West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
New information today on the missing pugs we told you about yesterday, gone from their Arbor Heights home after a burglary — Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden just called to say a witness who read about it on WSB has told police the dogs were definitely stolen – they were seen being loaded into a vehicle. Police are still working to see what kind of description of that vehicle they will be able to publicly release without jeopardizing the investigation. We’ll let you know when more information is available. 1:10 PM UPDATE: And here it is — Sgt. Durden says neighbors saw a dark blue SUV stopped near the house Monday afternoon around 2 pm, with a male driver and male passenger. They saw one of them come out of the home’s front yard, pick up the pugs, put them in the SUV, and drive off. They didn’t realize at the time that anything was wrong, so they didn’t call police until they read here about the burglary and missing dogs. They didn’t get a license plate, and not very much detail on the people in the SUV, except that one appeared to be in his late teens/early 20s, “dark complexion,” possibly Asian or Hispanic, close-cropped hair or shaven head. The police non-emergency number is 206/625-5011, or you can call 911 if you have a tip that needs immediate action.
Got a tip that the tree-trimming had finally commenced at the Alki “Flower Houses” (original coverage here). Got there just moments after the trimmers left. Owner Randie Stone was there but declined to comment, citing legal advice. Photo momentarily. 1:25 PM UPDATE: Here’s one of the angles we shot today – we don’t have an exact comparison in the “before” photos:
Here’s another photo from today, followed by one of the two we received at the time of the original report. On getting a report of tree-trimming in action, we rushed out so fast there wasn’t time to revisit the original story so that we’d be sure to shoot the EXACT same angle, but we’re hoping to be back out that way a little later today.
(that’s another WSB photo taken today)
(that’s a July photo from Alma Taylor-Smyth, who lives in one of the “flower houses”)
We weren’t sure whether to chuckle or cry when we found out last night’s Seattle Police Department Citizen Appreciation Awards event would keep us from visiting the Southwest Precinct to personally report on the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, which we consider a monthly must-cover. Luckily, we were able to draft previous WSB contributor Evan Baumgardner into service for the occasion – and he brought back important info, including an update on a recent business break-in, other West Seattle crime trends, and a request for ideas from YOU – here’s his report:Read More
We were lucky enough to meet some of the folks at KUOW public radio earlier this summer, during their June 30th broadcast about local “neighborhood blogs” (archived here). Looks like we may get a moment or two on their airwaves again this afternoon – for “The Conversation,” they are interviewing one of the country’s best-known political-blog operators, Daily Kos‘s Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, and one of the topics is going to be “anonymous online comments,” which he allows and so do we — as do the majority of websites that enable and encourage discussion. The show is scheduled 1-2 pm (94.9 FM, or listen online) and as one of the people who might provide a “local perspective,” we’ve been told to expect a phone call in the last quarter-hour. (In the meantime, we’ll be busy trying to distill our heartfelt but rambling philosophy into a potential soundbite.) 2:01 PM UPDATE: Clarification for anybody who listened: We would describe our comment policy as “partially moderated” – your comment is held for review if it contains something from a list of words we have programmed into the system, mostly profanity; if it is from an IP address that’s never had a comment approved before (and that can throw regular commenters into the filter all the time); if it has 2 or more URLs, which can be a sign of spam. This site is hit with more than 2,000 spam comments a day — usually horrible nasty mega-X-rated stuff – and our filter keeps all but a fraction of a percent from ever going through, but it does also occasionally, for unknown reasons of technological temperament, throw legitimate comments into, not the moderation queue but the spam basket, which we try to graze quickly at least once daily for such instances — however, we are sure that it’s accidentally eaten a few legitimate comments that we never even saw. Once in a rare while, we turn on “moderate all comments” for a while if the spam filter seems to be acting up, which happened earlier this week, and that may mean a delay in review/approval of your comment.
