West Seattle Crime Watch: Suspected prowler, caught on cam
The person at left was photographed prowling a townhouse in the 4500 block of 40th Ave SW just a little while ago, according to WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, who saw it happen and just finished talking with police. He says: “I was sitting at my desk working (with a view of the alley) and I saw this guy walk up to my neighbor’s door across the alley and try the doorknob. The door was locked. So then I saw him look in the window by the door. He was looking around, trying to appear casual, but clearly up to something. When I saw him go around to the other side of the house and jump the railing onto the deck I picked up the phone and called 911. I didn’t know it but my neighbor and his two small children were actually home. Apparently the thief saw or heard them and decided not to proceed any further. He jumped back over the fence and sauntered down the alley towards Alaska. I grabbed several pictures and was able to give print outs to the SPD. They were on the scene in less than five minutes with multiple officers looking for this guy. Perp was about 6 feet tall. Slim. Light skinned black man. At least one stud earring. Clean cut. Blue dress shirt with vertical dark stripes. Khaki pants. Black oxford shoes. He wasn’t carrying any bags or clipboards or anything.” To reiterate, what Christopher did — calling 911 — is what police urge everyone to do if you see something or someone suspicious.
Welcome, new WSB sponsor: Fitzpatrick’s Interiors & Upholstery
This afternoon, we’re welcoming a new WSB sponsor: Fitzpatrick’s Interiors and Upholstery, which has been in business in West Seattle for 37 years. 
Here’s what owner Margaret Fitzpatrick wants you to know about her business: She is an expert in upholstery and fabric selection. Margaret’s private selection of fabric is wonderful and she shops the Seattle Design Center for clients as well. Margaret offers personal design service for fabric selection in your home as a part of the upholstery process. The quality of the work is excellent and the work is guaranteed. Client satisfaction drives the business. Fitzpatrick’s Interiors and Upholstery has had two storefronts in West Seattle, and Margaret taught upholstery for the Community Colleges for 10 years. Now, Margaret works out of her home by appointment. Call for a free in-home estimate in West Seattle. Pickup and delivery is part of the upholstery service. Besides chairs and couches, Fitzpatrick’s services include cushions, decorator pillows, window seats, foam replacement and slipcovers. Margaret says, “I am hugged frequently when delivering projects because of client delight. I love my job, and it is ‘green business’!” You can call Fitzpatrick’s Interiors and Upholstery at 206-937-9643.
Thanks to Fitzpatrick’s for supporting independent neighborhood-based news/information/discussion by joining the WSB sponsor team, all listed here with info on how to join.
Another followup: Thursday’s low, loud planes over West Seattle
(Boeing Field-provided graphic of air traffic from Thursday night)
We’re slugging our way through a big stack of followups – something we appreciate getting to do, because in our citywide media days, that’s what often fell by the wayside: If you have to cover an entire huge region, like Western Washington, there’s always something new to rush to, and you seldom get to look back. But for small independent sites focusing on a single neighborhood, followups are more feasible. Here’s the latest : Remember those low, loud passenger and cargo planes that startled many West Seattleites over the course of about an hour last Thursday night? We were finally pointed to local FAA spokesperson Bob Fergus, who confirms today what some aviation-savvy commenters had suggested:
… on the evening of complaints that you referenced, we experienced a peculiar weather pattern that, although not common it isn’t rare either, had prevailing winds from opposite directions at Boeing Field and Sea-Tac Airports. In this case Boeing takeoff pattern was to the north while Sea-Tac’s was to the south. That forces Boeing departures to make a much sooner turn westward after taking off to the north to avoid any potential conflicts with Sea-Tac departures headed south. While it is a safe operation, it nonetheless does cause more noise due to a lower altitude when turning westward very soon after a Boeing departure to the north.
WSB’er Karen also had forwarded a reply she got from Boeing Field (King County International Airport) noise officer Sharyn Parker, saying the same thing, enclosing the graphic above (the bold line was a cargo flight during that time; you also see green departing tracks from KCIA and red arrival tracks from Sea-Tac), and concluding: “Please be assured that this type of flight event seldom occurs and does not represent a change in flight patterns for KCIA.”
Meantime, we are now working with the FAA to answer a few questions that have arisen since our original inquiry, regarding regional-media stories over the weekend – unrelated to the Thursday night situation – about a possible future change in flight patterns, to save fuel. As detailed in this Sunday story from seattletimes.com (WSB partner), the potential change could result in turns over Elliott Bay rather than over North Seattle. Would that mean more jet noise for West Seattle? What’s the status of this proposal and how can you comment on it? Look for a separate update with whatever we find out.
