West Seattle, Washington
27 Monday
10:07 PM: Another West Seattle beach has or will soon have a warning sign up about a sewage problem. We first got a reader tip tonight about sewage overflowing at the Barton Pump Station in the 5 pm to 7:30 pm vicinity, and as we were about to seek verification, an announcement came in from King County Wastewater Treatment Division with this news:
An undetermined amount of wastewater overflowed from a blown cap on a pipe north of the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal at about 7 p.m. To stop the leak, crews temporarily shut down one of the pumps to slow flows and reduce pressure in the line. The system resumed normal operation, though the cause of the overflow is still under investigation.
Crews initiated cleanup this evening and reported the overflow to health and regulatory agencies. Employees will make additional assessments, post the beach as closed, and take water quality samples when daylight resumes.
In response to our followup question about when it started, KCWTD spokesperson Annie Kolb-Nelson says she can’t confirm the start time but “we got a report from a State Ferry employee who said he noticed it at dusk, but the stop time sounds correct.” The beach on the north side of the dock is already off-limits to the public because of the pump station’s ongoing upgrade project, but there are residential beaches to the south of the dock and immediately north of the pump-station work.
This is the third recent sewage problem along West Seattle shores: Just a week and a half ago, Murray Pump Station, about a mile north, had an overflow estimated at 18,000 gallons when it lost power during a Seattle City Light outage in the vicinity; also last month, pipe problems at the over-water Harbor West Condos building led to leakage estimated by Seattle Public Utilities at around 30,000 gallons.
ADDED 11:13 PM: We should also note that it is the second problem the county has reported at this particular pump station in less than a week. The previous one – which was NOT reported to have caused an overflow – was a power outage last Wednesday.
After publishing the news earlier this week that West Seattle Helpline received a $10,000 grant from the RealNetworks Foundation, we found out Helpline wasn’t alone: Transitional Resources, headquartered in the Luna Park neighborhood, has received one too. Above are TR’s CEO Darcell Slovek-Walker and RNF’s Kevin Johnson. A TR spokesperson tells WSB, “This grant will go so far in helping us expand our onsite chemical-dependency services to provide intensive substance abuse help to our clients. We are so happy to see their support for the organizations in West Seattle who are doing so much for the community!”
St. Patrick’s Day is on a Sunday this year – two weeks from tomorrow – and that means an entire 3-day weekend of revelry at The Celtic Swell on Alki – featuring a costume contest for “Pets and Their People.” It’ll run 2-4 pm on Saturday, March 16th, per the announcement we received today:
Labs dressed-up like leprechauns! Shar peis with shillelaghs! Bulldogs boasting bagpipes! There’s no telling what you’ll see when Alki’s Celtic Swell Irish Pub hosts its first annual St. Patrick’s Day “Pets & Their People” Costume Contest featuring a free photo booth and prizes to benefit the Seattle Humane Society. The family-and-pet-friendly event is a must-do for everyone seeking festive and memorable St. Paddy’s Day fun.
Guests are invited to dress up their pets (and themselves) in St. Pat’s day garb, mug it up Irish-style in the Celtic Swell’s free photo booth, and win incredible prizes donated by some of the area’s favorite local businesses. Participation is free with all donations benefiting the Seattle Humane Society.
With two Siberian Huskies of his own, Celtic Swell owner Gareth Hughes says the costume contest and the cause felt like a natural fit for the Swell. “This year marks our 9th annual Paddy’s celebration, so we wanted to try something a little different! I can’t think of a better way to get the entire family in on the fun of St. Paddy’s day and give back to invaluable community organizations like the Seattle Humane Society who work tirelessly to promote positive change. Judging from the tremendous positive response we’ve received already, I’m confident this will become a cherished family tradition for years to come.”
