West Seattle, Washington

22 Monday

59℉

Spotlight Stories


  • Shooting

    PARK SHOOTING: Self-defense investigation

  • Closing

    BANK CLOSURE: B of A to shut 1 WS branch

  • Parade

    WS GRAND PARADE: Video, pix of winners, more

Mayor’s son sentenced
December 14, 2007 10:47 am
|      13 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

Per the P-I: Three months prison, three months “home confinement.” When this all broke earlier this year, he was reported to be living at his parents’ home here in West Seattle. ADDED AT 2:28 PM: Statement from the mayor, as posted on the city website:

“This has been a very difficult time for our family and today’s decision will help bring this issue to a close. While the next few months won’t be easy for any of us, Sharon and I know that Jake did the right thing by accepting responsibility for his actions and cooperating with investigators. We love our son and will continue to support him in the months and years ahead. I’d like to thank all those who offered Jake, Sharon and me their support and prayers. We are very grateful.”

Share This

Sad news from Beach Drive: Seal death
December 14, 2007 9:47 am
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | Wildlife

sealbeachdrive.jpg

This photo (from a respectful distance) was taken by Larry Wallach, who e-mailed WSB on Thursday afternoon asking who to call to report a dead seal on the beach outside his Beach Drive home. (Larry made some calls and was finally referred to this number – save it for future reference – 206/526-6733.) Larry also writes:

We called the seal we frequently see swimming for the past few years behind our house Cyril. Not sure if this is the same one, but if so, R.I.P. Cyril. Our kids (3 and 2) will be especially sad.

Share This

Prime time for West Seattle Food Bank holiday donations
December 14, 2007 7:45 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Holidays | How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle video

Today and next Monday are great days to get holiday-dinner food donations to the West Seattle Food Bank (here’s the list we originally published). On Thursday, WSFB got a big boost from Nucor, which showed up with more than $9,000 in cash and gift cards along with thousands of pounds of food – here’s one of the truckloads they unloaded:

We also talked to the Nucor managers who were there to help with the delivery; Nucor’s been doing this at holiday time since 1996!

Share This

JuNO gets a place of its own
December 14, 2007 6:51 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Neighborhoods | West Seattle news | West Seattle online

Online, that is. Junction Neighborhood Organization president Erica Karlovits has set up a blog-style site for the group; check it out here. And as you’ll see on the website, the next JuNO meeting is set for 6:30 pm January 8 — for everybody who lives in and around The Junction and wants to get connected with ways to keep it a great place to be.

Share This

Jumpin’ in The Junction: The dawn of Twilight
December 13, 2007 10:53 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle Art Walk | West Seattle businesses | WS culture/arts

twilightcrowd.jpg

We traveled from Admiral to The Junction tonight to check out the late-night shopping and West Seattle Art Walk happenings; above you see the biggest crowd we encountered, jammed into the new Twilight Art Collective space in the former Bikes ‘n’ Brew storefront west of Easy Street. Classic dance rock (example: Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”) thumped through the cheerful conversation din. We’ll go back soon for a more leisurely look at the art (such as a Kafka portrait that caught our eye). Twilight looks like a great addition to the funky side of Junction life. Though we didn’t get to The Junction till after 8 pm, we noticed good turnouts elsewhere, including a hive of shoppers buzzing around a sale table outside Clementine.

Share This

West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/13/07
December 13, 2007 9:59 pm
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Holidays | West Seattle Christmas lights

Again tonight, two pix – have to double up to get everything in before The Big Day:

62ndtree.jpg

treehouse.jpg

The first one is a beautiful tree, one color of lights for each branch, pointed out to us by The Velvet Bulldog; it’s on Hinds at 62nd. The second one is a photo from CA Joyce, described as a treehouse dressed up for the holidays, 53rd & Dakota. Both are now added to our clickable/printable West Seattle Christmas lights map, which you can find any time on the WSB Holidays page; all previously featured lights are archived here. And thanks to everyone for continuing to send in all the tips and pix!

