West Seattle, Washington
27 Saturday
Tonight, we have two reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch, plus SPD-released video from a triple-carjack-attempt case we covered in December.
MAILBOX BREAK-IN: Via text – this happened in a building at California and College in Admiral:
From security footage from the manager – at around 3:30 AM a man used the USPS key box to access the building door, then used USPS mailbox key to open all boxes, went through the mail, then closed it back up. He busted a separate mail box for commercial residents, then opened two adjacent doors, 1 leading up to floors and the other into a hallway leading to the back door into the alley where he left.
When the manager filed a report with the USPS he was told that one of their trucks was stolen with the keys in it. He also tried to open the large blue USPS box in front of La Premiere Apts but was not successful … I ran into the mailman & he opened the box to see if the entrance door key was there & apparently he put it back so he could come back. So this guy is very intentional he has the USPS master key, uses it to go in and out of the buildings, takes the mail he wants, puts the key back to come back for more crimes.
The SPD report # is 24-904172.
CAR WINDOWS SMASHED: The photo and report are from Jeffrey in The Junction:
At 4532 42nd Ave SW, my car window got smashed inside the parking garage. And, I noticed outside the apartment complex on 42nd Ave SW, there was another vehicle that was street parked with a smashed window. According to building staff, they’ve been hearing the whole block has been experiencing smash and grab.
SPD RELEASES VIDEO FROM DECEMBER ARRESTS: Today, SPD released an edited video compilation from a case we covered extensively when it happened almost three months ago – three West Seattle carjacking attempts in one night a week before Christmas, followed by a pursuit that ended with police arresting teenage suspects near Boeing Field. First, here’s the new video:
Here’s our original report as it all unfolded the night it happened, and here’s our followup after the suspects were charged three days later (as shown in that story, the charging documents in December even had framegrabs from the video made public today). So what’s happened since then? The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says the 16-year-old and one of the 14-year-olds are on electronic home monitoring, while the other 14-year-old remains in detention.
Shortly after tonight’s 8 pm voting deadline, King County Elections released the first round of results in the presidential primary:
DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Joseph R. Biden Jr. – 195,549 – 84.21%
Uncommitted Delegates – 23,574 – 10.15%
Dean Phillips – 5,698 – 2.45%
Marianne Williamson – 4,713 – 2.03%
Write-in – 2,693 – 1.16%
REPUBLICAN PARTY
Donald J. Trump – 54,171 – 61.01%
Nikki Haley – 29,810 – 33.57%
Ron DeSantis – 1,979 – 2.23%
Chris Christie – 1,272 – 1.43%
Vivek Ramaswamy – 943 – 1.06%
Write-in – 671 – 0.70%
The ballots in tonight’s count represent a 23% turnout so far; here are the latest ballot-return stats. To see the statewide results, go here.
P.S. Here’s our report on the first night’s results four years ago.
If you’re traveling through Fauntleroy late tonight or early tomorrow, take care around the intersection of 44th/Brace Point/Wildwood, on the east edge of the Endolyne mini-business district – a Seattle Public Utilities crew is there for what’s described as “planned work,” affecting more than 60 nearby homes and businesses, but expected to be wrapped up by morning.
Another local youth-sports team is back from big success on the road, at a big regional tournament. Here’s the report we were asked to share with you:
This past weekend, the 12U team from the Washington Baseball Academy and their families headed to the desert in Phoenix to compete in the USSA Easton Hype Tour Spring Championship. The tournament had a total of 271 teams in all divisions and teams from as far away as Hawaii and Texas. The crew from West Seattle competed in the 12U AA division and got runner-up in the Copper Division.
Coaches: Dale Ross and Peter Tarabochia
Players and Coaches proudly showing their 2nd-place rings!
Ben Datz
Ben Tarabochia
Calvin Carlson
Duncan McKinney
Gavin Ross
Jason Moran
Nathan Shafi
Riley Landa
Lachlan Gosztola
Sidney Stauffer
Cameroon Widman
Garek Wadden
Thanks to Peter Moran for sending the report; he notes that the team practices at a facility on West Marginal Way: “All of the kids are West Seattle and most play West Seattle Little League as well.”
