West Seattle, Washington
13 Saturday
The Charlestown water tower’s public property, and a fine place to hang out, says Seattle Public Utilities, but not to the point of putting up sports equipment. Here’s the warning they are posting today:
Seattle Public Utilities warning about basketball hoops at Charlestown water tower
(If you can’t see the document we embedded with Scribd, click here to open/download the original PDF from our server.) SPU spokesperson Ingrid Goodwin says they hope word of this will get to the basketball hoops’ owner/s in time.
(Photo by David Hutchinson)
Work is under way east of the Alki Bathhouse to get the site ready for the harbor seal mom-and-pup sculpture that artist Georgia Gerber is creating for Seal Sitters, whose David Hutchinson tells us that asphalt removal was finished this morning. He says the “rocks” that will be part of the installation will be placed there by Turnstone Construction tomorrow, and the artist will bring her unfinished sculpture to help with the placement. It’ll be taken back to the studio for completion afterward; site prep will be done within a week and a half, and the fence will come down then. Sculpture installation is expected by late August, with a dedication event scheduled for September 8th, according to the project’s infopage on the Seal Sitters website.
You’ve seen movies film at Alki Beach. But this might be the first time a movie has sought publicity via a cleanup at Alki Beach. Just got word that you’re invited to a beach cleanup this Thursday morning (July 11th), 8-10 am (meet at Alki Bathhouse), one of eight cleanups (along with 5 in California plus Honolulu and Vancouver) tied into the release of “Pacific Rim.” If you’re one of the first 100 people to show up to volunteer, they’re promising prizes including two tickets to see the movie. More details on the official flyer.
This time of year – if the sunrise light is just right – downtown skyscrapers’ shadows can be seen against West Seattle, as Martha Sidlo noticed last Wednesday (thanks for sharing the photo!). No sun yet today but we have hopes for later – here’s what’s coming up for today/tonight:
VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Not registered yet? Today’s your last chance to sign up in time for participation in next month’s primary. King County Elections‘ voter-registration page has all the info/links you need.
HIGH POINT SAFETY MEETING: 6:30 pm at Neighborhood House‘s High Point Center, local leaders and law-enforcement reps will meet with community members to discuss safety concerns and solutions. Details in our preview from last week. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)
TOMBOY EXCHANGE LAUNCH: This West Seattleite-created clothing line (featured here earlier this year) is throwing a launch party at Marination ma kai (WSB sponsor) at Seacrest tonight, 6:30 pm – details in our calendar listing. (1660 Harbor Avenue SW)
EVENING BOOK GROUPS: Two meet at local libraries tonight, both at 6:45 pm. At Southwest Library (35th/Henderson), “The Song of the Lark” by Willa Cather is this month’s book; at West Seattle (Admiral) Library (2306 42nd SW), “Mornings on Horseback” by David McCullough is this month’s book.
Skateboarders of all ages are invited to get ready to compete at this year’s Delridge Day festival! Just announced:
Delridge Day and Alki Bike & Board are teaming up this year to bring you the second annual skateboard competition! The event will take place Saturday, August 17th from 11:00 am-4:00 pm at Delridge Community Park. Alki Bike & Board is the main sponsor for this event and is putting in time and effort along with the Delridge Day committee to be sure this event will be a fun success!
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
6:49 AM: It’s back-to-work Monday after what was for many a long holiday weekend. Of note today: The Delridge Way repaving project shifts to Phase 4, Holden to Orchard, with no detour necessary this time because that stretch of Delridge is wide enough for one lane to be kept open each way while work proceeds.
ADDED 9:04 AM: If you drive to or through the Eastside, take note of what’s planned next weekend, per WSDOT:
Beginning at 10 p.m. Friday, July 12, until 5 a.m. Monday, July 15, all northbound lanes of I-405 will close through downtown Bellevue for concrete panel replacement, while the SR 520 floating bridge will close for its annual inspection, and culvert installation.
