West Seattle, Washington
09 Friday
COUNTY FURLOUGH: This is one of the 10 days this year that most of King County government is shutting down to save money. Metro service is normal, and a few essential services are open, all listed here.
I-5 WORK CLOSURES: State road crews, meantime, will be working around the clock this weekend on parts of the I-5 pavement repair project. Major lane closures start tonight and continue through early Monday morning; they’re listed here.
Though it didn’t happen in West Seattle, it wasn’t that far away, and the photo’s pretty clear, so on the offhand chance you recognize this bank robber, we’re sharing the photo provided by the FBI. He held up a Key Bank on SW 152nd in Burien around 10:45 this morning, using a “demand note.” White man, late 20s, medium height, slim build, brown hair, and goatee. Call 911 if you have a clue about his identity and/or whereabouts.
Re: the previous item about the start of pavement work on I-5 — WSDOT just announced it will NOT start tonight after all, because of the weather. Here’s the new announcement:
Grinding work scheduled to start tonight on northbound I-5 in Seattle has been postponed one day due to freezing temperatures expected overnight. The work will now begin Tuesday, Feb. 10. Long weekend closures begin Friday, Feb. 13.
This is the first week and weekend of our major I-5 pavement rehabilitation work.
Crews will close:
· Up to three lanes at night on northbound I-5 from Corson Avenue to the West Seattle Freeway Tuesday, Feb. 10 through Friday. Feb. 13.
· Lanes closures begin at 7 p.m.. Three of four lanes will be closed by 11 p.m. All lanes will reopen at 5 a.m.
· Up to three lanes at night on southbound I-5 from Stewart Street to I-90 Wednesday night, Feb. 11 through Friday morning, Feb. 13. Lane closures begin at 8 p.m. All lanes will reopen at 5 a.m.
· Up to three of four lanes on southbound I-5 between Stewart Street and just south of I-90 from Friday, Feb. 13 through Monday, Feb. 16. Lanes close at 8 p.m. on Friday and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday. Feb 16.
· The Howell Street and Union Street ramps will be closed during all southbound closures. A signed truck and vehicle detour is in place.
**UPDATE: AFTER THIS WAS PUBLISHED, WSDOT ANNOUNCED THE FIRST NIGHT’S BEEN POSTPONED … LATEST INFO HERE**
In case your commute route will be affected by the I-5 pavement work that starts tonight just south of where The Bridge meets I-5, we’re putting up the official WSDOT map before you head out for the day. There are a few more specifics here.
REVISED AT 10:26 PM: The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network has taken the 9 pm Kitsap County earthquake reading off its map. “False reading,” according to this Twitter update from NWCN, which is where we heard first word of the alleged quake (and then checked it out on the PNSN site before posting anything here). Have never seen a report “canceled” like that but we’ll just go back to not reporting quakes until our inbox is full of “we felt it” reports … (Eric B explains further in this comment.)
(January 8 photo by C. Simmons)
Eight days ago, we told you about the huge fire that gutted Pacific Sheet Metal and adjoining music facility The Dutchman on the south side of the Spokane Street Viaduct section of the West Seattle Bridge, still smoldering when many West Seattleites passed it hours later on the way to work. Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen now says investigators have finished their work, and determined that the fire started in the engine compartment of a truck in the PSM building. Damage total: $4.2 million. A relief fund for the music studio’s owner continues to accept online donations; haven’t found a link to any such fund for PSM – let us know if you know of one (editor@westseattleblog.com). FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Got a note from Nancy, who doesn’t know of relief efforts but does know that Pacific Sheet Metal’s owners are a longtime West Seattle family – founder William Zaknich lives on Alki; son Nick Zaknich, who runs the company now, lives in Shorewood.
As discussed in comments following yesterday’s coverage of the Spokane Street fire (here and here), though it apparently started in Pacific Sheet Metal, it also burned The Dutchman next door – a site rich in Seattle music history. WSB’er RealLowVibe just tweeted word of this website set up to help the Dutchman recover. Today’s update from the fire department is that investigators still can’t go in because of all the water flooding the site (see photo above, taken yesterday by C. Simmons), and it may take several days for the scene to be safe enough for them to enter.
Last night KING5 TV broke the story that the P-I would be put up for sale as a possible precursor to closing. People at the paper expressed surprise, as they hadn’t heard this. Today, however, this has just appeared on the P-I’s online home page, confirming it:
The Seattle P-I newspaper is being put up for sale. Steve Swartz, president of Hearst Newspaper Division, told the newsroom that Hearst Corp. is starting a 60-day process to find a buyer. If a buyer is not found, Swartz said, Hearst will pursue other options. The options include moving to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff, or completely shutting down operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form, Swartz said.