Today’s announcement also includes a schedule of other events at Celtic Swell that weekend – see the full list here (PDF). The pub’s on Alki Avenue SW, just east of 61st SW, across from Statue of Liberty Plaza and Alki Bathhouse.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
3:16 PM: Thanks to everybody who’s texted and tweeted about this: A multiple-vehicle crash on the eastbound bridge around the 1st Avenue South Exit is backing up traffic – compounding the challenges of the Viaduct and southbound I-5 ramp closures. One texter says it appears to be “in the left lane eastbound right after 1st Ave. S. exit.” No other details yet – just getting the warning out for starters. Note that the Viaduct closure is scheduled to end at 5 pm, so the exit to northbound 99 should open then (another 99 closure is scheduled 6 am-noon tomorrow).
3:48 PM UPDATE: Some are asking about the low bridge. This camera’s the only view we have – it shows the west entrance to the eastbound low bridge, in the background, and has been looking fairly backed up:
4:17 PM: The high bridge is still backed up but the low bridge looks to be in better shape (one commenter on Facebook said it appeared to have marine traffic going through earlier).
4:26 PM: Some of the pressure’s being taken off with the slightly early reopening of Highway 99 – all cameras show the exit from the eastbound bridge has been reopened, and traffic is moving on Viaduct/99:
Thanks again to everyone who helped with updates (as long as you can do so safely – no texting/calling if you’re driving, please, we can wait to hear till you get where you’re going!) – 206-293-6302 any time.
6:26 PM UPDATE: We just read the fine print on the later WSDOT confirmation that 99 was open: They are now saying the previously announced Sunday morning closure is no longer needed – not the 99/Viaduct stretch, anyway; there IS still a 6 am-11 am closure planned *north* of Battery St. Tunnel for the Hot Chocolate run.
(Photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
1:22 PM: Those are a few of the two dozen-plus people who were already getting to work on the beach at Constellation Park about an hour ago, with more arriving for the Beach Creeps Bicycle Club Beach Cleanup. It’s not that the beach is full of typical trash – more insidious, to beach and sea life, lots of styrofoam pieces and particles have washed up, and getting some of it out from where it’s mixed up with rocks and driftwood is a key objective. Still time for you to join, since they’re there till 3 – just check in at 63rd/Beach Drive (by the octopus sculpture that’s embedded in the sidewalk). Full report later.
4:54 PM: A closer look at the cleanup as it unfolded, from WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams:
(This photo and all others below are by Nick Adams for WSB)
As they arrived, volunteers were given what they needed, and sent off to work on the rocky beach:
Rachelle Kauffman worked under and between the driftwood:
Sticks made the best tools, as 7-year-old Cooper Guidry also found out:
The cleanup volunteers got some big pieces of debris of the beach, like the one Kris Blazina is hauling away:
Picking up the little things – like bits of styrofoam – mattered a lot too, though:
That’s part of what Scott Pietz was up to:
Background, dark sweatshirt, that’s the club’s publicity chair Michael D. Adams helping scour the shore:
This area of West Seattle shoreline is especially precious because it holds a marine-reserve area.
The cleanup was organized in the span of just a week:
Over the week, it went from a casual idea among friends, to an official capital-e Event that even had to get on the Parks Department radar, for a permit, and also trash pickup.
SUNDAY NOTE: In a just-posted comment, Willis from the Beach Creeps reports more than 40 people signed in as part of the event, and the group is thinking about sequels.
Photographed outside West Seattle Thriftway this morning, that’s broker Chris Hanley and granddaughter Enna Ernst, volunteering for the Prudential Northwest Realty Food Drive, which continues till 2 pm outside Thriftway and Metropolitan Market-Admiral. At either store, you can drop off donations of nonperishable food, money, or other essentials (like diapers!) to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank. (Our standard disclosure, when mentioning sponsors: Prudential NW Realty, West Seattle Thriftway, and Metropolitan Market are all WSB sponsors.)
