West Seattle, Washington
13 Monday
(For original report with background on what this is about, go here)
1:56 PM UPDATE: Adam shot photos separate from the webcam, and here are two of them (above and below).
Note the burning car tipped on its side; WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand, who was covering this on the ground, says hydraulics were used.
ADDED 4:23 PM: Three WSB video clips – first, the car (a BMW) as it burned:
Second, the fire being put out:
Third, a hooded contestant arriving at the shoot:
The plot of “The Phone” apparently involves contestants answering ringing cell phones in major cities, and embarking on an action-packed race for cash prizes. We’ll watch to see when it’s scheduled to premiere — and we’ll be looking to see when this episode turns up. One more photo: Adam snapped the helicopter that was participating in the shoot – note the attached camera:
Published earlier in the afternoon:
1:12 PM UPDATE: Much better pictures from the webcam mentioned below, sent by Adam (thank you AGAIN!). What follows is what we originally posted at 12:54 pm:
That’s a screen grab from a couple minutes ago via the camera.eastalki.com webcam set up across the street from Seacrest, where – as first reported here yesterday – the TV show “The Phone” is shooting today, and their promised “detonation” simulating a car explosion was just set off. Lots more pix/video to come later. (Reminder, the parking restrictions remain in effect till 6 pm.)
You may recall the saga of Zack the cat, a stray taken in by Jane, who then discovered he’d suffered a serious leg injury, apparently from a car, and needed costly surgery. Jane was absolutely unable to pay for it herself, and out of desperation – after many tears – e-mailed WSB to ask if we might forward a request for help in covering the costs; we first told you about Zack and Jane right after Christmas. One of the reasons Zack wound up switching hospitals, to get treatment at a lower cost, was guidance from the West Seattle-based nonprofit Furry Faces Foundation. F3’s Teri Ensley tells us donations have now reached about $500 and adds this update:
First, may we say that West Seattle People continue to show what an amazing neighborhood this is to live in. Thank you for your caring and for your outreach to Zack and Jane. Having met both of them (thanks to WSB’s posting), we can say that Zack is a very lucky cat to have found Jane and she is delighted with this laid back, sweet cat…even when he is (was) in pain. Zack is up and around; can jump up on the bed; etc., so doing very well with his recovery from the two surgeries as he was neutered at the same time. As we like to say ‘It’s Hip To Be Snipped’. ; )
Jane, Furry Faces Foundation (F3) and Lien Animal Clinic decided to transfer Zack’s care and surgery to Furry Faces Foundation account, so he did not have to wait for the donations to come in before having his surgery (a week ago) Friday. Zack’s surgery cost $1239.90 and all donations towards Zack’s care may be mailed to/made in person at Lien Animal Clinic at 3710 SW Alaska St, 98116. Folks may make the check out to Furry Faces Foundation or to Lien Animal Clinic (with ‘Zack’ or ‘Furry Faces Foundation’ referenced on the check). Lien will ensure all funds go to Zack’s care, under F3. Additionally, they have offerred to keep a list of Zack’s donors so thank you cards may be written.
If our community donations happen to not cover the entire amount, there is a generous individual that will pay the difference. We are not mentioning his name as we do not have permission to do so. If the donations more than cover Zack’s costs, then the overage will remain in F3 ‘Oliver’s Fund, which helps animals whose humans are financially restricted with unexpected Vet bills and pet food. We will be sure to update the WSB as to the funds donated.
Two reports of incidents over the past week — a Fauntlee Hills break-in and Jefferson Square car vandalism — read on:Read More
SEACREST TV-SHOOT REMINDER: If you missed it yesterday – read this – and know that (a) parking is scarcer near, and unavailable at, Seacrest, through 6 pm; (b) if you see police and fire, and hear something loud, it’s just make-believe. (Best view: This webcam.)
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Organizers say last week’s flooding did affect some of their vendors, but the market will be open today, 10 am-2 pm. See the “fresh sheet” here.
DOGA: Late word of another “doga” class for dogs and their people, Twilight Artist Collective in The Junction, 5 pm today. You can register and pay online.
Lina Rose says she and husband Scott Rose are glad they saw the most recent edition of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup – they decided to go on last night’s low-tide walk across from Me-Kwa-Mooks, organized by Camp Long, and their memorable discoveries included the beautiful creatures shown in Scott’s photos above and below:
Lots of future Camp Long adventures ahead – browse online here. Earlier in the day, a different sight on Puget Sound – the Three Tree Point Yacht Club‘s Duwamish Head Race (thanks to Hopey for the heads-up it was happening), photographed by Gary J:
And first thing Saturday morning, dozens of volunteers — including the mayor — fanned out in the South Delridge/White Center business district for a Clean-and-Green spruce-up event:
Those two pix are WSB staff photos, but the great Puget Sound pix preceding it came from WSB’ers – if you have a photo to share with your West Seattle neighbors (and others who use WSB to keep in touch with WS), please e-mail us any time at editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you!
