West Seattle, Washington
31 Saturday
(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
10:12 PM: Police and fire are headed to Alki/Harbor for a report of a possible stabbing. More to come.
10:16 PM: Per scanner, police are closing Harbor to traffic NB where it turns into Alki.
10:19 PM: Victim has life-threatening wounds, also per scanner. Other routes to Alki might be closed because of the search – such as California Way and Bonair – so avoid the area.
10:40 PM: WSB’s Christopher Boffoli is at the scene and says the victim has died. This is the second homicide case in West Seattle in less than four weeks, since the deadly shooting at West Seattle Stadium on May 8th. Last year, there was one murder at Alki – we noted that May 23rd marked one year since 23-year-old Jordan D. Thomas was shot and killed at 62nd/Alki; that case remains unsolved.
10:53 PM: No arrest(s) reported so far. No clear description of the killer(s), either, but police are reported to be canvassing for surveillance video in the area as well as potential witnesses.
11:44 PM: After resolving a communications problem, we’re receiving images and information again from our crew at the scene. If you are having trouble placing where this happened, the victim is on the Alki Trail, just to the right of the right edge of the photo above; Christopher says it’s directly across the street from 1140 Alki SW. Also note, roads into the area remain closed.
12:05 AM: Christopher reports that homicide and CSI personnel continue arriving. He meantime is expecting a briefing soon from an SPD public-information officer who has arrived and is getting briefed.
12:35 AM: Christopher has just talked with SPD spokesperson Det. Patrick Michaud, who says the victim was in his mid-20s. Police do not believe this was a random attack. Nor do they have a description of suspect(s) or vehicle. Det. Michaud also confirms there is an additional crime scene at which they recovered a glove, and says police are interviewing witnesses and friends of the victim as well as reviewing surveillance and dash-cam footage from the area. If you have any information, you’re asked to call SPD’s homicide/assault tip line at 206-233-5000.
1:35 AM: Added above this line, Christopher’s video of what Det. Michaud told him at the scene.
SUNDAY NIGHT NOTE: No new information today. Sometime between this morning and evening, someone left a few flowers at the scene, the only hint of what happened last night:
We will be following up with police again tomorrow.
On Friday, we brought you an update on The Junction’s next mixed-use project, the one we discovered in city files three months ago – 4747 California SW, with an “all-West Seattle team” planning the development, including property owner Jack Miller, best known as Husky Deli‘s proprietor. As you saw in our Friday report, the packet for the upcoming Design Review meeting confirms Husky Deli will move into the new building when it’s done. And today, Jack Miller sent us this first-person explanation of his plan:
The Heart and Soul of Husky Deli and the West Seattle Junction
By Jack MillerIt’s been more than three months since the news broke about our plan to build a new building so that we can move Husky Deli four doors south in the West Seattle Junction. Since then, I’ve been truly honored to hear so many positive reactions. It’s also been a good chance to hear the questions people have about the project. I hope this little article will provide some answers and perspective for anyone who is interested.
Our goal, of course, is to keep Husky Deli going in the Junction and to give the next generations of our family a chance to shape it in their own image and make it a success.
Many people know that Husky has been around since 1932, when my grandfather, Herman Miller, bought a tiny grocery store called Edgewood Farms that operated in what is now the card section of Northwest Art & Frame. Right away, he put in an ice-cream machine in the front window, and then a soda fountain. Fresh-sliced meats and cheeses soon followed, and by the end of World War II, my dad, John, and my uncles had turned it into a full-fledged deli.
My dad moved Husky two doors north to our present location in 1969, three years after I started working here. In 1975, when he had a heart attack, I left college to fill in, and I’ve been here ever since. Just like society, Husky has evolved, and now we focus on ready-made convenience foods while still keeping the traditional deli, ice cream and specialty items. My kids have lived through all this and are grown up now, Kate (and husband Tom), John, and Tony – run a lot of the business day to day. Just like me, they love Husky, they love the Junction, and they’re the future.