We are continuing to count down to West Seattle Summer Fest (co-sponsored by WSB) next Friday/Saturday/Sunday (July 12-14) and to the night before, which is a street party all its own, once the central blocks of California and Alaska close for Summer Fest setup. Four things to note so far for Thursday night (and if you know of more, PLEASE let us know!):
–West Seattle Art Walk: 6-9 pm Thursday. See the summer venue list here, and artist previews on the official website
–Bubbleman outside Elliott Bay Brewery, a tradition (just confirmed today; checking on time)
–Yada Yada Blues Band outside West 5 around 7:30 pm (just confirmed today; p.s., AFTER Summer Fest, West 5 will be closed a few days for upgrades, so enjoy them extra in the week ahead)
–Bret Wiggins‘ Elvis stylings outside WSB sponsor La Romanza Bistro, first of 2 sets at 6:30 pm (as noted here last Wednesday)
The Junction streets close at 6 pm Thursday (July 11th). See you there on Thursday night AND for the ensuing three-day party (official Summer Fest website here; quick links in our Friday countdown report).
Reminder if you drive on Delridge Way SW – the repaving project is scheduled to move into Phase 4 tomorrow (Monday), which means the work zone will shift north, to the section between SW Orchard and SW Holden. SDOT says no detour will be needed “as the roadway is wide enough to maintain one lane of traffic each way.”
ADDED MONDAY: However – the Phase 3 zone southbound detour continues a few more days for striping and other details.
(UPDATED 11:02 PM with new details about suspects)
ORIGINAL STORY, 2:39 PM: Several people e-mailed to ask about that police activity in the back parking lot at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor). Bottom line, a stolen truck’s been recovered and two people have been detained, thanks to a tip from a WSB reader. Here’s how it unfolded:
WSB’s Katie Meyer heard scanner traffic with a police dispatcher sending officers to Thriftway because a caller reported seeing a stolen vehicle that had been featured here on WSB. We subsequently went over to check out the situation – and in the meantime heard from the tipster, James, who tells us he was shopping at Thriftway when he spotted the truck, recalling it from this West Seattle Crime Watch report published early Friday – a Nissan Frontier stolen just south of the city limits. He also sent us this photo taken after police arrived:
Police ordered that man out of the truck at gunpoint (standard procedure for felonies such as auto theft). When we talked with officers at the scene a bit later, they told us he was waiting for a female companion to come back from shopping inside the store – which is where police caught up with her, taking both into custody. James also reports seeing police find at least one gun: “As I was pulling away, to get my ice cream home, it looked as though officers had recovered a revolver from the truck – they were holding it like a stinky sock, so I suspect it is evidence. It is also a good reminder to not get overly involved and to let the police handle this sort of thing.”
We’ll do our best to follow up on this and see what we can find out about the suspects and where the case goes from here.
ADDED 2:52 PM: David, who had been shopping at the store with his girlfriend just before the arrests, e-mailed us to describe what he saw: “On our way to the car we had seen a police car enter the parking lot from California with its lights on, but no siren … (then) four additional police cars with lights on pulled into the parking lot from the other side … Then the officers got out of the cars and drew their guns in our direction and shouted ‘Driver, get out of the car!’ and they asked us to move aside quickly – we hadn’t even seen the guy sitting in a black pickup truck right near us. We watched from the sidewalk behind Thriftway as the driver got out and they arrested him. They also took a woman into custody shortly thereafter. After a short while one of the officers pulled a dark handgun from the truck and put it in a bag.”
ADDED 4:30 PM: Received from the truck’s owners:
Nathan I would very much like to thank the West Seattle Blog and the ever-searching eyes of its readers (Thanks, James! You rock)) for helping to locate our missing vehicle and apprehend the persons responsible for its theft. We hope to see them in court! What a great service the WSB provides for our community. In talking to the Seattle Police Department they had nothing but high praise for the WSB and its readers.
