year-old Diego Allejundro Gonzalez is now charged with first-degree robbery, accused of attacking a 67-year-old Highland Park woman last Friday and stealing her glasses. Along with filing the charge, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office asked that Gonzalez’s bail be doubled, to $150,000, and the jail register indicates that it has been. The charging documents make the same allegations we published here last night from the police report and probable-cause paperwork – that Gonzalez first tried to break into a house, then attacked the woman as she walked home from visiting her husband at a care facility, punching her in the face twice and running off with her glasses.
The case summary confirms that he is on probation from his plea bargain earlier this year related to a vehicle theft (bargained down to car prowl) and DUI case, saying he was “placed on 24 months probation and was ordered to not possess alcohol to obtain a substance-abuse evaluation and follow all treatment recommendations, and to commit no further law violations. By his egregious behavior in this case, the defendant has shown he is not willing or able to comply with such court orders.” Prosecutors also say he had one juvenile conviction, at age 17, for harassment. The robbery charge incorporates the physical-violence component of the current case.
Meantime, the donation drive that the victim’s friends launched to help her pay for repairing the dental damage done in the attack passed its goal within hours, and was closed. We’re hoping for a followup soon on how she’s doing. We will also track this case through the system.
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Also in Crime Watch, we’re including this reader report with some time sensitivity:
STOLEN BY CAR PROWLER(S): From Angelene:
My car was broken into last night on the 4500 block of 42nd Avenue SW. It has been reported to the police. Very unique items were stolen, and I am hoping you can post them in an effort to locate them if selling is attempted:
2 Canon 5D Mark 2 bodies
1 Tamron 24-70 lens
1 50 mm 1.4 lens
1 large leather camera bagThese are pretty obscure professional kitchen knives and unless you read Japanese, might be hard to identify. However, they look like really nice kitchen knives and there aren’t usually a lot of them floating around outside of a few niche shops.
Black canvass and leather kitchen knife bag by Boldric containing
1 Singatirin Honyaki 240mm Chefs knife (crappy yellow laquered wood case”
1 Moritaka Aogami 210mm Chefs knife (“no hand grab” sticker on wood case)
1 Watanabe Kaibou Deba 210 butcher knife
1 Richmond Honesuki 165mm butcher knife
1 Yoshikane SKD 95mm paring knife
1 Sakai Yusuke 180mm petty knife
1 Blue Thermopen probe thermometer
1 Small .1x600g digital scale with Thomas Hammer Coffee sticker on top
Angelene said they will of course be watching various websites in case these turn up, but wanted to get the word out locally too.
Another Highway 99 tunneling-machine update from WSDOT before the holiday: The video above shows the machine building the tunnel’s 160th ring. (The music you hear isn’t a holiday feature, WSDOT says, explaining in the YouTube caption that it’s a safety alert.) The full online update says in part:
… In all, Bertha has excavated 8 feet of tunnel since STP restarted the machine early Tuesday. STP crews – which have been working long hours in the weeks leading up to the machine’s restart – will take a break over the holidays before resuming tunneling in the first week of January.
When work resumes, crews will mine through the concrete wall of the access pit and into the native soils that will serve as the next stage of STP’s testing process. This section of the tunnel route – like the 1,091 feet that came before it – is protected by underground walls that were built to hold the ground in place while crews continue to test the machine.
Bertha will mine toward an underground block of concrete approximately 450 feet north of the access pit. This area is the third and final protected maintenance stop, or safe haven, that STP built prior to the start of tunneling. According to the STP’s most recent schedule, the machine will spend up to one month at the safe haven while crews perform maintenance and make final adjustments before tunneling beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct. …
The update also includes a reminder of the two-weeks-or-so Viaduct closure planned when that happens.
(King County Assessor’s Office photo of southern part of proposed development’s site)
For the first time in seven months, a major new development proposal for West Seattle has appeared in city files. This one is for the southeast corner of Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Edmunds, across from the south end of under-construction megaproject The Whittaker, and immediately south of the planned CVS drugstore site. This project’s official address is 4754 Fauntleroy Way SW and its site plan was just filed this week. It’s proposed as a seven-story, mixed-use building with 125 apartments over ground-floor commercial space and 90 offstreet parking spaces, on two parcels totaling 18,000 square feet, the southernmost of which currently holds the Capitol Loans pawn shop; the site is zoned NC3-85. This will have to go through Design Review – no date yet, as this is a very early-stage proposal that just appeared in the system. The site-plan document shows Caron as the architecture firm on the project. This would mean redevelopment for three of the four corners at that intersection (counting the 4-story, 50+-unit proposal at 4801 Fauntleroy, the southwest corner).