But the future isn’t the exact footprint where we are now. Anyone who comes into Husky knows that we still look a lot like 1969 and that the structure needs some basic work, from the cramped restrooms to the up-and-down flooring to everything in between. My brother, Joe, who owns the building, has no plan to develop it anytime soon, and with the new Seattle minimum wage and other increasing costs, and being a small business we will be unable to shut down our business for an extended period of time to remodel. At the same time, we all agree that we need the ability to serve the ever-growing West Seattle population by updating and streamlining the Husky.
To make that happen, we are looking to move four doors south to where Sleepers furniture store and Bikram Yoga (which some of you remember was Junction Feed & Seed) are located. Those two buildings have a lot of the same big challenges that the current Husky building has. The buildings are in bad shape from top to bottom, and they are not landmark historical buildings worth saving.
So our plan is to start anew. The only way we see for us to put together enough capital for my children to create the Husky of the future and to stay in the Junction is to tear down these two buildings and construct a taller one on that combined site, with apartments on the top to help pay for the new Husky down below.
On first thought, this plan might not sound like something that would reflect the Junction’s low-scale character. We all have seen other tall buildings recently go in and start to create the feeling of a narrow corridor. That’s not what I want to create, and I don’t think it’s what most people want in the Junction. We think it’s important to keep, as much as possible, the feeling of our small-town, downtown West Seattle. So we want to create something different that really focuses on the Husky’s shop space instead of the upper levels.
The apartments above the store are set back to minimize the visual impact along California Avenue, and retain the historical retail storefront height. The project will contain a commercial kitchen and ice cream plant so we can continue to prepare our own food and make ice cream on site. (And yes, we will make sure that the beautiful Eric Grohe mural on the south side of the yoga building gets either reproduced or replaced with and updated mural on our new structure.)
We have been talking with the Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNO) about our plan, and they want us to put together a building that sets a good example for future new buildings on that side of the Junction. That makes perfect sense to me. We are planning something with good neighborhood qualities and hopefully anything built after us will follow suit.
My biggest concern is that Husky will continue on in our family and serve the overall family of West Seattle – that we can maintain the traditions started by my grandfather 86 years ago, that we can update everything but still keep it cool, and that my kids can have the chance to feel like it’s theirs, too, so that they will put their heart and soul into it.
The Junction is all about heart and soul. It’s about actively local ownership, where you can meet the people who own and run the stores, where there’s an active business association that puts on really good activities, and easy transit (even light rail, which will come sooner than we think). It’s also about the common feeling that it’s our main neighborhood business district – the hub of our small town in the big city.
Throughout West Seattle, a lot of older folks who have lived here forever have sold their homes for huge amounts of money to younger families who moved in from all over the country. They were not originally West Seattle kids, but they really want to embrace West Seattle, and the character of the Junction, and want to be a part of it.
All of that sort of seeped into me as I grew up. My dad wanted us at Husky all the time. Even if we were running around in the backroom, he wanted us close-by. We helped make ice cream in the middle of the night. He had us running back and forth with ice-cream scoopers getting people cones because he wanted us active in it all.
We are blessed in the fact that we have been here long enough that we are a big part of the community.
When we move a few doors down the street, it might be a new building, but it’s going to be the same people. It’s become a huge comfort zone for me, being in West Seattle with all these people that we know. I know my kids agree, and I trust that West Seattle will feel the same way.
Thanks for reading this. If you have any questions or comments about our project, I would love to hear from you. Drop in the store and say hi anytime.
Again, as we reported Friday, the first Southwest Design Review Board meeting for the 4747 California SW project is now set for July 19th. The draft packet for that meeting, as linked in our Friday update, can be seen here (PDF).
