West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
9:29 PM MONDAY: Next Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and many observe the holiday as a Day of Service, with volunteer work. So far we have three opportunities on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar for that day – a 9 am-noon work party in the Fauntleroy/Juneau triangle and two 10 am-2 pm work parties – one on Longfellow Creek, and another in the West Duwamish Greenbelt. Each of those links will take you to info about the event and how to be part of it. If there are other opportunities in West Seattle on MLK Day, we’d like to add them to the calendar too – please send us the info ASAP, editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you!
ADDED 1:03 PM TUESDAY: One more! From Lina:
Celebrate MLK Day with King County Parks staff and neighbors as we work to improve the health of White Center Heights Park. Event is 10 am-2 pm and we will be learning about the plants and animals of the park, digging out blackberry and planting native trees and shrubs. Please contact Lina Rose for more information – lina.rose@kingcounty.gov, 206.491.5014
(Direct link to draft Admiral Urban Village rezoning map)
As reported here last week, more “community design workshops” are coming up to talk about the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda draft proposals for rezoning, including one for Admiral on February 11th. To get ready for that, tomorrow’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting (7 pm Tuesday, January 10th, The Sanctuary at Admiral [42nd/Lander]) will include an informational discussion with West Seattle community advocate Deb Barker. She co-led the peninsula-wide, community-organized HALA briefing back in November. Come to the ANA meeting to find out what’s being proposed and how best to understand it and comment on it before the proposals get much further down the road.
P.S. City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s newest online update has the latest information on the timeline. As she told us during our “first year in review” interview published last week, this is all expected to play out over most of 2017.
4:14 PM MONDAY: Just found this while going through police reports looking for the newest ones published with narratives:
A 17-year-old girl showed up in a hospital emergency room on Saturday afternoon with a gunshot wound. East Precinct police were dispatched. They talked to the victim’s boyfriend, who they found “pacing outside the emergency room.” The report says he told them it happened in his car at 27th SW and SW Cambridge [map]. He and his girlfriend were in the car with friends of his; one friend, he said, had a gun and while saying “something similar to ‘we’re going to be brothers for life’,” racked the slide on his pistol, and it fired, going through the front passenger seat and through the girl’s chest. They drove to the hospital. Police talked to the girl just before she was taken into surgery and reported that “she made statements consistent with the gunshot being accidental.” They found a bullet hole, bullet, and blood in the car, which was impounded. Police later met with the man whose gun fired; he was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for investigation of assault.
ADDED 9:54 AM TUESDAY: We now have the probable-cause document from the 18-year-old suspect’s bail hearing Monday afternoon. He is a Rainier Valley resident and was released on personal recognizance. The document says that he told police a different story about the gunshot – that he got into the car, noticed a gun on the floor, picked it up with the intent of throwing it out the window, and that, he said, was when it went off. He said he then gave it to his brother, who also was in the car, and told him to get rid of it, adding that he doesn’t know what happened to the gun. He has no criminal record in online statewide files.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes this afternoon, both from local parks:
RECOGNIZE THAT BICYCLE? James Lohman from Seattle Parks sent the photo, saying the bicycle was found while Parks was cleaning up an abandoned camp “on the back side of Camp Long right off Brandon Street.” Now they’re looking for the owner. If it’s yours, or if you have a lead on whose it might be, you can e-mail James at james.lohman@seattle.gov.
WESTCREST WINDOW-SMASHING: This report is via e-mail from Amy:
Yesterday, 1/9, after exploring Westcrest Park to earn their “local explorer badge” for Cub Scouts, my husband, 6 year old son and four other families came back to find all of their cars with smashed windows! This happened around 2:00 at Westcrest Park in the upper parking lot. All cars were rummaged through, but no personal belongings were taken. The police were called, but at this time there are no leads. There are no security cameras at the park even after all the improvements the city has put into Westcrest recently. It’s sad that now 5 families have to repair the damage at our own expense…just imagine all the good things the Scouts could have done with this amount of money! What started out as a fun nature lesson for the kids turned into a frustrating and frightening experience.
(WSB photos unless otherwise credited)
The High Point Library (35th/Raymond) is open again after five weeks of renovations and additions. So we just stopped by to see some of what’s new. Above – the new “accent wall” highlights what’s been added to the kids’ area. In the foreground of our photo is a new filtered computer station also added to the kids’ area, and a new tablet to use. One big – and yet small – feature you’ll see everywhere … new outlets to plug into … your laptop, your charger cord, whatever.
The outlets are at tables, in activity rooms, even inbetween added “soft seating” on the adult side (photo above). In the lobby, you’ll see a new digital display letting you know what’s coming up at the library – visible through the entrance door even if you pass by when the library’s closed:
And at the desk – a self-checkout station that is now fully accessible:
Those are just some of the additions/upgrades! When we stopped in shortly after opening time at 1 pm, some patrons had already arrived to check things out, including Sydney, enjoying the kids’ area:
Thanks to Sydney’s dad Jon for that photo – and thanks to Lisa and Ken on the library staff for showing us around. They point out that a few things have yet to be completed – and a few items are still on the road, expected to arrive later this week, delayed by bad weather back east; the meeting room by the entrance has some new connectivity features that are still being worked on, too. You can read more about the renovations/updates here, including your invitation to join City Librarian Marcellus Turner at the High Point branch for an official celebration on January 29th.
