West Seattle, Washington
06 Monday
By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
This edition of The WSBeat contains summaries written from reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers – generally cases that (usually) have not already appeared here in breaking-news coverage or West Seattle Crime Watch reports, but that might at least answer the question “what WERE all those police doing on my block?” Or on the bridge, or the beach, or …
*Early one recent morning, on the street near Roxbury and Delridge, a woman asked a man to quit leaning on her car. The man punched her in the face and also sent her male companion to the ground, punching him in the face four times and stealing his cell phone. Then along came the suspect’s female friend, who punched the female victim. The victims were also threatened with death. The man was described as black, light-skinned, 5’10”, in his 20s, medium build. He wore a red and black checkered hat with ear flaps, a red sports jersey and dark jeans. The woman was described as about the same age, black, 5’6″, and about 140 pounds, wearing a blue knit cap, an “old-style” gray Seahawks jersey, and carried a large black purse.
Seven more summaries ahead:
Though school is out this week, we suspect many young readers are in training as the Global Reading Challenge continues. We showed you Arbor Heights Elementary‘s winning team last week; today, we have a report from Concord International Elementary 4th-grade teacher Marina Pita:
My 4th Grade Dual Language Students (The Black Mythical Mustangs) won our school’s Global Reading Challenge and will advance to the Semi-Final at the Seattle Public Library on Wednesday, March 5th. Attached is a picture of the team with our principal Dr. Zavala, our Librarian Mindy Terr, and our local librarian Ms. B. Our whole 4th Grade Dual Language team (students included) will be at the library to cheer the team on for the Semi-Final!
Concord is in South Park but is part of the district’s West Seattle region. To be ready to compete in the GRC, students have to read 10 books – see this year’s list here. They get to choose their own often-whimsical team names. Other participating schools in West Seattle and the rest of the city are listed here; the city final is March 18th.
(Photo by Lloyd Moody)
No salmon, no Puget Sound resident orcas. Find out how the fish are doing at The Whale Trail‘s next event, just announced:
The Whale Trail Presents: Salmon Recovery Efforts in Puget Sound
Presentation by Jeanette Dorner, Puget Sound PartnershipThursday, February 27, 2014, 7 – 9 PM
C & P Coffee Company, 5612 California Ave SW
$5 suggested donation, kids free.
Tickets available: brownpapertickets.comSalmon are the key to the recovery of the endangered southern resident orcas. How are the salmon populations of Puget Sound doing, and what can we do to help?
Jeanette Dorner, Puget Sound Partnership, will discuss the current health of salmon populations in Puget Sound, what kinds of challenges salmon face for their continued survival, and what people are doing to recover salmon populations to healthy harvestable levels in Puget Sound.
Jeanette is the manager of the Ecosystem and Salmon Recovery Program at the Puget Sound Partnership and coordinates the regional partnership to implement the federal ESA Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan.
Join us on February 27 to learn more about this iconic species.
Buy tickets ahead of time and we’ll save you a seat! And hurry – this will likely sell out.
This is the second in a series of Orca Talks 2014 presented by The Whale Trail. The event also features updates from Laura James (tox-ick.org) and Seal Sitters, and photography from Judy Lane.
Don’t wait to get tickets – it’s usually a sellout crowd.
Stormy as it has been lately, we’ve seen beautiful morning moonsets; thanks to Don Brubeck for the weekend photo. Now the weather has calmed for a mostly, but not entirely, quiet Presidents Day. A few calendar notes:
OPEN AND CLOSED: Most government facilities are closed today, libraries included. No banks, no USPS mail. In the non-WS areas with paid street parking, it’s a free-parking day. Seattle Public Schools are closed all week; most if not all independent schools are closed today too.
16 CATS NEED HOMES: Holdover from this weekend’s adoptathon, 8 cats and 8 kittens are hoping to meet their new humans today at Kitty Harbor, 10 am-2 pm. (Harbor Ave. just north of the bridge)
PACK A.D. AT EASY STREET: Live, free in-store performance by Pack A.D., described by Easy Street as “two gals from Vancouver BC who never fail to tear it up with their bluesy garage rock explosions!” 7 pm at Easy Street Records in The Junction. (California/Alaska)
SNAKETOPUS AT SKYLARK: Free live music at Skylark Café and Club with Snaketopus, 9:30 pm. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
(More cameras, and other info, on the WSB Traffic page)
Notes as the day begins: Though it’s a holiday, Metro is on a regular weekday schedule; its most recent service change took effect Saturday – details here. No Water Taxi service today, West Seattle or Vashon. School’s out for most (if not all); Seattle Public Schools is on midwinter break all week.