From Beach Drive Blog (spotted via the WSB Blogs page): The US Postal Service mailbox at Jacobsen/Beach Drive (which is technically Alaska/Beach, per Google Street View as seen above, or this regular G-map) goes away later this month. A few more details here. SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Alkiguy says the mailbox at 55th/Alki is also posted for removal this month. We’ll check with USPS to see if there are others.
ORIGINAL 4:13 PM POST: Thanks to JBC for the first tip on this — the Seacrest parking lot will be off-limits tomorrow as will a lot of parking in the area along the east side of Harbor Avenue, 6 am-6 pm, because a film/video crew will be in action. Someone we asked at Seacrest would only say “film” but Adam says his building nearby has been notified it’s a “TV pilot.” (We saw one obvious prop – a makeshift A-board sign for a nameless “Water Taxi” with three tiers of ticket prices that bear no relation to the pricing of the real Water Taxi, which of course is out of service till spring.) We’re off to do more online research in hopes of securing details, but wanted to get word out ASAP about the parking restrictions for tomorrow. 4:41 PM UPDATE: Just got a photo of the notice (thanks again to Adam). Will retype the text here momentarily. Two things of note: Alki Crab and Fish WILL be open during the shoot (which the notice says will last about six hours), and one part of the production will include “the detonation of a charge which will simulate a car explosion.” 4:57 PM UPDATE: To read the entire text of the notice with details about what they’re doing tomorrow, including that “detonation,” and why there may be some intermittent traffic control in the area tomorrow too — plus which show is apparently involved — click ahead:Read More
ORIGINAL 3:29 PM POST: Thanks to Colby for the tip and the photos – a baby seal is up on the landing between two waterfront staircases on Alki, across from Pegasus. The area is taped off and under Seal Sitters guard. (4:16 PM P.S.: A commenter asked if it’s alive – Colby’s note included this: “Aside from a little blood on his nose, he (or she?) appears to be resting. Every so often, one might catch a peek of him taking a nice restful breath.”)
7:42 PM UPDATE: Lots of great updates in the comments – thank you all! – most recently, this, from Lynn:
Update from the Seal Sitters: the NOAA biologist discerned from our photos of the Alki pup, which we named Forte which means strong in Spanish, that the wound on his nose is a superficial and not life threatening. Forte is underweight for this time of year but all other signs suggest good health (I.e. Stretching in the banana pose, alertness, steady and calm breathing, no coughing and no discharge from mouth, nose or eyes.) It is natural for a seal to haul out on our beach to rest after foraging and these big storms. Thanks to eveyone for keeping their distance and allowing the pup for sharing our shores. We are grateful to NOAA for their guidance and we will keep the WSB updated. If you want to volunteer for watching over Forte, call 905-SEAL (7325).
That is one of four Seattle Police-created maps, each tracking a certain category of crime in the area covered by the Southwest Precinct — West Seattle and South Park — over the Dec. 8-Jan. 4 period, just received and circulated by Pete Spalding via the Pigeon Point Council e-mail list. (The letter/number designations are the official names of the patrol sectors in the precinct’s coverage area.) As far as we know, these aren’t available online, but Pete confirmed he was encouraged to share them with neighbors, and certainly you’re a neighbor. Read on to see the other three:Read More
(photo added 4:26 pm)
First, the warning: Just out of the WSB inbox from Terry:
There is a huge pothole on California Ave @ California Ln in the Northbound Lane. ( Across from Hamilton Viewpoint; map) It is very dangerous as it is on the bend in the road and hard to see from your car. The hole is approx 3 ft deep and 2 ft across and big enough to damage a car or kill a motorcyclist.
Terry reported it to police; we’ll check a bit later to see if it’s been blocked off or repaired – let us know if you see any activity sooner. (4:26 pm update – as a commenter wrote, it’s now blocked off – see photo above) After our recent report that the city was out fixing post-snowstorm potholes, we also received a note about a deeply pitted alley – and photos of the huge holes, which became lakes during this week’s rain:
That’s looking southbound in the alley “parallel to Delridge, headed from Trenton to Barton and Henderson” (map), as our anonymous tipster puts it, adding, “This entire alley was re-graded and gravel spread a couple of months ago (2 months, 3 tops) and within a week all the holes were back. … As you go down the alley they get bigger, and you can see that the last one is easily the size of a truck. Each of these large ones are a good foot deep. For size reference, the posts in the fence at the end of the alley are 5-6 feet apart.” They’ve reported these before but nothing’s been done. That led us to look up if SDOT has any specific info online about alleys; from this page, we learn:
SDOT fills potholes on paved alleys, but will only address the most urgent safety concerns on unpaved alleys, where maintenance is primarily the responsibility of the adjacent property owners.
