West Seattle, Washington
16 Sunday
FIRST REPORT, 11:41 PM WEDNESDAY: Police are at Westwood Village talking with a person who reported their car was stolen in a carjacking just before 11:30 pm. We haven’t heard exactly how it happened, but the car was described over police radio as a black Honda Accord, plate CTU4422, and the carjackers were described as “two Black males in black ski masks and all-black clothing,” last seen heading away from Westwood Village, westbound on SW Trenton. If you have any information, the SPD incident number is 26-215265.
UPDATE, 10:35 AM THURSDAY: We requested and obtained the report narrative from SPD. The only descriptive details are what we mentioned above, with the added detail, “one black pistol each.” From the document (with SPD’s redactions):
… XXXX was on the phone with his mother who lives in India and was standing outside of his vehicle in the parking lot. XXXX was also eating Popeye’s on the trunk of his vehicle when he observed a silver or dark colored sedan driven up to him. That is when two black males in all dark clothing and face masked get out of the vehicle and each one-pointed what XXXX believe to be a black or silver firearm.
They immediately told XXXX to put his hands in the air and to throw his car key to them. XXXX complied and threw his keys, and they then told him to run away, to which he did. XXXX stated that as he was running away, they began to laugh at him and XXXX XXXX car. The subjects then drove away going northbound in the parking lot and XXXX went to nearby
vehicles that called 911. XXXX stated XXXX. Additionally, noting that his car was empty and only had approximately 36 miles left. …
As explained in radio communication at the time, that was ~36 miles of fuel. Police gave the victim a ride home.
You’ve probably seen weather time-lapses. But probably not like the kind Upper Fauntleroy resident Robert Kosara has set up for a new website he’s updating nightly – here’s how he describes it:
Relive yesterday’s weather (and see how much sunshine we got)! I’m recording the sky with a pair of cameras overlooking Endolyne/Fauntleroy, to show the sun’s path across it every day from summer to winter solstice.
The actual project is for creating digital solargraphs. A solargraph records the path of the sun across the sky, usually over the course of several weeks or months, on photographic paper. I’ve built a digital version of this, which gives me a few more options for creating things like this website that shows the solargraph for every day.
You can browse the different days and scrub through each day’s data. The page is updated around 9:30pm every day with that day’s images.
Find “The Daily Solargraph” here.
(WSB photo by Torin Record-Sand)
It was still in the mid-80s when we headed down to Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook to see the sunset tonight. On a float offshore, a seal was out for sunset watch too. Also this evening, Tom Trulin sent this photo of a Great Blue Heron flyby at Lincoln Park:
Just after sunset, intermittent light rain began to fall; the National Weather Service says thunderstorms are a possibility in the early am (we saw a flash over the Cascades while subsequently driving along the northeast West Seattle waterfront). But the weather should settle down by tomorrow pm, meaning a good evening for the second Admiral Music in the Parks concert!
The report and photo were sent by Kelly:
Came home from work to this probably stolen and ransacked abandoned van in front of my house. Location is 18th and Elmgrove.
It’s been reported to police but is still there as of moments ago.
The Southwest Precinct‘s crime-prevention coordinator Jennifer Satterwhite wants to be sure you know about two personal-safety training sessions SPD is offering, both online:
Tuesday, August 25th
9 am – 11 am
Via TeamsThursday, September 3rd
2 pm – 4 pm
via TeamsAbout the Class
-Learn proactive tips and steps you can take to enhance your personal safety taught by Seattle police officers and employees.Training goals:
-Share commonsense safety tips to decrease the odds of being a victim
-Know the important role your instincts and gut reactions play
-Discover potentially dangerous situations and how to avoid them
-Learn to make a safety plan based on different environmentsEmail Jennifer.Satterwhite@seattle.gov for meeting invite and link.
Two vehicle break-ins reported this afternoon, one involving a U.S. Postal Service vehicle:
USPS VEHICLE BROKEN INTO: David G reported seeing this in Gatewood, on 37th north of Thistle:
Was on my way to pick up some lunch and I noticed a USPS jeep (I think it was a jeep) that appeared to have been broken into. When I drove by there was just the mail carrier on his phone next to the broken driver’s side* window. I tried to grab a pic on the way back but the vehicle was gone, just the shattered glass remained.
Seems pretty brazen… as the mail carrier was probably somewhere within the block delivering mail.
According to the police-radio archive, this was dispatched around 1:30 pm as someone breaking into the vehicle, and taking “a backpack.” We don’t have report narrative yet but if you have any information, the incident # is 26-214658.
10:45 PM UPDATE: Police have since provided the requested narrative. It says the carrier saw the break-in as he was returning to his vehicle after an estimated 10 minutes away; the thief pulled up in a “gray sedan,” broke the window, grabbed the backpack, and drove away southbound on 37th. The backpack, according to the report, contained personal items – the carrier’s wallet, keys, jacket, and “miscellaneous.”
