West Seattle, Washington
23 Tuesday
That’s newly elected Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, speaking tonight to the Alki Community Council. “Every neighborhood counts,” he declared, and hit on several hot topics. But the hottest topic of the night took center stage before he spoke, when a large, displeased group of Alki Point residents tried to pass a resolution about the one issue that had brought them all to the meeting:Read More
Both just posted at the P-I site: The jury in the Tatsuo Nakata 47th/Admiral pedestrian-death case will start deliberating the fate of defendant Ephraim Schwartz tomorrow morning (story here); the jury in the trial of ex-Huling salesmen Adrian Dillard and Ted Coxwell heard lawyers’ opening statements today (story here).
We saw that close call while spending time at 34th/Morgan this past Tuesday morning, meeting with neighborhood and pedestrian-safety activists who say it’s one of this area’s most dangerous places for schoolkids to have to cross. Here’s a taste of the regular traffic:
Kids coming from the booming north side of High Point cross here to get to West Seattle (formerly High Point) Elementary, which is further south on 34th.Read More
Here’s the news release. Haven’t seen a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakout yet. 5:52 PM ADDENDUM: One stat we can break down with regards to West Seattle — of the 24 murder cases in the city last year, three happened here – March at 37th/Findlay, April at Cal-Mor Circle, October at 59th/Admiral. The suspects in all three cases are still awaiting trial. In the 59th/Admiral case, the newest court documents show that the 18-year-old suspect has been found competent to stand trial, and his next hearing date is Feb. 11. (We reported the then-impending competency hearing on Dec. 29.)
In case you wondered how the demonstration this afternoon went, here’s two video clips. First, the group leaving WSHS; second, their sign-waving in The Junction.
First, a coyote sighting this morning at 21st & Andover (map), from Emily (thank you!):
9:05 this morning as I was driving to work there was a big beautiful coyote on the sidewalk. I stopped my car and it stopped and looked at me for a full minute. It looked really healthy and was as big as a large dog but with a fox shaped tail and a skinny jaw. It ducked down into the very small woodsy area by SW Charlestown. I drove around the block and put my cat inside for the day. I’ve heard they were here but I didn’t realize they were 1 bk from my house.
Now, the birdwatching win. Imagine seeing 79 different bird species in your yard! We can recall maybe 10 … such as the Northern Flicker and Steller’s Jay:
Those photos are courtesy of Ed Newbold, who coordinates the YardBirdRace around Western Washington. He sent word (from his YardBirdRace breaking news page) that the Seattle Residential category of the 4th annual YardBirdRace had West Seattle winners:
Jim Flynn and Marissa Benevente appear to be testing the upper limits of what it’s possible to see from a residential Seattle yard as they ended up with 79, five ahead of the record in Seattle overall and Seattle residential, both of which they set last year. Common Nighthawk and Western Screech-Owl are two of the birds that helped them get there. This is the second year West Seattle & Flynn/Benevente have led in Seattle residential and Seattle overall.
You can find out more about the YardBirdRace here.
After we mentioned the “Day of Service” volunteer work planned for Monday @ West Seattle Elementary, Seattle Works e-mailed to let us know some of the work it’s doing in conjunction with City Year would actually start today. Here’s some of what’s happening at the school right now — starting with the outlining of a hummingbird mural outside a classroom:
Outside the school, these volunteers are literally laying the groundwork for a play area that will serve the district’s special-needs preschool that’s on the WSES campus:
And this carpentry work will create decorative planters for the school’s entrance:
As you might have guessed from the orange shirts, most of the volunteers at WSES today are from Home Depot — Seattle Works says the Delridge store coordinated the effort but the HD workers are from all around Puget Sound. Meantime, organizers are still looking for donations to complete the preschoolers’ play area; our original post has info on how to help.
This just in from the Southwest Precinct, courtesy of Lt. Steve Paulsen: Officers arrested the Diva Espresso robbery suspect last night in the 3300 block of Charlestown. Lt. Paulsen says, “Great work by our night shift. The suspect tried to escape in his vehicle, but obviously failed.”
We’ve talked here before about pothole problems and rutted roads around West Seattle. This week, we heard from a High Point resident named Casey Crowell who has an unusual take on it: He is concerned about the same potholes being fixed over and over, making things worse, rather than getting a longer-lasting fix in the first place. Here’s the letter he just wrote to the mayor about it, with specifics all the way down to the pothole Casey has nicknamed “Bruno”:Read More
Just in from the county: The South Park Bridge is closing 7 am Saturday–5 pm Sunday for sidewalk repairs. (Though it’s not in WS, we know it’s a popular route to and from some points south of downtown — Costco, anyone? — so we’re mentioning it here.)
Marilyn Murphy from Murphy’s Furniture Studio on Avalon (just up the hill from Java Bean, Luna Park Cafe, Avalon Glass Works) confirms her store will be moving in the next few months. She says she’d been thinking about it for a while, and a recent rent increase helped “influence her decision” as well. As is the case with Basic Green Box‘s move, which we reported here Monday, Murphy’s hasn’t settled on a new location yet but will update us when they do. Marilyn adds she’s preparing for the move already: “I am starting to mark down a lot of merchandise and will be having a fabric sale next month.” (Thanks to Beth for e-mailing the tip on this.)
-WSHS has an open house this morning, with school tours offered 7:30-9 am.
–As reported here last Sunday, the group that’s trying to overturn the plan for WSHS to switch to a 6-period day next year plans a student march this afternoon, starting at 2:30 and heading from WSHS to The Junction.