Your next chance to see and hear the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in West Seattle is just days away. NWSO is sponsoring WSB right now to help get the word out about this year’s “Music for the Soul” concert on Saturday (March 16), 8 pm at Holy Rosary Church (42nd SW & SW Genesee). The NWSO’s announcement says, “This season we focus on the themes of beauty, hope and joy – featuring 5 different works that span much of the course of music history.” The program includes a world-premiere work by local composer Huntley Beyer as well as music by Brahms, Schubert, and J.S. Bach. You can get tickets right now by going here.
Morgan is hoping somebody on the bridge saw this happen:
I was hit and run today on the West Seattle (Bridge) as I was heading westbound into West Seattle at approximately 12:16 pm. This happened just before the 1st Ave exit in the right-hand lane. I was driving a white 2018 Audi SQ5 and the car that hit me was a black Acura 4-door with dark tinted windows; it looked like a mid-2010 TSX/TL. It hit me 3 times and took off at over 100 mph. They took the Admiral Way exit and then I lost them. They will have right front damage, mostly white paint from my Audi. My entire left side from bumper to front end was damaged. Unfortunately, it happened so fast I couldn’t get a license plate, but there were so many people that witnessed it I was hoping someone saw or recorded it and can provide information to the police. The SPD case # is 24-068499. They never had any intention of stopping, and although I and my dog are sore, it could have been much worse, so I am grateful we are unharmed.
2:07 PM: Port-bound truck backups on the westbound West Seattle Bridge aren’t new, but readers have called our attention to what seem like unusual backups these past few days. Right now, the trucks are lined all the way back to I-5 on the westbound bridge, and lower Spokane Street is clogged too, as shown in this texted photo:
We’re checking with the port to see if there’s a reason for these backups. Meantime, if you have to head to West Seattle from points north, also note that the Corson/Michigan offramp from southbound I-5 is blocked by a truck-on-side crash, so that’s not an option right now either.
2:47 PM: The truck backup on the bridge has cleared or lessened, based on the live-camera view of the east end of the bridge.
ADDED WEDNESDAY: We heard back today from Melanie Stambaugh of the Northwest Seaport Alliance, which oversees the cargo docks in both Seattle and Tacoma. She says that although these were afternoon backups, they believe the problem may be at least partly traceable to the morning: “I talked with our team and it seems the backups are not tied to any specific incident. Instead, truck drivers are arriving early to their morning appointments before the terminal opens which is causing backups. Additionally, we’re looking at nearby traffic signals to see if they are a contributing factor. We’ve engaged SDOT on behalf of our tenant to evaluate the traffic signals to ensure they are aligned to balance truck movement with general purpose traffic. Both the terminal and the NWSA are communicating with truckers to try to limit early arrivals to prevent these backups.” NWSA also has issued an advisory related to the newly started East Marginal safety project.
“If rock bottom was ever a thing, we’re probably there.” That’s how District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka described the first statistic presented during this morning’s Public Safety Committee briefing about Seattle Police hiring and recruiting.
The briefing (full slide deck here) was focused more on recruiting/hiring processes than on specifics of where staffing stands now – aside from that one overall stat – so we don’t have, for example, a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of current staffing – other updates are given on that periodically. But the council did hear a lot about how recruiting and hiring works, and doesn’t work, right now.
The briefing was presented by a team led by Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess (a former police officer and city councilmember). One long-running factor, the contract negotiations with the officers’ union, is “very close” to agreement, Burgess said toward the briefing’s end, without elaborating. But many other factors affecting recruiting and hiring were discussed. “The problem of recruitment is not just a Seattle problem,” he and others at the table – including SPD Chief Adrian Diaz – stressed.
This group followed a briefing earlier in the meeting that included some revelations about what Councilmember Cathy Moore observed was a “clunky” process of moving candidates along through various stages of screening and testing – the length of time it takes to provide SPD with lists of qualified candidates, for example. “I don’t get a sense of urgency,” Moore said.
