West Seattle, Washington
03 Sunday
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.)
Clayton e-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.
ADDED 7:55 PM: Here’s Christopher’s video:
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.
(Councilmember Tim Burgess chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee.) Officially, as noted in our coverage of recent Highland Park Action Committee meetings, the jail-site search is in the environmental-review phase. (WSB coverage of this issue is archived here, newest to oldest.)
The debut of that new banner (designed by Dina Johnson) was just one of the reasons why tonight could have been called a “banner night” for the Highland Park Action Committee, with highlights including:
**Southwest Precinct Community Police Team Officer Adonis Topacio said crime’s trended downward in the Highland Park area in the past 30 days; hearing complaints about late-night door-knockers, he advised calling 911.
**HPAC chair Dan Mullins said he’s been in touch with a Shoreline neighborhood group that, like HPAC, has been working to keep the possible future regional misdemeanor jail out of proximity to residential neighborhoods, and said they agree the jail belongs downtown. He also read a quote attributed to City Councilmember Bruce Harrell, saying the city should be building “castles for education,” not jails.
**Mullins also had an update on the Westcrest Park reservoir’s future park project; he says the Parks Department doesn’t plan anything definitive for the site until after the Seattle Public Utilities work to bury the reservoir is done next year – then public meetings will ensue. Rory Denovan suggested a neighborhood summit be held BEFORE then, so neighbors can create a plan for what they’d like to see.
**Highland Park Improvement Club – whose building houses HPAC meetings and much, much more — is celebrating its 90th anniversary this November, and planning fundraisers and work parties before then, starting with a wine-tasting event April 23rd.
HPAC meets the fourth Monday of each month; its info- and photo-laden website can be browsed at highlandpk.net.
TRASH COUNTDOWN: At WSB HQ, we finally got the official notice taped to the containers, after today’s pickup … although we’d already received the notice in the mail saying our pickup day, currently Monday, is changing to Tuesday. One week from today is when the changes – including higher rates and weekly yard/food waste pickup — start kicking in. One big reminder we took away from a Seattle Public Utilities presentation at last week’s Alki Community Council meeting – which is likely to be mentioned again at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting — is that, while you used to be able to opt out of yard-waste service, you can’t any more – it’s mandatory (even if you don’t have yard waste to recycle, the city is encouraging you to recycle food waste), but you can get a small container (full options listed here).
TEAM DELRIDGE EVENT TONIGHT, LOCATION CORRECTION: We listed the wrong location in an earlier note – it’s at 6:30 pm at Southwest Community Center (map).
CAMP LONG EVENT THIS WEEKEND: Coming up next weekend, a great way to enjoy and support one of West Seattle’s greenest treasures: a coffeehouse and dessert-auction fundraiser at Camp Long, 7 pm this Saturday night, with music by Jim Page and Grant Dermody. Reservations recommended, call 206-684-7434 or 206-938-3870. $10 per adult; kids over 5 are $5, and a naturalist program will be available for them to enjoy during the event.
IT’S A REALLY BIG TREE: Over the weekend we reported on the new plan for the SW Manning/Admiral Way site that’s best known for its sequoia tree. City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, whose Parks Committee will look at the plan tomorrow morning, visited over the weekend – for a sense of the tree’s size, check out this photo of the tree, with Councilmember Rasmussen standing next to it:
Got a few notes very early Sunday about the area’s law-enforcement helicopter, Guardian One, spending some time over the Delridge Triangle area. WSB Forum members launched a discussion and we have added a little more information this morning – the call started with King County Sheriff’s Deputies who say it involved a report of a “fight in progress” – here’s the entire WSBF thread, in case you haven’t already read it there.
Two highlights from the WSB West Seattle-wide Events calendar – and a bonus:
HIGHLAND PARK ACTION COMMITTEE: Busy agenda tonight for the neighborhood group that focuses on southeast West Seattle – including more information on the trash/recycling changes that kick in just a week from now, and the latest on the question of whether a city/regional misdemeanor jail will be built in West Seattle – plus, how many community-group meetings offer a raffle (last time, the prize was a gift card for Highland Park’s own JoJo’s Espresso!)? More details here. HPAC invites you to join the meeting at 7 pm in the Highland Park Improvement Club building, 11th and Holden.
TEAM DELRIDGE: It’s the next step in the ongoing King County Food and Fitness campaign to bring neighbors together as the Delridge neighborhood continues to grow and change – but it’s not just about food and fitness. More details here. Be at Youngstown Arts Center Southwest Community Center, 6:30 tonight.
P.S. Also happening tonight – technically tomorrow morning – Easy Street plans a midnight event when the new editions of Pearl Jam’s “Ten” goes on sale.
