West Seattle, Washington
05 Sunday
Three dates to share for The Junction: First, as shared by Friends of Junction Plaza Park, June 5 is set for the start of a community planting party after construction concludes at the new park at 42nd/Alaska – and June 29th is the date currently set for the park to be dedicated. From West Seattle Junction Association‘s Susan Melrose:
We’ve decided to have it on a weekday evening to make it easy to attend – after work, before dinner, and not interfering with weekend plans. The gathering will commence at 5:30; we’ll have some speakers, officially open the park and enjoy what we hope will be a lovely summer evening.
The park is slated to be complete weeks prior, but we’ll allow time for the concrete to cure and fresh roots to take hold. The grass area will remain closed beyond the park’s dedication to ensure a strong lawn, but will be open for Summer Fest on July 9, 10 and 11.
We’re also having a community planting day on Saturday, June 5 and maybe 6th. We have almost 800 native plants to install in the park and we anticipate having two planting shifts on the 5th. About 40 volunteers will be needed and if you’d like to sign up or have questions, please email susan@wsjunction.org.
Also, a new event’s planned in The Junction – WSJA is presenting a Health Fair on June 13th, 10 am-2 pm – you’ll get to meet Junction health-care providers including Westside Dermatology (WSB sponsor); more details to come.
Remember the Junction KeyBank heist one month ago today? It’s believed the robber has struck again – and as this release from the King County Sheriff’s Office notes, they’re definitely thinking it might be a man disguising himself as a woman:
The Sheriff’s Office, Seattle Police, and the FBI are looking for what is possibly a male bank robber who disguises himself as a woman to rob banks—at least two so far.
The first robbery attributed to this suspect was on April 5th at the KeyBank, 4701 California Ave SW. The robber gave the teller demand note. No weapon was seen.
The second robbery was on April 28th at the Sterling Savings Bank in Burien, 224 SW 152nd. This time a note was also handed to the teller. But then the robber said there were “men who will hurt me” and that “she had kids”.
The teller did not hand over any money and believed the suspect was a woman. However detectives viewed surveillance video and came to the conclusion most likely “she” is actually a “he”.
The suspect is about 5’ 5” and 135 lbs. perhaps 40 to 50 years old. At the Sterling Bank his face appeared “bruised”. He/she wore a black hat, with a brim, yellow scarf, dark blazer jacket, black shirt, and black gloves.
Here’s a shot from the Burien heist.
Compare to a shot from April 5th in West Seattle:
Call 911 if you have any information about the robber – or, from our report last month: “Contact the FBI by telephone at (206) 622-0460, or e-mail at seattle.fbi@ic.fbi.gov.”
(Tuesday photo by David Hutchinson, taken from Don Armeni)
Tonight – Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark is scheduled to visit the Southwest District Council‘s regular meeting, where you’ll also get an update on the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project – now with a week and a half to go till the 1st Avenue South onramp to the westbound West Seattle Bridge closes. The SWDC series of neighborhood-plan presentations continues as well, with council co-chair Chas Redmond presenting the Morgan Junction Neighborhood Plan (see the full original plan here). SWDC meets in the board room at South Seattle Community College (map), 7 pm … Also tonight, CoolMom‘s monthly meeting focuses on edible gardening, 7 pm at C & P Coffee at 5612 California SW (and remember, CoolMom’s got a big group sale on West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day this Saturday at Cycle University [WSB sponsor], sale #92 on the map). … And tonight, you’ll find Cinco de Mayo specials all over the peninsula – Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) has a drink special on its website (which also reveals when they’ll debut the new drink menu discussed in our recent story about their 1st birthday), and in the Admiral District, Mission‘s planning a bash including giveaways and DJs.
11:34 PM UPDATE: Southwest District coordinator Stan Lock has just sent word that Councilmember Clark is sick and won’t be at this meeting, but will reschedule for a later date.
That’s one side of the T-shirt that West Seattle student Michelle Baker and her group from Seattle University is selling to raise money for a trip to Nicaragua next month – there, they’ll build safer cooking stoves. Here’s a photo from a student trip last year:
Michelle explains:
This is an amazing opportunity for us as students working towards a just and humane world. Our team is officially named Friends of Nicaragua and we are a student-led group that will go for two weeks at the end of June to work with a local (to Nicaragua) non-profit organization based in Managua. The non-profit is El Porvenir (meaning The Future in Spanish) and rural Nicaraguan communities come to them with proposals for work that needs to be done in their individual community. This can be anything, from building stoves in their houses so they aren’t living in smoke-filled huts when cooking, to wells for water sanitation, to planting trees to make stable ground and to sell the wood ten years later.