Share This

New status report from Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza Project
December 13, 2007 7:03 pm
|      18 COMMENTS
 |   Alki Statue of Liberty | West Seattle news

statueforicon1.jpgIn comments last week on this post, the Seattle (Alki) Statue of Liberty Plaza Project organizers promised they would give the WSB community an updated $ accounting shortly. This afternoon, they posted it in that same comment thread, which is long gone from the home page, so we are reposting here to make sure everyone interested can see it:

Dear WS Blog:

I am sure many of you have been waiting for a financial update on how we are doing at this point in time with the fundraising efforts for the Statue of Liberty Plaza project. I was waiting for the most recent figures, so here it is:

As of Wednesday, December 12th:

$13,500 – Funds raised thru Urban Sparks (Net)
$50,000 – Grant from City of Seattle
$10,500 – Prior fundraising balance

$74,000 – Total
+17,000 – Pledges currently identified
$91,000

More funds are continuing to be identified and pledged, so the rest of the money is in process and we could Use Your Help to Make It Happen!

Note: Expenses now accounted for include total $3,673.26 at this point in time. A 7% fee is charged by the fiscal sponsor, printing is already done for all promotional material (10,000 brochures, 5,000 inserts, 144 t-shirts), website expenses, postage & office supplies. No money has been expended for the volunteer time of the Carrs, or their committee members.

We think we are doing very well here and are optimistic that we will be successful in raising the rest of the money to build this design in 2008.

We have been in contact with the Mayor’s office and we are in agreement that we will build as much of this design as we have the money for, so yes, it is very important that we finish raising all the money needed to build this design. We would even like to have a bit left over, just in case for any further contingencies such as adding some backs to some of the benches, a suggestion that came from the Sept. 13th meeting. Also, the existing families with benches at the site now are being offered the option of having one of the new benches in the new design at no charge.

We are now also focusing on names for the Major Donor Plaque for the pedestal ($15,000+), Benches ($5,000) and a new category of Landscape Plaques ($2,000).

In general, we are ramping up fundraising efforts with special Brick promotions (see website www.sealady.org) more print and live media exposure, more internet and blog exposure, a fundraising event at Duke’s on Dec. 27, and just lots more phone calls in general to Statue supporters. We have agreed with staff in the Mayor’s office to wrap up fundraising efforts by January 15, 2008.

So, if you are one of the people whose been planning on buying a brick “one of these days,” that day has arrived! If you want to give a truly memorable gift this Holiday Season, there is probably no present that will last longer.

We know this community has the capacity to finish this project just as we have envisioned it now for 3+ years. Now is the time to step up and demonstrate what we can really accomplish together, and finish this project for generations of people to come.

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

Paul & Libby Carr, Co-Chairs of the SSLPP
www.sealady.org
206-938-8720

The last official public meeting on the project was September 13 (our detailed report here), two days after the recast statue was returned to the existing pedestal at Alki on September 11 (WSB coverage, with video, here). All of our Alki Statue of Liberty coverage including those reports and this one is archived here.

Share This

Southwest Precinct police score big burglary busts
December 13, 2007 4:52 pm
|      10 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Big news just in from the latest edition of the Southwest Precinct Public Safety Newsletter sent by Crime Prevention Coordinator Benjamin Kinlow, with this excerpted section written up by Detective Bauer:

Southwest Precinct Officers and Detectives, within the last week and a half, have arrested, booked, and filed charges on nine (9) Burglary suspects. Detectives have cleared fifteen (15) burglary cases with the arrest of these suspects. Most of the stolen property has been returned to the owners.

Below are some recent cases that we have been working on. Please notice the incredible Police work along with calls from alert citizens:

12-03-07: Burglary incident: On the morning of 12-03-07, a neighbor was standing on her front porch, and noticed an unfamiliar vehicle pull up to a neighbor’s home. Two males got out of the vehicle and went to the back of the residence. The witness called police. Officers responded and arrived very soon after the call came out. Officers caught the two males after they had burglarized the home by way of forced entry. Both suspects were later booked.

Note that King County detectives have another burglary case in their jurisdiction in which these suspects have been identified. The King County Detectives are also looking at these suspects as good possibles on the series of BB gun shootings in the SW area. That investigation continues.

