West Seattle, Washington
06 Thursday
The police discussion detailed here (with more to come later today) took up most of the Alki Community Council‘s meeting last night, but there also was a quick update on “Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets,” formerly known as Car-Free Day, coming to Alki 9 am-5 pm Sunday, May 31st – one week from this Sunday. As we’ve mentioned before, the first part of the day involves the first-ever West Seattle 5K (WSB sponsor) – a run/walk to raise money for local public schools (register here). Then, from roughly noon till 5 pm, Alki will be open for walkers, runners, bicyclists, skateboarders, etc., between 63rd SW and California Way – a few blocks longer, on the east end, than last year:
The city spokesperson at Thursday night’s meeting said that like last year, a lane would be open for “residents-only” motorized traffic. He also said no one would be towed (as was the case last year – warnings were issued early in the day and ultimately most violating vehicles cleared out). The list of planned activities and displays continues to lengthen – you can see it on the official event website. A couple Alki residents noted resignedly at the Thursday night meeting that while the waterfront boulevard itself may be mostly “car-free,” people still drive to get to the event, and fill up side-street parking as a result.
By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
It might have been the beautiful evening weather, or maybe the convoluted topic, but only one person — perennial district-property-sale opponent Chris Jackins — showed up at tonight’s Seattle Public Schools public hearing at Gatewood Elementary School to take comments on the pending sale of air rights at Jefferson Square.
The school district will continue to own the land and the commercial buildings, but, because of a lawsuit (explained in this WSB report), is planning to sell the air rights — not any buildings or land. The school district receives $173,226 annually in rent for the commercial property, and that will continue.
The air rights will be sold for $500,000. The school board is expected to vote on the proposal July 1.
Ron English, deputy general counsel for the school district, said the district doesn’t own the apartment buildings, but it owns the air that they are built in. The building owner is leasing the air rights through 2083.
English said he sees it this way: if the district doesn’t sell the air space, they will own a building come 2083. If they do sell, they have $500,000.
The money from the sale could be used for capital improvements, but not for teacher salaries, said English.
Jefferson Square, which includes a Safeway and Bartell Drugs, is built on the spot where Jefferson School once stood. The brick schoolhouse was named after President Thomas Jefferson, according to school district history. It was enlarged with a new addition in 1928.
The school closed in 1979. The property was declared surplus and leased in 1982 for 99 years
to a developer who demolished the brick building in 1985 and built Jefferson Square shopping center and apartments on the site.
We won’t be able to get full details from prosecutors till tomorrow – but wanted to let you know that the bail’s been raised for the 31-year-old man arrested in connection with the Morgan Junction-area hate-graffiti vandalism: Originally there was one “property destruction” count listed on the jail register, with bail of $380; tonight, six property destruction counts are listed, with $5,005 total bail.
(From left, SPD Capt. Joe Kessler, Alki Community Council officers Paul Carr and Randie Stone)
ORIGINAL 7:13 PM REPORT: At the Alki Community Council meeting, Lt. Steve Paulsen is talking about summertime police presence and of course the May 1st shooting — in which, he has just revealed, another suspect is still being sought. Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler is here too, and acknowledging “it’s not acceptable to have children shooting children.” He says they’ve been “working on some additional plans” regarding possibly obtaining more overtime funding for staffing in areas such as Alki, but adds that “the key for us is, we look at it on a daily basis.” The captain and lieutenant are taking questions now. Capt. Kessler says the shooting victim on May 1st was “an intended victim.” (The 17-year-old suspect is still in jail, in lieu of $250,000 bail.)
ADDED 7:44 PM: One question: “What was the deployment the night of the shooting?” Capt. Kessler acknowledged there were no officers in the immediate area where it happened, but said there were officers in the area, such as down Harbor Ave; Lt. Paulsen added, “That call flushed the precinct” (which had officers ready for the imminent next shift change). Capt. Kessler adds that Community Police Team Officer Ken Mazzuca is primarily assigned to Alki for the duration of the summer – “this is his place” – and says he’ll be on his bike sometimes, confirming there will be additional bicycle-officer presence too.
