West Seattle, Washington
09 Sunday
Tonight, three reports have come in from people who want to share their stories so you can be more alert and aware — including the case of the stolen “stinky skates” plus an unfortunate reminder to lock up when you’re out doing yard work — read on:Read More
Drury shares the “nerve-rattling” story – read on:Read More
Thanks to WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli for providing that photo as well as information about the sizable “fire in single-family residence” call in Highland Park, 7700 block of 15th SW (map). “Food on the stove,” firefighters told Christopher, nobody hurt, but crews had to stay a while, using fans to clear smoke out of the house.
Out of the WSB inbox, from Melissa:
We just wanted to alert our neighbors that we had our house broken into on Thursday 10/16 during the day. We live around Thistle and 17th Ave SW in Highland Park (map). They came in through the cat door and stole small items. The next day, there was also some odd behavior when a white mini-van with 2 guys in it lurked in front of our house. They stared at the house for awhile and then came up to the front door and knocked. I did not answer the door but made a police report of suspicious behavior. I just want everyone to be aware, alert and to look out for each other!
We asked Melissa a followup question about the cat-door method of entry – she said the burglar(s) reached through it to unlock the main door, either by hand, or with a tool. SUNDAY AFTERNOON ADDENDUM: A few hours after we published this, Gretchen e-mailed the following:
I just read about the cat door burglary. The author mentioned a white minivan with two guys driving slowly in the neighborhood. I was putting my daughter in the car the other day and a white minivan with two guys stopped to ask me if there were any rentals in the area. He said, “I’m looking to rent in the area.” I was distracted and said, sure, look for the signs. He asked me to clarify which blocks. I told him to drive around. They went on but I got a weird feeling. I was thinking they were into real estate since we have had real estate investors roam door to door in the past. These guys were young though, maybe late 20’s. Anyway, after reading the other note, I thought it was worth mentioning. I live on 30th between Webster and
Othello (map).
Just back from checking if the “Nickelsville” campers at West Marginal/Highland Park Way cleared out as they said they’d do late tonight, 5 days after the first sweep. 
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: The campsite was dark but some vehicles were clearly being loaded before heading out in mini-convoys; we followed a few to see if they were moving nearby as one report had suggested — but the first mini-convoy we followed headed north on The Viaduct, far out of West Seattle (we broke off and turned around at Seneca); the second mini-convoy we followed crossed south Seattle to get on north I-5. So either they’re moving some distance away, or rendezvousing somewhere, or both. No new communiques on their Google Groups site or website so far. We made one last pass before returning to WSB HQ – the former campsite was virtually empty, just a few stragglers and a vehicle preparing to take off. 11:05 PM UPDATE: Well, that explains the northward convoys – Channel 4 is live at the new campsite: the tribal center at Discovery Park.
Posted tonight on the Google mail group for the homeless encampment at West Marginal/Highland Park Way: They’re planning to move again at 10 pm tomorrow, but they won’t say till possibly the “very last second” where they will be going. They also say the city has threatened to fine the state unless it gives the campers the boot from the WSDOT land they’ve been on since last Friday afternoon’s city sweep of the original “Nickelsville” site next door. Just an hour before this update was posted, we’d asked the mayor’s communications director Robert Mak if there were any new developments, and he had said no, aside from the city maintaining its stance that the camp was a land-use violation.
Look closely and you’ll see the broken window glass around the edges of that photo, e-mailed to WSB by Paul, who wanted to warn people in the area about what happened to him:
My vehicle was broken into at the corner of Fauntleroy Way SW and 35th Ave. The thieves broke my front passenger window and stole a portable GPS that was installed in the car.
10:06 PM ADDITION: Shortly after we posted this, we got a separate short note about a different wave of car-window attacks: “9/28 around 3 am, 4 vehicles had windshields broken on 13th Ave between Holden & Kenyon.” TUESDAY MORNING ADDITION: And one more report, this one from Melody: “On Sat, 9/27 between the hours of 12 am-3 am my neighbors on 13th Ave SW (between Holden and Barton) had a brick thrown at the back of their car. It dented the exterior (they missed the windows).”
