From Colin at 15th SW/Holden in Highland Park (map):
My roommate had his car’s wheels and rims stolen last night on 15th ave SW during some point of the evening. Woke up in the morning and found the car on blocks, looks like it’s very professionally done, no neighbors heard anything though we lived on a packed street. Keep your eyes open at night, looks like some serious tire/rim thieves are on the loose.
Reminder – the South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition (whose turf includes part of Highland Park) meets tonight, 6 pm, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map).
ORIGINAL 2:39 AM REPORT: The law-enforcement helicopter Guardian One is involved in a search in Highland Park right now, as are at least two K-9 units and other police — we know they’re looking for one suspect, but don’t know yet what it is that he’s being sought for — we’re monitoring via scanner, where it appears they’ve been discussing the Riverview Playfield area (map) as well. 2:49 AM UPDATE: “One in custody” is the report on the scanner, so the search is over. (The chopper led the ground crews right to the suspect with one of its specialized nighttime tracking capabilities.) 3:45 AM UPDATE: Southwest PrecinctLt. Ron Smith confirms this was related to the 1:32 am “motor vehicle accident” call on the 911 log at Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way (map) – he explains that before officers arrived, there was a report “a driver from an involved vehicle fled from the scene.” The “adult male” suspect who was subsequently arrested was booked, he says, for hit-and-run.
(photo by Christopher Boffoli, added 10:41 pm)
We’re on our way to check this out — 7700 block of 15th SW. 10:13 PM UPDATE: Just arrived, and most of the initial big callout is gone. No obvious sign of fire; going to try to find out what it was all about, but clearly NOT a big deal. 10:19 PM UPDATE: Talked to firefighters. Contents of a wastebasket caught fire. Out now, everybody OK.
(Photo by Dina Johnson)
The three most recent chairs of the Highland Park Action Committee — from left, Blair Johnson (2006-2007), Dan Mullins (current) and Dorsol Plants (2008, now running for City Council) — were all on hand as HPAC led a “mini-summit” last night on what Mullins called “one of the city’s jewels”: Nearby Westcrest Park. Westcrest is known for many things, good and bad – right now, for the Seattle Public Utilities project to cover its reservoir:
(2008 WSB photo)
And, infamously, for “illicit activity” – drugs and sex – though Southwest Precinct Community Police Team OfficerAdonis Topacio reiterated at last night’s meeting what he told the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council last week, that the “activity” has dropped dramatically in recent weeks, thanks in no small part to citizen patrols and some clearing of overgrown vegetation. But, Officer Topacio said, the park needs to be used more, to keep the unwanted activity at bay; making Westcrest more usable was one of the themes of the night.
(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Those sticky notes contain dozens of suggestions and concerns that the meeting’s 50-plus participants wrote down – not just thoughts about how to make the park better now (including safety enhancements like cameras and lighting), but also their ideas for what to do with the park space that will eventually be created once the reservoir-covering work is done; many hoped for P-Patch community-gardening space; others envisioned more play equipment for kids (“big swings for big kids/adults too,” read one note). A Parks Department manager in attendance said that the design process for the park space likely will start before the end of this year, once a project manager is appointed in the fall. But the ideas ultimately must resonate with the community, stressed City Council President Richard Conlin, who spoke and took questions for about 20 minutes as the meeting began:
One attendee asked what advice he could give HPAC in terms of pursuing its ideas for Westcrest Park: “Parks staff can be great resources – tap into them, find out about the realities of the issues they’re dealing with. (Also), work to build win-win consensus … it’s very difficult if (the community is split).” The many ideas voiced and written during last night’s meeting will be turned into an official document and presented to city leaders; a draft form might even be available, Mullins indicated, by this Thursday, when the full City Council comes to West Seattle for a Town Hall meeting (6:30 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy). ALSO ANNOUNCED AT LAST NIGHT’S HPAC MEETING: The group is officially switching its regular meeting day to the fourth Wednesday of the month (instead of the fourth Monday), so the next meeting will be July 22nd.