CAR BREAK-IN: We also received a texted report of a car break-in in Morgan Junction around 1:10 pm. The texter said their vehicle was “rifled through … in the back alley off Mills Street between Mills and Willow.”
(Photo provided by Mars Society – research station in Utah)
If and when people walk on Mars someday, South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) will have played a role in it, thanks to a new partnership explained in this announcement:
South Seattle College (SSC) and The Mars Society, through its Seattle chapter, have signed a 10-year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) establishing a multi-program partnership to build a Moon and Mars analog research station on the South Seattle College campus in West Seattle and create a regional education and workforce pathway for the next generation of aerospace researchers, technicians and engineers.
The agreement, signed by SSC President Dr. Monica Brown and Mars Society Executive Director James L. Burk, covers four interconnected efforts: a Moon and Mars analog research station on the SSC campus, a joint space studies curriculum and stackable certificate pathway, a student capstone project and internship program tied to industry partners, and a regional workforce pipeline and community engagement effort.
Per the agreement, the Mars Society will lease land from the college to build the research station contingent on funding. Joint fundraising efforts and potential aerospace industry support will fund construction of the station, with a targeted opening at the start of the 2027-2028 academic year.
Once established, the research station and related curriculum will build off existing programming at SSC to align with current and developing workforce needs and create opportunities for current and future students in the college’s skilled trades programs. For example, students studying electrical vehicle maintenance and repair in the Automotive Technology and Diesel & Heavy Equipment Technology programs can contribute their knowledge to battery use in drones and rovers used in space. Students in Culinary & Pastry Arts can contribute to research on growing vegetables in space environments.
The Mars Society currently operates research stations in Utah and the Canadian Arctic, where crews live and work under simulated Mars mission conditions. This work includes human factors studies, equipment testing, biology and geology field research, medical testing and safety drills. A research station on SSC’s campus would extend the hands-on side of this research, which aligns naturally with the strengths of a skilled trades-focused institution.
“South Seattle College has a long tradition of meeting our region’s workforce needs in aerospace, applied science, and skilled trades,” said Dr. Monica Brown, SSC President. “This partnership extends that tradition, and this initiative reflects our commitment to exploring bold, future-oriented opportunities that expand access, inspire imagination, and ensure our students are prepared to lead in emerging industries.”“For more than two decades, the Mars Society has operated analog research stations in the Utah desert and the Canadian Arctic that have shaped how humanity will live and work on other worlds,” said James L. Burk, Executive Director of The Mars Society. “Bringing that capability to an urban community college campus is something new, and it is deliberate. The Moon and Mars programs the federal government has now committed to are going to need a workforce we have not trained for in 50 years. South Seattle College knows how to train people for the industries that actually build things. That approach is exactly what we need for preparing for planetary surface operations on the Moon and Mars.”
The agreement arrives at an inflection point for U.S. space exploration. In April 2026, NASA’s Artemis II crew completed the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Weeks earlier, NASA announced Project Ignition, a $20 billion, seven-year initiative to construct a permanent base at the Moon’s south pole intended as a proving ground for future human missions to Mars. Together, these developments create a generational demand for aerospace research capacity, applied workforce, and public engagement.
An important element of this partnership is creating opportunities for community engagement, including opening the research station doors to the public to experience research to prepare humans for Moon and Mars exploration. This summer, the Mars Society will install an inflatable mockup of a research habitat module in the college’s Aviation Maintenance Technology facilities, with a public event in the works to learn more.
The Pacific Northwest hosts one of the largest concentrations of commercial space activity in the United States, including Blue Origin in Kent, SpaceX‘s Starlink manufacturing in Redmond, Aerojet Rocketdyne in Redmond, and Boeing‘s regional aerospace footprint. The MOA is designed to connect that industry base to a regional workforce pipeline.
The partnership opens the possibility for career pathways within Washington State’s space technology ecosystem, as well as national initiatives related to space technology development. Career examples include spacecraft technicians, propulsion mechanics, and drone operators and technicians.
We have a few followup questions out to SSC and will add the answers when we get them.
By Macey Wurm
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
More than six months after we broke the news about an RV lot/tiny-house village planned for 7201 2nd SW in southeast West Seattle, construction has yet to begin.
We’ve been driving by the site looking for signs of impending construction; the photo above is what we saw Tuesday afternoon – nothing in sight. But the Low-Income Housing Institute, which has a $3 million contract to open the site, insists that construction is imminent.
As we’ve reported, the site now called Glassyard Commons would host space for 72 RVs and 20 tiny homes, with the RV residents allowed in if they agree to eventually give up their vehicles.