(Update: It’s now on the P-I site in article format; second update, here’s the Hearst news release.) We want to add a personal note that we would hate to see the P-I go, for one major reason: It has by far led the way in Seattle in presenting online news and information on a citywide/regional basis, including recognition of the importance of collaborating with the people formerly known as “readers.” (The P-I has also trailblazed in creating opportunities for its reporters to do coverage in blog format as well as traditional articles; among the stories it’s covering that way right now is the announcement that Boeing‘s Commercial Airplanes division plans thousands of job cuts this year – here’s the latest on the P-I site.)
2:45 PM UPDATE: Side note on this story, a little visual reminder that the news landscape has changed. Joe sent this screen grab from his check of Google News coverage on the P-I sale:
He hadn’t been aware that WSB stories are indexed in Google News. We announced that here last February. WSB was the first blog-format Seattle neighborhood-news site to get Google News indexing; several other sites achieved it within the past month or so.
(photo by C. Simmons)
If not for the massive flooding in the northern and southern areas of Western Washington, the Spokane Street fire at Pacific Sheet Metal early today (WSB coverage here) would have been a huge story for citywide media. Since they’re preoccupied, we’ll post a few updates here: No word on the cause yet – the latest update from Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen says firefighters are working to get “a large amount of water” out of the building and its surrounding area, and once that’s done, investigators will be able to go in. (added 12:51 pm — you can see the water in this photo sent by C. Simmons)
Also, Seattle Police have posted a side note to SPDBlotter — In addition to closing the Spokane Street Viaduct (the stretch between Highway 99 and I-5) during the height of the fire, they also had to stay with an unusual group of evacuees – residents and staff of the high-security sex-offender detention facility on the other side of the SSV had to be moved out for a few hours, and police stayed with that group until they were allowed to return to the building around 4:30 am. We’ll post another update here whenever the Fire Department has more investigation info (just saw a short TV update, finally, but it was the same info we posted nine hours ago). 12:32 PM UPDATE: City Light says it’s now restored power to all but one of the customers that have been without it since the fire.
We tweeted about this a couple times earlier this morning – it’s not technically in West Seattle and we thought it would be over before anybody much was affected – but a couple notes have come in so we’d better post it here too. The eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct is closed off while firefighters battle what an SFD spokesperson calls “a 2-alarm fire” at a “metal-fabricating warehouse” on lower Spokane Street. We happened to be coming back from downtown after midnight when we saw the roadblock and the billowing smoke. Helen Fitzpatrick of SFD says flames were shooting from the 1-story warehouse’s roof at 111 S. Spokane St. (map) when fire crews arrived; one firefighter’s slightly hurt, nobody was in the building, no word yet on a cause. If you drive eastbound to I-5, you’re likely to see the fire scene smoldering to the south during your morning commute. Here’s the fire vicinity, in a Google Street View photo:
3 AM UPDATE: One new bit of information from the fire department since we first posted – the fire was under control as of 2:30 am. The investigation has not yet started, but fire crews will be there all night. Seattle City Light had to turn off power to the surrounding area and more than 400 “customers” are without power at the moment as a result.
Longtime WSBers know we are a bit Blue Angels-crazy here when Seafair rolls around at summertime. So we are sharing the news that one Blue Angels jet (#7) and two pilots (#7 and #8, Lt. Ben Walborn and Lt. Amy Tomlinson) are expected to land at Boeing Field sometime around 1 this afternoon (time may vary) for “winter briefing meetings.” This year’s Seafair air shows will be July 31-August 2. (P.S. Lt. Tomlinson may be the first Blue Angel we’ve found with a MySpace page; here’s her official bio. As #8, she serves as event coordinator, though as you’ll see in her bio, she’s a pilot with a distinguished resume. The Angels have not yet had a female pilot in the six-member main team; the USAF Thunderbirds have had at least two, as we side-noted in this story.)