They’re running short of money to make the trip, though, and that’s why they’re selling T-shirts, $10 each – send checks to 2731 44th SW, Seattle 98116. If you have questions, you can e-mail her: bakerm1@seattleu.edu
Thanks to Leslie for forwarding news of these two seminars at Delridge Community Center – free! – for people looking for work. The first one is tomorrow (Wednesday) night – “Developing a Job Search for Tough Times” – then a month later, “Online Job Search and Resumé Building” – full details of both, after the jump:Read More
Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports to share tonight. First, a burglary this morning; second, the recent tale of what one witness described as “the drunken plant thief” – read on for both:Read More
Thanks to the local diver who pointed us to this story on the Northwest Dive Club discussion board. An Automated External Defibrillator is now in place at Seacrest, thanks to more than a year of work by local divers. It’s right inside the door at Alki Fish and Crab, and you’ll notice in the photos accompanying that story that there’s a small symbol above that door. You’ll also see in the photos that it’s dedicated to Jake Koenen, the diver who died in March 2009; his death was blamed on a sudden health problem, one the AED might have been able to correct.
At 5:30 pm, Seattle Channel will stream tonight’s budget hearing from North Seattle – you can watch it here.
10:08 PM NOTE: Testimony is still under way. If you haven’t tuned in to the stream yet, just click the play button and it’ll go live. 10:17 PM: And minutes later … it’s over. As Councilmember Jean Godden noted, that was “the final budget hearing of spring” – no dates set yet for the next round; this is a process that won’t result in a final budget for months.
As noted here earlier, tonight is city leaders’ next public hearing on the budget (5:30 pm, North Seattle Community College). Today, business groups including the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce added their voices to the budget battle, announcing they’re sending the mayor a letter voicing “strong opposition” to potential business-tax increases to help balance the city budget. Read on for the full text of the letter:Read More
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli, substituted 2:16 pm for previous cameraphone photos)
ORIGINAL REPORT @ 12:33 PM: The Elliott Bay Pipe Band is among the participants at Dignity Memorial/Forest Lawn right now during the annual Seattle Police Memorial ceremony.
Speakers included Mayor McGinn and Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler.
With Capt. Kessler (in black dress uniform) and the mayor in that photo are, from left, Dave Salove of Forest Lawn, East Precinct commander Capt. James Dermody and South Precinct commander Capt. Dave Emerick. Southwest Precinct officers were out in full force:
Video to come.
ADDED 7:30 PM: Here’s Christopher Boffoli’s video of highlights from the ceremony:
A West Seattle family has extra reason to be proud today: Their son Chad Kimball just got a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, for his role in “Memphis” on Broadway, which played at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle prior to its NYC run. Here’s the story from our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times; his reaction to the news is here, from Broadway.com.
(Seattle Fire Department photo)
As best we recall, the first media report about the new Ladder 13 came in this report by Seattle Weekly’s Mike Seely last August. We’ve mentioned it a time or two since, most recently in our report last week on the South Park Bridge closure-plan meeting, during which SFD mentioned its imminent deployment from Highland Park’s Station 11 as potential backup for South Park once its bridge closes and cuts off quick access from the other side of the Duwamish. And today, the Fire Department itself is officially introducing Ladder 13 on its Fire Line site. As you’ll see in the SFD update, its main purpose is to make sure our area has enough coverage despite the increased traffic expected during the most intense road construction coming up between here and downtown/SODO – where some crews come from during major responses. You’ve probably seen Ladder 13 (unmarked) around West Seattle, as its crew drove around to get acclimated in the past few months.
**10:53 PM UPDATE – Sale #105 canceled – we’ve taken it off this map; if you’ve printed, please X it out**
Just four days till the 6th annual – and biggest ever – West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day: 200 sales (with hundreds more sellers, thanks to group sale sites, organization/school/business/block sales, etc.)! On Saturday, the Google Map with all the sale sites, numbered 1-200, starting with #1 in the north to #200 in the south, went live (it’s embedded above – here’s the direct link). Just one problem with Google Maps – for something like this, they tend not to print that well. So again this year, we have put together a more packet-like printable map. It’s a 12-page Word doc (6 pages if you print both sides) – with the map cut into sections, with the numbered sales, followed by the list of all 200 “ads” for the sales, in numerical order. (ADDED 1:17 PM: If you’d rather print from a PDF, use this link. Thanks to Karen for helping!) Take note that sellers will be seeing this version for the first time today too, and if anyone sees a major problem (so far so good with the Google version), we will update the map and repost here as well as at westseattlegaragesale.com and at the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day page on Facebook.