Both previewed here in recent days: 6:30 pm @ Youngstown, the third/final Delridge Skatepark design meeting (WSB preview); 7 pm @ Highland Park Improvement Club, Highland Park Action Committee‘s Westcrest Park “mini-summit” (WSB preview), with guests including City Council president Richard Conlin. Be heard – be there!
That video gives you the view from under the portion of the “lid” that’s been poured so far – with all those columns to hold it up – at West Seattle Reservoir, the city water-storage facility at Westcrest Park in Highland Park. Once the 30-million-gallon covered facility (replacing what was an open reservoir holding twice that much water) is complete, an addition to the park will be developed, and that parkland is one of the Westcrest topics that’ll be discussed at a special Highland Park Action Committee meeting Monday night, as chair Dan Mullins just reminded the HPAC mailing list:
On June 22nd HPAC will be sponsoring the Westcrest Park “Mini Summit” on the future of Westcrest Park, one of our area’s most outstanding, yet under-used parks.
We have worked very hard at getting the word out, and we are hoping to have a great turnout at this event.
Our focus for the meeting will be greenbelt and forest restoration, park safety, illicit activity, the new reservoir lid, parking problems, off-leash issues, etc.
If you have something to say about the future of the park, now is the time to say it! Several guests including Council President Conlin and Parks Division Director Robb Courtney will attend.
HPAC’s Westcrest Park “mini-summit” starts at 7 pm Monday at the Highland Park Improvement Club building (11th/Holden – map), following potluck dinner at 6:30.
Highland Park has two active community groups. We’ve written the most in recent months about the Highland Park Action Committee, as its members tackled tough topics including the proposed municipal jail, but the Highland Park Improvement Club is not to be underestimated. HPIC met tonight in their namesake building – same place HPAC meets, incidentally – and installed new officers – you see the team above: Ken Knoke, Kay Kirkpatrick, Julie Schickling, Nickie Jostol, Rhonda Smith, Gretchen Heiden, Bette Spry, Bill Jaback, Rory Denovan, Greg Harrington. (HPIC celebrates its 90th anniversary this fall; here’s the history page on its website.)
Haven’t heard much lately on the jail-site search – aside from the City Council asking the county to reopen the issue of whether they can keep handling the misdemeanor inmates for a few more years, therefore delaying the potential need for this jail – but the process continues, and a West Seattle site (Highland Park/West Marginal Way, Google Street View above) remains on the list of six sites under regional consideration. Just got an official update late today from Katherine Schubert-Knapp, noting that new information is now available in the “scoping” process – which identifies what the Environmental Impact Statement for the project will have to look at. The announcement notes that the timeline has slid:
Based on the feedback received during the EIS Scoping period, the NEC will be adding the following items to the scope of the EIS: air quality; populations and housing; and an analysis of the possible impact of a jail on property values and public safety. These additions, along with the complexity of some of the analyses, have impacted the EIS schedule. The NEC now plans to release the Draft EIS in early December 2009, and hold Public Meetings in January 2010. The NEC plans to release the final EIS in the second quarter of 2010.
