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Spotlight Stories


  • The Kenney

    SEEKING STABILITY: The Kenney’s new status

  • Blue Angels

    BLUE ANGELS: They’ve arrived in Seattle

  • Box

    BOX WITH BACKSTORY: New tribute portrait

West Seattle Crime Watch: Maps of what’s happening where
January 10, 2009 11:39 am
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | Safety | West Seattle news

That is one of four Seattle Police-created maps, each tracking a certain category of crime in the area covered by the Southwest Precinct — West Seattle and South Park — over the Dec. 8-Jan. 4 period, just received and circulated by Pete Spalding via the Pigeon Point Council e-mail list. (The letter/number designations are the official names of the patrol sectors in the precinct’s coverage area.) As far as we know, these aren’t available online, but Pete confirmed he was encouraged to share them with neighbors, and certainly you’re a neighbor. Read on to see the other three:Read More

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Pothole problems: New warning, plus an alley concern
January 10, 2009 10:23 am
|      15 COMMENTS
 |   Transportation | West Seattle news

(photo added 4:26 pm)
First, the warning: Just out of the WSB inbox from Terry:

There is a huge pothole on California Ave @ California Ln in the Northbound Lane. ( Across from Hamilton Viewpoint; map) It is very dangerous as it is on the bend in the road and hard to see from your car. The hole is approx 3 ft deep and 2 ft across and big enough to damage a car or kill a motorcyclist.

Terry reported it to police; we’ll check a bit later to see if it’s been blocked off or repaired – let us know if you see any activity sooner. (4:26 pm update – as a commenter wrote, it’s now blocked off – see photo above) After our recent report that the city was out fixing post-snowstorm potholes, we also received a note about a deeply pitted alley – and photos of the huge holes, which became lakes during this week’s rain:

That’s looking southbound in the alley “parallel to Delridge, headed from Trenton to Barton and Henderson” (map), as our anonymous tipster puts it, adding, “This entire alley was re-graded and gravel spread a couple of months ago (2 months, 3 tops) and within a week all the holes were back. … As you go down the alley they get bigger, and you can see that the last one is easily the size of a truck. Each of these large ones are a good foot deep. For size reference, the posts in the fence at the end of the alley are 5-6 feet apart.” They’ve reported these before but nothing’s been done. That led us to look up if SDOT has any specific info online about alleys; from this page, we learn:

SDOT fills potholes on paved alleys, but will only address the most urgent safety concerns on unpaved alleys, where maintenance is primarily the responsibility of the adjacent property owners.

Guess the operative question, then, is, what constitutes an “urgent safety concern,” if not a truck-size hole. We’ll ask.

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2 school updates: Seattle makeup days; Cooper closure fight
January 10, 2009 9:13 am
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle school closure | West Seattle schools

MAKEUP DAYS: Just in case you haven’t heard this yet: According to the School Beat e-newsletter e-mailed Friday by Seattle Public Schools, three days have been tacked onto the end of the school year to make up for time lost in Snowstorm ’08 – June 17, 18, and 19.

COOPER CLOSURE FIGHT: As we mentioned yesterday, the Cooper Elementary meeting originally set for mid-December, canceled because of the weather, is now happening next Tuesday (7 pm, Cooper Library) — and certainly packs even more urgency now that the Cooper “program closure” is on the official list of “final recommendations.” The Cooper School Works anti-closure website has published more details about the meeting, noting that in addition to School Board rep Steve Sundquist‘s planned participation (along with district official Patrick Johnson), they have invited the rest of the board. A Cooper PTA rep has shared with us a letter detailing key points they’re making to fight the closure recommendation:

Hello, my name is Molly Gras-Usry and I am a Cooper Elementary Parent. I want to bring to your attention a very fiscally, socially and educationally irresponsible recommendation the School Board has made. The Seattle School Board recommends that the Cooper Elementary students be kicked out of their building so that the West Seattle Pathfinder K-8 Program can occupy the building come fall 2009.

This recommendation doesn’t add up. First of all we have been told all along that Pathfinder needs at least 391 seats. Cooper won’t give that many seats. The Autism Programs that have been invited to stay occupy 4 classrooms for 24 kids therefore taking away 75 of the planning capacity seats. Also, they have invited 8 of the Cooper students to stay at Cooper in the Pathfinder Program which brings the number of seats available to the Pathfinder program 378. Thirteen fewer seats than what Pathfinder needs. Also, bringing a K-8 program into a K-5 building requires the District to retrofit the school with lockers and labs costing the District more money rather than saving money.

