West Seattle, Washington
31 Sunday
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.
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr may think the county should have regional responsibility for housing jail inmates (WSB was there as she made that pronouncement earlier this summer), but King County Executive Ron Sims apparently doesn’t agree: He issued a statement the other day saying “… the county does not have the ability to fund construction and operation of jail capacity for cities.” The statement came with this report, Integrated Regional Jail Initiative Phase 1, which contains more information on future projections of jail population – why the county says the cities need to step in — among other things. Next jail-related meeting: Highland Park Action Committee, 8/25; archived WSB coverage of the jail-sites issue is archived here.
(refresh and/or scroll to the bottom for frequent updates as we report Night Out ’08 in West Seattle from the road!)
More than 30 stops in three-plus hours, can we do it? We’re going to try! Just before 6 pm, we left WSB headquarters in Upper Fauntleroy, headed north. First stop, a North Admiral bash that sounded like it would start on the early side of the time frame – many folks warned us they wouldn’t get going before 6:30 because everyone needed to get home from work and get settled. Updates in this post as we get them …
6:16 PM UPDATE: That party on Prescott is just getting going – with a giveaway for emergency preparedness supplies – but we’re going to have to change our route; there’s a big callout to 2615 SW Barton, near Westwood Village, “fire in building,” we’ve even seen engines heading out from this side. So we’re heading back to south West Seattle to check it out.
6:21 PM UPDATE: Probably not too huge – scanner says Ladder 11 has just been dismissed from the scene. We’ve had to sit through three lights from Avalon to turn left on 35th – should have taken Delridge.
6:32 PM UPDATE: Looks like a fire truck at Daystar across from Westwood Village, way back on the south side. Getting out to investigate, no smoke visible or other signs of a major emergency. We have Highland Park Night Out parties on the list so we’ll just go there next if nothing’s seriously wrong here.
6:35 PM UPDATE: “Food on the stove,” the verdict from firefighters. Nothing to see here, moving along.
6:40 PM UPDATE: Adding a photo of organizer Meredith from the North Admiral block party:
6:46 PM UPDATE: We’re in Highland Park, where Dina and Blair Johnson of the Highland Park Action Committee let us know about their block party. Photo to come, before we head to another HP stop. 7:02 PM UPDATE: First photo is from the party on the Johnsons’ block; next two, from the 8600 block of 12th a few blocks away, where Michelle tells us it’s the third year they’ve had a Night Out party, and this year several new families have just moved in and are participating.
Saw yet another party in the middle of the street in Highland Park as we headed back westward; snapped a quick pic, will use that later.
7:08 PM UPDATE: Now we’re in Fauntleroy, to check out a block party a few blocks east of the ferry dock. An SPD car is parked here — we know some of the folks from the precinct are out making the rounds tonight. (Added a few minutes later …) Here’s who we found at this party — Officer John Nark, standing with neighbor Will Castillo; the party was outside the home of John Bartell:
7:18 PM UPDATE: We’re in Arbor Heights now – southwestern most stop on the tour, party at 102nd and 44th. After that, Westwood. We’ve driven by two locations that unfortunately aren’t quite up and running yet – we’ll get back this way later if we can, but in the meantime, heading north toward Morgan and Fairmount. Here’s the Arbor Heights party we visited:
7:34 PM UPDATE: Still in Westwood, checking out the party Kelly told us about, off Thistle, just a few blocks west of Denny Middle School and Southwest Community Center. They’re having fun at this one – check out the pig pinata, and the cards for “Know Your Neighbor Bingo”:
7:42 PM UPDATE: Now we’re near 31st/Myrtle, just east of Our Lady of Guadalupe, south of High Point playfield, where Ingrid invited us to stop by for pix. We passed by Mars Hill Church-West Seattle and they seem to have quite the gathering going to – we’ll catch a photo later if it’s still happening when we head back this way. Here’s a photo from Ingrid’s party – tiki torches and barbecued ribs; lucky the weather is matching the tropical motif:
7:55 PM UPDATE: Now we’re in Morgan Junction to check in on a neighborhood-radio test that’s happening as part of Night Out. More on that shortly.
