West Seattle, Washington
16 Friday
Thanks to Shell Marr for that photo and word that The Wash House laundromat on 35th (between Morgan and Graham) has abruptly closed. Shell adds, “It’s really too bad they did not make it, Vicki & Jim were just the nicest people and really made doing laundry somewhat enjoyable if that is possible. Thank you, Vicki & Jim …” Meantime, another sign just sighted, this one on Delridge:
We first told you two months ago that Olympia Pizza and Pasta was taking over the short-lived Pacino’s Coffee spot; it’s had a temporary banner up for a while, but the official sign just appeared this week. We don’t have any info yet on a targeted opening date.
First, regarding the report two nights ago regarding someone taking pictures and claiming it was for a West Seattle High School assignment — this comment just came in:
I am one of 2 photography teachers at West Seattle High.
We do ask our students to take landscape and portrait pictures that they find beautiful, so if you see students wandering and taking pictures of each other, random people or pets (they should ask first), bushes, trees, pretty houses, architecture, they may very well be doing their coursework. However, the story of the mother taking pictures of a car is not in line with any assignments I am aware of, and just sounds weird. Students shooting pics during the school day should have a signed note from one of their teachers, indicating permission for them to be outside shooting: you can ask to see this if you feel they are acting inappropriately, and please, contact the school with their name and location if they are. Students with inappropriate behaviors of any kind should be reported immediately to the WSHS Main Office.
Second, from that same night, the ants/power pole meeting in North Delridge – we have a little more information:Read More
Just wanted to let you know we’ve got messages out on this one, though we’d love to hear from anyone who attended the meeting we didn’t hear about till it was too late (we’ve managed to get onto dozens of media-info lists but sometimes something slips through) – The community-organizing group ACORN held some kind of rally tonight in North Delridge about a reported problem involving Seattle City Light and ants. Lisa kindly transcribed the flyer as follows:
“[ACORN logo] DANGER!!! Ant Infestations and Faulty Power Lines threaten our safety!
Join us to tell City Light that we will not put up with it any more. We’re taking action to address unsafe electrical conditions and ant infestations on county property!! We need YOU there!!
What: Meeting with Seattle City Light’s Supt.
When: Tues., May 6th, 5 pm
Where: 4716 26th Ave SWTell your neighbors, bring your family and friends! Wear red for solidarity! Call ACORN today 206.723.5845
During our recent wave of doorknocker reports, a couple folks mentioned ACORN stopping by, but nothing about ants, power poles, or rallies. The e-mails we got about the event tonight (thank you!) but not in time for us to go. (Went to the area a little while ago but no trace of whatever was going on a few hours earlier.) We’ll let you know what we find out tomorrow.
The police escort is staging at Chief Sealth and the Inconvenient Ride bicyclists, with dozens of other students, will head out shortly, with a new route: they now plan to head north on Delridge all the way from Thistle to the low bridge.
We told you two weeks ago about the new community-organic-farming effort on a plot of land off Delridge known as “Longfellow Creek Garden.” Today, the LCG blog has photos from the hugely successful work party on Saturday to clear the land, plus a short list of what’s on the agenda next. (That site, by the way, is one of 3 just added today to our “Other Blogs in West Seattle” page, which features links to 144 WS-based blogs, after a frequently updated digest of excerpts from the sites’ latest updates.)
That’s Longfellow Creek Farm — a quarter-acre at 2311 SW Myrtle (just off Delridge; map) where Growing Washington is inviting you to a “community-garden restoration work party” noon-4 pm April 19. Help is needed raking leaves, clipping brambles, spreading mulch, weed-whacking, and painting. The goal is to restore the site into a “functioning, food-producing garden,” and volunteers will be first in line for free organic produce — once it’s grown. They’d like you to let them know you’ll be there; register during the next week by using the contact info here.
Thanks to Mark B. Bauschke for that photo of a one-car crash that snarled things for a bit at the Delridge onramp to The Bridge this afternoon. Mark says he didn’t see any sign anyone was seriously hurt, but he wonders if this was a case of someone waiting too long to decide which way they’ll veer; he notes, “I often get cut off at that onramp by a car that waits to choose upper or lower ramp.”