We reported this in the WSB Twitter stream when it happened but just got a bit more info now: Two children were slightly hurt when their school bus was involved in a crash on westbound Highland Park Way just east of West Marginal Way (map) at midday today – the bus and a minivan both had front-end damage; still checking on circumstances of the crash. Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen says the kids did NOT have to go to the hospital. Meantime, at Alki Point, the first week of work on the sidewalk-extension project now has an alert sign up at 63rd/Alki (by Cactus), noting the westbound road is for “local access only.”
The actual work is beginning at the Beach Drive/Alki Avenue end, with survey work for starters:
And of course, the biggest traffic alert of all – remember, the Alaskan Way Viaduct is scheduled to be closed 6 am-6 pm both Saturday and Sunday this weekend for its half-yearly inspection, and the Battery Street Tunnel is to be closed around the clock from Friday night till Monday morning. (Plus, if you see this before Thursday evening and plan to drive through Sodo/Pioneer Square, remember the huge crowd expected for the Seattle Sounders‘ debut rally/march/game.)
That photo was provided last year by Dina Johnson of the Highland Park Action Committee, before work began in earnest on the project to underground West Seattle Reservoir (surrounded by Westcrest Park). Eventually, part of the resulting greenspace is to become more parkland; at this week’s HPAC meeting, chair Dan Mullins said he’s working to get an official Parks Department presentation on the project lined up for a future HPAC meeting (as he’s since noted the levy passed last year; here’s an update from Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter:
It is a named project in the 2008 Levy, and as such will take place within the next six years. Parks will not have any levy funding in hand until King County collects first quarter 2009 property tax receipts, so we will have our first dollars in April … Mayor Nickels is working to speed up some projects under the banner of “Seattle Jobs Forward” consistent with the stimulus. To that end, Parks is moving forward on “shovel-ready” levy projects with funds from the Cumulative Reserve Subfund and will reimburse it with Levy funds when they are in hand.
We are also working on the levy implementation plan the City Council has asked for, and it will include needed staffing (very little, since some staff people who worked on 2000 Pro Parks Levy projects are still on board), a plan for going out to all neighborhood district councils to present what’s in the levy, public workshops, getting the citizen Levy Oversight Committee up and running, and creating a timeline for the named projects over the life of the levy. (As you probably know, with a bond issue the City borrows all the money up front and pays it back over the life of the bonds, and with a levy the money comes in quarterly over the life of the levy).
So, we don’t yet know when the reservoir project will take place, and we have not yet assigned a planner to it. We will have the community workshops in the upcoming months, and we will publicize them widely. Folks can also keep an eye on the fledgling 2008 Levy web page: www.seattle.gov/parks/levy/default.htm, which will be updated constantly.
HIGHLAND PARK ACTION COMMITTEE: If you live in southeastern West Seattle (map), come meet your neighbors and get involved with your neighborhood. Tonight’s monthly HPAC meeting is open to all, at 7 pm at the Highland Park Improvement Club (11th/Holden).
VIADUCT TO TUNNEL? One month after the new plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s “mile in the middle” Central Waterfront section was announced, many questions remain – and your best chance to get in-person answers, right here in West Seattle, is tomorrow, 5:30-7:30 pm, Madison Middle School. This is an “open house,” NOT a sit-down-for-two-hours meeting, so any time you can drop by during that time frame, reps from the state, city, and county will be there to talk with you. That includes questions about transit and other projects, as well as the tunnel itself. (Disclosure: The Viaduct project is currently running a paid ad on WSB to promote this meeting.)
JUNCTION SHOOTING INVESTIGATION: We just checked with Seattle Police, and Officer Jeff Kappel says there’s no new information in the search for the men who shot 26-year-old Steven Bushaw as he crossed the street in The Junction night before last (Sunday night coverage here, Monday morning followup here, Monday afternoon followup here). As for his family, we have exchanged e-mail with his sister Tanya, who says she will let us know when there is information to share about his memorial service. (As of this afternoon, the temporary memorial set up outside Talarico’s [left photo] was gone; people who knew Steven are continuing to leave comments remembering him in this thread.)
ATTACK NEAR PARK: Police also released information regarding an incident we checked out last night but at the time were unable to verify: The “assault with weapons” call near Riverview Park around 9:40 last night turns out to have been a stabbing. Officer Kappel says a man in his 50s was out for a walk in the 7200 block of 12th SW (map) and was attacked by a man who got away. There’s no information on how the victim is doing. His attacker is described as “a black male, 5-7, 130 pounds, large front teeth, dark coat, light T-shirt, light pants, fled in a white subcompact car.” 9:24 PM UPDATE: From the WSB Blogs page (thanks to “d” for the tip), Highland Park Action Committee chair Dan Mullins‘ blog has more information about the victim, identifying him as David Skinner and saying he’s still in the hospital with injuries including a punctured lung.