According to letters posted on the official website for the West Marginal/Highland Park Way encampment this morning – after a weekend spent on the state-owned site adjacent to the city land from which campers were rousted Friday afternoon – they’re promising to move “after midnight Wednesday,” but asking the governor for permission to set up at another state-owned site described as “500 yards southeast.” We just checked Parcel Viewer; the site most closely resembling that description is adjacent to Highway 99, parcel #5367202516. We don’t know for sure that this is the site they’re targeting, but whatever site they have in mind, if the governor’s office tells them not to use it, the letter says, they won’t, but they “will move together as a group … to another location,” though they aren’t saying where that might be: “It could be anywhere” (here’s their open letter to “property owners”). The letter goes on to thank the governor for treating the campers “like human beings” and invites her and her staff to visit, ending “… we will always have an open tent there for you.” We just called the governor’s office to ask if Gov. Gregoire has an official response to the request yet; they’re checking. 2 PM UPDATE: Talked with Ron Judd on the Gregoire staff a short time ago. He visited the site over the weekend but had not officially received today’s request yet. He also noted that the Wednesday deadline is not one set by the state, but by the city.
We’re checking on the West Marginal/Highland Park Way encampment daily TFN. Tonight’s bottom line: A few dozen tents are still there (photo above is from just after 5 pm). We stopped by early this evening after reading a note on the “Nickelsville” announcement site saying that campers planned a meeting to talk about what to do on Wednesday, since that’s how long the state has said – so far – they’d be allowed to stay on the state land adjacent to the city plot from which they were booted Friday afternoon. Their meeting hadn’t happened by the time we stopped by, and things were pretty quiet, no TV trucks or rabblerousers in view. We’ll check again tomorrow, and we’re keeping an eye on various related websites too; the organizer who was the first person arrested on Friday, Anitra Freeman, put a short post on her blog today, pointing to an Associated Press article about an increase in tent cities around the country.
We went tonight to the West Seattle homeless camp calling itself “Nickelsville” (previous WSB coverage here, here, and here) to see what would be discussed at a strategy meeting of sorts, to which they had invited their “community supporters.” Among those at the camp, Bill Kirlin-Hackett, director of the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness — who said the mayor told him twice today that the squatters would be booted off the Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way site sometime Friday morning; they were put on 72-hour notice at 5 pm Monday, so technically it could happen any time after that. “Nickelsville” organizers and campers, meantime, say they’ll resist, and plan to start building “permanent” shanty-type structures tomorrow afternoon. ADDED 9:59 PM: More from tonight’s meeting, including another photo, a video clip, and who organizers say is going to lobby the mayor on their behalf:Read More
The Highland Park Action Committee website now has a photo report up about members’ visit to the “Nickelsville” homeless camp yesterday, one day after representatives spoke at HPAC’s monthly meeting (WSB coverage here). 5 pm tomorrow is the deadline the city has given for the camp to clear out; the land it’s on is one of two locations identified by the city as a potential jail site, and has city/state/private ownership.
Before we get to the “Nickelsville” discussion at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting – which ended in a way you might not have expected – the rest of the agenda, including a “thank you” to a popular policeman:
That’s HPAC chair Dorsol Plants presenting a certificate of appreciation to Southwest Precinct Community Police Team officer Adonis Topacio. CPT officers (read about them here) are each assigned to proactively work a certain area of the Southwest Precinct’s region, and Officer Topacio’s includes Highland Park, so he’s often at HPAC meetings to present updates (like this one) and listen to concerns. Tonight, he offered some crime stats from the past month and a half in the Highland Park area: Four auto thefts, 13 car prowls, 15 burglaries. Overall, though, he said it had been a relatively quiet summer, but added that police are working to deal with the recent wave of gang graffiti (WSB report here). Also on the agenda tonight, two reps from the White Center Community Development Association with a briefing on what’s going on with their organization – we’ll be writing up those details for partner site White Center Now and will link back here when that’s up. No major updates on the jail-sites issue, meantime, as the process is idling somewhat while Seattle awaits its potential partners to offer more suggested sites; Dan Mullins is trying to organize more Duwamish-corridor business owners to get involved with opposition to the WS sites and said a meeting with at least two City Council members is planned later this fall. Plants warned tonight’s attendees that if HPAC participation (about 20 people were on hand tonight) dwindles out of complacency, it raises the chances unpopular projects like this will turn up in the area. But the latest development at the potential jail site closest to Highland Park, “Nickelsville,” drew what some might consider a surprising reaction – read on to see why:Read More