-The WSHS Winter Concert is in the theater tonight at 7 pm, with the band and choir performing.
That quote from Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden at Tuesday night’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting — from which we have a few holdover notes to share with you before too much more time elapses, in addition to the news we reported last night about the high-security funeral that’ll be at Freedom Church next Tuesday. To elaborate on that quote, in the past month, SW Precinct leadership estimates its team has arrested more than 15 burglary suspects. Lt. Steve Paulsen noted that detectives and patrol officers are working more closely together, literally – four detectives are now based at the precinct, rather than elsewhere, which means more chances for them to talk face-to-face with the officers working the streets. “Our clearance [case-solving] rate has just been remarkable,” Lt. Paulsen noted. Not only are they arresting suspects, but he says they’re recovering lots of stolen property too. And they also praised community members whose eagle eyes and quick phone calls are helping them detect crimes and catch suspects more quickly. Other notes from the WSCSP meeting, including community “trouble spots” they’re watching:Read More
Major fire callout at 8638 10th SW (map). Crews aren’t saying much on the scanner about how big it is; heading over to check it out. 11:53 PM UPDATE: Only two trucks were still there, no frantic activity, no visible smoke, so nothing big (though whatever happened may have forced the residents out for the night; after returning, we heard a scanner call to bring in the Red Cross to assist them).
Hours after state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond took a ferry ride today from Southworth to Fauntleroy today to listen to commuters’ concerns about the sudden two-boat schedule, the ferry system announced changes: Starting Friday, they’re tweaking the afternoon/evening schedule to reduce the current hour-and-a-half-plus gap between sailings to Southworth. Full details in the WSF press release.
Quick headline (more to come) from tonight’s joint meeting of the Delridge and Southwest District Councils: The Westwood Neighborhood Council announced it’s set the date for its next community meeting on the Denny-Sealth project — Feb. 6 Feb. 5, Southwest Community Center CSHS Commons. (THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE: WNC says it had to change the date to Feb. 5 after getting word today that school board rep Steve Sundquist couldn’t make 2/6.)
In the past week, we brought you registration information for West Seattle Pee Wee baseball and West Seattle Little League. Tonight, we want to tell you about West Seattle Girls Softball, for which you can register right now, online, continuing through mid-February. Here’s what the league is all about:Read More
A bill to give cities the power to limit condo conversions is coming up for a State House hearing this Friday, says Slog. It’s HB 2014, which died last year. Here in West Seattle, the conversion pace seems to have slowed, with high-profile conversion cancellations at Strata and West Ridge/Gables, but apartment buildings continue to sell (and be put up for sale, with descriptions like “condo-quality”). If you want to tell your legislators what you think about HB 2014, remember your new State Representative is Sharon Nelson (WSB interview here, including contact info) and your new State Senator is Joe McDermott. 10 PM SIDE NOTE: The P-I has just posted an article about a condo development near Seattle Center that’s going to be finished as apartments instead; an expert quoted in the article says apartments “are the pre-eminent land use” in the city right now.
From the unofficial viewpoint where 41st and 42nd meet (map) in Upper Fauntleroy:
And thanks to Cleat for this photo from Luna (Anchor) Park:
The city has just put up these speed-limit signs in the Alki alley that’s just west of 59th (map). Alki Community Council president Jackie Ramels tells WSB the neighborhood campaign to get these signs was led by Steve Cuddy, who also successfully pushed for the speed bumps on 59th, which is a major street between Alki Ave and Admiral Way but is a particularly bad place to speed since it runs along the south side of Alki Elementary, Alki Playfield, and the Whale Tail Park/tennis courts area. Speaking of the ACC, it meets tomorrow night (7 pm @ Alki Community Center), with guests scheduled to include City Council President Richard Conlin and the owner of the soon-to-open Alki Urban Market, Thampipillai Thilakarajah (featured in this WSB report, a shorter version of which also appears in the brand-new Alki News-Beacon). You don’t have to be a member to attend.
The daily update from the Orca Network mailing list (subscribe here) just came in, including this from a couple hours ago. That’s enough to get us away from behind the computer since one of our stated New Year’s goals was an in-person orca sighting. But first, sharing this with you:
Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I am watching orcas in Elliot Bay from my office window, 10:00 am 1/16/2008. I have never seen them this far into Elliott Bay. They are on the west side of Elliott bay, southwest of the Ferry Route, closer to the Alki side, down where there are some cargo ships moored out in the bay. It’s now 10:38 am and it looks like they have moved south and west around the point at Alki. There was a helicopter very high above them for a little while so I’m guessing it might have been one of the news stations. You might be able to track down some footage and determine which pod it is. It’s hard to tell from this distance how many there are, but at least 4. A very special treat for the day. Hope this is helpful. Have a great day!
Two other reports from the Orca Network suggest they were “transient” orcas, not members of the J, K, and L pods usually seen in the sound; and the e-mail also provides this link to the helicopter video, which was from KING 5.
Quick Southwest Precinct update: Diva Espresso (on Fauntleroy west of Avalon) was robbed this morning; police say they know who they are looking for and hope to make an arrest soon.
As promised last night, we have the renderings now of the three design options shown at last night’s city Parks Department public meeting about the Morgan Junction park-to-be. The one above, dubbed “Pianoforte” (because of a piano-type shape), was the most popular with meeting-goers. Here are the other two (and a few more meeting details):Read More
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