Thanks to Girl Scout Troop 43774 for sharing a photo from their cookie-sale station outside West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) – they’re there till noon, but other Scouts will be there later too (all the way till 8 tonight), and other stores and sites are hosting cookie sellers as well. You can find them all – dates, times, places, troops – via the Cookie Locator. This is day two of cookie-selling season, which continues through March 17th. P.S. See the sign for “Operation Cookie Drop”? Here’s what that’s about.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
Big day ahead – with three road closures to remember, and a multitude of reasons to stay on the peninsula and avoid two of them! From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
TRAFFIC ALERTS: Three closures today you need to know about: Alaskan Way Viaduct/99 both ways between the bridge and Battery Street Tunnel, till 5 pm (and again 6 am-noon Sunday); eastbound bridge ramp to southbound I-5, all weekend; Delridge/Trenton intersection, all weekend.
LINCOLN PARK INVASIVES CLEANUP: 9 am to noon, Friends of Lincoln Park will be clearing blackberry canes, ivy, maybe even holly and laurel. Meet at the kiosk in the north parking lot, Fauntleroy and Rose – if you get there late, “check the kiosk map (in the North lot) to see where we are working. … Dress in NW layers for warmth and dryness with sturdy shoes or boots. Long sleeves are recommended. Bring gloves and hand clippers if you have them, but we have extras. Bring a water bottle.”
REALTORS’ FOOD DRIVE: West Seattle’s Prudential Northwest Realty (WSB sponsor) team members are holding their annual food drive, 10 am-2 pm, at West Seattle Thriftway and Metropolitan Market-Admiral (both also WSB sponsors), accepting food and cash donations for the West Seattle Food Bank.
NORTH DELRIDGE BEAUTIFICATION: Join the North Delridge Neighborhood Council‘s March cleanup at Greg Davis Park, 10 am-noon. Just wear comfortable clothes – everything you need will be provided.
FOREST RESTORATION: First of three chances to join the SSCC Ecological Restoration class and others in the West Duwamish Greenbelt, 10 am-2 pm, details here.
HOMEMADE BRIGADE: At Freshy’s Coffee in the Admiral District, arts and crafts bazaar, 10 am-4 pm.
CLEAN UP CONSTELLATION PARK WITH THE ALKI BEACH CREEPS: Today’s the day, noon-3 pm (or join the Beach Creeps Bicycle Club in a ride from El Chupacabra on Alki at 11:30 to get to the cleanup site, 63rd SW and Beach Drive) – details in our final preview from yesterday.
CRAB FEED: Alki Masonic Lodge 152 is raising money for outreach with a crab feed tonight, 5-8 pm, 40th/Edmunds; see the calendar listing for contact info to check if tickets are still available!
EAGLES’ FOOD BANK BENEFIT: Dinner at 5:30, live music at 7:30, at the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ in The Junction, to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank. Details in this Facebook invite.
YOUTH ARTS SHOWCASE: Original songs by young artists, 6 pm at Youngstown Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), details here.
FOLK MUSIC MARATHON … of live performances to benefit the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 7:30 pm at Kenyon Hall (7904 35th SW), details here.
GUITAR MASTER SERIES: Joel Tipke with special guest Ben Arthur, 9:30 pm at Feedback Lounge (6451 California SW; WSB sponsor).
‘ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’: The classic midnight movie is screened at midnight, first Saturday night of just about every month, at Admiral Theater.
… lots more for today/tonight; just browse the calendar!
That’s the trailer for what West Seattle writer Michael Stusser calls the “digital-detox documentary” he made with fellow West Seattleite Marty Riemer – a short film that’s about to make rounds on the film-festival circuit. It’s part of the work Stusser did for his much-discussed Seattle Weekly story “Sleeping With Siri,” about the tech takeover of our lives. As described on the YouTube page for the trailer you can watch above:
Inspired by a high school’s “Digital Blackout” campaign, where students went without Facebook, e-mail or texting for an entire week, journalist Michael Stusser explores both sides of the technological divide in “Sleeping with Siri.” Jumping first into the digital madness with a Techno-Gorge, Stusser explores every single technological opportunity available, 24 hours a day, Foursquaring at every location, Skyping in the car and Tweeting, Pinning and “Liking” everything in sight. He then dropped out entirely for a second week, with no computer, e-mail or social networks, availing himself of the now lost icons of a by-gone era, including phone booths, land-lines, libraries, paper maps and letter writing.