PIZZA UPDATE: Further confirmation of the news we broke here two weeks ago — Olympia Pizza and Pasta is coming to the short-lived Pacino’s Coffee location at 5605 Delridge (map) — we drove by minutes ago and saw new yellow banners draped outside saying OLYMPIA PIZZA AND PASTA COMING SOON (didn’t have a camera along).
ROAD REPAIRS: The city Transportation Department says its crews are working on the shoulder of Delridge, 8100-8600 blocks, through Saturday afternoon, doing “utility repair work.”
Two announcements to share with you – one for a new Spanish-language preschool, another for a new tutoring service that addresses attention-span issues as well as conventional tutoring and ESL work – full details ahead:Read More
Not even noon yet, and so much has happened already. First, check out the throng outside West Seattle Thriftway in Morgan Junction just before its 9 am egg hunt (so big, we needed two angles – first the group on the south side of the storefront, then the north side):
We hopped quickly over to Alki to catch the crowd gathering at the start of Walk for Water – Seattle is one of two cities nationwide to host this World Water Day event:
Next stop, Delridge Community Center – one of West Seattle’s five city-run community centers, all of which had egg hunts at 10 am today – at Delridge, the crowd was broken into three age groups; here’s video of elementary-age kids on the run for their hunt:
Also at Delridge at 10 am, just yards away from the egg-hunt kids and their Easter baskets, older kids — a few dozen from Denny Middle School — were holding different types of collection containers: bright yellow bags for the Delridge Adopt-A-Street cleanup; the students joined North Delridge Neighborhood Council members in this morning’s effort:
Still more to come in West Seattle as the day continues; our West Seattle Weekend Lineup has the comprehensive list.
Before any more time elapses – the rest of our notes from the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting last night (first report here, including an explanation of DNDC) – with events and initiatives we’re betting you’ll want to know about:Read More
Last night we sat in on the monthly meeting of the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council, one of two district councils in West Seattle, each including representatives of neighborhood groups and other major noncommercial organizations. This time around, the Delridge Council hosted two guests from City Hall: Council President Richard Conlin (who’s made two other high-level appearances in WS recently, at the Southwest District Council and at the Alki Community Council), and Mayor Nickels’ community-outreach director Pamela Green. Both had a lot to say – as did the regular attendees – and we’re going to break it out into several updates, starting with this one about two ways the city’s looking for YOUR opinion right now:Read More
Thanks to Lillie for the tip that this taco truck has turned up at the Orchard/Sylvan road fork west of Delridge (map), across from the northwest corner of Home Depot. We previously hadn’t noticed any taco trucks closer than White Center/Burien, as discussed in this WSB post (and ensuing comments) a year ago.
Thanks to the WSB’er who texted us about this — the other half of the team has just been to the scene and is returning with pix — the southbound lanes of Delridge are closed between Thistle and the Westwood Village turnoff because of some kind of spill involving a Metro bus that started leaking oil in a huge way. Avoid that area for a while. ADDED 9:38 PM: Replaced previous photo of the absorptive stuff put on the street, with video of same, showing just how far it stretched:
We get e-mails now and then asking what’s going on with the Pacino’s Coffee location at 5605 Delridge, which abruptly closed not long after opening. Just happened onto city permit filings indicating the building is being re-equipped as a restaurant – the filing lists Olympia Pizza and Pasta as the name.
Two months ago, we covered a hearing in West Seattle about permits the Nucor mill (Delridge/Andover) requested to modify a crane so it can add operating hours. (The red arrow in the photo above points to where that will happen.) For anybody keeping track, the official decisions are starting to roll in – just got a note from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency that it’s issued a permit required for this; you can read the associated fine print by following four links here.
In east West Seattle, Cottage Grove Park “needs a tot lot,” according to North Delridge community organizers who are determined to make one happen. They say the park originally was supposed to have play equipment for 2- to 5-year-olds as well as the older kids, but the “tot lot” didn’t make the $ cut; now they’re ready to make it happen anyway. Can you help them — with ideas, materials, time? Join them for their first discussion tomorrow at Bubbles on Delridge (map), 4:30 pm. (If you can’t be there but might be able to help, e-mail [email protected])
FOR TEENS: Think you can find anything online? Delridge Library invites you to test your skills – and win prizes! – at the Teen Internet Scavenger Hunt this Wednesday, 4 pm. Find out more here, including how to preregister.