Furthermore, Cooper doesn’t meet the criteria established by Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson for closing a program. A program must be tanking on the WASL and enrollment needs to be declining. Cooper Elementary has the strongest WASL scores compared to other schools with similar demographics and enrollment has steadily grown the past several years.

Cooper staff and students also don’t appreciate being told by a Seattle School Board member that Cooper students are “making a waste of a nice, new building”. I’m not sure what he means by that but I see the Cooper family making great use of their space. Due to Cooper’s 80% free and reduced lunch population, we don’t have extra funding for off site field trips. Cooper students enjoy on site field trips through the green belt land they occupy and incorporate their environmental exploration with art.

This isn’t excellence for all, this is excellence for SOME.

Thank you for your time.
Molly Gras-Usry, Cooper PTA

About halfway through her live online Q/A session at the Seattle Times website yesterday (see the transcript here), Superintendent Dr. Goodloe-Johnson answered a question asking how the district could expect students to succeed if a thriving program like Cooper is closed and the students dispersed to other schools: “Successful teachers that implemented the successful programs will follow students. We will duplicate successful programs in the new schools, and strengthen all academic programs. The success that students have experienced will continue.” District information on the closure process can be found here; WSB archives, newest to oldest, are here.

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Happening this morning: Pitch in and clean up!
January 10, 2009 6:34 am
|    Comments Off on Happening this morning: Pitch in and clean up!
 |   Delridge | Environment | Fun stuff to do | White Center

Need a map? Here you go.

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Door-to-door alert, followed by a “gang drop box” sighting
January 10, 2009 3:16 am
|      17 COMMENTS
 |   Door-to-door alert | Safety | West Seattle news

This came into the inbox Friday night from a longtime WSB’er who prefers to be unidentified:

After dark tonight a young woman knocked on our door near 45th & Edmunds [map] to offer new windows and energy efficiency survey. She was polite and left when we declined. Within an hour we found a gang ‘drop box’ on our corner. While assuming the two activities are unrelated it makes me
uneasy and we will be more than usually vigilant tonight.

We hadn’t heard about “gang drop boxes,” so asked a followup:

Seems gangs ‘drop’ a cardboard box where they want to mark territory or schedule some event. Because it’s just a cardboard box most of us would ignore it. Our corner box was heavy cardboard 8x8x3ft. A gang name was painted on it. We don’t know if there is an event code on it because we don’t know about this stuff. The box would have been dropped between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight. The original shipping label was to an individual on Queen Anne.

A family member with law-enforcement ties is the one who spotted it, our e-mail correspondent explained, adding that the family member subsequently spoke with a police officer who offered this additional information: “… that the boxes (or spray paint on garages, etc.) act like a GPS system for the gangs. He said for us not to worry because the paint color on this box would say ‘keep going’ as an arrow would.” We can’t find any evidence of this phenomenon on Google, but maybe it’s known by another name – we’ll make a note to follow up with police next week to find out if this is something new and if there’s something you should do if you spot one. (Or maybe YOU have expertise to share?)

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West Seattle coyote sighting: First one in a while
January 9, 2009 10:03 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   Coyotes | West Seattle news | Wildlife

For a while last year, coyote-sighting reports were coming in almost daily. Then – either the coyotes started keeping a low profile, or else people started getting used to them. At any rate, we got a sighting report tonight, so we’re sharing what Kim sent:

Hello, We live on 51st Place west of Edmunds St above Beach Drive [map]. Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (a small one, just 12 lbs) went crazy barking this morning. As I looked out the window I saw a coyote. He/she (was) about the size of a German Shepherd. I had only let our dog in from being outside a few minutes before. Very scary, therefore I told the family Prince must go in his pen when outside. He has gotten used to a pen because of a close encounter with a raccoon last summer.

Previous WSB’er coyote reports (many with photos) are archived here, newest to oldest. State-collected info on coexisting with coyotes can be found here.