8:19 PM UPDATE: Many of the questions are related to what can be done if they are being hassled or feeling threatened by beach visitors – that’s being voiced more than concern about out-and-out crime. The police leaders here have had to say, there are no laws against “being rude” or “saying a vile word,” unless it veers into a threat. More info from the meeting as it happens.
Just received from the Southwest Precinct — publishing it as-is, since Highland Park is a “burglary hot spot” right now as reported during our coverage of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council the other night:
A burglary pattern has been identified by SW Detectives affecting the Highland Park Area of West Seattle. Even though the Highland Park neighborhood has been the recent targeted area, this activity can have other West Seattle implications if residents do not remain vigilant to suspicious activity.
The basic M/O for these particular burglars is as follows,
• Car carrying 2-4 A/M males parks in the neighborhood.
• Passengers exit car and begin to walk neighborhood. Driver stays in car.
• Passengers approach houses and knock on doors to see if anyone home, or to see if surrounding neighbors look out windows.
• If no answer at door, the suspects walk around the house and rap on windows loudly enough to elicit a response from surrounding neighbors or the homeowner.
• If no response from either the home owner or surroundings neighbors, the suspects walk to back of house and rap on rear door a final time.
• If still no response, suspects force entry via any accessible door or window. Suspects look for anything of value that is small enough to exit with without attracting attention, and easy enough to sell on the street within a day or two.Residents can assist police by reporting any activity in their neighborhood they believe is suspicious in nature. If residents observe any activity in their neighborhood that is consistent with the M/O list above, they should call 911 to at the very least, allow police to attempt to identify the persons involved in the suspicious activity. If possible, residents should attempt to be good witnesses by writing down susp descriptions and plate numbers.
The verdict’s in at the trial of three teenagers who attacked Southwest Precinct Officer Jason McKissack in High Point last June: Guilty, according to this seattletimes.com report, which also says they face no more than a month in jail when they’re sentenced in June. McKissack is still on leave, recovering from injuries including getting kicked in the head (we summarized the police report in this WSB story last June).
That’s Micah Shapiro from Grindline, the firm designing the future Delridge Skatepark, explaining its newly unveiled “schematic design” to the Seattle Design Commission this afternoon at City Hall downtown. We’re expecting a digital copy soon so we can give you a closer look at the design, but this will have to do for now. It has one “bowl” with both beginner- and expert-suited areas, and the half-circle-shaped park will have “skatable paths” around its perimeter. Design Commission members were unanimous in their approval of the “schematic design,” which won’t make way for a “final design” until after one more community meeting (which project manager Kelly Davidson said today is expected to happen in late June), though they did ask for a safety feature between the skatepark and the nearby wading pool so that small children don’t dash from the pool into the skatepark’s bowl. Commission members also were impressed by what the project team described as the “phenomenal public support” for the skatepark; Davidson said she hasn’t received a single call from someone upset about it – instead, she said, she keeps getting calls asking when it’ll be done. As for the answer to that: First, the funding has to be nailed down; as reported here recently, even though the original funding was taken out of the city budget, replacement money has been found from two sources: $500,000 saved from two other Parks Department projects (including the Hiawatha Playfield renovations) that came in under budget, and $250,000 in Parks Levy dollars that will be moved from a proposed “skate spot” at Myrtle Reservoir (where neighbors previously expressed strong opposition to a skate feature), if the Parks Levy Oversight Committee (which meets next week) and City Council approve. Delridge Skatepark would be about 12,000 square feet, which the project team says would roughly tie with the upcoming Seattle Center skatepark for second biggest in the city (largest is the recently opened Lower Woodland Skatepark, at 17,000 square feet).
With four Seattle Public Library branches in West Seattle, it’s likely a lot of people will want to know about this – so we’re sharing the announcement just in from SPL re: proposed “rules of conduct” changes (with a public hearing set for next week). If you remember a WSB Forums thread about someone who said they got in trouble for taking off their shoes in a local library, one of the rule changes will be of note:Read More
(photo replaced 1:15 pm with better shot of police when Delridge was blocked)
Thanks to those who have e-mailed and called about police, reportedly with guns drawn, at Delridge/Holden. On our way to check out.