That video is from three months ago today, when the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition gave river tours after releasing its report on a community-created vision of the polluted waterway’s future (our full report is here). Last night at the Highland Park Action Committee‘s environmentally themed meeting (earlier reports here and here), DRCC’s Cari Simson told the group about the latest turn in the road to that cleanup: A coalition of those she described as “the polluters,” referencing the contamination that has made part of the river a Superfund site, has released its own draft report regarding the future cleanup — a “draft feasibility study” (officially announced here) – and DRCC isn’t liking what it’s seeing so far. Read on to hear why – and to hear about upcoming events (boat tour, kayaking tours and more) in which you can participate:Read More
The photo at left is from a recent Green Seattle Partnership-affiliated work party at Lincoln Park, exactly the kind of work party that Green Seattle’s Joanna Nelson evangelized at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee, saying “If everyone in Seattle volunteered (in forest restoration) once every five years, we’d be done.” She talked about the organization’s hopes of having “all the forested areas in Seattle in restoration by 2025” — bringing back conifers, which live for hundreds of years, instead of the relatively short-lived trees like alder and maple that sprung up after the native conifers were cleared. But it’s all about volunteer help, she stressed. HPAC is having a Westcrest Park “mini-summit” at next month’s meeting, according to HPAC chair Dan Mullins, who is proposing that a committee be formed to oversee restoration work at that park, which is part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt; Nelson mentioned a small pilot project expected to start soon. (As she also noted, restoration work is done elsewhere in the WDG by the Nature Consortium.) Green Seattle is one of three environmentally oriented organizations appearing at tonight’s HPAC meeting; more coverage to come. (P.S. Green Seattle’s website has a list of work parties happening here and elsewhere in the city, and we include West Seattle events in the WS Weekend Lineup every Friday.)
We’re at the Highland Park Improvement Club, where the Highland Park Action Committee is hosting three speakers focused on environmental issues/concerns during its monthly meeting. The first up, Jim Nolan from thePuget Sound Clean Air Agency, is taking questions on the Lafarge cement plant nearby and its effects on area air, and he says an announcement should be forthcoming about an agreement between Lafarge and the EPA regarding all the company’s plants nationwide and a major reduction in emissions, with a new system that will have to be up and running by next April. More details of Nolan’s presentation — which also addressed other local air-pollution concerns — later; he also noted that you can check current air-quality conditions any time at the PSCAA website (here’s the link).
Also of note, today’s county/city council toplines:
KING COUNTY COUNCIL: Today’s big agenda item is appointing an interim King County Executive to serve till a new permanent one is elected in November. Last week, a “blue-ribbon panel” recommended two finalists, Charles Royer and Kurt Triplett; this morning, the council’s Committee of the Whole will interview them and the other 2 candidates, former County Councilmembers Louise Miller and Steve Hammond, starting at 9 am (agenda here). The council then is expected to make the official appointment in its 11 am meeting (agenda here). Both meetings are scheduled to be shown live online.
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL: During the morning “briefing” session (agenda here), councilmembers are scheduled to hear an update on the city’s tree audit, around 10:15 am. During the afternoon session, a long list of items (agenda here) includes a proposed 10-year lease extension for land north of the West Seattle (Westcrest) Reservoir that’s used by the federal government for air-traffic control communications. The council meetings will be live online here.
That’s a photo we took outside Sanislo Elementary just before the morning bell today; at left is Jen Cole from the pedestrian-advocacy group Feet First, and at right, the man she describes as a “walking celebrity,” Mark Fenton from the PBS series “America’s Walking.” He joined a group of Sanislo families and Highland Park neighbors in a “walking school bus” this morning, traveling more than a mile from 11th/Thistle to Sanislo @ 21st/Myrtle, and then talked with students and parents outside the school. Along the route were a couple of crossings that have been high on local radar for safety improvements, including 12th/Holden in front of Highland Park Improvement Club – here’s our video as we crossed that busy route to and from eastern West Seattle:
While at that crossing, Highland Park Action Committee chair Dan Mullins, who was along for part of the walk, pointed out it’s one of the spots where HPAC’s new Traffic Committee (WSB story here) is working on safety improvements — that’s him on the left side of this next photo from the start of the walk:
You can see Fenton speak at Union Station downtown (map) tonight, 6 pm, during an event as part of the city’s Pedestrian Master Plan launch, spearheaded by SDOT (whose Jennifer Wieland joined this morning’s walk too).
A “medic response, 6 per rule” call — which usually means serious illness/injury — at 9th SW/SW Elmgrove in Highland Park (map) late last night is now explained on SPDBlotter — a 29-year-old man who had just gotten off a Metro bus was hit by a car, driven by a 51-year-old man described as displaying “signs of being under the influence …” Here’s the full writeup. ADDED EARLY MONDAY: CBgirl says in comments:
The guy who got hit is my roommate. He has multiple injuries (including a very badly broken leg), but thankfully not life-threatening. Very thankful, it could have been fatal!
