If you’re looking north/northeast into Elliott Bay early Monday morning – between about 5:15 and 6 am – you may see ms Amsterdam, Seattle-headquartered Holland America Line‘s flagship, which’ll be the first cruise ship to call in Seattle this season, during a 108-day around-the-world journey. The Port of Seattle is expecting 223 ship visits this year, up five from last year; Celebrity and Norwegian Cruise Line will dock at Pier 66, while Holland America, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival will dock in Magnolia. More info here (though the schedule link doesn’t appear to be working – we’ve got a message out to the port seeking a copy).
We’re now sharing the long weekly citywide list of road-work updates when it comes out, since this list is often the first word of traffic alerts that might affect you. That was the case two weeks ago, when this list was the first to reveal May 17 as the exact date (tentatively) set for longterm closure of the 1st Avenue So. onramp to the West Seattle Bridge (here’s this morning’s update with detour maps) … and tonight, the list has news about the 1st Avenue offramp from the eastbound bridge:
Waterline work is starting soon on 1st Ave S near S Spokane St. Lane restrictions will be in place for approximately five months, including reducing the EB off-ramp from the Spokane St Viaduct to one lane.
The entire list of alerts has just been updated on its accompanying webpage – note the stadium-area 4th Avenue closure coming up this entire weekend.
West Seattleite Scott C sent that photo earlier today as the third 787 “Dreamliner” built by Boeing took off for its first flight from Paine Field in Snohomish County. At the time, it looked like the jet was Moses Lake-bound – but instead, it landed at Boeing Field, so you might have seen it in nearby skies. According to the FlightAware log, it’s still at Boeing Field right now. (ZA003 is actually the fourth Dreamliner to fly, though it was the third built; this news release explains.)
Not West Seattle, but taken by a West Seattleite, and some WS riders had to have been in the crowd – that’s a ferry full of bicycles, headed from Bainbridge Island to downtown Seattle after the Chilly Hilly, photographed by John LaSpina, who caught this view too:
A commenter in our earlier story has forwarded a letter from Services Group of America confirming the helicopter-crash death of chair/owner Tom Stewart, whose company was headquartered in North Delridge until 2006. The Seattle Times (WSB partner) is now also quoting the company as confirming Mr. Stewart’s death, as well as 4 others who were on board the SGA-owned chopper that went down in Cave Creek, Arizona. Here’s the letter; if you can’t open the PDF, we’ve cut/pasted the text after the jump (added 3:23 pm, here’s the official company news release):Read More
(Phoenix TV report this morning on the crash investigation)
The Seattle Times (WSB partner) was first to report this locally last night: A helicopter belonging to Services Group of America, headquartered in West Seattle (in the North Delridge building known for its huge flag) until 2006, crashed in Arizona, killing at least 3 people, who have yet to be publicly, officially identified. The company acknowledged to the Times that the crashed chopper was the personal helicopter of its owner and chair, Tom Stewarthere’s his official bio on the SGA site), and said there were conflicting reports on whether he was aboard. When Stewart’s company was headquartered in the North Delridge building, helicopter-flying was the source of a controversy that spanned almost the entire ’90s decade – in 1991, he sought a permit for a helipad atop the building, and the fight went all the way to the state Supreme Court before a final ruling against it in 1999. This aviation site reported on the crash and pointed to the FAA registration data of the helicopter, which suggests it may have belonged to the company before its move from West Seattle to Arizona. Since Stewart’s company moved, the main headline back here has been the $125,000,000 for-sale listing of his Vashon farm (detailed on this website, video tour and all). The SGA chopper went down in the Cave Creek, AZ, area.
Saturday will mark exactly two years since a man named Nicholas Franciscovanished, leaving behind his 2 kids and pregnant wife, sparking an intense, much-discussed search that even covered West Seattle, since he and his family had attended Mars Hill Church here. Now there’s one more coda to the story, 3 months after the King County Sheriff’s Office announcement saying the case was closed after he was found “alive and well, living in another state”: For a sweeps-month special report, KIRO TV tracked him down in Southern California, living under another name, and elicited a brief, chilling, chilly interview – followed by a look into why it’s hard to enforce orders against out-of-state deadbeat parents like him. The text version of their story is here; the video version, broadcast last night, is here.