12:02 PM UPDATE: Northbound traffic is being turned around at Kenyon a couple blocks south of this scene, and according to the scanner, Delridge also is about to be blocked at Orchard (Arco intersection) – so avoid the area. Because of the roadblock it will take us a few more minutes to get close – just talked to Seattle Police’s media unit and they don’t have much information yet, aside from “We have the SWAT team out attempting to locate some people.”
12:23 PM UPDATE: The “command post” for this is a stone’s throw from the precinct, at Delridge/Webster. But we still have no information on exactly what the search is all about. We’re told a media-unit officer is on the way to deal with us and the rest of the media.
12:47 PM UPDATE: This is winding up and the road is being reopened. Police say they have arrested a male suspect in his mid-20s in a car, and that he is believed to have been involved in a “robbery with force.” SPD is now more actively using Twitter, and described this in a tweet as a “warrant service” in the 7500 block of 21st SW.
1 PM UPDATE: Listening to the short video clip we’re uploading from Officer Renee Witt‘s brief briefing at the scene – the robbery in which the suspect was wanted was a “takeover-style robbery” that she says happened on May 12th. Checking for incidents resembling that description.
1:11 PM UPDATE: Here’s the entirety of what Officer Witt told us and other media at the scene:
2:43 PM UPDATE: Checking back with police, Officer Witt tells us they have NOT confirmed possible reports that someone else might have been involved in the same case, so this arrest closes the search for now.
4:47 PM UPDATE: SPDBlotter has a short item – the only new information is that the suspect’s age is now specified as 24.
10:42 PM UPDATE: Tony Wright took photos at the southwest edge of the “containment zone” during the search. He and we happened to notice that some of the action was outside the same house where we (and he) photographed a Bellevue SWAT team visit a month ago – here’s his photo from today:
We don’t know if the house (where WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli also covered a story earlier in the spring) is directly linked to anyone involved in the case.
Work on the multimillion-dollar project to repave and reconfigure a long stretch of Fauntleroy Way is scheduled to start next week, and area residents have just gotten a new flyer with the latest specifics on what it’ll be like for area driving – thanks to Sue for sending the flyer so we could share it with anyone and everyone who drives the stretch slated for repaving over the next few months (south from SW Alaska, to SW Holly in Morgan Junction). See the flyer here. ADDED 1:29 PM: Sue wondered how bus service would be affected and followed up with Metro SDOT – here’s the reply she received:
There will not be any changes to transit operations that we are aware of. At certain times and locations, temporary bus zone relocations may occur. If temporary bus zones relocations are necessary, Metro Transit will put out advance notice.
ADDED 4:30 PM: The city has now issued its official news release announcing that work will start Tuesday – read on:Read More
One of three major items on the Delridge District Council agenda last night: Presentations by three groups seeking city Neighborhood Matching Fund money for their projects – the final three that the council has forwarded into citywide competition. The presenters — including a Chief Sealth High School group (photo above) had a high-profile audience — not just a good turnout (more than 2 dozen people) for the meeting, but also the president of the City Council, Richard Conlin (who later quipped that he thinks it may be time to allot more money to the NMF – the funding request from these three groups is among $2.5 million total requested citywide, but the available pot of money is less than half that). As Pete Spalding, former council chair sitting in for current chair Pablo Lambinicio, described all three as “pretty remarkable projects” — and that was even before their presentations. Read on to hear more about what’s presented and what happens next:Read More
Last night at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, police reported that car theft is down. Not nonexistent, though, as Robin reports having found out:
I just moved to West Seattle 3 weeks ago, to the Morgan Junction area (inbetween Morgan and Holly on 39th), and woke up last Thursday morning (May 14) to discover my car missing. I’m not sure if it’s too late after the fact, but thought (WSB) and my neighbors that read it might be interested in knowing so they are inspired to further protect their vehicles by buying a Club or the like.
And that if anyone sees a silver 2002 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport wagon with Yakima snowboard racks, that’s missing the front Subaru logo, I’d absolutely love to hear about it. It’s probably gone, but I’m not giving up hope, yet.