Last summer, Thunderpussy performed in the West Seattle Junction, headlining Summer Fest. Tonight, they were back in The Junction, taking the stage at Easy Street Records in honor of their debut album:
Easy Street proprietor Matt Vaughan welcomed the crowd:
After a busy day on the peninsula, it was definitely one of tonight’s hot tickets, with the ESR performance space filling up pre-show:
Sighted outside pre-show: County Executive Dow Constantine and 4-year-old daughter Sabrina:
Tonight’s Easy Street show kicked off an international tour.
Thunderpussy is headed back east, then to Canada, and beyond, starting next week.
Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:
HIT-RUN VICTIM HOPES YOU CAN HELP: From Laetitia:
I was a victim of a hit and run (Friday) on 35th and Willow, at 5:10 pm.
I was outside of my car, and was locking the door when a white Jeep hit me on the back, and knocked me down. Witnesses saw the driver stop, then leave the scene. Police was called and i was transported to the hospital. I now have 3 broken vertebraes, and a painful recovery ahead. Can you get the word out? Maybe someone can help find this person so he can be held responsible for what he did.
SUBARU STOLEN ON VIDEO: From Nadine:
Our 2015 white Subaru Forester was stolen this morning at 6:15 am from in front of our house on 36th Ave SW between Hinds and Manning. The doors were locked – thieves were caught on neighbors web cam … These guys look like pros – we reported to SPD immediately.
You can see the video here – watch the upper right. If you see the car – plate #AWC6229 – call 911.
BURGLARY: MR reports, “Household break-in at 35th Ave SW and Holly sometime after 8:05 am 5/31. Most likely in the afternoon. It was reported to police approximately 8:30 pm 5/31. Jewelry, credit cards stolen and passport. If you saw anything please call police with the information.”
P.S. Burglary- and auto-theft-prevention advice is in this month’s newsletter from Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Jennifer Danner – read it here.
If you went to West Seattle High School – this reunion’s for you. The corridors and gathering spaces of the campus at 3000 California SW are abuzz right now, on an early Saturday evening, as the WSHS Alumni Association hosts an annual tradition, the All-School Reunion. Whatever year you graduated, your class is gathering in a room somewhere on campus; this year’s 50th-anniversary class, 1968, gets special honors, with memorabilia and more in the Commons. And at 5:30 in the Theater, alums will gather to celebrate 20 scholarship recipients, and this year’s WSHS Hall of Fame inductees, Lisa Bergman – a musician, radio personality, and Class of 1973 member – and philanthropist Paul Folino (Class of 1963). If you’re here – or headed this way – don’t miss the classic cars outside (between the school and Hiawatha).
There’s an unofficial afterparty tonight at Whisky West (6451 California SW; WSB sponsor), too, starting when this wraps up around 7 pm.
HONK Fest West is on in downtown WC! pic.twitter.com/3v1KWZ0dWz
— White Center Now (@whitecenternow) June 2, 2018
2 PM: A day full of fun continues with the street-band festival HONK! Fest West taking over the heart of downtown White Center for the rest of the day, until 6 pm. We previewed it here last month – you might recall the festival’s day in The Junction back in 2010. Today, 16th SW is closed between Roxbury and SW 98th, with “stage” areas at either end, plus another one on 98th (closed between 15th and 17th) east of 16th.
The band list and map are on the HONK! Fest West home page. You will also find lineup boards by each stage – bands coming up range from Garfield HS musicians to the Seahawks’ famed Blue Thunder. Get down here – it’s all free.
8:05 PM: A few more photos:
And in case you missed Garfield – we had video in this tweet on our @whitecenternow feed:
Garfield High School band at 16th/Roxbury as @HONKFestWest continues! pic.twitter.com/RbQfd3jFcn
— White Center Now (@whitecenternow) June 2, 2018
WCN is also where we’re adding even more photos and video. Meantime, the third and final day of HONK! Fest West is tomorrow in Columbia City; day one, Friday, was in Georgetown.
