By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Though Thursday night’s Alki Community Council meeting yielded no major revelations about the summer safety plan for the beach, the fact that the meeting happened at all, one month before the season’s traditional start, was a triumph.

ACC brought together reps from Seattle Police, Seattle Parks, and Seattle Public Utilities, with other guests and with the Alki Bathhouse serving as a symbolically important setting, just steps from the epicenter of summer activity at the beach – both good and bad. Last year, a multi-agency community meeting (WSB coverage here) happened after a still-unsolved murder on Duwamish Head in June.

As we’ve been reporting since last month, Parks plans to finally make earlier closing times at Alki (and elsewhere) permanent, after years of implementing them as a “pilot” (here’s our coverage of last week’s Parks Board meeting at which commissioners voted in favor of the change. So that means a 10:30 pm closing time for Alki. But closing times alone won’t solve everything. Other aspects of Alki summers were spotlighted at the meeting.

“We are really looking forward to the summer season,” opened Starck with optimism, even with the possibility that a small percentage of “bad actors” can cause trouble. The meeting was intended, she explained, to learn from city reps who are “guardians” of the area, and to learn how everyone can be a “guardian” in their own way.

Taking the concept of guardianship back a few centuries, the area’s First People were represented by Chief Sealth descendant Ken Workman stood before the crowd to deliver a welcome in Lushootsheed, the Duwamish Tribe‘s language, which he said children are learning again. He spoke of his great-great-etc. grandfather welcoming the Denny Party in 1851. In the less than two centuries that have passed, he observed, “On this land, everything has changed. … this was all trees.” He wanted to come and “show you where you are.”

EXPLORER WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: Two guests whose stewardship of the land started far more recently spoke to the ACC next – Explorer West Middle School (WSB sponsor) eighth-graders whose “Change the World” project is plastic pollution. They’re oganizing a beach-cleanup day – no date chosen yet – and will need help getting the word out. They haven’t set a date yet but will let the ACC know. Starck told them, “We’re super proud you’re taking control of what’s happening in your back yard.”

SUMMER-PREVIEW PANEL: Then it was on to the summer-preview panel – Seattle Police Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Krista Bair, Jon Jainga from Seattle Parks’ security and emergency-management team, Tracy Cramer from Seattle Public Utilities‘ Clean City Initiative, and one more Parks rep, Brian Willis, Southwest District maintenance captain (handling 86 parks – with “not a lot” of staff, he said when Starck asked).

Speaking first, Capt. Bair told the crowd that collaborating with other departments/agencies is the only way they’ll accomplish anything, adding that they need to hear from the community. Bair said District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka convened a meeting recently to ask about the plan. She mentioned that she was dealing with the Duwamish Head homicide of 22-year-old Luis Angel Solis Lara shortly after her arrival; since then, SPD has brought in new Chief Shon Barnes. And they intend to work to head things off before they get too escalated. Problem-Oriented-Policing, a “little more purposeful,” is the focus, Bair said, and they’re working on a real-time crime center, which for example is used to scour social media and “try to get out ahead” of problems such as street racing. She cautioned that this is hard to monitor because West Seattle is “fairly large” – Alki is just one hot spot – so they’re assigning officers to be in multiple hot spots ahead of time. She stressed that it’s important for people to keep calling police – that helps them prioritize. Don’t get discouraged if a response doesn’t follow immediately – there’s a lot of things you can report online, by phone, etc. “I want to be real with you and let you know, in order to prioritize areas that need to be prioritized … (they need) data.” With that, they have dates and times that are known trouble times. But “as soon as we leave, they come back.” However, “Alki is not as off the hook as you might think,” Capt. Bair said, so police may not be at the beach around the clock. They will “pivot and adjust” as needed.

SPD also is working with Parks re: signage to ensure people are aware of the rules, times, and so on, though overall it’s like “herding cats,” she admitted. SDOT (not represented at the meeting) has a role – as we’ve reported, the Duwamish Head angle parking will be changed (Councilmember Saka said via his newsletter that the work is likely to be done by the end of June). Capt. Bair also introduced Community Service Officers (who had visited the Morgan Community Association meeting we covered the previous night). She touted the success of their recent Resource Fair – not just connecting community members to resource providers, but connecting those providers to each other.