Followup: 2nd suspect charged in West Seattle HS theft case
Later this week, 19-year-old Skyelar Hailey wlll appear in court to answer charges in connection with the August 18 case that started with an alleged purse theft inside West Seattle High School, continued with an alleged theft inside an acquaintance’s home, and ended with a foot pursuit that led to his arrest (all detailed, with the court-document narrative, in this August 21 story). At the time, police also took into custody a 17-year-old girl who was with him; they hadn’t yet decided about charges against her when they filed the charges against Hailey, but now they have: She is charged with two counts of residential burglary – which is what Hailey is charged with – and one count of second-degree identity theft, regarding ID from the victim that police say was in the girl’s purse when she was arrested. (We are not identifying her because she is charged as a juvenile; WSB policy is generally to not identify juveniles unless they are charged as adults, which can happen, but mostly in violent-crime cases.) Hailey remains in jail, with bail set at $25,000, pending Thursday’s court appearance; the juvenile suspect has been arraigned but information on her custody status is not publicly available.
West Seattle Crime Watch: P-patch pilfering; stolen-car swap…
Several West Seattle Crime Watch reports to share … First, if you haven’t seen it in the WSB Forums already, Jennifer reported what you might call the “stolen car swap” – her car was stolen, and someone else’s (similar) stolen car left in its place. Read her story, and see a photo, here. Now, to the P-Patch pilfering at Longfellow Creek, as reported by Shannon, who says the same thieves keep returning:
They have been spotted four times now in the past few weeks and confronted at least twice. They are two men driving a blue Isuzu truck with Washington license plates A35–3U. We would like to first warn other gardeners in the area to be on the look out for these folks. Second, we would appreciate any help with stopping these people by reporting them to the police immediately. If you see this truck anywhere, call the police.
Not only are these men stealing from the gardeners who work so hard on our plots in the Longfellow Creek P-Patch, but they are stealing from the food bank plots we maintain there as well. The P-Patch is on city property and is marked as a city P-Patch. There is no reason for confusion on their part as they have been confronted and told this is not open to the public.
Just to reiterate what police have told us and say publicly at every crime-prevention meeting we attend – do NOT hesitate to call 911 if you see a crime, or something suspicious, in progress. Possible life-threatening situations are their first priority, police note, so you may not always get instant reponse.
One more Crime Watch report, went by Thomas on Friday, that we didn’t get the chance to share till now:
I wanted to let you know about a break-in that my wife and I just discovered. It happened on 46th between Raymond and Graham [map] sometime between 9:30 and 1:30 [Friday].
As far as we can tell they took a playstation, 3 laptops, about 45 DVDs, 75 CDs and some costume jewelry. No obvious signs of forced entry. The front door was wide open when we got home. Thankfully our cats stayed inside and are safe.
“Sports-challenged”? South Seattle Comm. College event for you
South Seattle Community College (which you of course know is in West Seattle) isn’t just a place for vocational courses, 2-year degrees, other traditional community-college offerings … not only do they offer 4-year degrees too and some studies you might not expect, they also offer one-time events and continuing-ed classes, like what’s coming up next week with FSN Northwest reporter Jen Mueller – “Talk Sporty, Lite,” described by the folks at SSCC as a “happy hour” event previewing a workshop Mueller will teach in October for the “sports-challenged” who want to be able to talk sports with friends/family. It’s at 5:30 pm September 9th, $20/person including appetizers and wine-tasting (gotta be 21 for that last part) – read on for the rest of the announcement from the college: Read More
West Seattle from the sky: Local pilot shares 2 views
These photos were taken and shared by Gatewood pilot Long Nguyen, suggesting it “would be cool for folks in WS to see their neighborhood from the air.” He was on a training flight with a student in early August when he took the top photo, which he sent us first, adding this one in a followup exchange:
For a larger view of the 1st photo, go here; for a larger view of the second one, go here.
Tomorrow: Alki picnic with Caspar Babypants and The Not-Its
Tomorrow night’s Alki Community Picnic has been in the WSB Events calendar for a while but without the extra details we just got from Mary Pat Byington at Alki Community Center, (5817 SW Stevens), where all the fun is happening tomorrow afternoon/evening: It starts at 4:30 pm — free food and a “jump toy” for the kids – plus music from Caspar Babypants (aka West Seattle-residing rock star Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America) at 6 pm, followed by The Not-Its (shown above in a clip from last year’s Halloween party at Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center). Mary Pat adds, “Please bring a can food donation for Northwest Harvest.” (That regional organization distributes supplies to local food banks.)
Update: West Seattle kids awaiting backpacks, clothes for school
Just a little more than a week to go till school starts – and dozens of West Seattle kids still need your help. West Seattle Helpline is sponsoring WSB to help get the word out about its backpack and clothing drives – the photo above is from one of the recent distribution days. We checked with Helpline executive director Anna Fern today for an update:
We have given away over 130 backpacks filled with school supplies. So we gave away about 40 backpacks and school clothes at the Clothesline each day during our three day give away.