The truck had minimal damage, although the inside is pretty trashed. They even managed to rip the seats on a two month old pickup? There were several stolen items recovered, that were not ours, but very strangely from another Nathan Adams! Hopefully those items will make it back to their rightful owner. Word of warning to the WSB readers, the thief had a master key and was able to steal the truck with ease. We are taking extra precautions to make sure nothing like this happens to either of our vehicles in the future. Something for everyone to think about.
Thanks again for helping us recover our pickup. We so greatly appreciate it.
Michale Farrar
Nathan Adams
7:51 PM UPDATE: Turns out police found more than the aforementioned handgun – this case has now turned up on SPD Blotter, where the story includes:
… The stolen truck had weapons inside including a .22 caliber revolver and a loaded shotgun. The truck was packed with stolen property taken from a number of burglaries ( jewelry, laptops, etc.) and carprowls in both the city and KCSO’s jurisdiction. It took multiple officers hours to catalog and process all of the stolen items. The female suspect also had outstanding burglary warrants. Both suspects were booked into the King County Jail for the felony charges. Detectives will handle the follow up investigation.
11:02 PM UPDATE: More details on the 20-year-old man and 33-year-old woman arrested – both have records; hers dates back 20 years. According to the King County Jail Register, she is being held for investigation of unlawful firearms possession and for a $15,075 warrant related to a failure to appear in a case involving an attempted burglary in south King County last year. Off-and-on technical trouble is still keeping us from bringing up details on his booking, but his record shows a guilty plea to a drug charge last year. Court documents show the drugs were found when he was arrested on suspicion of car prowling – in the 9400 block of 25th SW, four blocks from the scene of the theft of the truck in which he was found today.
MONDAY MORNING NOTE: Once the jail-register website started working again, we found that this is the sixth time in jail for the male suspect in the past year. He is being held for investigation of car theft, investigation of stolen property, and failure-to-appear warrants.
Working right now on the story of a DIFFERENT stolen vehicle just recovered thanks to a WSB reader. But first – please be on the lookout for this one, reported by Kathy:
Our dark green Chrysler Cirrus, plate 129WJF, was stolen between 2:15 and 5:45 in the afternoon on July 6th from in front of our house on the 44 hundred block just down from Genesee. I appreciate folks keeping an eye out for it.
Help make wishes come true – by getting out on the greens with the West Seattle Eagles Auxiliary, whose past Madam President Amy McGrath shares the invitation to this upcoming tournament:
Since 1995, The West Seattle Eagles Ladies Auxiliary has raised over $95,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Alaska and Washington by holding various fundraisers. At three years of age and suffering from a brain tumor, Craig Wilkerson was granted his “wish” to drive a race car. He passed away shortly after his “wish” was granted, spurring his grandmother, Past Madam President Mary Lou Wilkerson, to start raising funds for the program. Now in its 16th year, the Craig Wilkerson Golf Tournament is our largest fundraiser of the year.
The tournament is open to everyone and will be held at Jefferson Golf Course Saturday, August 17th. Cost is $80 per golfer, if preregistered and paid by August 1. After August 1, cost is $85 per golfer. Deadline for entry is August 10. Entry fee includes dinner at the West Seattle Eagles after the tournament. We will also be holding a live and silent auction and have entertainment to follow dinner.
Here’s the printable entry form.
(Our first report can be seen here)
(1st, 2nd, 4th photos by William Morgan)
Scurvy dawgs! Those two begin a gallery of more sights we want to share before Alki’s big Seafair Saturday is too much further away in the rear-view mirror – both community-contributed photos and a few more from our crews at the scene. And then there’s the aerial view of the pole-vaulting alongside the Seafair Pirates‘ Landing festivities:
(Photo by Long Bach Nguyen)
The Pirates of course came in with cannon fire, just like their landlubbing parade sailings:
And they had many a welcoming delegation – by sea…
(Photo by David Hutchinson)
… and by land …
… as they “barged in”:
14 more photos ahead – including pirate portraits!