ROAD WORK: The southbound I-5 expansion-joint-work lane closures on the south side of downtown are scheduled to continue through today.
10:29 AM: Crash on northbound I-5 at the Convention Center – so probably a good idea not to go that way for a while.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Will Metro‘s next “service change” include a service cut?
Decision time is down to the wire. The King County Council has to decide soon whether to ask voters to approve a local tax package. Various Metro-related conversations are on its schedule this coming week.
With West Seattle and White Center bus service having the most to lose, because of Highway 99 “mitigation” money expiring as well as the $20 tab fee, local groups are taking their official stands.
The one taken by the 34th District Democrats this past week was a little unusual.
Famed climber and former West Seattle resident Chad Kellogg, 42, has died in Argentina after a rockfall in Patagonia. A WSB reader wrote to share the sad news as early reports surfaced such as this one at Climbing.com; tonight the news also has appeared at SeattleTimes.com (WSB partner) and TheNewsTribune.com. Mr. Kellogg lived in West Seattle seven years ago when a climbing mishap killed his 38-year-old wife Lara-Karena Kellogg (mentioned briefly on WSB in April 2007), whose family are longtime West Seattleites. The person who e-mailed us says Mr. Kellogg “should be recognized and remembered as a great man who accomplished incredible things, most notably — speed ascents, summiting peaks, defeating cancer, to name a few.” The Times story details many of those accomplishments; the Climbing report notes that “in recent years he had accomplished many superb ascents.” No word yet of memorial plans.
(Click image for larger view)
Dennis Cheasebro shared that photo of what he believes was a humpback whale, spotted off West Seattle today:
Photographed at 1:34 PM, February 16, 2014, from the Lincoln Park bluff. It was breaching, tail flipping and swimming fast southward, close to shore. I’ve never seen a humpback before, but the small, dull-pointed dorsal fin on top of a low hump seems to be diagnostic.
8:05 PM: Our experience with humpbacks is limited to their distinctive flukes, through binoculars, in Alaska. We’ve looked around at various whale-sighting sites and no other reports of this today; the species-ID page on The Whale Trail‘s site seems to affirm Dennis’s ID. Any other confirmations/opinions/sightings?
9:04 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Kelly for pointing out, in comments, photos published to TWT’s Facebook page not long after we published this – so, humpback it is!
Another stolen car to look for – Trevor reports:
My tan-colored Nissan Maxima ’92 was stolen last night from right in front of my house on SW Cloverdale and Delridge [map]. Police says thieves often take older cars like this for a ride and then abandon them. If you happen to see mine, #275USV with chrome rims, please shoot me an e-mail at trevorny (at) gmail.com. Thanks!
Since it seemed anecdotally as if we are receiving more auto-theft reports than usual – knowing that we don’t hear about them all – we checked the Seattle Police Reports map to get a sense of the trends. Here’s a screengrab showing West Seattle auto-theft reports for the past week, February 9th through today:
10 reports in 7 days is about the same a year ago, 43 reports for the Southwest Precinct in February 2013, averaging 1.5 a day. Crime stats are published for last year through November; the lowest month for auto theft in 2013 was July, with 25, fewer than one a day, while the highest was January 2013, with 61, almost two a day.
Congratulations to head coach Keffrey Fazio and the West Seattle High School boys-varsity basketball team on a second consecutive season with postseason play. Their final report is just in:
The West Seattle High School boys basketball season came to an end on Saturday night, falling to Seattle Prep 63-59 in an overtime thriller.
The WSHS boys were one game from making the 3A Regional playoffs, which consists of the top 16 teams in the state.
The Wildcats have now gone to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and this year made it to the district tournament.
This season was a true journey for the team as they battled through adversity and achieved great things on and off the court.
The future is bright for the Wildcat boys, as the youth in the program has great potential and will be training hard in the off season to get back to the post season.
Lots of postseason sports updates this weekend – see them all in our sports-coverage archives here (reverse chronological order).
