West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
We received some questions today about a big deployment of cranes and trucks that took over a block in Gatewood for most of the day, 41st SW between SW Southern and SW Rose. Workers on scene told us they were there to place a prefab DADU (Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit, aka “backyard cottage”). The company involved in this installation was Abodu; permit filings say this DADU was planned to be just under 500 square feet. We weren’t there for the actual placement but it likely looked a lot like this one in Highland Park in early June:
Thanks to Kay for that photo. Same company built that DADU too.
If you can donate blood, Bloodworks Northwest hopes you’ll do it during their upcoming West Seattle pop-ups. Here’s the announcement:
Summer activities like travel, visiting guests, and fun in the sun sometimes prevent would-be donors from donating blood, and blood inventory struggles throughout the season. Our community’s need for blood is constant, no matter the weather.
That gift of blood takes just an hour of your time to give. Our next West Seattle blood donation opportunity is at the Pop-up @ Our Lady of Guadalupe (7000 35th Ave SW) on June 27, 28, 29, 30, and July 6, 7, 8, 14, & 15 in the air-conditioned gym!
We have LOTS of OPEN appointment slots. Please try and help fill one! A local patient will be forever glad you did! Please use this link to sign up.
Masks and appointments are required. For more about the safety of donating blood during the pandemic, eligibility, help booking your appointment and other info, please visit bloodworksnw.org
6:48 PM: Thanks for the tips. The big police response at 34th/Morgan was because of a person in crisis outside the Stewart Manor. He was believed to have possibly had a knife. Police have just ended the standoff and taken him into custody after using a beanbag round. The scene should be clearing soon.
ADDED THURSDAY MORNING: The police-report summary says they first got a call at 3:06 pm:
Officers arrived and located the suspect in an agitated state holding a stick and claiming to want to fight the reporting party. The suspect was observed while the victim was contacted. The victim reported that the suspect had approached his apartment door brandishing a knife while making threats to kill the victim and causing damage to the door. Probable cause was established for felony harassment. The suspect was advised he was under arrest, but he retreated further into a contained rear fence area. The suspect produced a knife and waived it at officers while stating he wanted to fight and was planning suicide by cop. After verbal communications broke down, HNT was requested. A lengthy standoff ensued until the subject’s behavior escalated. After breaking a window with a large rock, the suspect removed his belt and held it as a whip in one hand while waiving the knife around in the other. The suspect began cutting himself with the knife causing multiple lacerations to his torso and arm. In an effort to take the suspect into custody, a less lethal launcher was used resulting in a type II Use of Force. The suspect became compliant shortly thereafter and was taken into custody without further incident. The suspect was transported to HMC for medical treatment before being booked into KCJ.
(HNT = trained officer[s] from the Hostage Negotiation Team.)
If you’re in the Alki area and thought you heard gunfire around midnight, neighbors discovered this morning that you indeed did. Some of it even pierced the walls of a home.
That photo is from Linda, who discovered the damage inside her home – about two blocks east of Alki Playfield – after a neighbor found a bullet casing on the street nearby and texted everyone on the block about it.
Linda subsequently found the broken dishes but didn’t initially connect the two, wondering if there had been an earthquake. She showed her husband, “and he could see the round entry hole from the bullet, so we dashed outside and found three bullet holes in our home’s siding. One went into that cabinet, the second went into a closet, ricocheted around, and then blew out and landed in our living room. The third is apparently lost in the rafters above the ceiling.”
They called 911 and police responded. “They collected the bullets, the bullet casing Anne found, then looked around and located the other two on the other side of the street.” The officer speculated that “the shooters were driving uphill and fired indiscriminately. According to him, this happens a lot, with people shooting guns without targets and not really caring what or whom they hit. One of our neighbors remembered hearing the noise just after midnight, and apparently someone else had called in gunfire to 911 at 12:17 am so he thought it was the same incident.” Police urged them (as we always do if someone texts us about suspected gunfire) to always call 911, even if you’re not sure what you heard.
Linda concludes, “I had managed to convince myself that this kind of incident was typically between people/groups who knew each other and were up to no good, so it’s a bit of a shock to find out that isn’t so.”
Four months after closing what was the Alki Beach Pub for remodeling, its owners – who had just bought the venue three months before that – have unveiled their plan for the space’s future. At the time of closure, Jackie Mallahan and Dan Mallahan promised 2722 Alki Avenue SW would return as a “reimagined space.” They have announced it will be called Driftwood, a restaurant and bar that “takes inspiration from the region surrounding it and aims to showcase Washington’s bountiful connection from mountain to sound.” That includes, the announcement says, “regional community partnerships” with farmers and fishers: “The menu will feature shared plates, mains, and desserts including items such as, Whistling Train Farm snap peas with green strawberries and house made feta, Structures Brewing steamed local clams with glazed pork belly and buttered turnips from Little Big Farm, and Mama’s apple cake with bourbon caramel, sour apple sorbet and creme fraiche.” The bar program promises “coastal cocktails” and a local wine list. Dan Mallahan will be executive chef, with a background including a downtown Seattle seafood-focused wood-fired restaurant called Rider that opened in 2017. Jackie Mallahan has a background as a design/decor entrepreneur and is creating the Driftwood space to be “comfortable yet refined,” with “soft wood tones, sea colors of aqua and green, and stone.”