That’s the Westside Symphonette combined strings and junior orchestra, rehearsing last night at The Hall at Fauntleroy, where both of the Symphonette’s orchestras are performing their spring concert “Classical Elegance” tonight (more details here). … This afternoon, you are invited to show your support for local law enforcement at the annual Seattle Police Memorial ceremony, with Mayor McGinn scheduled to be among those in attendance, noon at Dignity Memorial/Forest Lawn (map) … Also at noon, King County Executive Dow Constantine is scheduled to speak to the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of West Seattle at Salty’s on Alki. … For the regular Tuesday happenings, check the WSB West Seattle Events calendar.
(May 2009 photo by David Hutchinson)
In less than three weeks, one of the big summer kickoff events hits the street at Alki: The second annual West Seattle 5K Run/Walk, benefiting the organizing West Seattle High School PTSA, kicking off this year’s Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets “car-free day” on Alki. (Third year for that – the first year, it was a standalone event, and it happened in early September; last year, it moved to May, following the first-ever WS5K.) WSB is proud to be among the co-sponsors of this year’s West Seattle 5K, so we’re reminding you that the early-bird discount is only available through this Thursday (May 6th) – if you’re thinking about participating but haven’t registered yet, this might just be the perfect time. Go here to register; note that kids 6 and under are free! P.S. Got a logistical question about how Alki traffic will be handled that day? SDOT has posted an FAQ.
The latest forecast update from the National Weather Service verifies that things should keep calming down after a windy Monday. But there’s still some cleanup ahead – Sha’ari shares that photo of the tree blocking part of the Longfellow Creek path in North Delridge, between Findlay and Brandon (map). Meantime, we went back to the sidewalk outside Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) as city crews took down the tree that came loose earlier in the day:
Here’s our earlier report on that particular episode of tree trouble.
Volunteer forest steward Sharon Baker with Friends of Lincoln Park shares these photos and a report on the special volunteers who helped her group last Saturday:
On behalf of the Friends of Lincoln Park and the Green Seattle Partnership I would like to thank the fabulous girls of Brownie Troop 42780 of West Seattle (and their brothers and parents). They came to Lincoln Park on Saturday, May 1 and cleared a large patch of one of our major invasive weeds, “stinky bob”. It was really fun to work with these strong, active, outdoorsy kids. They did very good work and made a major contribution to the Park.
Want to help in local parks/greenspaces? Most weekends, there are several work parties in West Seattle – check greenseattle.org. And by the way, if you don’t know offhand what “stinky bob” looks like – check this out. Unless you are a world-class weed-puller, it may be in your yard right now. The hairy red stems are the telltale sign, along with those little pink flowers – if you grab it close to the ground and pull slowly, it comes out fairly easily.
Tonight we welcome a new WSB sponsor, Integrity Coaching and Training Systems. New sponsors get the chance to tell you about their business, and here’s what Integrity’s Patricia Eslava Vessey wants you to know: “I knew as a little girl that I wanted to work with people and I’ve committed my studies and career to understanding and helping people resolve problems and create the success they desire. 
I didn’t change careers to get into this field; I’ve expanded my expertise in it. I know what it’s like to be stuck and unable to move forward. I draw on over 33 years of social work with children, youth, families and individuals and some of the best training available as well as a lifetime of experience in learning what works best with people in order to provide powerful and effective services to my clients. I see it as a blessing and an honor to support people in this line of work. I believe everyone is unique and deserves the very best possible care available. I am passionate about helping people transform limiting beliefs and behaviors into the authentic, fulfilling, resourceful and empowered lives they desire and deserve. I’ve created a unique blend of effective tips, tools and techniques to support my clients in making these changes and achieving their goals. I’ve heard the following comments among others, ‘My life has completely changed for the better. Wow, you are really good! Since the first session I’ve been making healthy food choices, exercising 3-5 times per week and drinking 8 cups of water a day. I find myself just wanting to live this way. Wow, it really is easier than I thought to make changes, I feel better and have a better outlook on life. Your CDs are very effective. You inspired me and helped me gain clarity so I could make better choices.'”
Patricia is teaching Hypnosis for Weight Loss at High Point Community Center beginning this Wednesday, May 5th from 6-8 pm. Her community involvement includes membership in the West Seattle Earlybirds Toastmasters Club, donating her services at Highline Hospital doing guided meditation for cancer patients and at Evergreen High School helping teens with mock job interviews, coaching women from Dress For Success, and recently conducting a hypno~coaching goal setting session with a group of young men at a local church. Her credentials are listed here. She also co-authored the book “Vibrant & Lasting Relationships.” You can reach Patricia by calling 206-459-2898 or e-mailing her through this page on her website.
We thank Integrity Coaching and Training for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.