(photos by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
A few more tidbits on “Nickelsville,” the homeless encampment set up near the southeast corner of Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way in eastern West Seattle (here’s our first report). So far as we can tell from the people we talked with at the site, they were unaware that they happen to have set their camp up at one of two West Seattle locations on the “final four” list of potential city-jail sites; just a coincidence. We told them we had just seen the mayor interviewed on TV, saying the city would treat this camp like any other – post a 72-hour warning, then clear it. Here’s what spokesperson Anitra Freeman said in response to that:
We pressed for more specifics – so when/if the posting goes up, what exactly will you do? She said the camp is not operating “top down,” so they would call residents together for “a meeting.” We’ll keep an eye on what happens here; as mentioned in our previous report, it will come up at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club at 11th/Holden); in fact, HPAC chair Dorsol Plants just confirmed to WSB that he has visited the site and “has representatives coming to the meeting.” (5:35 PM note, just saw TV pix of city crews already delivering the 72-hour warning to the scene, while organizers promise “a standoff.”) Meantime, while WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli was shooting the photo you see atop this report, he also happened onto a not-so-trumpeted encampment in the nearby woods, where he caught these scenes:
P.S. If you are interested in reading some backstory, Blogging Georgetown points to this blogpost by an organizer;
THIS MORNING: First day of fall-quarter classes at South Seattle Community College. (So 16th SW will be busier, among other effects.)
THIS MORNING: Seattle City Council members hear from Junction business leaders, developers, and city reps regarding potential public-private coordination as big projects change the face of the “Fauntleroy Triangle,” in a briefing organized by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. According to the agenda, this briefing should start around 10:15 am; you’ll be able to watch it live at SeattleChannel.org or cable TV channel 21. We’ll be covering it and will post here and via Twitter when it’s about to begin.
THIS AFTERNOON: The “design team” that will help shape the future of the Denny Middle School site, once the new Denny is built on the Chief Sealth High School campus, meets for the first time at 3 pm today at Denny.
TONIGHT: Highland Park Action Committee, 7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club (10th/Holden). The jail-site search is in a bit of a lull but this group is continuing its work – and tackling other issues, too (last month, it was a presentation on the Spokane Street Viaduct project, which just kicked in with the lower eastbound Spokane St. shutdown last week).
Both out of the WSB inbox. First, from Gretchen:
I just wanted to give a heads up about a car break-in that happened in the 1700 block of Thistle. I usually park my car in the driveway but it was left on the street for the past 5 days, since Wednesday. When we went to move it up into the driveway this evening we saw that the driver side door was open and the glove box had been torn apart. Nothing of value in the car, but filed a police report and placed a fraud report on our credit just in case. The door worked fine, no windows broken, so I think I left it unlocked. So…a reminder to not become complacent like I did! Lock those doors!
From Jennifer:
Just wanted to let you know my car was broken into at the West Seattle Allstar Fitness 2629 SW Andover St. on 9/20/08. According to the staff this seems to happen often.
Here’s the official Seattle Police advice for preventing “car prowls” (the term for crimes like these).
Timely topic at last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council — a briefing from Sergeant Jim Dyment, who leads the Seattle Police Gang Unit. Just a day earlier, we had shared the story of the latest wave of gang-related (or at least gang-inspired) tagging in Highland Park (photo at left), so tagging came up as well as many other topics, including what kind of gang activity is most prevalent in West Seattle. Southwest Precinct reps had something to say about graffiti, too. Read on:Read More
The photo at left shows just a segment of the fence tagged at a home at 13th/Trenton (map) over the weekend; homeowner Katie sent us a photo of the entire fence, with the entire tag, but we’re choosing not to show it, after hearing law enforcers make an impassioned case once more against media publication of photos of gang tags and gang signs (we’re interested in your thoughts on that, too). Katie sent word of the huge tag, which read “SW 13” in dark blue paint, saying, “This is the first time our property has been tagged in the 9 years we’ve owned it.” She called the police, then e-mailed us to share the alert, saying: “One of the key points I wanted to share with the WS community is to make sure and report this type of vandalism. Reporting possible gang tags gives the police a heads up on recent activity.” Speaking of which, tomorrow night is your chance to find out a whole lot more about local gang activity, what’s happening and what to watch out for, when a Seattle Police Gang Unit sergeant speaks at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council‘s monthly meeting — all invited — 7 pm, Southwest Precinct meeting room (Webster/Delridge; here’s a map).