The big unannounced weekend project at California/Fauntleroy (reported here at midday Saturday after we got a tip) is done – new signals, signage, and other equipment installed and working – our photo from southbound California was taken just a few minutes ago. So the crews are gone and the intersection is free-flowing again. We’ll be checking in with SDOT once offices reopen post-holiday weekend to find out if there are any new unseen features you’d want to know about.
Thanks to Tanya in North Delridge for the photo of a storm-related close call – a tree limb as big as an entire tree, at least 50 feet long, came off a neighbor’s tree in the Saturday wind and rain, landing in her yard and theirs. She says it “landed perfectly to miss our house and our beloved maple trees.” They’re putting together a neighborhood work party in hopes of clearing it away this afternoon. This might not be the last weather-related tree trouble in the area, since the National Weather Service has a new Wind Advisory in effect (see it here) until midnight tonight, warning of strong winds out of the south, with gusts up to 55 mph.
ADDED LATE SUNDAY NIGHT: The wind advisory expired at midnight as scheduled. And we have an update from Tanya:
Wow. With the help of 6 neighbors, we had the whole cedar limb cleared in 1.5 hours. We filled 7 yard waste bins, gave a neighbor a ton of firewood, and had fun doing it. It was an amazing effort! Without our neighbors, we faced a daunting task. But with their help, we remained light-hearted about the whole incident, and were left feeling deeply supported.
One more update on local student athletes in this weekend’s postseason high-school-sports events – a swimming update from Trisha Montemayor:
Chief Sealth participated in the Boys 3A Sea-King District 2 Swim Championships this weekend. Preliminaries were held (Friday) and finals (Saturday). Chief Sealth had two relays participate in finals, finishing 11th in both and dropping 5 seconds of time in each relay. Boys in the relays were Carlos Montemayor, John Woefel, Eliot Nichols and Michael Stewart. Michael Stewart also swam finals in the 50 free and 100 free, qualifying for state in the 100 free with a time of 49:18 and finishing 8th overall. Carlos Montemayor swam the 100 back final, finishing 2nd in a time of 52.84. He will swim both the 100 fly and 100 back at State. Boys 3A State championships are Friday, February 21 at 6:15 at King County Aquatic Center for preliminaries and Saturday, February 22 at 6:30 for finals.
The aquatic center is in Federal Way.
Thanks for sharing rainbow photos! Above, Mark Dale‘s view of a state ferry (rather than the rumored pot of gold) at the “end of the rainbow”; next, Joe Szilagyi photographed almost the entirety of the rainbow’s arc, seen from Alki:
And Greg caught it between Fauntleroy and Vashon, with two state ferries in view:
Next up for the weather – a new Wind Advisory from the National Weather Service is in effect through midnight (more on that shortly.)
ADDED 4:46 PM: Thanks to Creighton (welcome back!) for sharing a northeast view:
What a day!
More high-school-sports postseason news: Thanks to Lynn Ogdon-Perrine for sharing the photo and update after four Chief Sealth International High School wrestlers who won in the Metro League tournament last week competed regionally on Saturday. From left, freshman Nathan Perrine, sophomore Daron Comacho, junior Greg Tauti, and sophomore Orlando Lopez. At regionals, Daron placed second at 195 pounds and Greg placed fourth at 285, so they will represent Sealth in statewide competition at the Tacoma Dome next Friday and Saturday.
Thanks to Craig Towle for sharing Saturday morning’s sunrise, photographed from Don Armeni Boat Ramp. Not far from there, in the Jack Block Park vicinity, Karen Richter spotted what might be the season’s first Canada goslings:
Now, before today’s calendar highlights – traffic reminders:
CALIFORNIA/FAUNTLEROY INTERSECTION WORK: The major traffic-signal project we reported here on Saturday is scheduled to continue today, so if you’re headed that way, we’d advise side routes.