Another update from the ongoing process of reviewing six potential sites for a regional municipal misdemeanor jail, including Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way (map) in West Seattle: The comments from the recent “scoping” hearings, including the one January 13th at South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge (WSB coverage here), are now online (see them here). This is all part of the process toward assembling a “draft environmental impact statement,” which jail project spokesperson Katherine Schubert-Knapp says “is expected to be issued in the third quarter of 2009.” Some preliminary thoughts are posted here by Dan Mullins, newly elected chair of Highland Park Action Committee, which has been battling the idea of a jail in its backyard since the proposal first went public last spring. Final site choice isn’t expected till next year.
That’s the Highland Park Action Committee‘s new chair Dan Mullins, presiding for the first time at HPAC’s first meeting of the year tonight. (New vice chair Nicole Mazza and treasurer Shawn Mazza couldn’t attend, but you can see them in this photo on the HPAC website; as we reported following the last HPAC meeting, the previous officers decided not to run again — former chair Dorsol Plants is about to kick off his City Council campaign – website in the works here.) Dan’s first report as chair revolved around plans to have a brainstorming session for the community to looking into getting city matching grants for various projects – such as replanting parking strips, doing cleanup in the greenbelt, maybe a kiosk in the Highland Park Improvement Club parking lot to distribute info about HPAC, the HPIC building, and the neighborhood. He also mentioned that Habitat for Humanity is doing a build-a-thon in September and they’re looking for people to sit on a steering committee (more info to come on that). On the hottest HP topic of the past year, Becca Fong says THIS FRIDAY is the deadline for comments on the potential environmental impacts of sites proposed for a new regional misdemeanor jail – including the West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way site. More info on that at the jail-project website. Becca says any citizen concerns about air, water, soil effects will have to be followed up on by the city, so if you have them, send them. (She’s willing to answer questions about the process, highlandparkparadise@gmail.com.)
That’s Metro in happier times; he’s sick right now, according to his human companion Abby, who wanted to share this info with other local dogs and their people:
Our dog Metro has just been diagnosed with Giardia. While
we cannot be certain where he picked it up, we were recently at the Westcrest dog park (Sun. 1/11, Sat. 1/17 and Sun. 1/18) – his most favorite place in the world.It is possible that my backyard or a puddle we encountered on a walk is the source of the offending parasite, but we wanted to remind the great folks at the dog park to be alert, especially to your puppy’s drinking sources. We’ll keep our puppy away from your dogs for a few weeks (much to his dismay). Just another important reason to clean up after the beasts we love and help prevent the spread of a yucky parasite to some unwitting and likely adorable dog. Happy walks–See you in a few weeks!
Abby also has posted this alert to the Westcrest Off-Leash Area mailing list, where one respondent has noted that the park’s water is off for the winter so “many dogs have been drinking from the drainage pipe next to the big tree.” Again, there’s no proof that Westcrest is where Metro got this parasite, but Abby wanted to suggest that dog owners be extra watchful. We’ll be checking with local health authorities to look for more information on how common this is and how best to take precautions.
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is in Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration, and the district has just announced that she’ll talk with two West Seattle elementary-school classes via phone tomorrow afternoon: Highland Park Elementary at 2:15 pm, Gatewood Elementary at 2:40 pm. Here are excerpts from the district’s media advisory, explaining which classes Dr. Goodloe-Johnson will talk with, and why:Read More
We mentioned on Tuesday morning that five notable meetings were happening in West Seattle last night. Between your two co-publishers and three of the very good reporters we are able to tap on an as-assigned basis, we covered them all, including the second West Seattle meeting held as part of the regional jail-site-selection process, with one WS site (Google Street View above) now remaining in the running. Many of the same people who spoke at the first one last June (WSB coverage here) were at this one too, as was David Whelan, reporting for WSB – here’s his story:Read More
A West Seattle Crime Watch update before we top the main page with evening updates on the weather, looking ahead to tomorrow: We have new information about law enforcers’ search for robbers who are believed to have hit at least three stores in the south West Seattle/north White Center area in the past week — stickups at Gas Depot and Lucky Seven last Thursday, and at the Country Deli this past Tuesday (WSB coverage here; map above shows the three locations). According to information forwarded by Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen, investigators reviewing surveillance video — which has not yet been publicly released (though we have requested any available images) — say “the suspects can be seen … milling about outside for a while prior to the robberies, checking to see if any customers inside.” Investigators want to get this information to local businesspeople: If you see suspicious-looking people hanging around outside your business, call 911. Until we get visuals, all we can tell you regarding a description is what little police have shared — “possibly” Hispanic men in their “late teens/early twenties” — they have been described as wearing bandannas over their faces, and toting at least one shotgun.