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Want to tell the mayor what you think, in person? Here you go
January 9, 2009 4:54 pm
|      15 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Just in from Mayor Nickels‘ office – three “open houses” next week where you’re promised the chance to talk with him and city staffers about the December snowstorm response – note the third one is happening here in West Seattle (home to the mayor, deputy mayor, SDOT boss, among others):

SEATTLE – Mayor Greg Nickels invites Seattle residents to talk with him, department heads and city staff about their winter-storm experiences. The input is being gathered as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations.

Three meetings are planned and residents are invited to attend any or all:

● Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Green Lake Community Center, 7201 E. Green Lake Dr. N.
● Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center, 2323 E. Cherry St.
● Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Southwest Community Center, 2801 S.W. Thistle St. (map)

The sessions will offer residents an informal opportunity to talk one-on-one with the mayor and meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.

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West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Here’s what’s happening
January 9, 2009 4:53 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Here’s what’s happening
 |   Fun stuff to do | WS culture/arts | WS Weekend Lineup

wswllicon3.pngAmong this weekend’s highlights: Two nighttime explorations presented by Camp Long; a free introductory class by new WSB sponsors NiaDivas; and your chance to join the new group West Seattle Change – more than two dozen events and activities in West Seattle this weekend, ahead:Read More

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City goes public with revamped “My Neighborhood Map”
January 9, 2009 3:38 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle online

Found out about this from City of Seattle technology boss Bill Schrier (a West Seattleite, by the way), who mentioned it on Twitter: The city just launched an updated, clickable My Neighborhood Map that you can use to search for all sorts of info – even active fire incidents (use the “impacts” tab) and crime stats. They’re asking for feedback; send it here.

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Indictment in Delridge mother/son shooting, and WS “chop shop”
January 9, 2009 3:02 pm
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | Delridge | West Seattle news

delridgejuneau.jpg

That photo (by Sage K) is from a long night back in May, when we and many WSB’ers stayed up into the night tracking the situation on Delridge (original coverage here) as police tried to find the person who shot a mother and her 10-year-old son, from outside their home. Today, we learn that new indictments say the shooting was meant to intimidate the older victim out of testifying in a federal case. This was first reported last night by KING5, but the online story didn’t mention West Seattle or Delridge, so we didn’t catch it, but Stephanie e-mailed us the link today, wondering if it was the same case. We checked with local U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson Emily Langlie, who confirmed that the May shooting mentioned in the story was indeed the West Seattle case, and sent us the indictment documents. Not only do the indictments cover that shooting, describing the mother as a “government witness,” but they also detail the alleged stolen-car/parts ring that’s at the heart of the case; it had been under investigation even before the shooting, the main suspect, DeVaughn “Buster” Dorsey, accused of being involved in the operation of a “chop shop” in a garage at an apartment complex at 7535 24th SW (map). The documents say this operation ended in May, about a week and a half after the Delridge shooting – Dorsey’s been behind bars since 5/23/2008 — and list more than a dozen specific vehicles. Counts 21 and 22 have just been added to a pre-existing indictment, and they’re the ones involving the shooting, for which Dorsey is charged with witness tampering and “discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.” Both shooting victims have recovered; we checked state court records to see if Dorsey has a criminal history — his name is listed (for civil proceedings as well as criminal) for 170 cases in the past 20 years. He’s due in court to answer these charges next Thursday. ADDED 4:23 PM UPDATE: Uploaded the entire indictment so you can read it if you’re interested – there’s no confidential info but lots of details.

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Design Commission revisits Conner’s Junction project next week
January 9, 2009 2:32 pm
|    Comments Off on Design Commission revisits Conner’s Junction project next week
 |   Development | West Seattle news

That’s one of the revised renderings of the Conner Homes California/Alaska/42nd project that we received when its proposed “alley vacation” went before the Seattle Design Commission in November. As we reported at the time, the commission expressed some concerns and asked for a second presentation; we just received next Thursday’s Design Commission agenda, and it includes that presentation, 11 am-12:30 pm at City Hall downtown. (If you have extra time to spare, a West Seattle-relevant presentation will precede it, 10-11 am Thursday — “passenger facilities” designs for Metro‘s RapidRide, which is scheduled to add a WS line in 2011.)