We now have a waiting list for 47 more backbacks. Seattle Schools start next (week) so it still is not too late to donate…by calling the Helpline 206.932.4357 or donating through Paypal on our website.
Our next focus is going to be on clothing drives for items for school age children. We are desperate for more! Each child/student can take up to three outfits plus a coat or a pair of shoes. You can see what an incredible amount of clothing this translates to.
Call the Helpline number above, or contact them online here, for info on how to donate clothing; you also can drop off backpacks at Coffee at the Heights (WSB sponsor) in Sunrise Heights or Capers in The Junction.
What we’ve found out about what sounded like gunshots
One of the things we do here at WSB HQ besides produce and publish the site is answer e-mail, Facebook and Twitter messages, phone calls, etc., that may never result in actual articles. However, if we get more than a few notes about something, that’s usually a signal we’d better publish the answer here too. Today’s example: About a dozen notes have come in regarding what sounded like gunshots just before 1 am today in the general Junction vicinity. We were monitoring the scanner then, as usual, and did not hear anything suggesting that evidence of gunshots were found; the past few nights, in fact, in other areas of West Seattle including ours, what was reported as possible gunshots turned out to be fireworks. But just to be sure, we have checked with the Southwest Precinct, and so far two lieutenants there have both told us no evidence has been found to confirm any shots actually were fired (no cars or homes hit, no casings found, nothing in the “significant incidents” briefing from earlier shifts; and we can confirm from online 911 medic/fire logs that there were no aid calls). As always, questions/breaking-news tips welcome 24/7 – here are all the ways to reach us.
Closest thing we have to flying fish: Those leaping salmon
They’re the talk of the fishing community; we mentioned them last week, and now we have photos: WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham sends photos of some of the 5 million pink salmon that have been swarming the area, many leaping from the water as they go. That photo’s from the eastern Duwamish Waterway, as is this one:
Separate from catching the pink salmon on camera in the Duwamish yesterday – where fishing’s not allowed (check the rules here) – Matt and son Jack fished Lincoln Park, where the younger member of the duo made this milestone catch:
Matt explains:
Sunday Jack Durham, age 10, landed his first salmon, a 7-pound pink salmon. Jack has worked the shores of Lincoln Park for 6 years, casting everything from Kastmasters to plugs and finally hooked this fish on a pink spoon. Lincoln Park has been a shoulder-to-shoulder fishing experience the last three weeks. Fishing can be absolutely hot with nearly every angler hooking a salmon; an hour later the bite dries to nothing. The favored lure is a pink buzzbomb.
What’s happening today – including what’s NOT happening today
NOT HAPPENING, #1: Today marks the first day of Seattle Public Library branches’ one-week budget-cut-forced closure – even the SPL website (which now carries the header shown above). They’re scheduled to reopen a week from tomorrow (9/8).
NOT HAPPENING, #2: The 7-day-a-week summer schedule for Colman Pool is now over, so it’s closed today, and will shut down for the season after the upcoming three-day weekend (Saturday-Sunday-Monday). Remember that Southwest Pool is still closed as well, for another two weeks, because of drain-safety work.
SPEAKING OF POOLS: If you have an interest in White Center’s Evergreen Pool, scheduled to close as of tomorrow and to stay closed until and unless a deal can be worked out with a private operator to take it over, you might be interested in a rally planned at the pool tonight, 5-7 pm (more details at partner site White Center Now).
HAPPENING #1: Keeping up the water theme – the second-to-last summer community kayak tour of the Duwamish River leaves South Park at 6 pm tonight. Full details here.
HAPPENING #2: Delridge Produce Cooperative‘s wrapping up the third of four 4-day weeks for its Mobile Market demonstration program – free produce at a roadside stand, to gauge neighborhood interest in access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Today, it’s on the south lawn of Youngstown Arts Center (4408 Delridge), 3:30-7:30 pm.
March for Youth: Dozens join in anti-violence demonstration
It wasn’t in West Seattle, but the invitation to participate was circulated citywide, so we asked WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham to cover Sunday’s March for Youth – the second year in a row this event’s been organized to demonstrate concern about Seattle youth violence. He says about 60 people marched. The March for Youth coordinator is Denise Gloster (whose son died young, according to this Seattle Times [WSB partner] report on the event):
Among the signs marchers carried, one remembering Mychael Alexander, killed five years ago at age 20:
One mayoral candidate showed up – Michael McGinn, seen with supporters including West Seattle’s Christi Stapleton (left, in visor):
There’s detailed coverage of the March for Youth, as it happened, at our fellow independent neighborhood-based news site Central District News – see it here.