So far, Stusser says, they’ve made it into festivals including the Big Easy International Film and Music Festival March 22-24 in New Orleans and the American Documentary Film Festival in April in Palm Springs. Will we see it on a big screen in Seattle? Stusser says they’ve applied to SIFF.
(Delridge repaving project, photographed earlier this week by Long Bach Nguyen)
As of minutes ago, the Delridge/Trenton intersection was scheduled to close for the weekend, as the Delridge repaving project continues. This means you’ll be detouring in both directions, as shown on this map:
According to project spokesperson Bob Derry, with whom we spoke when the work started on January 10th, the first phase, Trenton to Henderson, is on target to last about two months as expected. He told WSB today that SDOT is currently projecting that Phase 2 – between Trenton and Thistle – will start in about two weeks, around March 15th. The entire $6.7 million project, repaving a mile and a half of Delridge Way in phases between Roxbury and Orchard and improving the stormwater system beneath much of the road, is expected to last most of the year.
ADDED 7:19 PM: We just got a text asking about noise. This is the official “construction notice” for this weekend’s work with details of what’s happening and when. Looks like the noisiest work may go on till 10 pm.
The weather’s warming, the days are lengthening, and one of our newest WSB sponsors is waiting for you at Seacrest on the West Seattle waterfront. Here’s what 
Marination ma kai proprietors Kamala Saxton and Roz Edison (L-R in the photo) want you to know about their restaurant/bar as they head toward their first spring and summer here:
“There are two things we hear about every single day: our service, and our food. People are a little surprised that a $2.50 taco can be so tasty, and that the gal who served it to them remembers their names from last time. I don’t know how we’re changing lives, but I do know that the world can be a tough place to navigate, and everyone can have a bad day, but when you come to Marination you can count on a friendly face saying nice things and genuinely caring about this one moment in time. It’s the one part of the day where people know they are going to have an overall good experience, even if it’s just for a few minutes. We hear about it a lot. It never gets old. It’s pretty humbling, actually.
“For us and our employees, we choose to keep coming back because no matter how gray and rainy Seattle gets it’s always warm and fuzzy at any one of our locations. And that’s including the truck! We’re a really happy crew, we love being around each other. That love and happiness is definitely reflected in our grub. We’re lucky because we’ve cultivated a really strong clientele of folks who are extremely comfortable telling us directly when our rice is undercooked, or something’s amiss with the pork, and we are all over it immediately. The two things we care about the most in our company are propping up our community through various involvements and donations, and keeping our menu fresh, tasty, and affordable. So I guess if someone asked ‘why you?’ we’d ask if they are down with building a strong community and with eating great food for cheap, and if so, then that’s why. West Seattle is such a strong and awesome neighborhood community. We can’t get enough.”
Find out more about Marination ma kai – including hours (which will change with the seasons) and menu – on the Web, here. Marination is on Facebook, too, and on Twitter. And/or just go to 1660 Harbor Avenue SW (map) and investigate the food, drink, view, and general aloha, firsthand.
We thank Marination ma kai for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
(Styrofoam debris on the beach; photo by Beach Creeps’ Guy Olson)
Since last Saturday, when we first mentioned the Alki Beach Creeps Bicycle Club‘s plan for a South Alki cleanup, the event tomorrow has drawn dozens of volunteers, more than a few local business sponsors donating treats and other support, and even Parks Department assistance with post-cleanup pickup. The Facebook event page for the cleanup has info on the final plan – so in case you’re interested in joining, but not a FB user, here are the key points:
*Optional bike ride to the cleanup starting point: Beach Creeps plan to leave El Chupacabra (2620 Alki SW) “no later than 11:30 am”
*Cleanup noon-3 pm (Saturday, March 2)
*Volunteers meet by the Constellation Park octopus sculpture (63rd SW/Beach Drive). Sign in and get your cleanup supplies (courtesy of Puget SoundKeeper Alliance)
*Treat donors include Pioneer Coffee on Alki and Christos On Alki (pizza)
*Seattle Parks plans to pick up the collected trash and debris (organizers are hoping to get a lot of styrofoam off the beach)
*Afterparty at Pioneer Coffee
If you haven’t been to Constellation Park – here’s a map.
