West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
Tomorrow’s the deadline to sign up your block for a night of crime-fighting, community-building, street-closing fun: 
Night Out 2007 is Tuesday, August 7, 6-10 pm. Find out how to sign up for it here. If you’re in the “Weed & Seed” grant area of South Delridge/downtown White Center, you might be able to get a small grant for supplies (not food); click here to e-mail the folks responsible for that. If you’re in the Beach Drive area, BDB has been working to organize a get-together there. If you’re in Fairmount Springs (northeast of Morgan Junction), their invite is online. Pigeon Point has a location posted too. Wherever you are in WS, if you have a Night Out get-together, take a pic that night, send it to us, we would love to post it in our follow-ups.
Our blogland-trolling picked up this tale. (Wonder where exactly he meant by the “Delridge projects.”)
A Gatewood neighborhood e-mail list has been abuzz about word of an arrest in connection with one or more of the break-ins that have hit several WS neighborhoods (from Gatewood to The Junction and further north), and concern about whether this person will be appropriately charged. Seattle Police are able to confirm for us that one person is under arrest, and they are awaiting word on what charges will be filed by prosecutors — what happens after they make arrests is ultimately up to the prosecutor’s office, not the police department. They say they cannot go into any other details at this point.
We know you’re mad about crime and ready to tell the crooks “enough” — one way to make a stand is to organize a block party for National Night Out on August 7th. If you sign up with Seattle Police within the next few weeks (full info here), you get to close your block to traffic and dance (or whatever) in the streets.
According to the map and list accompanying this P-I article, one of the Lincoln Park lots has had the 5th-highest number of car break-ins reported citywide in the past 18 years. (Although the number cited during that span, 452, “only” equals out to roughly one every two weeks.)
According to this article (which includes a sketch of who police want to find), one particular guy has attacked one particular woman south of Admiral twice in the last seven months.
A WSB reader asked us to let everyone to know his neighborhood has just been hit again. Read on for details, in his own words:Read More
Got a note tonight from a WSB reader on Gatewood Hill. Though the recent burglary spree didn’t hit his house, he thinks he may have found a stolen item in his own front yard: A boy’s mountain-style bike, “Rhino” brand. Nobody nearby seems to know whose it is, so he’s wondering if someone stole it, rode it for a while, then abandoned it. If you have any idea whose it might be, please e-mail us and we will forward your note on to him.
Lots of WS worries lately – from Westwood vandalism to Gatewood burglaries to break-ins further north. If you have neighborhood crime concerns, you are invited to voice them tonight at the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting, 7 pm @ the SW Precinct. On a related subject, a WSB reader e-mailed us asking for help with a hit-and-run that crunched his car; click ahead to read his note:Read More
Last week’s thread about local burglaries has fallen off this page, but it just drew a comment that we thought deserved wider consideration. We won’t be able to try to get a police-department response to this till Monday, but we promise to try. Click to read the commenter’s story:Read More
Jake Nickels faces a judge, as his lawyer confirms he’s indeed living at the family home here in WS, and therefore should be allowed to drink while awaiting trial (?); the judge is reported to have disagreed. (Perhaps he’d seen the motto on this cached version of the defendant’s MySpace.)
A WSB reader just e-mailed to say someone stole their 5-year-old’s tricycle from their yard in Westwood, his first and only bike, and they’d like you to be on the lookout, since it has sentimental as well as monetary value. Full text of their e-mail below the photo:
Stolen from our Westwood Village yard, probably by some joker who got tired of riding it a block away. So just in case it shows up let us know, we don’t have the funds right now to buy a bike for our 5 year old and it was a special 2nd birthday present. It was red, rusty, monster front tire, ladybug bell on front. Attaches to a red wagon but they were too busy to steal that, too, hence why we think it was a lark.
If you see it, their contact info is in this post on Craigslist.
The burglars who repeatedly hit neighborhoods in Gatewood (where neighborhood leaders say no fewer than six city/police officials showed up for a meeting the other night, wow!) may be heading north, according to e-mail we just received from somebody on the north part of the peninsula. Click ahead to read it:Read More
A WSB reader wrote with this alert for everybody else out there — gas-siphoners were at work sometime overnight in the 46th/Brandon vicinity. Even with prices dropping, guess it’s still a temptation … if you don’t have a garage, a lock-equipped gas cap might not be a bad investment.
Hadn’t heard much about the case against the mayor’s son (who reportedly had been living at the family home here in WS) since it was announced last week, till the Daily Weekly unearthed this tidbit about the lawyers hired to defend him.
Scroll to the end of this P-I story for map/stats: 6000 16th (SSCC) and 6900 Delridge.
Two updates on the violent vandalism mentioned here a week ago — first, neighbors are working to revive the Westwood Neighborhood Council, which apparently had gone dormant; second, the vandalism story was featured on tv last night.
Gatewood neighbors have just met to plot strategy to fight burglars who have struck repeatedly in the past two weeks. One of them just sent us a full report with details, plans, even a plea to Mayor Nickels — read it all, one click away:Read More
Remember all the commotion from that Junction bank robbery and ensuing manhunt last week? The guy they think did it is now under arrest.
Streets on the north side of Westwood Village (off the stretch of Trenton shown below) are having trouble with a group of at least half a dozen teenage boys running around wreaking havoc — with violent vandalism that includes throwing rocks at people, through house windows, and through car windows. Neighbors are banding together and working to put more pressure on police to catch these culprits, which they note has been tough because it’s not considered an “emergency” and gets lower-priority response. However, our tipster does say three police cars were in hot pursuit of the group tonight; here’s hoping they are caught soon, and just as important, appropriately prosecuted.
As the Cali paving work enters a new phase (the blacktop’s all done up to just north of Charlestown; now the focus is on the stretch up to Admiral), we’ve received a reader’s troubling tale of late-night hijinks that could threaten safety. We’re passing along because at the very least, if you live in that area, you can help watch for this; if you drive in that area, be very careful. Full e-mail after the click:Read More
That phrase apparently applies to the Westwood Village vicinity for a non-shopping reason.
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