Hiawatha Community Center class registration open now
From Lakema Bell at Hiawatha Community Center, word of registration under way now:
Register now for Girls Volleyball at Hiawatha Community Center!
Volleyball is available to athletes ages 10-17 in three different divisions. Players learn basic skills, team work, and sportsmanship skills needed to participate in league play. Practices will begin in September and conclude in mid to late November. For more information please center at (206) 684-7441.
Register for Fall Classes at Hiawatha Community Center!
Adults
Zumba Aerobics (New)
Hip Hop Fit (New)
Yoga
Middle Eastern (Belly Dance)
Tae Kwon Do
Teens
Pumpkin Carve
Costume Contest
Flashlight Pumpkin Hunt
Bowling
Youth
World Drumming (New)
High School Musical (New)
Drumming Methods (New)
Junior Brazilian Jam
Instrumental Music Tutoring (New)
Pre-Ballet 1
Preschool
Tiny Tappers
Messy Manifestations
Creative Movement/Pre-ballet
Kicking Kids
UK Petite Soccer
Kidz Love Soccer Ages 2-12
Family Special Events
6-8pm
Family Play Day 9/25 Free
Halloween Carnival 10/30 Free
Science Night 11/20 $5
Holiday Giving Feast 12/18 $8
To register or for more information, contact the center @ 206-684-7441.
West Seattle weekend scenes: Mural; car wash; film crew
Saturday afternoon, we showed you the young artists preparing the south wall of Super 24 (Delridge/Findlay) for a mural – now, here’s the finished artwork. Here’s what Philippia Goldsmith from DNDA added tonight in a comment on our Saturday afternoon update:
This project is part of a larger initiative to transform the local corner stores into destinations where local residents have an ‘option’ to purchase affordable, delicious, and healthy food for their families. We will be having more projects like this in the coming months. If you’d like to volunteer or contribute to this effort. Send me an e-mail: phillippiag@dnda.org
Now to Alki:
Abby Suplizio tipped us to the “Save the Tata’s” Breast Cancer 3Day fundraising car wash at Alki Auto Repair this morning/afternoon. The 3Day route skips West Seattle again this year (it went through here in 2007 – WSB pix here) but more than a few West Seattleites are participating; breast-cancer survivor Diana McCasey organized this fundraiser. (If you missed it, you can donate through her page at the 3Day site.) East from Alki, to Schmitz Park:
That’s about the closest Shauna Causey got to the crew filming the online series “Star Trek: Phoenix” again this weekend in Schmitz Park, which had limited public access as a result (Friday night preview here). Shauna reports:
Entering the park from Admiral (Way), there is a sign that says “no admittance” and explains the filming. We came from the Alki Elementary entrance so we did not see this, or any signs that the film crew was still there until we got to the stream and could clearly hear a generator running not too far away in the park. Walking down the trails, we came upon the filming and saw some alien costumes laying on the trail (black helmets covering the head) and looked over to see a man with moss, sticks and brush covering his entire body. The only thing showing was his face, otherwise he looked like a giant pile of moss. I snapped a photo from fairly far away and they wouldn’t let me take any photos closer up.
More about “Star Trek: Phoenix” – which bills itself as “a not-for-profit Internet series and the largest, all volunteer, consistent film production in the Pacific Northwest” – at stphoenix.com. Posted notices said the crew’s work was to be done by 10 pm tonight, so tomorrow Schmitz should be back to normal.
Memorial service next Sunday for rose gardener Lori White
A memorial service is planned next Sunday, Sept. 6, at Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden’s Celebration Garden for West Seattle rose gardener Lori White, who died this week at age 49. Rainy Rose Society president Sue Tiffany asked that we share that information along with Ms. White’s obituary; she says, “Lori White belonged to many rose societies including the Valley Rose Society, the Seattle Rose Society, the Heritage Rose Society, the Rainy Rose Society, and many more. Through her volunteer work Lori helped to fund the continuation of the Celebration Garden. Even when she was horribly ill, Lori would still go to the garden and volunteer her time.Her beautiful smile and valiant spirit will be sorely missed by so many, many who loved her. Lori had the ability to make each person that she spoke with feel like he/she was the most important person in the world. I called her ‘Precious’ and indeed she was.’ The photo above shows Ms. White with local gardening expert Ciscoe Morris and broadcaster Meeghan Black. Read on for her obituary:Read More
Just noticed this, though 
“CROW PLANET” REVIEWED BY NEW YORK TIMES: The NYT Sunday book reviews comprise arguably the most prestigious showcase in America for an author – and Gatewood author 
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