The project is “religiously sponsored” by New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, in theory making the permitting process more efficient by not requiring the government-owned land to be re-zoned. So far though, the project does not seem to be moving with the speed originally expected, with an original projection that it would be open before the Seattle World Cup matches (the last of which was two weeks ago).
That plan had changed by May, when our observation that construction had yet to start led us to reach out to Marta Kidane, LIHI’s community engagement manager. for an updated projection. She then confirmed that the site wouldn’t be open until after the World Cup. The new estimate at that time: the end of the summer. Also at this time, Kidane mentioned that the construction permit, water-service application, and electrical-service application have “preliminary approval and will be issued soon.”
Records viewable online through the Seattle Services Portal currently show a construction permit awaitings “corrections,” an electrical permit that has been issued, and a minor utility permit that has been issued in recent months at the 7201 2nd Ave SW address.
After observing that construction has yet to begin, we just followed up again with Kidane for an update. As of now, Kidane says, construction is expected to begin this month with a target of opening the site in November.
(Sunrise photo, sent by Patricia)
Here’s our delayed-by-breaking-news list for the rest of today/tonight, with highlights mostly from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar – which you can preview any time:
SUMMER FOOD FOR KIDS: Local sites are open – see our story for locations and other information.
SPRAYPARK’S OPEN: Daily-splashing season at the Highland Park Spraypark (1100 SW Cloverdale), 11 am-8 pm.
SWIMMING POOL’S OPEN: Daily operations also continue at Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park (8011 Fauntleroy Way SW), noon-7 pm.
WADING POOLS: Two are scheduled today in West Seattle – Delridge, 12-5:30 pm (4501 Delridge Way SW) and Lincoln Park, 12-7 pm (8011 Fauntleroy Way SW).
LEARN ABOUT AI: 2 pm at Village Green Retirement Living West Seattle (2615 SW Barton), all welcome, RSVP requested – our calendar listing explains how.
PLAY AMERICAN MAH JONGG: Play indoors during this hot afternoon! 2-4 pm, join players at Missing Piece (4707 California SW).
SUMMER QUEST: Today, 3 pm at Delridge Library (5423 Delridge Way SW), learn how to start a nature journal.
CLIMB AT CAMP LONG: Two sessions, 5 and 6:30 pm! Our calendar listing has details. (5200 35th SW)
FREE YOGA FOR 12-STEP RECOVERY: New listing! Wednesdays for next month and a half, 5-6:30 pm at Inner Alchemy Studio and Sanctuary (3618 SW Alaska), no registration but MUST arrive no later than 4:55 pm.
FIX-IT WORKSHOP: The free (donations appreciated), 5:30-7:30 pm workshop is happening at West Seattle Tool Library (4408 Delridge Way SW, northeast side of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center), and the library is open for borrowing.
WEST SEATTLE URBANISM: Talk about Seattle’s growth – current and future – at the weekly 6 pm meetup – location change this week, the future park site on 40th SW north of SW Edmunds.
LISTENING PARTY AT EASY STREET: 7 pm at Easy Street Records (4559 California SW), be among the first to hear new music by The Strokes.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT RUN: Join the weekly 6:15 pm group run with West Seattle Runner (2743 California SW; WSB sponsor) tonight – all welcome, all paces.
PRACTICE YOUR SPANISH SPEAKING: New local group of Spanish-language learners, dedicated to practicing it, gathers 6:30-8:30 pm at Mission Cantina (2325 California SW) – details in our calendar listing.
BE A NEIGHBORHOOD EMERGENCY HUB HELPER: In case of catastrophe, Neighborhood Emergency Hubs will be run by volunteers helping coordinate communication and connect neighbors. You can be one for your nearest hub! A training event tonight at 6:30 pm at the West Seattle Golf Course clubhouse (4470 35th SW) is your first step.
LIVE MUSIC AT THE LOCOL: 6:30 pm. 21+. Rotating performer lineup. (7902 35th SW)
MAD CRAFTY: Bring your project to Revelry Room (4547 California SW), 7-9 pm.
MUSIC BINGO: Weekly music bingo at at The Good Society (California/Lander), 7 pm.
TRIVIA x 5: Five West Seattle trivia venues – Seaside Grill (2820 Alki SW) has 7 pm trivia on Wednesdays, tonight’s theme is Fantasy Worlds … Admiral Pub has trivia at 7 pm (2306 California SW) … Larry’s Tavern (3405 California SW) has Wednesday trivia at 7:30 pm … Quiz Night at 8 pm at Beveridge Place Pub (6413 California SW) … And trivia starts at 8:30 pm at Talarico’s (4718 California SW).