(Photo courtesy Driftwood)
They’ll have room for 48 people indoors – including bar and counter space – and 22 outdoors. Hours will be 3-10 pm Thursdays through Mondays. They’re hoping to open by late summer and have a Kickstarter campaign going too.
(Photo by Casey Broadwater)
The Seattle Colleges commencement ceremony last night at T-Mobile Park celebrated 3,200 graduates from around the system, including 878 who earned a degree or certificate from South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) – here’s how that breaks down, according to SSC:
*397 graduates earned associate transfer degrees that enable them to transfer to four-year colleges and universities in Washington and beyond to complete their bachelor’s degrees.
*337 graduates earned career training associate of science degrees and certificates that prepare them to enter the workforce immediately.
*100 graduates earned high school diplomas or equivalents, allowing them to take a significant step toward future education and employment opportunities.
*44 graduates earned bachelors of applied science degrees, taking their careers to the next level and increasing their earning potential.
“To the South Seattle College graduating class of 2022 and all of our graduates across Seattle Colleges, you are simply amazing,” SSC president Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap, is quoted as saying at the ceremony. “When I think back over the past two plus years and all of the challenges you have tackled to reach this historic milestone … challenges in the classroom (or learning remotely from home), in your personal and work lives, in our society at large, so many things – big and small – that tried to tear you away from your goal. Well, you never lost that focus, and you have made clear to everyone in this stadium, in this world, that astounding resiliency and determination are at your very core.” Summer quarter begins at SSC on Monday (June 27th).
Back in April, we reported on Admiral UCC Church‘s decision on what future to pursue for its half-acre North Admiral site, after years of discussion, both within the church and with the wider community: The church decided to explore partnering with Homestead Community Land Trust, so that part of the site could become “permanently affordable, ownership-focused housing.” Now the next step: Admiral Church has launched a brief community survey, 10 questions on one page. You can respond here. The church has been journeying toward change for its site for more than three years, realizing that the status quo is financially unsustainable, as discussed in a February community meeting.
10:57 AM: Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting that killed a man in an encampment at 26th/Juneau early Monday. Police say a 911 tip led them to the 43-year-old man in South Delridge (the call log says the 9400 block of Delridge Way SW). He was booked into the King County Jail early today. Jail records show the suspect had spent a month there recently, from May 11th to June 13th, in relation to an auto-theft case.
4:21 PM UPDATE: Court documents reveal more about the murder case, including the victim’s name, Anthony Gonzales; the King County Medical Examiner says he was 58 years old. We are also naming the suspect – Jaycee C. Thompson – as he is already charged in another case (the auto-theft case is actually from a West Seattle incident last year, covered here).
In Monday’s murder, the initial police document says Thompson was a “friend” of Mr. Gonzales, who lived at the encampment. Less than an hour before the shooting, police say, Thompson allegedly assaulted another “friend” in the 9400 block of Delridge Way SW. He then drove to the encampment at 25th/Juneau, where he allegedly ordered someone at gunpoint to take him to the victim’s campsite. Another witness told police that Thompson kicked open the door to Mr. Gonzales’s “makeshift structure” and then said something about money and drugs before shooting the victim in the face.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office provided us with information explaining why Thompson was released from jail a week before this, and what led up to it. The original case was a car theft at the Delridge Arco/AM-PM in March of last year; Thompson was held after that in lieu of $5,000 bail. The KCPAO filed the auto-theft charge against Thompson in April. In August of last year, his lawyer argued for “less-restrictive conditions of release. A Superior Court judge released him on his personal recognizance. In October, a warrant was issued after he failed to show up for a hearing. He was arrested on January 5th. Two weeks later, the Northwest Community Bail Fund posted the $5,000 for his bail, and he was released. Two months later – in March – Thompson again failed to appear for a hearing; another warrant was issued. He was arrested May 11th. On June 13th, his lawyer “made another motion for less restrictive alternatives. THE KCPAO objected to his release – he still had a warrant active in a Pierce County DUI case. A judge released him to the Community Center for Alternative Programs on his personal recognizance,” per KCPAO spokesperson Casey McNerthney. That was one week before this Monday’s murder. The first hearing in that case has just concluded, McNerthney tells us, with no bail decision since the suspect “refused to come to court.”
Just in from Metro:
King County Water Taxi service will be reduced this afternoon, Wednesday, June 22, on the West Seattle and Vashon routes due to a shortage of available workforce.