I-5 LANE CLOSURES: Once again, a reminder about lane closures on southbound I-5 all weekend long, just north of I-90. The view:
A few non-traffic notes:
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Year-round – 10 am-2 pm today. (44th/Alaska)
JAMTIME, LIVE: Music at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), 1-4 pm. (5612 California SW)
ARTSWEST MATINEE: Final performance today for “The Little Dog Laughed,” current production at ArtsWest in The Junction, 3 pm. (4711 California SW)
ALL-AGES LIVE MUSIC: Pouch, Canals of Venice, and Hoax Foot perform at 7 pm at Skylark Café and Club, all ages. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
(EDITOR’S NOTE: See our Tuesday followup here)
(Photo courtesy Jason)
6:52 AM: Police and fire have responded to a crash at Olson/Roxbury (map), with a sizable “heavy rescue” dispatch. According to radio communications, three people are being taken to the hospital. More to come.
7:19 AM: Thanks to Jason for sending the top photo taken during the rescue. We are just back from the scene, where the wrecked Lexus is about to be pulled the rest of the way out of the off-the-road spot where it crashed among trees; police told us they expect to have the road reopened soon, but for now the Olson/1st hill down to/up from Highway 509 is blocked.
(This photo & next by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
This crash comes less than a week after SDOT officially launched the SW Roxbury safety project with a meeting a few blocks to the east.
7:29 AM: Police just announced “all lanes are open.” We don’t know the victims’ conditions but the crash did not trigger the type of major investigation that would usually follow if anyone had life-threatening injuries.
Also victorious in Saturday postseason basketball: The Seattle Lutheran High School boys-varsity team, with an 86-55 win over, and at, Orcas in their first playoff game of the year; here’s the scoring breakdown published at SeattleTimes.com (WSB partner). Next game is at Auburn Adventist on Wednesday night (February 19th). Thanks to Seana for the photo!
11:23 PM SUNDAY: Just in from the 1500 block of California SW (map), a texted report about a black Acura stolen by a man driving a white “unmarked” tow truck. The car’s owner is talking to police right now, we’re told. The neighbor reporting it on the victim’s behalf says it headed southbound on California and that the victim says there’s no chance it was towed as a repo attempt. Apparently the alarm was going off as the car was taken away around 10:35 pm. More details when we get them.
12:09 PM SUNDAY: Added a e-mailed photo; no view of the driver but he is described as “a white male, largish build, wearing a red sweatshirt.”
(UPDATED 11:59 PM with full story – lead paragraph was original, brief 8:34 pm report)
(Final seconds of the game – WSB Instagram video)
Story by Tracy Record
Photos by Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers
Lights flickered in the gym but stayed on and so did the West Seattle High School girls’ basketball team, pulling out a nailbiter postseason win 34-33 over visiting Eastside Catholic.
The Wildcats’ #12 Lydia Giomi scored West Seattle’s first two points while singlehandedly racking up almost half the team’s total, finishing with 15 points before fouling out with about seven seconds left in the game.
If you like planning ahead – note that the next full-weekend Highway 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct inspection closure is on the schedule, though not formally announced yet: According to the Construction Lookahead page jointly published by SDOT and WSDOT, it’s two weeks away – late Friday night February 28th, through early Monday morning March 3rd. Again, this is the regular twice-yearly inspection closure, not related to the tunnel construction.
Maybe you’ve heard of “Genius Hour,” inspired by Google, with the company legendarily giving employees time to work on projects that interested them, rather than the assignments they were given. For the past six weeks, two classes at Alki Elementary got that chance – one hour per week during which third- and fourth-graders “were given free range to investigate and study a topic of their choice,” as teacher Anna Coghill put it. On Friday, students in her class and Kelli Soccorsy‘s class showed off those projects, and invited us to come have a look along with some other visitors (including the parents who gave us permission to feature their kids). Top photo, Charlotte‘s project was recycling art; next, Julian put together a tutorial on the history of perhaps the most famous superhero ever, Superman:
And in our final photo, with Alki’s first-year principal Shannon Stanton, is Owen, whose “Genius Hour” project involved engineering a catapult:
While Google is believed to have moved away from the “Genius Hour” type of time allotment, it’s a thriving idea in schools, with projects like the one the Alki students and teachers have just completed.
1:03 PM: A new Special Weather Statement is up for our area – this time, warning of two rounds of wind on the way, possibly with gusts up to 50 mph. First one is expected tonight; second one, Sunday afternoon. Keep everything charged!
6:29 PM: The alert has been upgraded to a wind advisory through 4 am Sunday. Same basic points – winds could gust up to 50 mph. Sounds like they’re kicking up right now.
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