ORIGINAL REPORT, 12:58 PM: About a week and a half ago, Seal Sitters FYI’d us about another dead sea lion on a local beach, just in case anyone asked, saying they had notified Seattle Parks, since in this case, it’s their beach, so it’s their problem. It was in a fairly high-profile place – Seacrest, near the West Seattle Water Taxi dock. It’s still there, according to several people who asked us about it in the past few days, so today we inquired with Parks to see what their plan is.
So far, Parks spokesperson Christina Hirsch tells us, “We have been monitoring the situation and exploring possible options for removing the animal. The beach location is extremely difficult to access with trucks and heavy-lifting equipment because of the retaining wall. We currently don’t believe it is feasible to safely access the site to remove the animal — which we estimate weighs several hundred pounds. For now, we believe the best option is to let nature take its course and for the animal to decompose and/or wash back out to sea. We have signs at the site warning people to stay back.” The highest tides of the month are coming up next weekend, 12.9 feet on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
P.S. If you see a marine mammal on a local beach – alive or not – Seal Sitters’ hotline is 206-905-SEAL.
2:52 PM: Parks spokesperson Hirsch just sent this update after speaking with the Southwest-region crew:
This afternoon, staff were able to manually push the sea lion out into the water with large garden rakes. We had staff members waiting in the water with a large bag to catch the animal. The bag was then manually brought to the edge of the beach and a hoist was used to place it on a truck for disposal.
(Rendering from final design packet for 1307 Harbor SW project)
Almost four years have elapsed since the Alki Tavern closed, with its former building and others in the 1300 block of Harbor Avenue SW deteriorating behind a construction fence. The mixed-use project planned for the site got final Design Review approval almost a full year ago. You might be wondering what’s taking so long before work gets going at the site.
There is progress to report – today’s city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin included this notice of two more approvals for the project, currently described on the city website as “a 6-story structure containing 15 residential units above retail, restaurant, office and custom and craft work in an environmentally critical area,” with offstreet parking for 27 vehicles. (The “craft work” was described during the Design Review process as “design prototyping … (for a) garment manufacturer.”)
But city notices don’t answer the question of “when will work start?” – so, after seeing today’s notice, we contacted a member of the project team, West Seattle architect Tim Rhodes, to ask about the project status. His reply:
The Master Use Permit has been published and we are in the process of getting final permit forms from/to the City of Seattle. We hope to start construction once the final building permits and utility and street use permits are issued.
The process is slow due to on-going construction volume in Seattle. Our client very much wants to have permission to demolish the existing structures and clean up the site to eliminate the old structures, graffiti and remove the illegal occupants who continue to occupy the structures despite all measures taken to make the existing building off-limits.
His firm Rhodes Architecture and Light and Miller Hull Partnership have been working together on the project. We first reported the project site’s sale to Korea-based YMSA Co. Ltd. in January 2013, months before the project proposal itself appeared in city files.
(Killdeer, photographed by Mark Wangerin)
Welcome to a new week! From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, highlights of what’s happening today/tonight:
HIGH POINT LIBRARY REOPENS: After a five-week closure, at 1 pm, the doors (and book drop) will be open again at renovated High Point Library, as previewed here again last night. (35th SW/SW Raymond)
WEST SEATTLE PRESCHOOL FAIR: 5:30-7:30 pm at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, as previewed here. (3050 California SW)
PHYSICAL-THERAPY NIGHT: 5:30-7 pm, stop by West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor) for a free injury assessment by Biojunction Sports Therapy – details in our calendar listing. (2743 California SW)
GATEWOOD PTA TALKS PUBLIC-SCHOOL FUNDING: 6:30 pm at the Gatewood Elementary cafeteria, as previewed here last night. All welcome. (4320 SW Myrtle)
2 EVENING BOOK GROUPS: Two local library branches have their monthly book groups tonight, both at 6:45 pm. At Southwest (35th/Henderson), “Boys in the Boat” by Daniel Brown is this month’s book; at West Seattle (2306 42nd SW), “The Other Language” by Francesca Marciano is this month’s book.
WEST SEATTLE BOOSTER CLUB: At West Seattle High School tonight, this group supporting the school’s athletic programs and students has its next meeting, 7 pm. (3000 California SW)
EVEN MORE for today/tonight … on our complete-calendar page.
(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)
(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
7:01 AM: Good morning! While some areas outside Seattle – especially the South Sound – are having trouble with icy roads this morning, our temps have stayed above freezing. No problems reported in or from West Seattle so far.
COMING UP THIS WEEK: A few things you should know –
*The streetlight-repair work on the west end of the West Seattle Bridge is now scheduled for 9 am-4 pm Tuesday and Wednesday, as announced last week:
Westbound work will occur between 9 a.m. and noon on these days, and will require the closure of the Admiral Way exit. Motorists who would use this exit are asked to consider taking the Harbor Ave SW/Avalon Way SW exit instead.
Eastbound work will occur between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on these days, during which the eastbound curb lane will be closed. The closure will extend from approximately where the roadway turns in and out of West Seattle to the Delridge Way SW onramp.
7:48 AM: As noted in comments, an earlier note here about an SPS early dismissal this week was in error. So the next change in schedule is not until NEXT MONDAY – no school for MLK Day.
8:20 AM: Headed downtown for a story this morning, so here’s a bridge report from the passenger seat: Sluggish just before the crest of the high-rise, but now moving OK as we head toward the 4th exit. The 99 exit lane is backed up to before the crest. Probably fairly normal but we’re not out in the commute traffic that often.
8:41 AM: We’ve had this problem with 4th before – getting there via the bridge is relatively speedy, then once off the bridge, it can be a crawl to actually get into downtown, and that’s how it’s going right now.
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