Guess the operative question, then, is, what constitutes an “urgent safety concern,” if not a truck-size hole. We’ll ask.
This came into the inbox Friday night from a longtime WSB’er who prefers to be unidentified:
After dark tonight a young woman knocked on our door near 45th & Edmunds [map] to offer new windows and energy efficiency survey. She was polite and left when we declined. Within an hour we found a gang ‘drop box’ on our corner. While assuming the two activities are unrelated it makes me
uneasy and we will be more than usually vigilant tonight.
We hadn’t heard about “gang drop boxes,” so asked a followup:
Seems gangs ‘drop’ a cardboard box where they want to mark territory or schedule some event. Because it’s just a cardboard box most of us would ignore it. Our corner box was heavy cardboard 8x8x3ft. A gang name was painted on it. We don’t know if there is an event code on it because we don’t know about this stuff. The box would have been dropped between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight. The original shipping label was to an individual on Queen Anne.
A family member with law-enforcement ties is the one who spotted it, our e-mail correspondent explained, adding that the family member subsequently spoke with a police officer who offered this additional information: “… that the boxes (or spray paint on garages, etc.) act like a GPS system for the gangs. He said for us not to worry because the paint color on this box would say ‘keep going’ as an arrow would.” We can’t find any evidence of this phenomenon on Google, but maybe it’s known by another name – we’ll make a note to follow up with police next week to find out if this is something new and if there’s something you should do if you spot one. (Or maybe YOU have expertise to share?)
For a while last year, coyote-sighting reports were coming in almost daily. Then – either the coyotes started keeping a low profile, or else people started getting used to them. At any rate, we got a sighting report tonight, so we’re sharing what Kim sent:
Hello, We live on 51st Place west of Edmunds St above Beach Drive [map]. Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (a small one, just 12 lbs) went crazy barking this morning. As I looked out the window I saw a coyote. He/she (was) about the size of a German Shepherd. I had only let our dog in from being outside a few minutes before. Very scary, therefore I told the family Prince must go in his pen when outside. He has gotten used to a pen because of a close encounter with a raccoon last summer.
Previous WSB’er coyote reports (many with photos) are archived here, newest to oldest. State-collected info on coexisting with coyotes can be found here.
Just in from Mayor Nickels‘ office – three “open houses” next week where you’re promised the chance to talk with him and city staffers about the December snowstorm response – note the third one is happening here in West Seattle (home to the mayor, deputy mayor, SDOT boss, among others):
SEATTLE – Mayor Greg Nickels invites Seattle residents to talk with him, department heads and city staff about their winter-storm experiences. The input is being gathered as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations.
Three meetings are planned and residents are invited to attend any or all:
● Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Green Lake Community Center, 7201 E. Green Lake Dr. N.
● Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center, 2323 E. Cherry St.
● Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Southwest Community Center, 2801 S.W. Thistle St. (map)The sessions will offer residents an informal opportunity to talk one-on-one with the mayor and meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.
That photo (by Sage K) is from a long night back in May, when we and many WSB’ers stayed up into the night tracking the situation on Delridge (original coverage here) as police tried to find the person who shot a mother and her 10-year-old son, from outside their home. Today, we learn that new indictments say the shooting was meant to intimidate the older victim out of testifying in a federal case. This was first reported last night by KING5, but the online story didn’t mention West Seattle or Delridge, so we didn’t catch it, but Stephanie e-mailed us the link today, wondering if it was the same case. We checked with local U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson Emily Langlie, who confirmed that the May shooting mentioned in the story was indeed the West Seattle case, and sent us the indictment documents. Not only do the indictments cover that shooting, describing the mother as a “government witness,” but they also detail the alleged stolen-car/parts ring that’s at the heart of the case; it had been under investigation even before the shooting, the main suspect, DeVaughn “Buster” Dorsey, accused of being involved in the operation of a “chop shop” in a garage at an apartment complex at 7535 24th SW (map). The documents say this operation ended in May, about a week and a half after the Delridge shooting – Dorsey’s been behind bars since 5/23/2008 — and list more than a dozen specific vehicles. Counts 21 and 22 have just been added to a pre-existing indictment, and they’re the ones involving the shooting, for which Dorsey is charged with witness tampering and “discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.” Both shooting victims have recovered; we checked state court records to see if Dorsey has a criminal history — his name is listed (for civil proceedings as well as criminal) for 170 cases in the past 20 years. He’s due in court to answer these charges next Thursday. ADDED 4:23 PM UPDATE: Uploaded the entire indictment so you can read it if you’re interested – there’s no confidential info but lots of details.