ORIGINAL 8:49 PM REPORT: Just got that photo via Twitter from @sntxrr who says it’s his view of the house burning right now in South Park, 500 block of South Trenton. If you are in eastern West Seattle, you might have heard the sirens – and another engine from central West Seattle (E32 from The Junction) was just called out to join the fight too (some of the responding engines/trucks on the 911 listing are from here too). Scanner hasn’t indicated any injuries so far, but the house was reported “fully involved,” from its garage to its attic. (Looks like this is the Google Street View angle closest to the one the photo shows.)
9:04 PM: At the fire scene is photojournalist Cliff DesPeaux – check his Twitter feed at @despeaux for photo/video links.
9:38 PM: Seattle Fire spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen says they don’t know the fire’s cause yet, but it’s out, adding that six people got out of the house safely, no injuries. She says the fire, which started in the garage, was first noticed by someone walking a dog.
1:08 AM: Just checked back with the SFD media hotline and there’s been a major development: Vander Houwen now says they found a body in the burned garage where the fire started. No word on identity or even gender; they also aren’t saying yet how the fire started – more information expected later today.
UPDATE: SFD has not announced a cause yet. Damage totaled $310,000. The victim was a teenage boy.
(WSB photo from Race for the Cure, heading north onto The Viaduct, 6/7/2009)
Not West Seattle-specific, but it does affect many people here in many ways — Just got a note that registration is open for the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a tradition for your WSB co-publishers and thousands of other Seattleites – and noticed in the fine print, it’s not going to be on The Viaduct this year – the location is instead listed as Seattle Center. Not surprising, since construction in the area is accelerating, but this doesn’t seem to have been reported elsewhere yet, so we thought we’d pass it along, for those who will miss walking with that great view, and for those who will be happy to have one less traffic-closure morning, among others. Here’s the race information; here’s how to register. The date this year: June 6, only four months away. ADDED 1:41 PM: We asked R4TC for the official reason behind the move, and it’s partly as expected – from Danie, “Due to scheduling issues with the Sounders at Qwest field and the viaduct coming down in 2011 a location change was necessary. The route is still TBD, but the venue has great potential and participants will be VERY pleased.” (That’s the SOUTH end of The Viaduct coming down next year, of course, not the central section.)
The city has just announced which neighborhoods will be the two to get official neighborhood-plan updates this year – and neither is on our peninsula: They are Rainier Beach and Broadview-Bitter Lake-Haller Lake. After the recent meeting of the Neighborhood Plan Advisory Council, speculation about a possible WS choice had cooled, but there’s hope for a future plan update, and some of the local neighborhoods that have plans have decided to start revving up for the possibility by discussing statuses and goals in venues such as the Southwest District Council meeting. Ahead, read the news release just in from the mayor’s office re: today’s announcement:Read More
The King County Road Service Division will close the South Park Bridge spanning the Duwamish River to both vehicle and marine traffic from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. daily Saturday Jan. 30 through Tuesday, Feb. 2. The four-day closure will allow engineers to perform noise and water quality testing and simulate vibration that might occur during bridge construction. During the closure, engineers will conduct pile driving to measure noise, vibration and take water quality samples. Data collected during the tests will assist the county in planning for construction of a new bridge when financing becomes available. During the closure, motorists can detour via the First Avenue South Bridge.
We don’t have a lot of details but several people have asked what was happening along southbound 99, with a heavy police response, during the evening commute home to West Seattle. SPD media unit Det. Jeff Kappel tells us a pedestrian was hit – not sure what the person was doing on foot on the freeway. Injuries are described as serious; that’s all the details they have for now. 9:38 PM UPDATE: SPDBlotter has more information now: The victim, now said to have life-threatening injuries, is a 41-year-old man, who was walking across 99 – six lanes with a divider at that point – west to east, when a Honda Pilot hit him. Full writeup here.
If you’re in eastern West Seattle, or somewhere close to Boeing Field, you might have seen/heard a familiar summertime sound today – yes, that was a Blue Angels jet (the two-seater #7); here’s KING5 video with the proof. Seafair says pilots #7 and #8 were here for the annual winter briefing meetings. This year’s air show is set for August 6-8.
Mayor-elect Mike McGinn‘s team sent out a news release this afternoon with details on not just the Monday afternoon swearing-in ceremonies for McGinn and others, but also some other “inaugural week events” including a free music festival a week from Saturday with some of Seattle’s hottest street-food vendors on hand – read on for the full list:Read More
Drive to or through SODO? You’ll be interested in the traffic alert we just received from WSDOT – it’ll affect city streets as well as state routes. Read on:Read More
Several WSB’ers have asked us about an unusual police/fire presence along I-5 this afternoon – this is what it was all about. The Seattle Fire Department tweeted that photo of some of its crews paying tribute to Pierce County Deputy Kent Mundell, as his body was transported this afternoon from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, which is near Harborview Medical Center,where he died yesterday. Deputy Mundell is the sixth law-enforcement officer in the Puget Sound area to have been murdered in the past two months; his memorial service is set for next Tuesday at the Tacoma Dome.