We hear some West Seattleites got stuck in this backup earlier tonight: At one point, three lanes of southbound I-5 were closed just before the West Seattle Bridge exit because of what WSDOT’s alert called “a police investigation.” According to KING5‘s 11 pm newscast (though we’re not finding this replicated online yet), someone standing or walking on the freeway was hit and killed. In e-mail asking about the incident, after spending time in the resulting backup, Tracie wrote, “We saw a pair of tennis shoes on the pavement with a spray-painted circle around them, and a forensic unit on site.” WSDOT just sent an update saying all lanes are open again. 2:33 AM UPDATE: Washington State Patrol has sent the incident report to media; two cars hit the 44-year-old Shoreline man who was killed (his relatives have not yet been notified so his name isn’t to be made public at this point) who was “walking (on) southbound I-5 just north of 6th and Forest … attempted to cross south lanes of travel … struck by (both) vehicles.” No word so far why he was walking on the freeway.
The Oregonian in Portland published this story online last night, but we just caught the link through a Twitter mention — the aftermath of their city’s even-more-epic snow. Notable revelations: Portland plows NO secondary streets, but does have 50 snowplows (almost double the Seattle number). However – this earlier article suggests they had some plow trouble and bus trouble too.
(view from aboard the carousel at Westlake Park downtown, which is operating through Wednesday)
Just back from the outside world (as in, outside West Seattle) for the first time in who knows how many days. A few notes:
–Just saw a UPS truck in front of the apartment block on California in Morgan Junction south of McDonald’s et al, 8:41 pm. It was pointed north. There may be hope for others tonight.
–While downtown, we saw a trash truck emptying sidewalk containers at 5th/Denny. After missing two weeks of pickups, we are suddenly impressed by the sight of a trash truck. Impressed enough to pull out the camera:
–Also while downtown, we walked into Pacific Place just after 6 pm, when fake snow falls night from the atrium, accompanied by snow-idolizing holiday music, in what’s meant to be a show of “holiday magic” inspiring joy, but was met tonight mostly by weary glowers.
–Downtown, the streets are clear, with massive mountains of dirty snow on all sides. Colorado native co-publisher Patrick says this is what it looks like in Snow Country from January through March, and cautions that those piles will be self-sustaining for days if not weeks.
–Heading back into West Seattle, we did see a few signs of clogged drains – a couple puddles along Fauntleroy Way, for starters. Checking comments that have come in recently, we see someone has relayed a great idea for finding your storm drain IF you are on a major street — check Google Street View. To do that, start at maps.google.com and put your address in; if you were surveyed for Google Street View, you will see a “street view” button inside the little info balloon that points to the address, as well as a thumbnail photo; click the “street view” link and it will bring up a larger version of the image. Once that image is up, you can use your mouse or touchpad to drag it around and look at the scene from anywhere in the 360 view. (Wondering when they traveled through West Seattle? Click here to see a scene that reveals EXACTLY when they went through California/Edmunds in The Junction.)
No West Seattle sightings mentioned since the ones a week ago (12/2 photo at left, courtesy Jeff Hogan), but the latest Orca Network e-mail update mentions major sightings today around south Vashon Island — so they may be passing this way again — one morning sighting mentions seeing two sizable groups pass Des Moines this morning, and the captain of the Point Defiance-Tahlequah (south Vashon to northwest Tacoma) ferry “reported 20-30 orcas milling off Pt. Defiance” just after 1:30 pm. (Side note – The same Orca Network update reports a protest at Maury Island early tomorrow morning related to the state’s recent approval of construction of a 300-foot-long pier over an aquatic reserve to facilitate expansion of gravel mining; The Backbone Campaign is gathering a flotilla at Sandy Shores at 7 am.)
Sorry to report that we had the wrong information on our calendar – the Art Under $100 sale in South Park is actually TONIGHT, 4 pm-10 pm, not during the day. From the announcement:
South Park artists will knock your socks off with original, edgy works not seen at a typical holiday sale. What’s more, everything is affordable, with nothing priced over $100. The event will showcase a diverse array of art including painting, sculpture, neon, jewelry, clothing, photography, glass, letterpress, and more. Local musicians Mark Johnson (Amateur Radio Operator) and Kevin Suggs (Evangeline, Amateur Radio Operator, KEXP) will sculpt an ever-changing atmospheric sound-scape throughout the event. Sip wine, feast on appetizers, and actually enjoy holiday shopping. A mysterious masked bugle boy will blow his horn every half hour to announce art raffles donated by the participating artists. Raffle tickets will be available for $2 each or 3 for $5
The South Park sale is at the Old Fire Station in SP, 8201 Tenth Ave. South; here’s a map; participating artists (and more!) are listed on the website for South Park Arts.