That’s one of the revised renderings of the Conner Homes California/Alaska/42nd project that we received when its proposed “alley vacation” went before the Seattle Design Commission in November. As we reported at the time, the commission expressed some concerns and asked for a second presentation; we just received next Thursday’s Design Commission agenda, and it includes that presentation, 11 am-12:30 pm at City Hall downtown. (If you have extra time to spare, a West Seattle-relevant presentation will precede it, 10-11 am Thursday — “passenger facilities” designs for Metro‘s RapidRide, which is scheduled to add a WS line in 2011.)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
One man’s mere presence underscored the high stakes at last night’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting on the redevelopment proposal for The Kenney, the century-old nonprofit retirement complex in Fauntleroy: Vince Lyons.
More than a few people have e-mailed to ask why so many street lights are burned out – and have been for some time – along The Bridge; in the past few days, we’ve also heard about a particularly unlit stretch of South Delridge. Two things to share: First, we have the question out to Seattle City Light‘s communications team, which so far has learned that the person in charge of “operations” for this area has just convened a meeting on the subject; as soon as info from said meeting – what’s going to be done and when – is available, we’ll report it. Meantime, don’t ever assume the city “knows” a light is out; this SCL page has options for how to report them.
10:39 AM UPDATE: We’ve learned from City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s staff that he too has been pursuing this with SDOT and City Light, which for starters has told Rasmussen that “a re-lamping effort” is in the works later this month for the Spokane Street Viaduct stretch of The Bridge (99 to I-5), and the councilmember expects work to be done on the high bridge’s lights then too.
Several quick Crime Watch reports to share from the past few days. We start with the Saga of the Stolen Santa. Kirsten in North Admiral sent the photo of the “Old World Santa” at left and wrote: “(Tuesday) when I got home from work I noticed that the Old World Santa I display yearly had been stolen from my front porch. Normally I would not get upset about a material thing but the more I got to thinking about it, the more upset I have become. The Santa was my Mother’s who is now deceased and prior to my display, she had done so for many years prior. Each year when I’d put it out, it helped keep my memory of her alive and in a little way made the holidays a bit more bearable. The likelihood is that some kids took off with it but I thought that by sending this in, there is a chance I may get it back. It’s about 2.5 – 3 feet tall and 30 lbs or so.” Seen this Santa? Send us a note (editor@westseattleblog.com) and we’ll forward it to Kirsten. Ahead: Another stolen item whose owner hopes to get it back, and a stolen item that WAS retrieved, plus other reports:Read More
(one of many photos we received during Snowstorm ’08)
The Seattle City Council has another post-snowstorm discussion coming up next Monday morning, after more than five hours of briefings this past Monday and Tuesday. Since snow-related trouble hit West Seattle particularly hard, from missing buses to missed trash pickups, it’s not surprising that some of the toughest questions at those briefings came from WS-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. Before memories of those first two briefings faded too far away, we e-mailed to ask him about any reflections on what he heard – read on to see what he sent back:Read More
Tonight’s two-part session of the Southwest Design Review Board meeting ran almost four hours. First project on the agenda, 4502 42nd SW, won final design-review approval unanimously; second project, the $150 million “reinvention” of The Kenney, got approval to move out of the “early design guidance” stage (after two rounds), but not without extensive discussion under high-level supervision, and there are still more meetings to come (at least one more round of design review, and City Council approval would be required if they do pursue some rezoning). More details to come in separate reports.
Thanks to Judy Pickens for calling our attention to this recent change: The Southwest Library branch is now open Sundays, which means — along with the West Seattle branch in Admiral — there are now two WS libraries you can go to on Sunday afternoons. Both are open noon-5.
West Seattle businesses are on alert tonight after two were burglarized overnight. WSB has confirmed with Circa in the Admiral District and Cupcake Royale in The Junction that both were broken into. At Circa, burglars stole the safe, but the restaurant tells WSB there wasn’t much money inside; they also took the restaurant’s official iPod, which was used to play music at Circa. At Cupcake Royale, we were told the burglars didn’t make off with the safe, but did get some money. The door through which they broke in had to be replaced – that work was just finishing when we went by to talk with them about what happened. We have an inquiry out with the Southwest Precinct seeking further details about these break-ins and about any progress toward arrests.
Always lots going on when the Southwest District Council meets. Its members include representatives from many neighborhood groups and other organizations based in the section of West Seattle that the city calls the Southwest District (the city calls the rest of WS the Delridge Neighborhoods District; here’s the map). Last night, its new co-chairs began their terms – Erica Karlovits, president of the Junction Neighborhood Organization, and Chas Redmond, from the Morgan Community Association (among many other groups). On the agenda: Three major aspects of how West Seattleites get around and will get around in the future — Metro’s forthcoming RapidRide, the Spokane Street Viaduct widening project, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct Central Waterfront decision-to-come – read on for the latest:Read More
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