The process moves faster than it used to, councilmembers were told, but still could move faster. But the SPD and mayor’s-office team listed other factors – like starting salary, in which they said Seattle ranks 15th on a list of jurisdictions with which it competes for officers:
There was some discussion of incentives offered by other jurisdictions, such as take-home vehicles and housing subsidies (none of which are being currently offered or proposed by Seattle), Meantime, among the applicants SPD is getting, the ethnic diversity outstrips the city as a whole, but the gender diversity still lags far behind:
Councilmember Moore called out the low percentage of female applicants, noting that women said child care was a factor in their decisions, and saying she’d like to see “a plan” for addressing that. Scheduling challenges too. She also voiced concerns about problems such as sexual harassment that were raised in the recent “30 by 30” report – addressing SPD’s efforts in a nationwide initiative toward 30 percent female officers in sworn law enforcement. Chief Diaz said there’s a “women’s workgroup” and also noted that two-thirds of the SPD civilian staff is female.
Much time in the briefing was spent on the million-dollar-plus marketing/advertising plan for which SPD hired an outside agency; Burgess said its debut was followed by an “immediate uptick in applications.” Saka suggested later, though, that “we’re not going to market our way out of this,” but also offered that in addition to featuring the mayor and others, the marketing campaign should call attention to the changed council as well.
Besides spending money on advertising, SPD reps said they’re also strategizing with recruiters from private-sector companies and have meetings scheduled next month with firms including Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Nordstrom; they also talked about software programs they’re using to communicate more responsively with candidates. And they thanked councilmembers for their shows of support, such as attending roll calls at precincts. But they acknowledged that overall, the department lost more officers than it hired last year, so there is more work to do if they’re going to build back the numbers. (We’ll add video of today’s meeting when it’s available on the Seattle Channel website later.)
ADDED: Here’s the meeting video – this discussion starts 1 hour, 12 minutes in.
Last chance to nominate a business, nonprofit, or community advocate for the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s 2024 Westside Awards! 5 pm today is the deadline. From the announcement we published three weeks ago:
The Chamber is seeking nominations in the following categories:
1) Business of the Year
2) Not-for-Profit of the Year
3) Emerging Business of the Year
4) Westsider of the YearThe community is invited to submit nominations online here: loom.ly/qS8SmDE. The deadline to submit nominations is Tuesday, March 12, 2024, by 5 pm.
The Westside Awards honor leadership in entrepreneurship, innovation, and community impact, highlighting the achievements and contributions of businesses, organizations, and individuals within our West Seattle community.
The winners will be honored at a community breakfast event May 22. (Past winners are listed here.)
(More pre-spring color in Gatewood)
Busy Tuesday ahead – here’s the list, mostly from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
LAST DAY OF PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY VOTING: Your ballot must have today’s postmark, or be in a King County Elections dropbox by 8 pm. Our Monday reminder has other notes about this election.
FREE PLAYSPACE: Drop in Tuesday mornings 9 am-noon at West Seattle Church of the Nazarene (42nd/Juneau).
CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: The state of SPD staffing and recruiting is a major topic at this 9:30 am meeting. Here’s the agenda. You can watch live via Seattle Channel.
CHESS CLUB: Tuesdays 1:30-3 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle (4217 SW Oregon). All levels welcome. (Questions? Email conwell@conwelld.net.)
ST. PATRICK’S DAY SHOW: 1:30 pm, “Silver Sounds will provide a lively Irish program of songs, jokes, skits, a sing along, plus free prizes and a mystery raffle.” Free! At High Point Community Center. (6920 34th SW)
CITY COUNCIL MEETING: Regular weekly meeting of the Seattle City Council, 2 pm. There is a public-comment section – in person or by phone – if there’s something you want to tell the council. The agenda explains how. You can watch live via Seattle Channel.
GIRL SCOUT COOKIES: Second week of cookie booths continues at multiple locations this afternoon and evening. Search here for your nearest locations.
SOUTH SEATTLE COLLEGE OPEN HOUSE: As previewed here, today you are invited to visit the main campus of South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) to learn about its programs and facilities, 3:30-6:30 pm – RSVP here. (6000 16th SW)
HOW TO GET RAINWISE: Attend a 5 pm webinar about the program that might help you get subsidized work to deal with rainwater on your property – info here.
DEMONSTRATION FOR BLACK LIVES: Long-running weekly sign-waving demonstration continues at 16th/Holden. 5-6 pm. Signs available if you don’t have your own.