(Part of the 2010 Fairmount Ravine volunteer annual-cleanup crew)
Their 20th annual cleanup in 2012 netted a “vintage” 7-Up bottle – estimated to be half a century old. In 2008, discoveries included a car door. What will turn up in beautiful, mysterious Fairmount Ravine, beneath the Admiral Way bridge, during this year’s cleanup? Be part of the team that finds out – one week from tomorrow, Saturday, March 9th. Devoted neighbors, friends, and visiting volunteers will join forces over the course of two hours – also enjoying treats from Metropolitan Market and Zatz Bagels (both WSB sponsors) – 8:30 am to 10:30 am. From organizers:
Meet at the top of the hill at Fairmount and Forest – directly east of Hiawatha Park.
Please wear gloves, boots and old clothes as we remove garbage and invasive plants.
Here’s our coverage from past years – 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.
(A Canada-goose family afloat, by Flickr member YLev, shared via WSB Flickr group)
GIRL SCOUT COOKIES: Public sales begin. Find places, dates, times with the Cookie Locator (just use your zip code).
FIRST FRIDAY: Rotary Club of West Seattle‘s monthly gathering – this time, 5 pm at Maharaja in The Junction. All welcome; they’re also saying farewell to departing member Ryan Larson.
FORECLOSURE VIGIL: West Seattle, White Center, and South Park activists are planning a vigil outside a SP home that’s been foreclosed on, to call attention to the ongoing issue. 725 S. Henderson, 5:30 pm, details here.
CORNER BAR: Highland Park’s monthly extravaganza is tonight! Starts at 6 pm, HP Improvement Club (12th/Holden), details in our calendar listing.
‘BOBCAT BOB’: A C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) favorite, tonight 6-8 pm, 5612 California SW.
FREE ROLLER SKATING! If registering for T-ball or softball at Alki Community Center, you get to skate free during tonight’s regular Friday night skating session, 6:45-8:45 pm. Details here.
TRIBUTE TO ROSEMARY CLOONEY: 7:30 pm at Kenyon Hall (7904 35th SW).
… and LOTS more on the calendar!
Zach‘s day got off to an unpleasant start:
This morning at 6:00 am I walked out from my apartment on SW Trenton to where my car was parked on 25th near Westwood and discovered it was stolen. No broken glass on the scene but car was missing none the less. It is a White 1999 Honda Civic with Montana license plates.
Just wanted to get the word out for those living in the area, so if you see any suspicious activity make sure to report!
While Zach’s car theft isn’t on the map yet – it lags several hours – we checked the past week’s worth of theft reports, and here’s the screengrab – eight reported thefts in the past week:
For specific locations, you can check the map here (click on any icon for more info). And SPD continues to tweet reported thefts (minus locations) at @getyourcarback.
P.S. If you’re one of Zach’s fellow Westwood residents – or Arbor Heights, or Roxhill – public safety/crime is part of the agenda for the second meeting of the area’s new community council, next Wednesday, March 6, 6:30 pm at the Southwest Branch Library (35th/Henderson); here’s the Facebook event page.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
7 AM: Good morning. Here are the West Seattle Bridge (above) and 99 (below) cams:
THREE CLOSURES THIS WEEKEND:
*Delridge/Trenton intersection closure starting 7 pm tonight (here’s the weekend Route 120 transit alert for this work)
*Viaduct/99 closed 6 am-5 pm Saturday, plus 6 am-noon Sunday – details here
*Ramp to southbound I-5 from eastbound West Seattle Bridge closed, starting late tonight; part of WSDOT’s Spokane St. Interchange Special Bridge Repair Project
8:30 AM TRAFFIC UPDATE: “Coffee” reports in comments that there’s a bus broken down in the southbound lanes at Delridge/Andover and a “mess” has ensued.