Just in from Tony, and scanner traffic confirms the search:
… SPD currently have containment around the 7700-7800 block of Highland Parkway SW. It appears that there was another robbery in the area. Scanner traffic from the police seems to indicate that the same suspects in several robberies may be involved in this one also. From what I heard the call came out at just before 6:30 for an armed robbery in front of 7789 Highland Parkway. The police arrived very soon after and set up containment to keep the suspects within a specific geographic area. They are described as two males late teens early twenties wearing white bandanas over their face and hoodie type sweatshirts. One of the males had a shot gun. There were a couple of witnesses to the incident and have provided directions lasted traveled. There does not appear to be a car involved. An SPD K9 unit is responding from the north end of Seattle and expects to be on the scene in the next few minutes. It is likely the road closures will be in effect for a little while. At this time I would suggest that people in the area remain inside and make sure their doors are locked.
More as we get it. Regarding those “several robberies” that happened earlier, there were two last Thursday night (discussed on WSB in the context of a helicopter sighting – here’s the post): one at Gas Depot on South Delridge, one at Lucky Seven in White Center; we had asked both investigating agencies to let us know if any surveillance photos were available to show, but hadn’t received any to date. 8:07 PM UPDATE: Per scanner, a K-9 officer lost the scent somewhere on 10th SW so some units have left that part of the scene. 9 PM NOTE: After that, the scanner traffic dwindled to nothing – so there’s no additional information; our original tipster relayed that officers left that area too. Not sure if we will get more information tonight but we will pursue it. WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: This robbery has appeared on the SPD Blotter website, but even less info than we had in this post; we’re checking directly with the Southwest Precinct for any additional details. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: The only additional detail that Lt. Steve Paulsen has is that the suspects are “possibly (2) Hispanic males teens/20’s.” He says “we have a lot of folks citywide working on this” and also working in tandem with King County Sheriff’s Office, since one of the stickups last Thursday was in White Center, but no arrests yet.
We’re checking with the Southwest Precinct for any more info on this, including whether anyone’s been arrested. But we didn’t want to wait any longer to share the original reader report, from Zack:
Two of my neighbors were violently mugged last night in Highland Park as they were walking home. The mugging took place at the intersection of 14th and Cambridge [map] around 7:30 pm. The muggers worked in tandem. One approached the couple asking where the closest bus stop was, while the other hid out of sight. The first mugger wrestled one of the victims to the ground, using a blade of some kind to cut open the victim’s pants and remove his wallet. The other mugger stepped out from behind a car and flattened the second victim, ripping her purse and handbag from her. The muggers fled in a vehicle heading south. The muggers made off with both of the victims’ wallets, a lap top computer, and various personal items (including house keys). Within minutes, the criminals had attempted to use the victims’ credit cards at a gas station with a 98116 ZIP code.
The victims described the assailants as Asian Pacific Islanders or Samoans in their early 20s. The muggers did not have any distinguishing features or marks. They were both large men.
The victims are friends. My wife took them to the hardware store last night to buy replacement locks. Needless to say, we are all shaken up over this. The violent nature of the crime is particularly disturbing. The police who responded said that as the economy worsens, they are seeing a rise in these types of snatch and grab crimes.
Please alert your readers to call the police the first moment they notice any suspicious looking vehicles or people in their neighborhood.
Made it over to Highland Park Elementary (10th and Trenton; here’s a map) to check out the holiday bazaar – lots on sale, plus kids’ activities too – a chance to “fish”:
The Highland Park Elementary bazaar continues till 3. Under way till 4 pm, it’s the Southwest Community Center bazaar (on Thistle a few blocks east of 35th; here’s a map); another reminder, all the rest of what’s happening today/tonight, and tomorrow, is in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup!
Local government agencies are getting quicker all the time at posting important info online. Latest example – it only took a day for the comments from, and video of, last night’s downtown jail-site forum to make it onto the jail-site-search website. Not fast, but faster than most. Highland Park Action Committee had a delegation there, and you’ll see some of their comments in the transcribed materials. All the links to the info and video are here. (If you’re just catching up: The search for a new misdemeanor jail is now focused on six sites, with one in West Seattle at Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way, but since there was a public forum for that site last July, the new round only targets the sites just added to the list – last night’s gathering was about the site newly proposed next to the downtown jail, which neighborhood advocates say would be the best site IF a jail has to be built at all.)
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