FOR ADULTS: The Madison Middle School PTSA is extending an open invitation to anyone interested in attending its next meeting featuring two UW researchers who are looking into how teens use tech — specifically, instant messaging and blogging, and video games. After the presentations, Madison PTSA co-president Adrian Lee tells WSB, “the researchers will lead a discussion of youth and emergent digital technologies.” That meeting is 7 pm March 12 @ the Madison library; more info here.
If you lose track of either of these events, just keep an eye on the WSB Events page, where they’re listed along with dozens of other West Seattle events for the days, weeks, months ahead.
Time to toss out that old mental image of your local public library as a hush-or-else quiet temple of bookshelves. Today’s libraries have a lot more going on. Last weekend, for example, we told you about an adult Wii-gaming class at Delridge Library — nice turnout, we’re told, and now we have another activity at that branch — one of four Seattle Public Library branches in West Seattle – that we want to tell you about: “Wonderful Ones.”Read More
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: Wii is not just for kids, and the Delridge Library will show you why at 10:30 this morning; other one-time-only West Seattle events today/tonight include the Seattle Majestics‘ karaoke contest — see the West Seattle Weekend Lineup for the full rundown on what’s up.
TRAFFIC REMINDERS: SDOT will be doing significant work today at two sites in West Seattle, as announced yesterday afternoon: California/Othello paving here, Admiral medians here.
LOOKING AHEAD TO VALENTINE’S DAY? The latest newsletter from Skylark offers this: “Skylark is hosting a Valentine’s Day ‘Cheap Date Night,’ filled with free music; homemade spaghetti & meatballs; garlic bread and a bottle of red or white wine all for just $32 per couple from 5 pm to 10 pm.” Read more here.
PICTURES WE’VE BEEN MEANING TO SHARE: During a busy week full of news, they wound up on the back burner, but if you’ve got a minute, take a look:Read More
So says KIRO TV. Looking for more details now, such as where they found him; other citywide media are now (12:23 pm) confirming the arrest, but no location yet. Slog says police will announce more details at 1:15 pm. 12:29 PM UPDATE: KING just reported the arrest was made at 40th & Cloverdale – they didn’t include a street direction (S or SW) though – we’ll check further – our money’s on S since SW is within earshot of us and we haven’t seen/heard anything. 12:37 PM UPDATE: Tony says in the comments on this item that KOMO reports MLK/Elmgrove as the arrest location (here’s a map), which isn’t far from 40th/Cloverdale, so we seem to have established it happened in South Seattle. 12:42 PM UPDATE: Confirmation on that. 1:43 PM UPDATE: More details in a just-updated Times story, which has yet another slightly different version of the arrest location (3700 block Cloverdale). (Previous reports: Here’s the original coverage yesterday; here’s the update early today about police finding the suspect’s car.)
So says KOMO (location shown on this map). However, as of now, the suspect is still on the loose (see his photo in our earlier coverage). 6:40 AM UPDATE: No arrest reported yet.
ADDED 3:20 PM: Thanks to WSB contributor Sage K for this photo of the bullet holes in the window at Longfellow Creek Apartments (map), from the shots 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell (photo at bottom of this post) is suspected of firing (nobody was hit/hurt) before the deadly Central District shooting in which he may also have been involved:
ORIGINAL 2:19 PM POST: OK, here’s more of what we’re piecing together from various sources regarding who police are looking for in the shots-fired case at the Longfellow Creek Apartments a few hours ago that is apparently linked to the shooting that seriously injured two people at a restaurant in the Central District (2:50 PM UPDATE: one of the victims there is now reported to have died):
-According to Scott from Central District News, police are looking for “a 2002 black Lincoln, 4 door, with license 210 XMJ.”
-Another source tells us that the suspect, 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, has a long rap sheet. Police say he’s who they’re looking for in the Delridge shots-fired case, though they’re not yet ready to definitively link him to the CD shootings. Here’s his photo as posted on Slog:
| 13 COMMENTS