Earlier this week, we mentioned the search for a man accused of stabbing his ex-wife to death in the Rainier Valley. One of the victim’s neighbors is Amber Campbell, who operates an independent neighborhood-news site, the Rainier Valley Post. Amber has just sent this out and we want to help spread the word:
Friends & neighbors,
Most of you already know that earlier this week, my neighbor Noemi Lopez – the mother of three beautiful children, 15-year old Karina, 13-year old Alandra and 6-year old Alex – was killed by her ex-husband. Angel has confessed to the murder and remains on the run. The children are staying with relatives but they have been unable to return to their home for clothes, school supplies, personal belongings, etc. Can you help them?
I am personally keeping in touch with the family on a regular basis to keep tabs on their needs and deliver the outpouring of sentiments, blessings and donations. So far neighbors have contributed money, clothing and a tree to plant in Noemi’s memory.
At this time we are focused on helping the children with clothing, school supplies and gifts for the holidays, as well as the crime scene clean-up costs that will range somewhere in the area of $1,000 – $5,000.
The Rainier Valley Post has established a fund specifically for the Lopez Children and we would all be very grateful for whatever you can spare to help these poor kids during the most horrible time of their lives. No amount is too small.
The “donate” button is atop the right sidebar on the RVP homepage; find it here. And as Amber has written in a different post – keep watch over your neighbors for signs of domestic violence, not just the other crimes we hear about almost every day. To this date, there has been only one murder in West Seattle this year … domestic violence … a woman killed by her husband, who then killed himself. Meantime, the Rainier Valley suspect remains on the run – his photo, and links to other info, are here.
It didn’t happen in West Seattle, but it wasn’t very far away, and police are casting a citywide (even regional) net for a murder suspect on the loose, so we are helping distribute this photo and information: Shown at left is 39-year-old Jose Angel Blanco, AKA Jose A. Blanco-Naranjo, suspected of killing his ex-wife, 32-year-old Noemi Lopez, a mother of three, yesterday in the Rainier Valley. If you have any idea where he might be, call 911. Read more here about his description; read more here about what happened (as told by neighbor Amber Campbell, an acquaintance of ours because she runs the Rainier Valley Post neighborhood-news site in that area). TUESDAY UPDATE: Police say he has changed cars – latest information here.
If you haven’t already heard – police have arrested the man accused of shooting two teenagers, killing one of them, at Southcenter last Saturday night. 21-year-old Barry Saunders was taken into custody in Portland.
Finally, an excuse to use the photo we took as the holiday merry-go-round near Westlake Center was being set up last weekend! Just got the SDOT traffic alert about holiday 4-day weekend activities including the Friday parade (we’ll be there – never met a parade we didn’t like) and tree lighting/fireworks plus the Seattle Marathon, so here’s the announcement in all its glory:Read More
It’s up on the P-I’s site now: A photo of 21-year-old Barry Saunders, the man wanted for murder and other charges in the Saturday mall shooting (WSB coverage here) that left 16-year-old Daiquan Jones dead, and another teenage boy wounded. He is said to have ties to Kent as well as Tukwila.
(see bottom of this post for added/updated info throughout the evening)
ORIGINAL 4:21 PM REPORT: It’s the closest major mall to West Seattle so this is practically local news: A shooting is reported at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila – at least one person reported to have been hit. We are monitoring some of the scanner traffic; the search for a suspect/s appears to be continuing. Will add more info/links as we get them; this is the first report. Eerie that it was the pre-Thanksgiving weekend three years ago when the Tacoma Mall shooting happened. 4:33 PM UPDATE: Scanner says it happened “between Mac Store, Banana Republic, and main hallway” and believed to be gang-related. We are also monitoring regional news sources for any new details from scene. Here are some direct links: P-I report, KING5 report, KIRO report, more links when they show up online (here’s the Twitter stream for Southcenter mentions). The Times doesn’t have a separate story yet but its home-page blurb says 2 victims have been taken to Harborview Medical Center; scanner traffic a few minutes ago also mentioned 2 victims. 5:01 PM UPDATE: KING says the person who shot 2 men at the mall is NOT in custody at this point; officers are continuing to search the mall in case he’s still in there. 5:22 PM UPDATE: First eyewitness account we’ve found is in a Daily Kos “diary,” of all places. “exiledfromTN” wrote:
Long story short, we were upstairs when we heard the shots. The mall was packed with people, and when the first shot went off, my Memphis upbringing told me immediately the noise was too loud to be anything else but shots. Everyone is looking around as if they’re all thinking, “WTF was that?” Then shots two and three go off, and there’s no question.