That’s our video of local luminary Star Anna‘s star turn during the 2011 Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series; last year, she played West Seattle Summer Fest; and tonight – you can see her at Feedback Lounge (6451 California SW; WSB sponsor). This time, it’s an acoustic performance, as part of the slate for tonight’s second edition of the Bar Chords benefit series at The Feedback, featuring local musicians on Sunday nights. No cover, but donations will be accepted for Saving Great Animals. See the rest of the lineup on the Feedback’s home page; show starts at 8 pm.
Update on the Highway 99 closure north of downtown: By dawn, SDOT says, both directions should be back open – southbound now, northbound around 4 am. They’ve finished “demolition activities on the east side of the SR 99 bridge over Mercer Street,” so that’s why they’re reopening, though if you’re traveling on the surface in the area, note that Mercer itself is expected to remain closed until 5 am Monday as scheduled, while crews haul bridge debris.
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
10:52 PM: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is at the scene of that flipped-vehicle crash in the 5400 block of West Marginal Way SW (just north of the Lafarge plant). Avoid the area.
11:07 PM: Christopher says the vehicle’s female driver was reported to have suffered “bumps and scrapes,” no serious injury, and was being taken to the hospital by private ambulance to be checked out. Police told him at the scene that the driver said she swerved to avoid an animal, hit a utility pole, and that’s what flipped her Toyota SUV. He says City Light was arriving at the scene when he left – likely to check out the not-insignificant damage to the pole.
11:20 PM: Police have reported (per scanner) that southbound W. Marginal is open again. (added) Shortly thereafter, the other direction reopened too.
Friends and family have announced a benefit one week from tonight for 29-year-old Logan Wicker, who was driving home from his job at Skylark Café and Club late at night two weeks ago when a van driven by an alleged drunk driver hit his car at 17th and Cambridge, sending him and a friend to Harborview Medical Center. 
In our photo from the scene (left), you can barely see his car behind the van. Police say the other driver was running away from the scene when they caught her; as reported here June 26th, she is charged with two counts of vehicular assault and one county of felony hit-and-run. But for Logan’s family and friends, the focus is on his recovery; here’s how you can help:
Friends and family of Logan are hosting a benefit in his name to take care of the financial load that is accumulating so that he and the family can focus solely on his health and recovery. To raise money toward his recovery, we are organizing an all-ages benefit on July 13th from 2-6pm at the Skylark Café. There will be live music, information about the consequences of drunk driving, a raffle containing numerous items, and an auction. Hella Sunshine will be playing at 5 pm and we will have another band (tba) before that. There will be a cover (tba) at the door. All proceeds go directly to the Logan Wicker Fund.
There’s a website too – getrightlogan.com – and a Facebook event page for the benefit. And if you can’t make it to the benefit at Skylark (3803 Delridge Way SW), you can donate via any Chase Bank; the Logan Wicker Fund is account #954-989-786.
P.S. We don’t know how the other crash victim is doing, but would be happy to publish an update too if family/friends contact us. Meantime, the accused drunk driver who hit them, 26-year-old Kalameu Paulo of Seatac, remains jailed in lieu of $75,000 bail.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports to share tonight. First, Al‘s bicycle was stolen – again – in Highland Park. Be on the lookout for a blue Trek 7300 mountain bike; 2 locks were cut by the thief/thieves. Al explains, “It’s blue and has a mount on the back of the bike. It was a gift from my best friend.”
Meantime, Ernie has a car-prowl alert:
We’re at 47’th and Walker in the Admiral District and last night (7/5) someone rummaged thru our car. They took some change and a gold men’s wedding band but left other items of value (leatherman tool, GPS, sunglasses etc.). We suspect it was amateur car prowlers.
Normally we lock the doors on all our vehicles; last night was the night we forgot to do so. Just a friendly neighborly reminder to remove all valubles and lock up your vehicles at night.
More sights from Alki today: As always, Seafair Pirates Landing day also brought a pole-vaulting meet, and photographer David Hutchinson caught this sight: “Indiana Jones put in an appearance at the pole-vault competition at Alki Beach today. Unfortunately his famous whip dislodged the crossbar on his attempt.”