We last checked in July 24 on the volunteers organizing to create some type of “play area” at or near the North Admiral mini-park shown at left, California Place (northwest corner of California/Hill, just east of Admiral Congregational Church; here’s a map). One of the organizers, Manolita Slye, just wrote to say they’re meeting again tonight (as we mentioned in last month’s story, they’re meeting twice monthly as the effort gets off the ground) — 7 pm at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. She mentioned something we’d also been told in a recent note from someone else — apparently opponents are starting to organize — so she is hoping that more of the families who have expressed support for the potential play area will show up tonight.
In case you lost track of this somewhere along the way — Blayne the barista from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) is still in the running as the latest season of “Project Runway” arrives at its sixth episode tonight; after designing for Brooke Shields last week and Olympic athletes the week before that, tonight’s challenge involves creating something for drag queens. Must-see TV, on the big screen at Ginomai (bring a dessert to share and see what other sweet treats turn up) on the southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee, doors open @ 8 pm, show’s on at 9.
(6/14/2008 WSB photo)
By Saturday, the rain should be long gone. The fine folks of North Delridge are hoping for a little help that morning, as they start the day with the periodic Adopt-a-Street cleanup — treats are promised — and follow it up with what Nancy Folsom calls a “casual, low-stress picnic.” Lots to celebrate in the area these days – with a skatepark on the way, the Sunday wading-pool battle won, and much more – so come help make sure the street itself is clean and bright; be at Delridge Community Center at 10 am Saturday. (Good warmup for whatever role you’re playing in the big September 13th “West Seattle Gateway” cleanup, too!)
That short video clip shows Cindi Barker, of Morgan Community Association and so many other endeavors, accepting a Seattle Police Department Citizen Appreciation Award from Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske tonight at City Hall (and toward the end of the clip, you see Mark Howard from the Emergency Preparedness Bureau). Cindi was honored for her tireless emergency-preparedness work, from the West Seattle-wide preparedness meeting in summer 2007, to the neighborhood-meeting-place events this spring/summer). Cindi was one of six West Seattleites (by our count) receiving the annual awards tonight, including your WSB co-publishers, and there were dozens more from around the city, including some with amazing stories:Read More
The first results have just been posted (find the link here), from mail-in ballots counted today. Meantime, just noticed King County – which is really getting out ahead in the online game, with County Executive Ron Sims‘ blog and Twitter feed among other things – has an election-night blog. We’ll watch it as well as the basic numbers. (If you’re in the 11th Legislative District area of White Center, we’re tracking that at White Center Now.) 10:27 PM UPDATE: King County has just posted its second batch of updated results – follow the links to see the latest. Countywide, looks like I-26 will pass, meaning another vote in November. 2:41 AM UPDATE: No more results till the next count late Wednesday afternoon. No surprises that we’ve seen except that Public Lands Commissioner might be a hot state race in November – incumbent Doug Sutherland (R) is less than a percentage point ahead of challenger Peter Goldmark (D) so far.
DIRECT RESULTS LINKS:
Governor (statewide here; King County here)
State Superintendent of Public Instruction (statewide here, King County here)
State Public Lands Commissioner (statewide here, King County here)
King Co. Initiative 26 (whether to have a November vote on making certain county offices nonpartisan)
7th Congressional District
34th Legislative District (all three positions)
We mentioned this morning that today marked the start of freshman orientation at West Seattle High School. Linda and Joey Vargas e-mailed tonight to say one thing went awfully wrong for the freshman in their family – but maybe you can help solve the crime:
My son left his bike inside the front door of WSHS for less than 2 minutes to turn his back and sign something. When he turned around his bike was gone. It was his first experience at a full day of high school. He was surrounded by friends and of course some freshman he didn’t know. There were also some adults in the hallway. He’s crushed, it was his transportation, his sport. It was 3 months old. Please keep an eye out for it. We will be looking at the camera footage tomorrow of the hallway, we have also filed a police report. The bike is a brown DK BMX bike. His pegs were both on the left side only front and back. We purchased it at Alki Bike and Board.