Times now has a standalone story, which says two other people were hospitalized besides the shooting victims – including “a pregnant woman who went into labor.” 6:06 PM UPDATE: Witness doing a phone interview on KIRO says it started after a fistfight between a group of young men who the witness said “looked 18, tops.” The two victims are described as “late teens/early twenties.” 7:06 PM UPDATE: One of the victims has died, according to the Times. 7:42 PM UPDATE: “WesCAddle” reports this in the comment section below:
We were there. In watching a movie at the new theater when about 30 minutes into it, they turned on all the lights and an usher came in and announced that we all needed to evacuate the mall. When we got out into the lobby of the theaters, the big metal gate was closed and we were told we would not be allowed to leave the theater. After about 10 minutes of standing around in the lobby (and watching police with automatic rifles running all over the place on the other side of the gates) the theater operators told us we could go back in and finish watching the movies, since it would probably be a while before we could leave.
Needless to say, we returned to the movie and finished it. When the movie ended they began letting people leave, and traffic was a nightmare. The police response was huge outside and inside the mall.
It was better than the movie.
ADDED 9:29 PM: We have an even more harrowing account from WSB’er “Jack Loblaw”:
My wife and I were at the Starbucks at Southcenter when the shooting occurred. We used to target shoot for hobby and knew by the second round fired that it was gunfire. Out daughter and her girlfriend ( 13 years old ) were at the theatre seeing “Twilight”. We ran for our lives. I looked back and saw that my wife had ran into Starbucks which was a trap with no way out. I ran back knowing that I could be shot and pulled her out and ran faster than I have ever run before. We got outside and I called 911. It took 45 seconds or more for them to answer. I told then that we were at Southcenter and 5 shots had been fired inside the mall. They said that there were multiple reports and that they were on it.
We were on the first floor and our kid was in the theatre on the top floor. We snaked our way up stairs and got to the theatre. There were just locking the doors of the theatre when we got there. I told them that our kids were inside and that we were not going to be locked out from them. They let us in; as I stood watch my wife searched theaters for the kids. They finally evacuated all the theaters but would not let us leave the lobby. They told us to go back into a theatre to which I replied “F-Off ” I just was in the line of fire and I refuse to be trapped in a box with no way to run.” We were held captive for what seems like an hour. Verizon cell phones DID NOT WORK. I used my AT&T Blackberry to start searching for information. I called a friend on AT&T to get info via the web. Finally we were let out.. There was at least 5 or 6 police officers with fully automatic weapons that we had to pass through on the way out. …
What is wrong with America that it is not safe to take our family to the mall ? We were just remarking 2 minutes before the shooting occurred that Southcenter looked like it had cleaned up its act and that it did not look like gang central — I guess we were wrong. Do we need to be armed to go out in public any more — ???
9:36 PM UPDATE: The person who was killed is identified (per the Times) as 16-year-old Daiquin L. Jones. 15-year-old Jermaine McGowen is the survivor. No arrest reported yet. 10:01 PM UPDATE: Channel 5 says the search inside the mall has just ended, no sign of the killer. 10:43 PM UPDATE: Later in that newscast, a relative of the victim told a reporter that the victim had just gotten out of jail “last Friday” – not clear if that meant yesterday or a week earlier. EARLY SUNDAY UPDATE: Times says Southcenter Mall will reopen today.
(added photos at the bottom of this post)
ORIGINAL POST: The march and rally are happening right now, Capitol Hill to downtown, and Slog has coverage — including these overview photos of the march stretching for blocks. We’re hoping for photos later from West Seattleites who are participating. 2:36 PM UPDATE: Cami uploaded this video from the VERY early going, just as the first people were starting to gather at Volunteer Park:
And she sent this photo (thank you!) of organizer Kyler Powell onstage:
Capitol Hill Seattle also has photos (you have to click through them in the box on the left side of the post). ADDED 7:25 PM: Thanks to WSB Forums‘ Zenguy for sharing these photos – the first one shows you the depth of the Volunteer Park crowd (Zenguy says that’s Ron Sims way up at the stage — we’ll take his word for it; the other two pix show the marchers going through downtown):
ADDED LATE SATURDAY NIGHT: Thanks to Cheryl for sharing these photos taken by Greg Martin of her making a sign, and her and her goddaughter with their signs at the rally:
The WSB Forums thread about the event (discussed before and after) is here. ADDED VERY EARLY MONDAY: Just found this post on the Jew-Ish blog, recounting what Rabbi Michael Latz from West Seattle’s Kol HaNeshamah congregation said at the rally.
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