Further down the beach, the Duwamish Raven Canoe was visiting.
That’s Jonnica keeping watch on board. Linda from the Duwamish Longhouse had e-mailed earlier to say the Duwamish Canoe Family was headed for Alki – and we spotted it onshore after the Pirates had landed.
4:05 PM: Two weeks after the first “guerrilla art” sighting at Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza (WSB coverage here and here), and a week and a half after the followup, something new showed up today. Ben Hutchinson shared the photo and observation:
This one looks like an assault rifle. On the front of this work of art, it has written in French, “Ceci nest pa un fusil d’assault”. I put this into Google Translate, which gave me the English translation “This is not an assault rifle”. I’m not sure, but I believe this may have been a protest in response to a number incidents in various places that have been mentioned in the news over the past few months, about kids who were suspended from school or even arrested for simply carrying Nerf guns (shoot foam rubber darts) or other toy guns like squirt guns or cap guns either to school or onto pieces of property (such as a park/playfield) that belongs to a school. Children are often forbidden from doing so under so called “no tolerance” rules involving anything that even looks like a gun (in one such case, a kid was suspended for just pointing his finger in a way that looked like he was pretending it was a gun, while playing, as kids tend to do). I believe the artwork here is a protest against such no-tolerance policies, for how strict (and possibly unfair) they can be in some situations.
We didn’t see Ben’s e-mail in time to check while we were at Alki so we don’t know if it’s still there.
12:43 AM: The “not a rifle” has been moved to Walking on Logs. The sighting was reported by @macjustice on Twitter when we were downtown picking up a family member; checked it out on the way back, and it’s either the same one or a duplicate.
ADDED EARLY MONDAY: We heard on Sunday from Chuck, who identified himself as the artist, but said he is NOT the person responsible for the previous creations left at Liberty Plaza and in The Junction. He says somebody had removed the “not a rifle” from Walking on Logs by 10:30 am Sunday, adding, “I hope that whoever took it returns it. If they don’t, I guess it served its purpose. I had a lot of fun making it.”
Seattle Police say the suspect in a street robbery/attack in The Junction last September is now in jail. Police in Shoreline stopped the suspect in that city last night and discovered he was wanted in Seattle, so he’s now been booked into King County Jail. Details of the September incident are part of the report on SPD Blotter.
12:04 PM: Got a tip (thanks, Christine) that the Hiawatha wading pool was found to have broken glass, which is being cleaned up now, so it’s opening late. We’ll check over there in a while; please let us know if you see it open before we update its status! Here’s the citywide wading-pool schedule.
1:33 PM: Still closed when we drove by about 15 minutes ago – saw staffers still sweeping. Added a photo of the ongoing cleanup, sent by Christine (thanks again!).
3:42 PM: As of our last drive-by about 15 minutes ago, it’s open!
11:34 AM: Cannon fire can be heard offshore as the Seafair Pirates make their way toward Alki Beach – with landlubbers awaiting them. (added) Listen to the cannon blasts in our video:
11:44 AM UPDATE: They’ve arrived, wading ashore as usual, after the Global Diving and Salvage craft brought them as far in as it could. (added) This year’s Captain Kidd is West Seattleite Rusty Harper:
Onshore festivities commence now!
ADDED 12:13 PM: Above, the Pirates accompanied ashore by the West Seattle Hi-Yu delegation; below, the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle‘s been here handing out special pirate hats, and Kiwanian Mike LaFranchi shares smiles with a recipient:
More to come. Events on the beach continue into the afternoon, including bouncy toys for the kids.
One more reminder: Highway 99 is closed in both directions from the Battery St. Tunnel northward to Valley Street all weekend, so if you need to get north of downtown, you’ll need an alternate route; even if you’re just taking NB 99 to downtown, you might face backups, since everyone will have to exit at Western, if not sooner. This is all part of the city’s ongoing Mercer Corridor work.
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