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Spokane Street fire followup: Fund set up for The Dutchman
January 9, 2009 2:06 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   How to help | Not WS but we're mentioning it anyway

As discussed in comments following yesterday’s coverage of the Spokane Street fire (here and here), though it apparently started in Pacific Sheet Metal, it also burned The Dutchman next door – a site rich in Seattle music history. WSB’er RealLowVibe just tweeted word of this website set up to help the Dutchman recover. Today’s update from the fire department is that investigators still can’t go in because of all the water flooding the site (see photo above, taken yesterday by C. Simmons), and it may take several days for the scene to be safe enough for them to enter.

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Design Review report #2: The Kenney project advances “a step”
January 9, 2009 1:33 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   Development | The Kenney | West Seattle news

kenneycupola.jpg

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

One man’s mere presence underscored the high stakes at last night’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting on the redevelopment proposal for The Kenney, the century-old nonprofit retirement complex in Fauntleroy: Vince Lyons.

Read More

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If you’ve been following the “P-I for sale?” story
January 9, 2009 12:24 pm
|      20 COMMENTS
 |   Not WS but we're mentioning it anyway

Last night KING5 TV broke the story that the P-I would be put up for sale as a possible precursor to closing. People at the paper expressed surprise, as they hadn’t heard this. Today, however, this has just appeared on the P-I’s online home page, confirming it:

The Seattle P-I newspaper is being put up for sale. Steve Swartz, president of Hearst Newspaper Division, told the newsroom that Hearst Corp. is starting a 60-day process to find a buyer. If a buyer is not found, Swartz said, Hearst will pursue other options. The options include moving to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff, or completely shutting down operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form, Swartz said.

(Update: It’s now on the P-I site in article format; second update, here’s the Hearst news release.) We want to add a personal note that we would hate to see the P-I go, for one major reason: It has by far led the way in Seattle in presenting online news and information on a citywide/regional basis, including recognition of the importance of collaborating with the people formerly known as “readers.” (The P-I has also trailblazed in creating opportunities for its reporters to do coverage in blog format as well as traditional articles; among the stories it’s covering that way right now is the announcement that Boeing‘s Commercial Airplanes division plans thousands of job cuts this year – here’s the latest on the P-I site.)

2:45 PM UPDATE: Side note on this story, a little visual reminder that the news landscape has changed. Joe sent this screen grab from his check of Google News coverage on the P-I sale:

He hadn’t been aware that WSB stories are indexed in Google News. We announced that here last February. WSB was the first blog-format Seattle neighborhood-news site to get Google News indexing; several other sites achieved it within the past month or so.

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It was a dark and stormy … stretch of road: Bridge burnout
January 9, 2009 9:26 am
|      16 COMMENTS
 |   Utilities | West Seattle news

More than a few people have e-mailed to ask why so many street lights are burned out – and have been for some time – along The Bridge; in the past few days, we’ve also heard about a particularly unlit stretch of South Delridge. Two things to share: First, we have the question out to Seattle City Light‘s communications team, which so far has learned that the person in charge of “operations” for this area has just convened a meeting on the subject; as soon as info from said meeting – what’s going to be done and when – is available, we’ll report it. Meantime, don’t ever assume the city “knows” a light is out; this SCL page has options for how to report them.

10:39 AM UPDATE: We’ve learned from City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s staff that he too has been pursuing this with SDOT and City Light, which for starters has told Rasmussen that “a re-lamping effort” is in the works later this month for the Spokane Street Viaduct stretch of The Bridge (99 to I-5), and the councilmember expects work to be done on the high bridge’s lights then too.

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Stolen Santa, and more theft alerts
January 9, 2009 2:46 am
|      16 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

Several quick Crime Watch reports to share from the past few days. We start with the Saga of the Stolen Santa. Kirsten in North Admiral sent the photo of the “Old World Santa” at left and wrote: “(Tuesday) when I got home from work I noticed that the Old World Santa I display yearly had been stolen from my front porch. Normally I would not get upset about a material thing but the more I got to thinking about it, the more upset I have become. The Santa was my Mother’s who is now deceased and prior to my display, she had done so for many years prior. Each year when I’d put it out, it helped keep my memory of her alive and in a little way made the holidays a bit more bearable. The likelihood is that some kids took off with it but I thought that by sending this in, there is a chance I may get it back. It’s about 2.5 – 3 feet tall and 30 lbs or so.” Seen this Santa? Send us a note (editor@westseattleblog.com) and we’ll forward it to Kirsten. Ahead: Another stolen item whose owner hopes to get it back, and a stolen item that WAS retrieved, plus other reports:Read More