8:21 PM UPDATE: We’re stopping now at one of the biggest block parties yet – Fairmount Springs, just off Fauntleroy, in the 5600 block of 40th SW. Live band and all. Photos in a moment – but first, Ron Zuber, heading up the neighborhood radio test a short time ago from his deck in upper Morgan Junction – beautiful sunset:
More later on how the test went – there were about half a dozen neighborhood reps stationed all over West Seattle testing to see if they could communicate neighborhood-to-neighborhood with simple handheld walkie-talkie-type “family radios,” in case of catastrophe. After that, on the way from Ron’s house to Fairmount Springs, we caught this flyby on cam – coincidence, or Night Out special feature?
8:33 PM UPDATE: Stopping now in the 42nd/Brandon vicinity – here’s a photo from Fairmount Springs, featuring the 40th Street Band (got them on video too, will post that later):
8:42 PM UPDATE: From 42nd/Brandon – first a group shot, then Susie and husband holding rare commodities – West Seattle Hard Core bumper stickers (It’s a Bridge, Not a Freeway and West Seattle Hardcore) – they gave us some to take home – thanks!
Next stop, 5400 block of 45th, invited by Kristina – and then we’re going to see if the Junction Neighborhood Organization block party’s still in full swing before it gets too dark …
9 PM UPDATE: Our camera doesn’t handle dusk too well so the photo you see at left is the best one we have of the 5400 block of 45th; we’re in the Admiral District now, hoping flash will work for one of the parties still going at this semi-late hour, in the neighborhood where Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright lives. Meantime, speaking of neighborhood-association leaders, JuNO president Erica Karlovits was at her group’s gathering in The Junction; they’re collecting signatures on some of those petitions we told you about last week (which also got a writeup on Slog today). And that party is where we met Zukor the puppy (not sure if we’re spelling the name right – nobody there really knew for sure – Zukor belongs to a partygoer’s roommate, we were informed!):
9:17 PM UPDATE: Turns out that wasn’t Mark’s party – we were a block or two off (eyes failing in the dimming light), and we found Al Vincent and his neighbors – also in a tropical mood (as are parts of Al’s house, see photo below right):
Bonnie in the WSB Forums is asking how to sign up for next year – as we replied there, just keep an eye on the Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention webpage (and of course, on WSB too, as we will give you lots of advance notice – and you can find the crime prevention link any time from the resources at the bottom of our Crime Watch page) – you can sign up online to close off your (non-arterial) street for a block party on Night Out, which is usually the first night in August. We didn’t make our unrealistic goal of hitting all 30-plus parties at which we would have been welcome – but we got to as many as we could – and we welcome you to send us your pix of your party, wherever it was, as we will post more pix as we get them! Meantime, we’ll wrap up this part of the coverage with another beautiful sunset photo, taken by Brian Hawksford from Fauntleroy:
A followup in the controversy over the city’s search for the best place to build a misdemeanor-offender jail (with two West Seattle sites in the “final four”): The Highland Park Action Committee says it’s doing its own analysis of the city’s just-released report on whether a high-rise jail makes more sense than a low-rise jail, and will release its own report in 2 weeks. HPAC chair Dorsol Plants says, “HPAC’s members as well as its consultants in both the legal and civic field will be reviewing specifically the mathematical figures to insure they are both accurate and consistent.” WSB coverage of the jail-sites issue is archived (newest to oldest) here.