12:39 PM: It’s that one day of the year when you’ll find all the fishing-related activity inland – gear demos/tryouts, classes, and more are all happening at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park (4503 Beach Drive SW) during the annual Emerald Water Anglers (WSB sponsor) Fly Fest. That includes, coming up at 1, the highly competitive (and tasty) EWA Staff Cookoff:
See the plan for the rest of the day here.
4:26 PM: We don’t know yet who won, but the dishes in contention sounded scrumptious – from a pork-belly banh mi to a fancy BLT to scallop sliders. Meantime, Fly Fest was also an occasion for EWA and the fishing community to give back. For one, while classes and clinics were free, donations were accepted for Casting for Recovery. For two, the Wild Steelhead Coalition was represented to accept a special donation:
EWA proprietor Dave McCoy’s daughter Nessa McCoy created art to sell at the shop and by donating $2.50 from each piece, raised $1.800 for the WSC!
EWA’s shop is at 4502 42nd SW in The Junction.
11:38 AM: Perfect day for a 5K … and an obstacle course … and a Senior Saunter … and a Youth Dash … the four events comprising the second annual Loop the ‘Lupe at Walt Hundley Playfield! More than 400 people were signed up by the time the warmups started, preceding the obstacle course. Next up, the family 5K fun run/walk at 11:45, followed by the quarter-mile seniors’ loop at 12:15, kids’ 1K at 1 pm. Even if you aren’t joining in, you’re welcome to join the party at the playfield (34th and Myrtle) – beer garden and music! WSB is this year’s media sponsor; the event supports the social-outreach work at Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Walmesley Center. We’ll have more photos in a bit.
ADDED MID-AFTERNOON: As promised!
They ran … they climbed …
They made it through the mud …
Then there were the fearsome squirter-wielding OLG kindergarteners along the obstacle course, too:
Did we mention balancing?
(added) And here’s how it all began:
When all is tallied, we’ll add an update from race director Brian Callanan.
(First 5 photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
10:59 AM: With just three months left until Roxhill Elementary students and staff move to renovated EC Hughes in Sunrise Heights, community members are busy today making sure the kids will have a great place to play.
It’s been one year since Friends of Roxhill Elementary – formerly its PTSA – started its campaign to get funding and other community support for the playground – and today they’re building it! Organizers say more than enough volunteers showed up to help, and shortly after 9 am, they got going. Roxhill principal Tarra Patrick is there to help too:
MIDDAY UPDATE: Progress!
We’ll be checking back later for another progress update. If you weren’t able to help today, stay tuned for a future work party to get wood chips in place.
7:50 PM: One more view that we took late in the day:
And the final two photos and words of thanks are from Friends of Roxhill:
What a gorgeous day to build a playground!
We had about 75 volunteers through the course of the day taking on the huge task of putting together and installing (and putting in the concrete footings!) not just a playground… But what we think is the coolest new playground in West Seattle. With a prime all-day view of Rainier, we laughed, sighed and tried to stay hydrated while our community worked hard together. Minor mistakes were made. Tools were dropped. A few thumbs are bruised. Tomorrow, we will ache. But we did this, together. This is big. It’s more than a playground. It’s a celebration of new beginnings and a stake in the ground. It’s just the start.
Thank you, community, for your hard labor in support of our labor of love.
-Friends of Roxhill Elementary
That toddler was admiring one of the ~250 trout stocked in a temporary pond at Seacrest Pier by the West Seattle Sportsmen’s Club for its annual free fishing event this morning.
As noted in our calendar and today’s highlight list, you have until 11 am – the club provides the gear as well as the fish. Casey is helping out with cleaning the catch:
The club does this every year – you can check on their other activities at wssportsmen.org.
Haven’t been to Seacrest? 1660 Harbor SW – where you’ll also find the Water Taxi dock.
(Pileated Woodpecker, photographed at Lincoln Park by Kerry Murphy)
So much happening as our West Seattle weekend begins! But first:
TRAFFIC ALERT: Another reminder that NB I-5 is closed at points both south and north of the West Seattle Bridge. Maps and WSDOT info are here.