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Snow response review: Councilmember’s post-briefings view
January 9, 2009 1:04 am
|      19 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle politics | West Seattle weather

(one of many photos we received during Snowstorm ’08)
The Seattle City Council has another post-snowstorm discussion coming up next Monday morning, after more than five hours of briefings this past Monday and Tuesday. Since snow-related trouble hit West Seattle particularly hard, from missing buses to missed trash pickups, it’s not surprising that some of the toughest questions at those briefings came from WS-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. Before memories of those first two briefings faded too far away, we e-mailed to ask him about any reflections on what he heard – read on to see what he sent back:Read More

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Design Review report #1: 4502 42nd, Kenney decisions
January 8, 2009 11:06 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Development | The Kenney | West Seattle news

Tonight’s two-part session of the Southwest Design Review Board meeting ran almost four hours. First project on the agenda, 4502 42nd SW, won final design-review approval unanimously; second project, the $150 million “reinvention” of The Kenney, got approval to move out of the “early design guidance” stage (after two rounds), but not without extensive discussion under high-level supervision, and there are still more meetings to come (at least one more round of design review, and City Council approval would be required if they do pursue some rezoning). More details to come in separate reports.

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Good news for library lovers in south West Seattle
January 8, 2009 8:11 pm
|      9 COMMENTS
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news

Thanks to Judy Pickens for calling our attention to this recent change: The Southwest Library branch is now open Sundays, which means — along with the West Seattle branch in Admiral — there are now two WS libraries you can go to on Sunday afternoons. Both are open noon-5.

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Circa, Cupcake Royale burglarized
January 8, 2009 5:53 pm
|      21 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

West Seattle businesses are on alert tonight after two were burglarized overnight. WSB has confirmed with Circa in the Admiral District and Cupcake Royale in The Junction that both were broken into. At Circa, burglars stole the safe, but the restaurant tells WSB there wasn’t much money inside; they also took the restaurant’s official iPod, which was used to play music at Circa. At Cupcake Royale, we were told the burglars didn’t make off with the safe, but did get some money. The door through which they broke in had to be replaced – that work was just finishing when we went by to talk with them about what happened. We have an inquiry out with the Southwest Precinct seeking further details about these break-ins and about any progress toward arrests.

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Southwest District Council: RapidRide, Route 50, the 2 Viaducts
January 8, 2009 3:48 pm
|      12 COMMENTS
 |   Southwest District Council | Transportation | West Seattle news

Always lots going on when the Southwest District Council meets. Its members include representatives from many neighborhood groups and other organizations based in the section of West Seattle that the city calls the Southwest District (the city calls the rest of WS the Delridge Neighborhoods District; here’s the map). Last night, its new co-chairs began their terms – Erica Karlovits, president of the Junction Neighborhood Organization, and Chas Redmond, from the Morgan Community Association (among many other groups). On the agenda: Three major aspects of how West Seattleites get around and will get around in the future — Metro’s forthcoming RapidRide, the Spokane Street Viaduct widening project, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct Central Waterfront decision-to-come – read on for the latest:Read More

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Investment news, for those worried about Whole Foods
January 8, 2009 2:42 pm
|      29 COMMENTS
 |   Development | West Seattle news

fplaceastside.jpgSince West Seattle currently has the city’s only under-construction Whole Foods Market, and since the chain’s money woes continue to fuel chatter, we thought we would share this story about a major investment that pumped up its stock today. WF and local developers have continued to reiterate this project’s on track; here’s our most recent report.

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Public hearing set on Hiawatha Playfield changes
January 8, 2009 1:33 pm
|    Comments Off on Public hearing set on Hiawatha Playfield changes
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Just one West Seattle item on today’s Land Use Information Bulletin from the city: Before final approval can be granted for the Hiawatha Playfield project (field and light changes), a public hearing must be held before a city committee; that’s set for the 9:30 am February 11th meeting of the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods Committee. Read the official notice here.

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