At last Saturday’s city-organized forum focused on the two southeastern West Seattle sites under consideration for a possible jail for Seattle’s misdemeanor offenders (WSB coverage here), city reps mentioned this study was about to be released – and now it’s out: Whether a high-rise jail would be more efficient and cost-effective than a low-rise jail (which is what the city has been pursuing, and why it’s been focused on 7-acre sites like the two in this area). We’ve just started reviewing it – but it appears the answer is “no” – a high-rise jail would cost more. Read the full study here. ADDED 1:05 PM: Here are the main points, excerpted from the report, followed by (added at 2:42 pm) a comment from the city on “what’s next”:Read More
That’s Eddie Sherman, from the second generation of family ownership at Pacific Plumbing Supply, a regional business headquartered next to the West Marginal/Highland Park Way site that’s one of two potential West Seattle locations on the “final four” list for a public jail. Those two sites were the focus of a three-hour city-organized public forum at South Seattle Community College today. One major revelation from the city officials and consultants who were on hand: The process is slowing a bit now that Seattle is looking at teaming with north- and east-county cities on one semi-regional jail; that means the next round of hearings, on environmental impacts, won’t be till fall (there was originally talk of those hearings happening next month). The concerns expressed by jail opponents, meantime, continue to expand. Hear more of those concerns, and see what happens next, ahead:Read More
FIRST NOTE: We guessed wrong when we speculated about the source of the jets some saw/heard earlier today — turns out it was a Boeing F22 stealth-fighter arrival. Here’s video and info on the KING5 site. Seems they were en route to a Museum of Flight ceremony; the MoF is celebrating Boeing Field’s 80th anniversary later this month AND of course a week after that, it’s Blue Angels mania (see you there?).
SECOND NOTE: Road work just announced for Highland Park this weekend. Note from SDOT:
SDOT crews will repair the concrete pavement on SW Holden Street between 11th Avenue Southwest and Highland Parkway SW in Southwest Seattle. A detour will be in place for all traffic starting at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 19. By no later than 5 p.m. the same day the traffic will be reopened to eastbound traffic. By noon on Sunday, July 20, the street will be opened to westbound traffic. The street will remain open to pedestrians throughout the project.
Seattle Public Utilities‘ reservoir-construction open house tonight at Highland Park Elementary is one of the four events we’re just back from (other reports to come: Police Appreciation Day wrap-up, Hi-Yu Concert in the Park, and the latest info on how the project to replace the south end of The Viaduct will start changing your life next year). The work to put West Seattle Reservoir (north of Westcrest Park) underground really is imminent — SPU reservoir-program manager Stephanie Murphy told us the “notice to proceed” is expected Thursday; then site-preparation work will begin. The existing 68-million-gallon open reservoir will be demolished over the next few months, and an underground 30-million-gallon reservoir will be built in what SPU calls “the northern portion of the existing basin.” It’ll take about 2 years (completion is scheduled for June 2010), with construction crews planning to work between 6 am and 7 pm, Mondays-Fridays. Once they’re almost done – before the water’s piped in – it’ll look something like the Beacon Hill Reservoir where we shot this video a few weeks ago:
Beacon is 50 million gallons, West Seattle Reservoir is 30 million, but Murphy says “the footprint is almost the same” — it’s just going to be shallower. (It’s still a lot bigger than just-covered Myrtle Reservoir, “only” 5 million gallons.) As with the Myrtle work, undergrounding this reservoir will create new park space; a whole different process will be initiated, involving the city Parks Department, to determine what that will include. P.S. You can read the history of the soon-to-BE-history reservoir on this city webpage.
Thanks to Dina Johnson from Highland Park Action Committee for that photo of West Seattle Reservoir at Westcrest Park and a reminder about a meeting tonight that you might not have heard about if you don’t live in the immediate area — Seattle Public Utilities plans a community meeting at Highland Park Elementary (10th/Trenton), 6:30 pm-7:30 pm. We just checked with Stephanie Murphy, SPU’s reservoir-program manager, and she explained it’s an informal meeting to answer questions about “construction impacts” once the project to underground that reservoir (as has just been done at Myrtle Reservoir in West Seattle, as well as Beacon Hill Reservoir, where we joined the media tour and brought back fascinating underground video) gets under way.
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