One final round of holiday giving, last night at Holy Rosary School – the Parents Club presented three local nonprofits with checks for donations from last year’s Holy Rosary Tree Lot. More than $2,000 each went to the West Seattle Food Bank (represented by Fran Yeatts) and the Salvation Army’s family shelter Hickman House (represented by Janet Sanders) as well as the West Seattle Helpline. The Tree Lot is an all-volunteer operation that traditionally gives a share of the proceeds to community charities.
Last night’s Parents Club meeting also included a discussion of LEGO Robotics:
The school’s annual auction, this year with the Kentucky Derby as its theme, is coming up April 20th.
As our photo shows, Hey Marseilles drew a crowd to Easy Street Records in The Junction tonight, the first of three live in-store concerts in six nights. Here’s what’s coming up, per Easy Street online guru Rod:
Pickwick – March 4 – 7 pm
*Our #1 soul brothers Pickwick are celebrating the release of their first full-length, Can’t Talk Medicine at Easy Street West Seattle March 4 at 7 pm! We’ll be selling their record early too and who knows, they might even stick around to sign some copies. This one’s also free and all ages!Cave Singers – March 5 – 7 pm
*Get out of your cave and come into ours when we host the release party for the Cave Singers‘ great new record, Naomi! Free and all ages at 4559 California Ave SW.
While researching some real-estate/development sites tonight, we happened onto a new listing that might be of interest, particularly to people in Gatewood/Sunrise Heights: On the northwest corner of 35th and Holden, the “Complete Auto Repair” site at 7617 35th SW is part of a parcel listed for $1,195,000, described as “Rare development opportunity with over 13,000 sq. ft. of level NC-2-40 land with excellent westerly views … Can be assembled with adjacent additional 6,870 sq. ft. of NC-2-40 (with great 35th SW frontage) for almost 20,000 sq. ft.” Here’s the listing.
(UPDATED THURSDAY NIGHT with new charge filed)
(WSB photo of February 15th arrest scene at 48th/Findlay)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Two recent burglary arrests reported here – exactly one week apart – involve the same suspect, WSB has learned. And court documents say he has confessed to more than 20 other break-ins.
The first arrest was at 48th and Findlay in Seaview, on February 15th. Police arrested 24-year-old Justin Wood for allegedly trying to break into a house there. Court documents say Wood told police that day that he had committed other burglaries, as noted in our two updates last week – in the February 20th WSBeat roundup and our February 21st report on last week’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting.
We don’t know why Wood wasn’t booked into jail on February 15th. But we do know now that exactly one week later – last Friday, February 22nd – he was arrested on suspicion of breaking into a home near Camp Long (here’s our report from that day), caught after an alert neighbor called police. This time, Wood was booked into jail – after confessing to more burglaries, none of them, court documents say, covered in the previous confession.
Yesterday, after five days in jail, Wood appeared before King County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler, who agreed to set what by any account is an extraordinary bail amount for a property-crime case: Half a million dollars.
While Wood has not yet been charged in the recent burglaries, we are identifying him by name because of the report that he has confessed and because he already was charged in another case – a Morgan Junction burglary last October. Before that, according to court documents, Wood’s history included 2009 charges of theft and trafficking stolen property, which led to a conviction on a lesser charge. According to documents from the October case, Wood was tracked down via fingerprints, and arrested at a Genesee Hill residence in November. Jail records show that his bail was set at $5,000 and he got out less than 24 hours after he was booked.
Now, he’s jailed in lieu of a hundred times that. While charges haven’t been filed in connection with either of this month’s cases, we have a message out to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to find out if there’s an estimate on when that might happen; court records show that Wood was scheduled for a hearing today related to the October burglary, and we’re keeping an eye out for results of that.