SKYLARK OPEN MIC: West Seattle’s longest-running open mic! 7:30 pm signups for the weekly event at The Skylark. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
SWING IT WEDNESDAY! Swing dancing and live music at 8:15 pm at South Park Hall (1253 S. Cloverdale, South Park).
KARAOKE X 2: Megastar Karaoke with KDJ Mythikal at Max’s Triangle Pub (9454 Delridge Way SW), pm … Or, sing at Admiral Pub starting at 9, after trivia. (2306 California SW)
Planning an event, class, workshop, etc., that’s open to community participation/observation/visitation? Please send us info so we can add it to West Seattle’s only comprehensive event calendar! westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
9:31 AM: Thanks for the tip. Power is out for what the City Light outage map shows as more than 2,100 customers in West Seattle, White Center, and South Park; this happened just after a solid-waste truck took down wires near 16th and Myrtle – police are closing that intersection part of the area. Updates to come.
(WSB photos by Torin Record-Sand)
10:03 AM: Our crew hasn’t seen the culprit truck, but as the photo above shows, City Light is on scene at 17th/Myrtle, as are police to keep the streets blocked.
10:16 AM: Police at the scene explained why our photographer didn’t see the truck – it left the scene after the crash. We don’t know yet whether the truck driver or their employer has subsequently called it in, though.
10:59 AM: More than two-thirds of those affected should be back on, the map shows, including all of whose who lost power in White Center and South Park – 647 customers in West Seattle remain out.
1:17 PM: A check of the map confirms that everyone’s back on.
ADDED: Donald sent this photo, taken while the truck was still on scene:
(File photo from WSB report on first intergenerational cohort’s work)
You can unleash your creative spirit and build understanding across the generational divide, all in one activity – being part of BAYFEST Theatre‘s next intergenerational cohort. Here’s how to get involved, whether you’re a teen or an elder:
Interested in rehearsing and performing with other teens and adults?
CALLING ALL TEENS AND SENIOR ADULTS!
for the Fall 2026 cohort of the West Seattle-based BAYFEST Intergenerational Theatre Project!
7-10 Teens and 7-10 Senior adults chosen by BAYFEST will meet every 2 weeks or so (except school holidays) during the fall (beginning late August or early September) in West Seattle on a weekend morning. We’ll use theatre games and exercises, guided discussions, group collaboration and writing to create an original piece of theatre that explores intergenerational themes in new and creative ways. The Project will culminate with 3 public performances in West Seattle in early December. The Fall 2026 program will include music, rhythm and movement.
NO THEATRE OR MUSICAL EXPERIENCE NECESSARY and TEEN PARTICIPANTS WILL RECEIVE A STIPEND OF $25 PER SESSION FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION (and/or community service hours). It is free for participating adults. There will be a free intro workshop for all interested on Saturday, August 29 in West Seattle.
Anyone interested in applying should email us ASAP at BAYFESTyouthTheatre@gmail.com. We will send more info and a one-page application.
The project will be led by BAYFEST Director Robert Shampain, who has over 35 years experience leading this type of workshop-format project.
NO THEATRE EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, just a willingness to commit to working with a multi-generational ensemble and having fun!
Visit BAYFESTyouthTheatre.org and follow the links for More Info.
Here’s our report on what BAYFEST’s first intergenerational cohort worked on.
7:45 AM: Thanks for the tip – crash backing up the high bridge. Reported to be in the left lane.
8:27 AM: The SFD response to the crash has closed.
Earlier:
6:01 AM: Good morning! It’s Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
WEATHER + SUNRISE/SUNSET
The National Weather Service‘s Heat Advisory alert is in effect until 11 pm tonight. Today’s official forecast: sunny, high upper 80s. Sunrise was at 5:35 am today; sunset will be at 8:56 pm.
(Photo by Victoria Gnatoka – placid sunset scene at Lincoln Park)
TRANSIT TODAY
Metro buses – Regular weekday schedule.
West Seattle Water Taxi – Regular summer schedule, with extra Friday/Saturday/Sunday runs including later-night schedule Fridays and Saturdays.
Washington State Ferries – Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route is on the regular three-boat schedule, except for some early-morning #2 cancellations today – check the alert page for updates.
STADIUM ZONE
*The Mariners‘ homestand continues with a day game, 12:40 pm vs. Cincinnati.
BRIDGE TRAFFIC CAMERAS
A few from the SDOT map:
High Bridge – Here’s the main camera, followed by the Fauntleroy-end camera:
Low Bridge – Here’s the westward view. Also note, maritime-opening info is available via X (ex-Twitter):
1st Avenue South Bridge:
See a problem on the bridges/streets/paths/water? Please text or call our hotline (when you can do it safely, and after you’ve reported to authorities if they’re not already on scene) – 206-293-6302. Thank you!
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