(WSB photos unless otherwise credited)

It’s not a West Seattle mayoral visit without a stop for ice cream at Husky Deli. During the second part of his West Seattle “Community Connections” tour today (our first report is here), Mayor Bruce Harrell made that stop, and received a cone of Raspberry Decadent from Husky proprietor Jack Miller. A different type of Husky was discussed on his previous stop:

Harrell, a University of Washington alum, was pointed by Menashe and Sons Jewelers‘ Josh Menashe to the restroom decorated with Husky sports memorabilia. At that stop and most of the rest of his Junction tour, the mayor chit-chatted cheerily with the entrepreneurs and employees who welcomed him, but there was a more serious undercurrent – the crime and disorder with which they’ve had to deal. Menashe and Sons, for example, is about 80 percent done with work significantly fortifying their storefront after the Christmas Eve crash-and-grab burglary attempt. Back down the street, the mayor stopped at Pegasus Book Exchange, which too has dealt with crime:

Harrell and Pegasus’s Eric Ogriseck talked books – the mayor confessed to a weakness for romance novels. A few doors down at Easy Street Records, we learned a bit about his musical tastes, as he took an interest in ESR’s vinyl including Curtis Mayfield and Macklemore, although he admitted his turntable is “in storage.”

After browsing, he and Easy Street proprietor Matt Vaughan sat down for a one-on-one chat in the café, out of earshot of us and his entourage. The mayor also met with a small group of other businesspeople in a discussion that his office declared closed to media, though they tweeted a photo:

(Mayor’s Office photo)

We did get a chance to ask a question before he headed off for that meeting at Great American Diner and Bar. We asked him about the current controversy over drug laws; the Junction Association is one of the signatories to a business-coalition letter supporting a proposal by City Attorney Ann Davison and Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen. Harrell told us that the city proposal won’t be heard before state legislators’ special session to try again to set a drug law, and he would rather see a statewide law than have the city pass its own. In general, though, he said he supports “treatment, treatment, treatment,” and expressed doubt that a heavy criminalization focus would work with the city’s ongoing police-officer shortage.

The mayor’s first stop in The Junction, by the way, was at Snip-Its Haircuts for Kids
, owned by Kimora Lee:

Two big events in The Junction next week – the annual arrival of hanging flower baskets on Monday morning, and the next Wine Walk (sold out!) Friday night (May 19th).