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRAS’ FREE CONCERT #1: 6 pm at Chief Sealth International High School‘s auditorium (2600 SW Thistle), enjoy a free concert by WSCO’s Debut and Concert ensembles.
WEST SEATTLE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: 6 pm meeting at West Seattle Coworking (9030 35th SW) – RSVP here.
FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: 6 pm meeting at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse (9131 California SW).
LEARN ASL: Free weekly classes, 6 pm at West Seattle’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (4001 44th SW). Start any Tuesday night! Details in our calendar listing.
SCRABBLE NIGHT: 6-10 pm, you can play Scrabble at The Missing Piece (9456 35th SW).
FREE TRACK RUN: Run with new (or not-so-new) friends! Meet at West Seattle Runner (2743 California SW; WSB sponsor) for this free weekly run at 6:15 pm.
MAKE POTTERY: 6:30-9 pm “girls’ night” at pottery studio The Clay Cauldron (5214 Delridge Way SW), sign up in advance to work on your project(s).
ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: 7 pm gathering at Admiral Church (4320 SW Hill), featuring City Councilmember Rob Saka, local police, and a discussion of this year’s Admiral District events.
BINGO AT THE SKYLARK: Play – free! – Belle of the Balls Bingo hosted by Cookie Couture, 7 pm Tuesdays. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
TRIVIA X 4: Four places to play Tuesday nights – The Beer Junction (4711 California SW) now has Sporcle Pub Quiz with David at 7 and 8 pm … 7 pm at Ounces (3803 Delridge Way SW), free and hosted by Beat the Geek Trivia; 7 pm at Zeeks Pizza West Seattle (6459 California SW), hosted by Geeks Who Drink; 7 pm at Admiral Pub (2306 California SW).
BINGO AT TALARICO’S: You can play 8 pm bingo every Tuesday. (4718 California SW)
What are you planning? Are community members invited? Tell everyone via our event calendar – please email the info to westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
The Roaring Twenties is the theme for Holy Family Bilingual School‘s Viva La Gala this Saturday (March 16) – you can celebrate the past while helping the school get ready for its future: “Currently, 52% of our student body receives some type of financial assistance and more are still in need. We need your support to help keep our school running strong. Monetary donations of any size are greatly appreciated.” You can help by attending the gala – get tickets here – and/or donating to “Fund A Need” – and/or bidding in the online auction that’s open to all, right now. (Almost 100 unique items and services!) Saturday’s event is at the school hall, 9615 20th SW; doors open at 4:30 pm.
6:03 AM: Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 12th.
WEATHER + SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES
Cloudy, showery, breezy, high in the upper 40s. Sunrise will be at 7:27 am, sunset at 7:11 pm.
ROAD-WORK ALERT
Work on the north section of the East Marginal Way project is likely to start this week.
TRANSIT NOTES
Metro today – Regular schedule; check advisories here.
Water Taxi today – Regular schedule. Check the real-time map if you need to see where the boat is.
Washington State Ferries today – The usual 2 boats on the Triangle Route. Per WSF alerts, “Due to some unplanned bridgework maintenance at the Fauntleroy terminal, single-lane loading and off-loading will be occurring until further notice. This may result in future delays.” Use the real-time map to see where your ferry is.
SPOTLIGHT TRAFFIC CAMERAS
Delridge cameras: Besides the one below (Delridge/Orchard), cameras are also at Delridge/Genesee, Delridge/Juneau, Delridge/Henderson, and Delridge/Oregon.
High Bridge – the main camera:
High Bridge – the view from its southwest end (when SDOT points the 35th/Avalon/Fauntleroy camera that way):
Low Bridge:
1st Ave. S. Bridge:
Highway 99: – northbound side at Lander:
MORE TRAFFIC CAMS: All functioning traffic cams citywide are here; West Seattle and vicinity-relevant cameras are on this WSB page.
BRIDGE INFO: The @SDOTBridges feed on X (ex-Twitter) shows whether the city’s movable bridges are opening for vessel traffic.
If you see a problem on the bridges/streets/paths/water, please text or call us (when you can do that safely, and after you’ve reported to authorities if they’re not already on scene). Thank you!
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