RESERVOIR TOUR: We’ve been talking with Seattle Public Utilities for a while about setting up a tour of the reservoir-covering work at West Seattle (Westcrest) Reservoir, and today we finally got to take that tour. You’ll see the full story here within the next couple days, probably Sunday night if there’s no breaking news; the photo above is from inside the section that’s being covered, where concrete columns go up before the “lid.” It’s an amazing project, not quite as big as this one we covered at Beacon Hill last year; watch for our story.
COUNTDOWN’S ON: As of this afternoon, NASA has started the clock (see it here) running down to Monday’s scheduled launch of the shuttle Atlantis, piloted by West Seattle High School Class of ’72 alum Gregory Johnson (more backstory here). The launch is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
TOP 100 SEATTLE WOMEN IN TECH, THE WEST SEATTLE REPS:TechFlash published this list today and, as WSB Forum members pointed out before we’d even heard about it, WSB editor/co-publisher TR is on the list. Not alone in West Seattle residence, either – among the names we recognize, Patty Stonesifer, Vanessa Fox, Michelle Nicolosi, Shauna Causey. (Anybody else on the list who you know to be a West Seattleite? Let us know!) *Added Sunday night – thanks to the commenter who notes Joleen Winther Hughes is another West Seattleite on the list.
SPOTLIGHT FOR TONY’S: Hadn’t seen this till Seattle Weekly editorial exec Mike Seely, also a West Seattleite, mentioned it – his feature about Tony’s Produce, the beloved vegetable/fruit stand at 35th/Barton. Read it here.
SPEAKING OF SHOPPING: Wanted to showcase this post from the WSB Forums if you haven’t seen it already: WSB’er Kevin writes a detailed look at what’s available at Cash ‘n’ Carry, a potential Costco alternative.
When we hiked part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt last year with Nancy Whitlock of the Youngstown Arts Center-based Nature Consortium, we recorded that video as she explained what she jokingly called a “native street-pole” along the way, telling the story of how part of the greenbelt almost became a highway. It’s still technically city right of way, but a “street vacation petition” detailed in today’s Land Use Information Bulletin seeks to transfer it to the Parks Department to recognize the fact that it will never be used for that purpose. As the online notice explains:
The City purchased the Soundway property in the 1950s and 1960s for a bridge and roadway project linking Seattle to Vashon Island. The property was “laid off” for street purposes but the project was cancelled. Since then a number of options were considered for the use of the property and the City Council decided it should be converted to protected open space under the jurisdiction of Parks. Parks is seeking the vacation in order to manage the property as a part of the adjacent West Duwamish Greenbelt. The vacation will allow the department to provide management of the property consistent with Park policies and allow Parks to seek State grants from the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development for open space preservation. There is no development project associated with this petition. The property will remain in a natural and undeveloped state and the land will be incorporated into the existing West Duwamish Greenbelt.
If you haven’t seen this already on the Crime Watch page, which automatically picks up updates from the SPDBlotter site – Seattle Police arrested two 13-year-old suspects running from a burglary scene in Highland Park (1400 block of SW Trenton; here’s a map) this morning; here’s the police writeup.
Meet the new Traffic Committee for the Highland Park Action Committee – from left, Carrie Carroll,Blair Johnson, HPAC chair Dan Mullins, and Paul Morton (not pictured: Craig Rankin). They’re in place after tonight’s HPAC meeting, at which HPAC leaders talked with the city’s Neighborhood Services Coordinator for the Delridge District, Ron Angeles, about strategies for getting city Department of Neighborhoods money into HP for traffic-calming projects. A crosswalk right by the building where HPAC meetings, Highland Park Improvement Club [map], is high on the list:
The committee will meet outside the usual HPAC meetings to determine what Highland Park’s traffic hotspots are, and will report back. Other meeting notes: As discussed at last week’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, Officer Adonis Topacio from the Southwest Precinct’s Community Police Team has been working with community members to keep closer watch on suspicious activity at Westcrest Park; it was reported tonight that he’s organizing park walkthroughs. One other word about crime – which won’t surprise you if you’ve been watching West Seattle Crime Watch reports here – car prowls and thefts will likely be up, when the month’s over. Also up: The need forBig Brothers and Big Sisters volunteers, per Erin Wenzel (you can find out about volunteering here). And HPIC is having a Tiki Dance at 7 pm Saturday (tickets $7.50 at the door).