From the Delridge District Council meeting under way now at Youngstown Arts Center, South Seattle Community College‘s Mike Munson reminded everyone that tomorrow is the third and final day of Rainbow Festival on campus (full schedule here). In the video above, you see West Seattle poet Karen Finneyfrock, who along with Tara Hardy will perform in a Girl Power Poetry Slam at 1 tomorrow afternoon — Seattle’s Poet Populist Mike Hickey, who also happens to be on the SSCC faculty, says it’s free and everyone is invited.
Catching that view of the “traffic calming feature” taking shape at 63rd/Alki last weekend, we thought it was time to check on progress of the Alki Point sidewalk project that it’s part of, now that construction’s been under way for two months. Here’s the progress report we procured from SDOT’s Therese Casper:
Construction of the sidewalk along Alki Ave SW has been progressing. However, it has been slower than originally anticipated due to utility relocations including a gas line and utility replacement including a portion of the existing storm drain at the southern end of the project area. In addition, water meter adjustments took longer than expected.
The raised crosswalk at the eastern end of the project area is complete as well as the sidewalk to Point Place SW. The remaining sidewalk will be poured Thursday and Friday. All major elements should be complete by early June with a few locations remaining in construction as final utility work is done.
The project was initiated as part of the Neighborhood Street Fund, and drew some controversy in the neighborhood after it finally won a grant, mostly out of concerns that many waterfront residences would lose parking, but SDOT came up with a plan that in the end took away far fewer spaces than originally feared (here’s our report on the pre-construction project-site tour in February, with more information on the project’s scope).
If you have something to say about the changes proposed in the city’s Restricted (formerly Residential) Parking Zone program, here are more details on the public hearing next Wednesday night (mentioned in this report yesterday) that will focus on how the City Council wants to amend the original proposal. It’ll be at City Hall downtown at 5:30 pm; read on for the official announcement, including details on the changes councilmembers want to make:Read More
The day after our first report of an arrest in the May 1st Alki shooting — as announced by Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen during last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting – 
we have new details on the case, from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The suspect is identified as 17-year-old Anthony Riccardo Verzola of Federal Way, and he is charged wth first-degree assault and second-degree unlawful weapon possession. Court documents indicate that “tips” helped lead police to Verzola, who is to answer the charge at arraignment on May 28. The documents also say Verzola has two previous convictions for unlawful firearm possession, as well as a drug conviction; one of the weapons convictions happened on April 3rd, less than a month before the shooting. He is in custody with bail set at $250,000; documents indicate he was arrested on May 12th in Kent. (Policy note: While our default would be to not identify a juvenile suspect, WSB is publishing this suspect’s name, now that he is charged, because of the seriousness of the crime. One more note – May 1st photo above by David Hutchinson.)
We took that photo Tuesday at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s offices, as the chamber hosted its first “Lunch with LEOs (Local Elected Officials),” a brown-bag chat with special guest City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. Today there’s big news for the WS Chamber — the mayor’s office has just announced it’s one of 22 business associations in the city that will officially receive city grants to “be used for a variety of projects designed to help small businesses in the neighborhoods thrive, such as district promotion and physical improvement and enhancement projects.” WS C of C CEO Patti Mullen (left foreground in photo above) tells WSB the $5,000 grant will be used for a program to promote “sustainable tourism,” adding, “We’re very excited!” The grant recipient list also includes the White Center Community Development Association; the grants will be officially presented at an event in Columbia City tomorrow morning.
Thanks to Diane for the tip: seattlepi.com reports that King County Assessor Scott Noble, who lives in West Seattle, pleaded guilty this morning to vehicular assault in connection with a drunk-driving crash revealed earlier this spring. The report says he is expected to be sentenced to nine months in jail. 5:54 PM UPDATE: We have received the letter that King County Council Chair Dow Constantine sent to Noble re: the timing of his “intent to resign” and asking that he speed up the timetable – read on:Read More
As first reported here yesterday afternoon, a 31-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the Morgan Junction hate-graffiti vandalism. As noted during last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, and confirmed in a jail-register check, he is currently being held for investigation of property destruction, which would be a city-prosecuted misdemeanor case, while possible charges of malicious harassment – a county-prosecuted felony – are reviewed. Since the suspect is not yet charged and we do not have details at this point indicating whether he was caught in the act – two of our criteria for identifying suspects prior to filing of charges – we are not publishing his name. But we have checked his record, which is a lengthy one, though most of the cases are from the ’90s and not available online. In Seattle Municipal Court files, which DO go back into the ’90s, online records show he was arrested in 2006 for a weapons violation and “pedestrian interference,” and in a 1997 case, he was arrested on two charges — trespassing and the same charge for which he is being held now, “property destruction with a value greater than $50.” We’ll continue to watch the case closely; as of right now, he is still in custody, according to the King County Jail Register.