Most of the gift drives we had featured in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide are over now, so that the recipient organizations have time to get everything wrapped and delivered for Christmas. So after getting a reader note asking what to do with unwrapped, unopened toys, we’re asking you: Anyone still in need of donated items for Christmas gifts, toys or otherwise? If so, please let us know what/who and when/where dropoffs can be made. You can e-mail us at editor@westseattleblog.com – we’ll add to the story – or, you can comment below. Thanks!
Thanks to Lynn Hall for the photo of Washington State Ferries‘ M/V Puyallup under tow eastbound in Elliott Bay this morning, headed to Vigor on Harbor Island. It’s been three weeks since Puyallup left service on the Bainbridge Island route after reported propeller damage. We checked with WSF to see if today’s sighting was a sign it’ll be back soon. Short answer: No. Longer – WSF spokesperson Ian Sterling tells WSB, “It’s going in for a closer look and repair of the damage caused by striking something under the water a few weeks back (likely a chain or cable). Between that and scheduled maintenance, we don’t expect it to be back in service for a number of weeks.” If all goes according to schedule, though, the Seattle-Bainbridge run will be back to full capacity in about a week or so, which is when M/V Wenatchee is scheduled to return, after sea trials following maintenance work at Vigor.
Thanks to West Seattle High School boys’ basketball head coach Keffrey Fazio for the photo and report:
West Seattle HS just finished up the annual WSHS Wildcat Winter Mini Basketball Camp. 65 kids came for a two-day basketball camp for grades 4th through 8th. Keep a look out for the next WSHS basketball camp!
Speaking of WSHS basketball – both the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams are undefeated and leading Metro League 3A so far this year. While the girls are off this week, the boys play at home tonight vs. Thomas Jefferson High School at the WSHS gym, 6:30 pm (with a C game at 3 pm and junior varsity at 4:45 pm).
(Brightly lit house at 34th SW & SW 114th in Arbor Heights. Thanks to Kelly for this photo and also to Steph for the tip!)
The list of lights is in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide, which continues on through listings for New Year’s Eve/Day, and yielded some of what you see below (as did our year-round Event Calendar):
ILLUSIONS OPEN HOUSE: Until 7 pm today, it’s the annual Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) Holiday Open House: Buffet, last-minute stocking-stuffer ideas, & more. (5619 California SW)
MUSIC AND SANTA AT THRIFTWAY: Special holiday events at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) – pianist Keith Terhune at 2 pm; Santa Claus, 4-8 pm; Gary Benson on guitar 4:30-7:30 pm. (Fauntleroy/California/Morgan)
POEMS AND STORIES: Poetrybridge‘s monthly poems-and-stories event at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) features Cara Mbaye and Benjamin Schmitt. Plus, community microphone! 7-9 pm. (5612 California SW)
MOONLIGHT LOW-TIDE WALK: Along with the afternoon “king tides” – which switch to morning in a few days – did you realize the tide’s way out at night this week? -2.0 at 9:18 tonight. Even lower on Christmas Eve and Day (which brings the full moon).
Many holiday-season giving drives have wrapped up by now, so that donations can get to their recipients by Christmas. But not this one, which stretches into the New Year: Straight Blast Gym of Seattle (WSB sponsor) is challenging us all to help build a ton-and-a-half mountain of donated food, and it continues through mid-January, as you can see in the Instagram caption above. The timing will be especially helpful as nonprofits often hit a valley after all the pre-holiday drives are done. SBG is at 5050 Delridge Way SW – can’t miss the brightly painted building! – if you’re too busy to get there before Christmas, make a plan to stop by during the quiet time before New Year’s.
The folks at our area’s only year-round city-run aquatic facility, Southwest Pool, asked us to let you know they will be open on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve for:
Adult and Senior Swim 12-1:30 pm
Senior Water Exercise 1:30-2:30 pm
The pool’s closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Its full holiday schedule is online. The overall holiday schedule for Seattle Parks facilities is here.
(Six WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
Good morning! Quiet so far. Looking ahead:
TRANSIT CHANGES FOR CHRISTMAS EVE/DAY: Metro will be on a “reduced weekday” schedule tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and a Sunday schedule on Christmas Day (Friday); the Water Taxi will not operate on Friday; Sound Transit Route 560 will be on a weekend schedule Friday.
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