As always, we prefer to watch the National Weather Service “forecast discussion” for more specifics on what’s on the way – it should be updated by 9:30 or so tonight, but the most recent version suggests our area won’t see major effects of the “unseasonably vigorous” oncoming storm till very early tomorrow morning. It’s not too late to go check your storm drains (as advised by Seattle Public Utilities)!
We started working on a story about this interesting project some time back and got sidetracked. Never fear – now you can read all about it at the Delridge Leadership blog, which is a great place to check daily (the link’s in our Neighborhood Groups sidebar section) for all sorts of interesting announcements and information, mostly about the eastern half of West Seattle.
We caught those seagulls in full picnic-interrupting action at Alki this afternoon, just as we read a note from Lora Lewis at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) reminding one and all that the rescheduled West Seattle Movies on the Wall showing of “Finding Nemo” is this Thursday night — and we liked the seagulls in “Nemo” (video) even better than Nemo, Dory, et al. Remember to bring nonperishable food for West Seattle Food Bank and a few bucks for concessions (presented by West Seattle Christian Church and benefiting WSFB) plus fundraiser raffles – Lora says the prizes up for grabs so far include “four $25 gift cards from Pagliacci, a Sonic Care toothbrush from Dr. Wolff and 50 goldfish goodie bags, plus a hand painted table from WS Christian Pre-School.” (Later add: Free BBQ Pork Sliders from Dream Dinners [WSB sponsor], as well as — for the raffle — a $100 Dream Dinners gift certificate and a Dream Dinners Exclusive pitcher, tray and 6 beverage glasses.) The movie’s at dusk (we’d advise getting there no later than 8 pm); two days after this special Thursday showing, the final Sidewalk Cinema presentation is “Galaxy Quest” on Saturday night.
One more reminder, it’s Primary Election Day – with Top Two voting in the contested races. According to County Executive Ron Sims’ Twitter feed, they’re now projecting 40% voter turnout. Complete county election info here; we’ll post about the results here tonight.
This just popped up on the LA Times Twitter feed we monitor (remember, you can follow us on Twitter, at westseattleblog; we also have set up a Twitter account for our partner site at whitecenternow): The “Save the Plastic Bag Coalition” has sued the Southern California city of Manhattan Beach over its plastic-bag ban, claiming the city failed to analyze environmental effects of the ban.
Obviously the name of this almost-done condo complex on the north edge of The Junction (just north of this site) has to do with the nearest cross-street; nonetheless, it was an odd coincidence that we noticed the sign for the first time while the car radio was playing a John Lennon-co-authored Beatles song.
Got this late last night and added it to the WSB Pets page – but because of the unusual circumstances, we wanted to post it here on the main page too:
My parents’ house was broken into (Monday). They went through my mom’s jewelry box, but didn’t take anything. The only thing missing are their two pugs. Both are brown. One is male and the other female. The female is 4 years old and fifteen pounds. Her name is Pippen. The male is 6 years old and 23 pounds. He is completely blind. His name is Bandit. My parents live on 98th and 37th (near the corner of 35th and Roxbury). They are both microchipped, so if anybody sees a lost pug please take it to a vet. If found, please call Greg at 206-829-9360.
The photos above show Pippen at left, Bandit at right.
“SAFER STREETS INITIATIVE”: City Councilmember Tim Burgess posted about this proposal on his blog today; the council’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee, which he chairs, will start reviewing it this afternoon. It’s a 12-point proposal, and you can read it in its entirety here, but these three points in particular caught our eye:
Re-establish one police detective position dedicated to the tracking and analysis of graffiti crime…
Return School Resource Officers to select public high schools and middle schools…
Enact new legislation that imposes civil and criminal penalties when businesses, property owners or property managers knowingly allow criminal behavior to occur and fail to take steps to stop it…
The committee meets at 2 pm; you can see the meeting live via the Seattle Channel, online or on TV @ cable channel 21.
WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL TONIGHT! We tell you about this one every month, before AND after. If you only attend one community meeting a month – this one is worth your time if there is anything about crime or safety in your neighborhood that has you concerned. Not only do you get great information on what’s happening in the area and what to do about problem spots (so-called “nuisance properties”), you also get a chance to directly ask questions of Southwest Precinct police reps who attend the meeting. 7 pm, SWP meeting room (Delridge/Webster, enter the parking lot from Webster).
We brought you first word of this event two weeks ago, and now it’s just two days away: Artists and musicians will create one-of-a-kind works all day Thursday, to be auctioned off – in tandem with special performances – at a big party Thursday night, raising money for All-Access Youth Arts Programs at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. (“Skiffle” is oldtime slang for “rent party” as well as a type of music [here’s one of many examples on YouTube].) Here’s the official explanation of how the Youngstown event will play out:
During the day, eight teams comprised of community members, local artists and bands will create a work of art out of a blank canvas (some of these include guitars and basses). These masterpieces will be auctioned off the same night and accompany performances from The Boogilistics, Camille Bloom & The Recovery, Scribes, and special guests Bison (featuring members from Pearl Jam, The Presidents of the United States of America, Guns N’ Roses, and The Dusty 45s), as well as artists and students from Arts Corps, Rock School and the Service Board.
Doors open Thursday night at 6, show starts at 7; tickets are available at the door for $25 suggested donation. The All-Access after-school programs are offered free to participants — music, spoken-word poetry, dance, and more — and enjoying this fundraiser is one way to make sure that can continue. Haven’t been to Youngstown before? Here’s a map.
A few hundred teenagers might not mind quite so much that the sun’s back in hiding, because it’s freshman-orientation time today and tomorrow at West Seattle High School; per the WSHS website, it’s Friday for other grades. One more WSHS note (if you hadn’t already spotted it on the WSB Events calendar) – the West Seattle High School Foundation is presenting a Back-to-School Breakfast Bash one week from tomorrow, 8/27, at WSHS, doors open @ 7 am, with guests including Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and King County Councilmember (and WSHS alum) Dow Constantine. Make your reservation by Friday – e-mail and phone options at the WSHS Foundation website. First actual day of classes for Seattle Public Schools, by the way, is Wednesday 9/3.
Sometime in the next few hours, it’s more than likely someone in Pigeon Point — atop the ridge that represents northeasternmost West Seattle — will wake up to the blast of a train horn, or more than one, from activity along that stretch of track, roughly Harbor Island to Harbor Ave. Tonight, more than 20 concerned neighbors joined government reps in a cozy City Hall meeting room — more people than you see sometimes in meetings about West Seattle issues that are held IN West Seattle — to try to figure out where to start on a complicated journey toward relief. When we first told you about their effort last week, many comments of disbelief came in, but if you had been in that meeting tonight, and listened to the desperation in some of those voices, you’d know the problem is very real, and some of them are at wit’s end — funny what sleep deprivation can do to you. Ahead, what they said, what they heard, and what happens next:Read More
Just received this from Laura. Maybe it’s not too late for someone to help solve this car theft:
Vehicle missing parked on SW Thistle between Fauntleroy Way SW and 46th Avenue SW across from Lincoln Park. (map)
Last seen today at 6 pm. Noticed missing at 10:15 pm.
Red 1996 Honda Civic CX Hatchback 2 door, WA license plate 430TFY
Police have been notified, car not reported as towed and we are expecting a visit from an officer tonight.
Information can be reported to SPD at 206-625-5011 or here.
TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: Laura sent this update:
Just wanted to let you know that we just received a call from King County Sheriff and the car was found blocking a road near Sea-Tac early this morning and had been “stripped for parts” (the hood, engine and other parts were removed from the vehicle).
Thought I would pass along that SPD officer advised last night that if you park your car on the street anytime like our visitor did, it’s worth the $23 investment to get a “Club” for your steering wheel. The officer says they think it is a major theft deterrent.
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