It’s been a busy few days, so you might not have seen this on partner site White Center Now yet: If you live in south West Seattle, you’ll be interested in the crime updates — which included some good news! — plus Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg‘s remarks, as reported in our coverage of the South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting Thursday night. See the story here. (Also of interest to south West Seattle: The Highland Park Action Committee‘s monthly meeting is tomorrow, 7 pm, 11th/Holden.)
Claytone-mailed WSB to get the word out that he and his neighbors were both burglarized on Tuesday; they live near 9th/Henderson in Highland Park (map).
ADDED WEDNESDAY NIGHT: We also have word of a Sunday night burglary at California/Hill in the Admiral District.
WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is back from the disaster-training exercise at the Joint Training Facility on the southeast edge of West Seattle — the one with Seattle Fire Department crews and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department (which contributed the helicopter) working together, as mentioned in advance yesterday just in case the chopper alarmed anyone.
We were working on this story before the Fairmount School break-in happened – now that that incident is over, we need to let you know about this:
First the American Legion hall was burglarized – then the Senior Center of West Seattle was broken into and vandalized – now, crooks have hit the Nature Consortium, a WS nonprofit whose major mission is marshaling volunteers to help restore the West Duwamish Greenbelt. This comes from the NC’s newsletter, which arrived in the WSB inbox late today:
We are sad to report that our Restoration Project storage container was vandalized last week and all of the tools stolen. The thieves broke in by damaging the padlock and hasp and emptied out all of the container’s contents. We lost a multitude of tools used for large work parties, including pruners, machetes, a brush cutter, a chainsaw, extra blades, and a pop-up tent used for shelter and sign-in purposes. We calculated the loss to be $1,324.30 worth of materials. The Restoration team is currently working to secure the container and to replace the equipment. If you would like to help us replace these items, donate here.
We followed up with Nature Consortium executive director Nancy Whitlock, who confirms the storage container is the structure that the group maintains along the West Duwamish Greenbelt trail often used for their monthly hikes.
This item was going to be part of our forthcoming wrapup of various campaign speeches at last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting, but we’ve just received a response to a followup question we sent City Council President Richard Conlin, so we’re breaking it out: During his campaign speech to the 34th DDs (photo left), he mentioned the jail issue – Seattle teaming up with several other cities to pursue a potential new municipal-misdemeanor jail, with the potential sites including West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way SW – and told the 34th DDs: “… siting a new jail … is a terrible idea; we should only have to do it if we absolutely have to do it. I’m encouraged by a significant decrease in the King County jail population (recently) … we’re going to be sending King County a letter asking to reopen discussions about accommodating misdemeanants, so that we won’t go ahead (with a jail) unless we are ABSOLUTELY SURE we have to.” In other words, Conlin intends to ask a question others have posed before: Can’t the county keep handling misdemeanor inmates, at least a while longer, since their jail population in general has been dropping? We e-mailed Conlin this morning for a followup, and he replied:
Councilmember Burgess and I have decided to send this letter, but not sure yet whether it will be just from us or from the whole Council. We just made the decision this week and have not drafted it yet, but expect to do so shortly.
ORIGINAL 2:39 AM REPORT: The law-enforcement helicopter 
The photo at left is from a recent 
If you haven’t seen this already on the Crime Watch page, which automatically picks up updates from the SPDBlotter site – 
This item was going to be part of our forthcoming wrapup of various campaign speeches at last night’s
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