For Parks, Jainga, whose role includes working with the expanded corps of Park Rangers, noted that sandbag season just ended – the bathhouse and Statue of Liberty Plaza had been ringed with sandbags for months – and everything “looks amazing.” 26 rangers for 500 parks, though, it was noted. Moving eastward from the beach, Jainga said, “We have addressed a lot of the issues down at Don Armeni” – with the boulders now in place to keep people from driving on landscaping, plus tackling problems such as people cutting gate locks and stealing signs (“there must be a really good recycling place around here,” Jainga observed). Jainga said the aforementioned earlier closing times – which will be in place at Don Armeni too – are expected to start May 23. He noted the plan for new Hamilton Viewpoint hours, saying that park will be monitored by a “combination of park security ahnd some private security” – and he said SPD will have the authority to close parks even earlier if need be. Will the Duwamish Head parking area also be covered by the earlier Alki hours? The city reps weren’t sure but said they’ll check. What’s the plan south of Alki Point, like at Me-Kwa-Mooks? Bair said she’ll check on that.

A woman who wanted to see the beach open later wondered how to have input. You can send comments to the Park Board, Jainga told her. (Here’s the board’s contact info) A man wondered about communicating closing time to visitors from out-of-the area. Jainga said they could set up those lit signboards. Another man said that people don’t care about the signs, so what are you going to do about that? They do what they can, was the general consensus.

Discussing the role of Park Rangers – who are uniformed but unarmed – Jainga said they’ve already been out giving written warnings about rule violations from liquor to litter to vending without a permit. This means fewer situations in which sworn police have to be deployed, and he said that’s good news for the city, while warning that “park rangers are not police officers.” He suggested, “When you see them, thank them.”

That segued into Capt. Bair noting that the multidepartmental involvement should mean less buck-passing – if a situation is brought to someone’s attention and it results in a “that’s not my job” response, “that doesn’t solve ANYONE’S problem.” An attendee took that opening to say that the unlicensed-vendor situation is out of control and “it’s not fair.” Starck said there are supposed to be two vendor licenses total. (She offered later to help mediate the vendor situation.)

Also surfacing a concern was an event manager from the bathhouse, who said she just needs to know who to call when trouble gets in the way of an event running smoothly: “I’m trying to run a rental. I just need to know who to call.” Disorderly people have harassed event attendees; trying to get help, she said she was told by 911 that they wouldn’t send police unless there’s a weapon involved; Capt. Bair said she doesn’t like to hear that, because it’ll lead to people lying and claiming there are weapons, “creatng a safety hazard for everybody.”

One Alki resident asked for someone to explain the line between calling 911 and calling the Park Rangers. Capt. Bair said she didn’t want people trying to guess, so she would suggest defaulting to, call 911 and if it’s not appropriate they’ll tell you who to call. She noted that they might dispatch some of the alternative responders who are handling things for which they’re better suited – CARE Crisis Responders, CSOs, etc.

Time was running short, so the other guests spoke more briefly. Tracy Cramer from SPU said that last year Alki yielded 150 Find It Fix It reports needing cleanup. If you’re filing one, she implored, please include photos as well as your contact info. They have four illegal-dumping inspectors, focused on the right of way. The more info Find It Fix It reports provide, the better their response can be. Starck talked about some other points such as a clear need for extra portable toilets for big events.

Attendees also heard briefly from David Delgado with the all-volunteer Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network to explain their role. He said they haven’t had many calls this year though the seal/sea-lion population seems to be steady – there have been a fair number turning up on Harbor Island and nearby buoys. He explained why they cordon off the beach to give a seal room to rest, and to also keep a mom from abandoning her pup if she has to leave it on the shore to go look for food. His request: Keep yur dogs on leash, don’t try to get close up for a selfie, etc. They’re overhauling their website and it should be updated in time for the next pupping season. Meantime, if you see a marine mammal on the beach – or in distress offshore – call Seal Sitters at 206-905-SEAL.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Alki Community Council meets on the third Tuesday of most months – time and place might vary, so keep an eye on alkicommunitycouncil.org