(Thursday night photo courtesy MagnoliaVoice.com)
MagnoliaVoice.com covered last night’s community meeting focusing on the Interbay location that’s among the city’s current “final four” in the search for where to build a jail for misdemeanor offenders; the other three sites, as you probably know, include two in southeastern West Seattle. According to our friends at Magnolia Voice, one of those sites, the one on Myers Way (map), was mentioned by City Councilmember Tim Burgess as one of the two most likely sites (along with the Interbay location, which he reportedly had singled out in July). We have a request for comment out to Councilmember Burgess (who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee); meantime, you can read the MagnoliaVoice.com story about last night’s meeting here. SATURDAY MIDDAY UPDATE: Councilmember Burgess has posted a comment on the White Center Now version of this post saying that he was referring to the “First Avenue South Bridge” site, not the Myers Way South site. The city has not labeled any site as “First Avenue South Bridge” but the West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way SW site is certainly closest to the bridge; we have a note out to Councilmember Burgess to further clarify (he had not responded to the request for comment that we mentioned yesterday, except to ask for the Magnolia Voice link, which we promptly provided). Will let you know what we find out. UPDATED SUNDAY AFTERNOON: Councilmember Burgess’ reply:
Correct, the West Marginal site which is about 1.5 blocks off the southwest corner of the bridge. The site is partially owned by the city and partially owned by WSDOT which used it as a staging location when the bridge was repaired a few years back. I refer to it as the First Avenue South Bridge site because that helps people understand the geographic location better than the intersection.
That’s Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area (map) — West Seattle’s only off-leash park (featured in this West Seattle 101 chapter) — and in the north parking lot adjacent to it, you’ll find some “Westcresters” having a dog-cookie bake sale this morning, 9:30-noon, raising money for the upcoming PAWSwalk. (If you can’t go buy treats, but would like to find out about supporting them in the walk, here’s their page; the walk is a week from today in Magnuson Park.)
As reported last night, the jail-site search that has galvanized the Highland Park Action Committee is in a bit of a slow period, so the latest HPAC meeting tackled other topics too – including a city update on the first major road work that will be affecting West Seattleites in the months/years ahead, the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project (which in about three years will result in what you see above). We brought you an in-depth preview back in May (read it here); then a flurry of driver concern erupted four weeks ago ago when signs went up suggesting the first phase of the work — requiring the closure of eastbound lower Spokane Street from 1st onward (aka “the route to Costco”) — was imminent (here’s our July 28 report). That closure hasn’t happened yet, and last night at the HPAC meeting, project manager Stuart Goldsmith explained why:Read More
Just back from the Highland Park Action Committee meeting, which for the first time in months spent less time on the jail-sites fight than on other matters – not because they’re letting up, but because, as HPAC chair Dorsol Plants noted, the city’s part of the process is in a sort of lull: Now that the city is exploring a partnership with north-/east-side cities to find a site for a regional jail (as first reported here in early July), instead of simply pursuing its own site, Seattle has to wait for those cities to “catch up” and propose potential misdemeanor-jail sites to add to the list (if you’re just catching up with this, in early May Seattle identified
The Highland Park Action Committee, leading the fight against two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle, has its next meeting tonight, 7 pm, at 1116 SW Holden (map).
The Highland Park Improvement Club (NOT the same as the HP Action Committee, though HPAC meets at the HPIC’ historic facility) is having its big annual rummage sale right now, 12th/Holden, under way till 3 pm. (If you live in the area, you can also join in its potluck starting at 1 pm, but everyone’s welcome to come browse/shop!) HPIC, by the way, is the oldest community club in Seattle – founded in 1919, which is why its web address is hpic1919.org. We stopped by the sale site a little while ago to get some pix and found one that already had a story behind it, two hours into the sale:
Becca told us a man asked her how much she’d sell the bear hat for. She said, three bucks. He said, here’s five – gave her the money – and said “Just keep wearing the hat.” So who knows what you might find there; tere’s a map to the sale’s location.
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