Just a few weeks ago, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the deadly shooting of four Lakewood Police officers. Tonight, they are dealing with an attack on two of their own: 2 Pierce County deputies shot after answering a domestic-violence call in the Eatonville area. According to what Pierce County spokesperson Det. Ed Troyer just said in a live interview on Channel 7, both are in critical condition, and the person who opened fire on them was killed. For information directly from Pierce County, watch the red-bordered emergency-info box on its website, here. KIRO’s developing story is here; developing coverage from our partners at the Seattle Times is here; ongoing Twitter updates related to the story are here (tagged #eatonville). With the four Lakewood officers killed the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton – a former West Seattleite – killed on Halloween night, this makes seven eight law-enforcement officers shot in the Puget Sound area in the past seven weeks. 11:52 PM: Tacoma’s News-Tribune is also posting updates – here’s their story, updated a few minutes ago. We’ll be monitoring Web/Twitter over the next few hours and will note any major developments here.
12:08 AM UPDATE: Seattle Times photojournalist Cliff DesPeaux is at Harborview Medical Center, where one of the deputies were airlifted, and reports via Twitter that Seattle PD Deputy Chief Nick Metz reports that deputy “is still fighting.”
12:58 AM UPDATE: The Times has reported that the other deputy, at Madigan Army Medical Center, has spoken with investigators. And Pierce County has identified the suspect who was shot and killed as David Crable. And Cliff DesPeaux has uploaded this video (first streamed live a short while ago) of Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor at Harborview, asking people to keep the deputies in their prayers.
1:21 AM: According to seattlepi.com’s Casey McNerthney, the deputy who’s at Madigan is doing better and is now listed in serious condition instead of critical.
A weekend traffic alert from WSDOT this morning, regarding effects this weekend of work that’s under way as part of the 1st phase of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project – if you’re going through SODO, including heading for the Seahawks game on Sunday, here’s what you need to know:Read More
For the first time since the horrifying attack in South Park that killed 39-year-old Teresa Butz five months ago, the murder victim’s 37-year-old partner – who survived despite serious wounds – has broken her silence. She spoke, anonymously, withSeattle Times (WSB partner) reporter Jennifer Sullivan, not commenting on the attack itself, but about how she is getting on with her life, telling the Times, “Survival is about being part of the world, not getting lost in the fear …” She also has moved away from South Park, to Capitol Hill. The story was published tonight; you can read it here, including how she is about to help launch a new self-defense program for women.
(AirlineReporter.com video of the takeoff, link found in Seattle Weekly compilation) ORIGINAL 10:42 AM REPORT: You probably watched the Boeing 787 Dreamliner take off for its first flight – whether online or on TV – but if you want a closer look when the test flight concludes this afternoon, it’s reported to be coming in to the airport closest to West Seattle, Boeing Field [map]. So far the landing is expected to happen at or after 3 pm. We know many WSB’ers have Boeing ties; congratulations to you all. Here’s the official Boeing “first flight” website. 11:26 AM:Here’s the flight tracking from FlightAware (thanks to @mcneight for the link via Twitter) – and here’s iPhone video with the perspective from the media sidelines as the 787 took off, shot by @flightblogger:
1:28 PM UPDATE: And now it seems the Dreamliner’s arriving at Boeing Field earlier than projected – any minute now. KING5.com is streaming. Around 1:35 pm for landing, according to various Twitter sources.
4:18 PM: A couple of landing visuals which show the excitement just before and after this afternoon’s touchdown – this is video @codyrh shared via Twitter:
The change in plans meant not everybody got to Boeing Field in time. But “westseattledood“‘s photo from “vehicle approach” shows the interest:
It started an hour later than expected because the nearly 2,000-vehicle-long procession took extra time, but the service with tens of thousands in attendance at the Tacoma Dome is officially under way as of shortly after 2 pm. Watch it live on KING5.com. Here’s our earlier story with several West Seattle ways to help the officers’ families – today, tomorrow, this weekend and beyond. To contribute directly to the fund, go here.
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Saturday will mark exactly two years since a man named Nicholas Francisco 
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