That photo is from eight days ago, when dozens of kids — and grownups — gathered at Delridge Community Center to sketch out and discuss their dreams for the center’s new playground, scheduled to be built in July, with the help of KaBOOM!, which works on projects like this nationwide. (Here’s our story from that day.) While costs will be dramatically lower than usual because of KaBOOM! and sponsors, the community still needs to chip in, and a major fundraiser has just been announced for the May 30th Delridge Day festival at Youngstown Arts Center – Lisa is circulating this message far and wide, and please note there’s a call for volunteers to step forward NOW:
On May 30th, the North Delridge Neighborhood Council will have a booth to promote the project at Delridge Day … We’ll have a display to raise awareness of the need for volunteers to help build the playground, take volunteer sign-ups, and have a donations jar & plant sale to raise a little “seed” money for project incidentals. We’ll also have a free activity where kids can plant seeds to take home.
Here comes the “ask” part–we need:
* volunteers to staff the booth on May 30th
* donations of plants or starts
* people to come by our booth and support our cause!
Should be a fun and an easy event to staff. I can see our sign now: “KaBOOM! and the North Delridge Neighborhood Council: Growing healthy kids and healthy communities.”If you would like to participate by donating plants or starts, or by staffing the booth, contact me at granolagulch[at]earthlink[dot]net or 937-1522.
The latest vandalism to the “Whole Foods Coming Soon” sign at the idled construction site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th has morphed it into a display of the site’s nickname, “Hole Foods.” (Last incident, you’ll recall, involved a date change.) We also have a bit of news on the stalled project; its revised land-use permit was officially issued on Monday, as the end of a process triggered when the design changed last summer and the project returned for Design (re-)Review. We checked with city planner Michael Dorcy, who’s assigned to the project, and the permit issuance is not necessarily a sign of anything changing – it was the result of action put into motion long before the site was put up for sale, lawsuits erupted, etc. (Here’s the site’s official city permit-info page.) We also have checked back with Matt Segrest, the local investor who’s been working to put together a deal to buy the site (reported here in April), and his update was simply “nothing new.” UPDATE: As of Thursday, the sign is gone.
A report of Junction car vandalism, from Courtney – including the shattered-in-place window photo: “My car was parked (Monday night) on Alaska St, between 42nd & California (next to the unfinished park, right outside my apartment) and someone put what appears to be a BB through my back driver’s side window. Lots of random crime going on in West Seattle lately; sadly now I’ve joined the victims’ club. I’m pretty sure this was just random kids; the car was not entered and nothing was taken.” In the crime-trend report at Tuesday night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, there wasn’t a breakout about vandalism, but both car prowls and car thefts were reported to be on the decline in the past month.
From West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham of mattdurhamphotography.com:
1. Lafayette Elementary School performed their “Spring Concert of 2008” at West Seattle High Tuesday evening. 2. Anna Goldberg, Sage Kalil and music teacher Frank Seeberger play “Frere Jacques” to a crowd of approximately 300. 3. Charlie Schnell blows the trumpet during Tuesday’s concert.
Heading a bit south from Lafayette: Earlier today, we posted a request from West Seattle High School‘s DECA Marketing teacher Michelle Sloan, asking for judges for an event this Friday. She says she got a great response. We asked how her students did in their recent trip to Internationals in Southern California; she says they had a great time — the photo below shows Sumeet Chadha and Tyson Kimball, who competed in the Advertising Campaign event:
DECA is a professional organization whose high-school division is aimed at helping young people look ahead to and prepare for work in “marketing, management and entrepreneurship.”
| 11 COMMENTS