But why leave the peninsula? Look at everything that’s happening!
HELP BUILD A PLAYGROUND: Today’s the day to build the new playground at EC Hughes for Roxhill Elementary students’ move there this fall. Just show up at 8 am or 12:30 pm to help! Tools provided. (7700 34th SW)
KIDS’ FISHING POND: 8 am-11 pm at Seacrest Pier, the West Seattle Sportsmen’s Club invites everyone 14 and under to try catching the ~250 trout with which they’ve stocked this portable pond:
Free; equipment provided. (1660 Harbor SW)
EMERALD WATER ANGLERS’ FLY FEST: 9 am to 4 pm at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park, join Emerald Water Anglers (WSB sponsor) in a celebration of all things fly fishing – and more. Here’s the schedule of classes, workshops, demos, even the always-popular staff cookoff. (4503 Beach Drive SW)
TREE WALK: Walk the Genesee Hill area to talk and learn about its trees! Meet at Ercolini Park at 9:30 am. (48th SW/SW Alaska)
WEST DUWAMISH GREENBELT HIKES: 10 am and/or 1 pm, celebrate National Trails Day by taking a guided hike in the West Duwamish Greenbelt. (14th SW/SW Holly)
LOOP THE ‘LUPE: Four ways to have fun at the second annual Loop the ‘Lupe at Walt Hundley Playfield – 11 am obstacle course, 11:45 am family fun run/walk, 12:15 pm Senior Saunter, 1 pm Youth Dash. Not registered? No problem – do it on-site, and mention the code WSB10 for a discount. Get the details in our preview – WSB is a co-sponsor. (34th SW/SW Myrtle)
BENEFIT BARBECUE: West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) will grill up lunch for you, starting at 11 am, and proceeds benefit Pencil Me In For Kids. (4201 SW Morgan)
GATOR GREEN FEST: 11 am-2 pm, you’re welcome at a free fun festival at Gatewood Elementary – arts and crafts, facepainting, bubbles, and see how the playfield project is going. (4320 SW Myrtle)
COLMAN POOL’S SECOND PRE-SEASON WEEKEND: Noon-7 pm, three sessions at West Seattle’s only city-owned outdoor pool, on the shore at Lincoln Park. Here’s the schedule. (8011 Fauntleroy Way SW)
(added) HONK! FEST WEST IN WHITE CENTER: Second day of this street-band celebration is happening in White Center, as previewed here last month. 1-6 pm – free – see the official site for the band list and maps.
SWINSON AND THE EXPEDITION: All-ages show at The Skylark, 3 pm. $5 cover. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL ALL-SCHOOL REUNION: 4-7 pm, all alumni are invited back to West Seattle High School for the annual celebration!
THUNDERPUSSY AT EASY STREET: The up-and-coming rockers are back in West Seattle (where they headlined Summer Fest last year) to celebrate their album release with an in-store concert and signing event at 6 pm. The newest details on how to get in are on the Easy Street website. (California/Alaska)
SUPPORT SANISLO … at the Sanislo PTA‘s annual dinner/auction. This little school needs an extra community boost. 6 pm at the Masonic Hall – tickets, auction preview, more, all here. (4736 40th SW)
TUG INN CUSTOMER APPRECIATION PARTY: Starting at 6 pm, the Tug Inn is ready to show you how much they love you. Two bands, drink deals, and more. (2216 SW Orchard)
WEST SEATTLE MEANINGFUL MOVIE: This month, it’s “Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction,” at Neighborhood House High Point. Doors open 6:30 pm; movie, followed by optional discussion, starts at 7. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)
WSHS REUNION AFTERPARTY: At Whisky West (WSB sponsor), starting at 7 pm. Tim Turner will rock the house! More info in our calendar listing. 21+. (6451 California SW)
THAT’S NOT EVEN EVERYTHING … see for yourself via our complete calendar.
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