The National Weather Service has lifted the wind advisory, though it’s still windy, with gusts possible to 40 mph tonight, along with showers and possible thunderstorms (here’s the newest forecast). There’s also a new round of tree trouble: In the past few hours, as our video shows, the weather has apparently destabilized a tree in the 6400 block of California SW, where the sidewalk work was done in front of Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor). As our video also shows, a city inspector was there when we were a short time ago, and is assessing; Feedback co-owner Matt Johnson tells WSB the big crack at the tree’s base wasn’t there when he last looked at 2 pm. 5:19 PM UPDATE: We’re told the city will be back to remove the tree tonight. Meantime, it’s a temporary no-parking zone:
6:49 PM UPDATE: And they’re taking it down now:
(WSB photo from December 2009)
Five months ago today, we broke the news that the totem pole at West Seattle Rotary Viewpoint Park had been stolen. In the following days and weeks, we followed the story through the investigation, the first arrest, the discovery of the pole in Oregon a week later along with another stolen pole from Renton, and the poles’ return to Seattle, where the Parks Department took possession of the one from West Seattle:
(WSB photo from December 2009)
The next chapter’s taken a while, so we haven’t had an update for some time. However, since our inbox indicates many are wondering – here’s what’s going on. First, regarding the theft itself: Prosecutors have yet to file charges against the 69-year-old suspect, who was arrested twice in December, the second time in connection with the second stolen pole. We checked today with King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Dan Donohoe – which we have done many times in the past few months – and here’s his reply:
It is still under review and investigation. Seeking some additional information, and we’ll let you know when we have a charging decision.
(WSB policy note: We evaluate every case separately, but our baseline policy is to not identify suspects until and unless they are charged. If you are just catching up on this story, the alleged motive for the theft was detailed in the law-enforcement document we transcribed for this late December report.) Meantime, the Rotary Club of West Seattle – which gave Viewpoint Park and the totem pole to the city in 1976 – is awaiting the outcome of this part of the case. But there’s some urgency, explains Josh Sutton from Rotary, who had two updates when we checked with him today – first:
Our club had decided in January that we would await outcome from thief/prosecutor on next steps for the pole. We are reconsidering our options, as this has taken much too long.
He then went on to add that one of the Rotarians who cracked the case is fighting for his life: “On a more personal note to our club, Ken Wise, longtime Rotarian, has received word that his cancer is terminal, potentially end of summer.” Ken is one of the men in this photo we took near Lake Sawyer, when we went along as he and fellow Rotarian Duane Ruud accompanied the tow-truck driver who took the pole away the night it was stolen – believing the removal had been authorized – back to where he’d dropped it off:
(WSB photo from December 2009)
Josh goes on to say, “Ken has made it clear he wants the pole put back before he passes. Our club is working hard to see what we can do to make that possible.”
Most weekends, you have a chance somewhere in West Seattle to adopt a cat – but this weekend, the city’s bringing one of its big adopt-a-thons to Alki Community Center:
As part of its ongoing outreach efforts to find suitable permanent homes for foster animals, the Seattle Animal Shelter hosts a cat adoptathon on Saturday, May 8, 2010, at the Alki Community Center, located at 5817 S.W. Stevens. The event runs from noon to 3 p.m. and features numerous cats of different breeds.
…Adoption prices range from $152-157 and include:
* Initial vaccinations
* Deworming
* Feline Leukemia testing
* Certificate for free health exam at local veterinarians
* Spay or neuter
* Microchip
* Seattle Pet License (if applicable)To help reduce the number of animals euthanized, the Seattle Animal Shelter has a foster-care program to rehabilitate sick and immature dogs and cats. Donations from the city’s “Help the Animals Fund” pay for veterinary care for these animals that would otherwise be euthanized.
(WSB photo from May 2009)
At noon tomorrow, you are invited to Dignity Memorial/Forest Lawn, just east of High Point, for the annual Seattle Police Officers’ Memorial ceremony. Here’s our coverage from last year; since then, SPD has lost an officer in the line of duty – one with West Seattle ties – WSHS graduate Officer Tim Brenton, murdered on Halloween night. He and others who’ve given their lives will be remembered during tomorrow’s event. 2:22 PM NOTE: Mayor McGinn is expected to attend the memorial tomorrow.
Almost three weeks ago, more than 200 people voiced their opinion in the comment section when we reported that the vegetarian restaurant Chaco Canyon Café is considering a West Seattle expansion in the Link project now going up – fast! – along 38th SW in The Triangle. We invited Chris from Chaco Canyon to provide an update on what happens next – click ahead to read the update, which includes a few more questions if you are interested in informally assisting their research:Read More
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