By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The Alki Community Council met online last week for their September meeting, with an abbreviated agenda as the group winds up its summer activities and prepares for the fall.
The meeting was facilitated by president Charlotte Starck, and began with an introduction of the group’s two newest leaders: Kevin Kramer (Board Chair of Operations) and Robyn Fritz (Board Chair of Parks). Kramer has a background in technology and operations, and will help the council ramp up their efforts in those areas. Fritz will help foster the council’s partnerships with Seattle Parks, and she joked that she is best known for walking her dog in the area, and meeting people (including Parks representatives) in that way.
Next on the agenda was a police update from SPD’s Southwest Precinct, with Officer German Barreto and Captain Krista Bair (who became the precinct’s leader in June) both in attendance. They discussed recent events such as the RV sweeps near Westwood Village, the Alki shootout on September 6 and an incident on the 2100 block of Harbor SW. Barreto gave an overall update similar to what he presented at last week’s meeting at the Admiral Neighborhood Association, and emphasized that citizens should call 911 (not the SPD non-emergency number) if they see anything suspicious. Bair talked about the challenges related to “encampment sweeps” on the peninsula, and commended Barreto for his ongoing work on that. For Alki specifically, Bair also noted that she recently talked to a long-time Alki resident who said that while increased traffic and “cruising” has always caused added issues on Alki in the summertime, in recent years the activities have often been more “destructive” and invasive in the summer months, and Bair agreed that it takes a strong partnership between the community and the police in order to make things better.
The next portion of the regular meeting was an update from Sean Blackwell from the city’s CARE Department (Community Assisted Response and Engagement), which includes a team of community crisis responders as well as a 911 call center, as we’ve reported previously. The department’s leader, Chief Amy (Smith) Barden, had attended and participated in the Alki council’s May meeting, and Blackwell provided some additional context in last week’s meeting regarding the department’s mission. He said that the team has their own mobile units and can respond promptly to calls, and because team members have expertise in social work and community engagement, they can be a resource to free up time for SPD officers to handle more urgent calls. Blackwell said that in the time since the team launched in October 2023, it has handled 767 call events (with an average of 40 minutes per visit), with 37% of those resulting in the team transporting someone to get needed services. The team started with 6 officers, and based on current plans will be expanding to 18 officers and 9 response vehicles, eventually serving West Seattle (their current focus is downtown).
To close out the regular meeting, attendee and neighbor Barb Richter gave a quick update on the Alki Point Healthy Street revision that was installed last June, saying that it’s been successful in reducing speeding and other issues, giving residents and visitors “a safe place to walk, ride and roll.” She acknowledged that there have been some concerns about parking (some of which we reported on in August, as it relates to the northern portion of the street) but she said that in her observation, legal parking was readily available during the summer months.
Following some closing remarks, the ACC group then transitioned into a virtual “executive board working session” to discuss organizational growth, strategy and other updates.
The Alki Community Council can be contacted at hello@alkicommunitycouncil.org. The group meets on the third Thursday of each month, with upcoming meetings as follows:
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