The following trips are affected:
Downtown to West Seattle: departures at 5:25 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. are canceled.
West Seattle to downtown: departures at 5:45 p.m. and 6:25 p.m. are canceled.
Downtown to Vashon: the departure at 6:30 p.m. is canceled.
Vashon to Downtown: the departure at 6:58 p.m. is canceled.Please note: The 5:30 p.m. is the last trip of the day operating from downtown to Vashon. There is also a two-hour gap in scheduled sailings to West Seattle between the 4:45 p.m. trip and the 6:45 p.m. trip and riders are encouraged to consider alternate travel plans.
Other scheduled trips are expected to operate using available crew members.
We’ll update if anything changes.
Colman Pool doesn’t reopen until Saturday (when this summer’s 7-days-a-wee schedule begins), but Mindi Katzman caught the early-bird duck checking it out in advance. Today brings a brief return to waterfowl-suited weather, along with these events:
(added) TILL DAWN FUNDRAISER: Come to 2 Fingers Social (9211 Delridge Way SW) 4 pm-11 pm to play video games and help get the doors open for sibling bar Till Dawn.
MARINERS’ PRIDE PARTY: Early start to Pride weekend – watch tonight’s M’s game vs. the A’s at Admiral Pub (2306 California SW), 6:40 pm: “Mariners team members will be doing ticket giveaways (via trivia) throughout the game, have some other fun giveaways, photo opps, and rumor has it the Mariner Moose may make an appearance.”
LIVE MUSIC: Locöl Barley & Vine (7902 35th SW) spotlights live music 6:30-8:30 pm Wednesdays, no cover, 21+, rotating artists.
DOCUMENTARY AND DISCUSSION: 7 pm at Kenyon Hall (7904 35th SW): “Please join the West Seattle Troublemakers for a screening of the award-winning short documentary ‘Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa.’ After we watch this 14-minute film, we will have a conversation about the state of reproductive freedoms in our region and learn how you can get involved.”
KUNDALINI YOGA, MEDITATION, SOUND BATH: New night and location – Inner Alchemy now presents this weekly event at Jet City Labs, 7:30 pm Wednesdays. (4546 California SW, upstairs)
CANCELED – SEE COMMENT MIKU, AND THE GODS. 7:30 pm, the second week begins for the world-premiere play at ArtsWest (4711 California SW; WSB sponsor), tickets available here.
SKYLARK OPEN MIC: 7:30 pm signups @ West Seattle’s longest-running open mic – no cover to watch. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
LIVE MUSIC AT THE ALLEY: 8-10 pm on Wednesdays, Kimball and The Fugitive Trio perform live at The Alley (behind 4509 California SW).
TRIVIA x 2: Larry’s Tavern (3405 California SW) hosts Wednesday-night trivia starting at 8 pm; at 8:30 pm, trivia is back at Talarico’s (4718 California SW) with Phil T.
Have something to add to our calendar? Email info to westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
In case you missed the mention in our coverage of last week’s Alki Community Council meeting, we’re only two days away from a volunteer-assisted planting party on Alki. Jessica, who’s been leading monthly community cleanups at the beach, sent a reminder to be sure you know, if you have time to spare on Friday afternoon. The newly hired Seattle Parks gardeners have been working to prepare the beds where hundreds of annual flower plants are waiting to go in, and would love lots of help noon-4 pm Friday (June 24th). No RSVP needed – just show up on the east side of Alki Bathhouse (60th/Alki), and give whatever time you can spare.
6:03 AM: Good morning; welcome to Wednesday, June 22nd.
WEATHER
After the warmest day so far this year (76), today’s forecast suggests a brief return to cloudy, cooler weather before sunshine and warmer temperatures return Thursday and beyond, with 80s expected Saturday through Monday.
BUSES, WATER TAXI, FERRIES
Metro buses are on their regular weekday schedule; watch @kcmetroalerts for word of reroutes/trip cancellations.
The West Seattle Water Taxi is on its regular schedule.
Ferries: WSF continues on the two-boat schedule for Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth. Check here for alerts/updates.
BRIDGES AND DETOUR ROUTES
822nd morning without the West Seattle Bridge.
Low Bridge: Automated enforcement cameras remain in use; restrictions are in effect 5 am-9 pm daily – except weekends; the bridge is open to all until 8 am Saturday and Sunday mornings. (Access applications are available here for some categories of drivers.)
1st Avenue South Bridge:
South Park Bridge:
West Marginal Way at Highland Park Way (one of four new cameras!):
Highland Park Way/Holden:
The 5-way intersection (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):
Are movable city bridges opening for vessels? Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed; 1st Ave. S. Bridge openings are tweeted by @wsdot_traffic.
All city traffic cams can be seen here; West Seattle and vicinity-relevant cameras are also on this WSB page
Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Text or call us (when you can do so safely) – 206-293-6302.
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