Meantime, in case you are wondering – so far as we know, this has no relation to the case reported here on WSB last night, also expected to solve multiple burglaries, though we did come across the new information on this case while talking with police about the other one.
ADDED 9:21 PM: Checking the online case files one more time before they go offline for the night, we discovered that prosecutors charged Wood today with one count of attempted burglary for the 35th SW incident last Friday. They are asking that his bail remain set at half a million dollars, explaining in the charging document:
… the defendant is a serious threat to the West Seattle community and now faces significant jeopardy on numerous charges.
… On February 15, 2013, the defendant was arrested for another Residential Burglary. During the investigation of that case, the defendant confessed to 10 burglaries in West Seattle. The defendant was released from custody on the February 15, 2013, case, and only a week later, was arrested on February 22, 2013, for the Attempted Residential Burglary charged in (the document). During the investigation of that case, the defendant confessed to an additional 13 burglaries in West Seattle, none of which duplicated his earlier confession. The defendant showed officers the location of each burglary and provided specific details about each crime.
In total, Seattle PD is now investigating 24 residential burglaries that the defendant committed in West Seattle from September 2012 to present. At least three of those burglaries involved a theft of firearms. Seattle PD is in the process of investigating all of these cases and contacting the victims and will forward these cases to the prosecutor’s office for filing when the investigation is complete.
(Renderings in this story are courtesy Nicholson Kovalchick Architects)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
When we first reported last month about the five-story apartment building proposed for 3210 California SW – part of the south-of-Admiral block contentiously upzoned in a three-year process – we promised a followup with details.
At the time, we hoped to connect with the developers within a day or two. Didn’t work out that way, but this week, we sat down to talk with the architect, for a preview two weeks before the project’s March 14th Early Design Guidance session with the Southwest Design Review Board.
The 166-apartment building is planned for 400 feet of frontage along California SW – but the design proposed by West Seattleite-owned Nicholson Kovalchick Architects utilizes several means of breaking it up so it’s not, as NK’s Tom Steidl said, “a monolith.”
With 100 comments on the original story, it’s the hottest WSB topic this week, so we just went down for a look at the safety-curb construction now under way on Fauntleroy Way west of California. As first reported Tuesday, this is being put in to prevent people from trying to pass buses while they’re stopped on the south side of Zeeks Pizza (WSB sponsor), since that passing puts westbound drivers in an east/northeastbound lane. While talking to an SDOT manager about a few topics late yesterday, we asked if this treatment was under consideration anywhere else; the reply was “no” – this is the only spot reported to have generated this type of concern, so far. Work is scheduled to continue through tomorrow.
ADDED 12:07 PM: Different angle, courtesy of Morgan Community Association president Deb Barker:
ADDED 12:49 PM: In case you miss it in comments – Chas Redmond, also from MoCA, reminds us that you have a unique opportunity to ask questions of/voice concerns to the head of SDOT, director Peter Hahn, here in West Seattle next week. He’s scheduled to be at the Southwest District Council meeting at 6:30 pm Wednesday, March 6, Southwest Teen Life Center (2801 SW Thistle, next to SW Pool).
(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
A brand-new multi-million-dollar listing on Alki – the 87-year-old Friedlander Court courtyard apartments at 2246 Alki SW (map). The nine-unit complex on a 15,000-square-foot lot has just gone up for sale, listing price $3.8 million. County records say they were built in 1926 and have been under current ownership since 1996, with a purchase price reported as $850,000 that year. The new listing describes the property: “Classic brick 9-unit w/ big units and 5 garages provide immediate income to offset holding costs for future development. Zoning allows 20-unit apartment building or 10 townhomes with unobstructed views of Puget Sound and Olympics.” While the complex has never gone through historic review that we know of, it was held up as a notable example of “Bungalow Court” architecture five years ago when Charlestown Court was being reviewed; The now-dormant Vintage Seattle website took a closeup look at Friedlander Court a year later. (Thanks to Jonathan French for the tip.)
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