12-05-07: Burglary/Wanted fugitive arrest: Officers responded to a Burglary call in the 5800 block of 38th Ave SW. Detectives were aware of a wanted fugitive who possibly broke into a nearby residence and took a shotgun and ammunition a few days earlier. Through cooperation of the case detective and patrol officers, the fugitive was caught hiding in a limousine that was parked in front of the home of the burglary/shotgun theft victim.

12-06-07: Burglary incident, 4800 block of Colorado Ave S. Suspect enters fenced in property of metal recycling site. A night watchman sees the suspect and calls police. The suspect exited the property and got into a van before officers arrived. The responding officers located the suspect in the van, and had the watchman do a show up ID of the suspect, which was positive. The officers also arrested another male in the van, who had an outstanding warrant.

12-10-07: Theft/Trafficking stolen property investigation, 4800 block of 35th Ave SW: Detective Bauer investigated an on-going theft incident in which an employee was allegedly stealing property from vulnerable adult residents, and then selling the items on EBAY. Detectives arrested the suspect, and later booked her.
Please noted the following:

* Outstanding work by the Patrol Officers!
* Outstanding follow-up by the Detectives!
* Outstanding work by the witnesses who had the presence of mind to call the Police or jot down the license plate number and other information!

Please read that last line again — it’s vital to call SPD as soon as possible when you see something suspicious, not just an emergency. (The non-emergency number is 206/625-5011.)

Share This

Road-work alert from the city
December 13, 2007 4:43 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Transportation | West Seattle news

Just into the inbox, from the city Transportation Department:

Paving Contractor Carrying Out Minor Work on California Avenue SW

The contractor from the California Ave SW paving project will be on site periodically over the next few weeks correcting minor deficiencies and remaining restoration from the project completed in August. You may have noticed some temporary lane closures in the last day or two. This was necessary to adjust some utility manholes and create a smother ride.

Traffic disruptions and parking impacts will be minimal and of very short duration.

Normal work hours for the contractor are 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday-Friday.

Share This

The rain stopped just in time!
December 13, 2007 4:29 pm
|    Comments Off on The rain stopped just in time!
 |   Fun stuff to do | Holidays | West Seattle businesses

One last reminder that it’s late-night shopping night at a variety of West Seattle shops — treesgraphic.jpgfrom Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor; read more about their event here) and Shanti in the Admiral District, throughout The Junction for the “Wrap It Up” event (flyer with participants here; plus, it’s also West Seattle Art Walk night), and over to Avalon (where Murphy’s has a special fundraiser/shopping event tonight). Some stores will be open as late as 10. (And if your shopping tonight will include Christmas tree-hunting, you can check the price survey we posted earlier this month; we hope to update it this weekend in case things have changed.)

Share This

Failing ferries could be big boon for Todd
December 13, 2007 1:27 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Transportation

Under a plan presented by the governor today, Harbor Island’s Todd Shipyards would be the main contractor on a $100 million deal for three new ferries to replace the 4 pulled-from-service Steel Electric-class vessels. (They used to be a regular feature on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run, with the Quinault or Illahee serving as the 3rd boat till not all that long ago.) For your travels out of the area, it was also announced today that the state’s renting a ferry from Pierce County to restore auto service on the Port Townsend-Keystone run next month.

Share This

Schuck’s update: End of an eyesore, progress report
December 13, 2007 12:07 pm
|      12 COMMENTS
 |   Development | West Seattle news | West Seattle video

Experimenting with yet another video host – let us know how/if this one works for you – we’ve also uploaded the same clip to YouTube in case you’d rather watch it there (click for that version). Here, we captured the first moments of the backhoe biting into the building (click the pic to play the clip):

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

We also ran by a little while ago for this photo of the progress made in the past few hours – the facade’s all gone:

demolition.jpg

If you missed earlier coverage of what’s planned for this spot — per the city project page, it’s a two-story commercial building with retail, a restaurant (TBA as far as we know), and “medical-services offices.”

Share This

5 years in the making: Hiawatha Playfield plan
December 13, 2007 10:21 am
|      7 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

hiawatha.jpg

(“approved concept” as provided by Seattle Parks, with a note that “the installed football field grid will not be as fully marked” as shown above)

Actually, by the time construction starts next year on $3.6 million in renovations to Hiawatha Playfield, almost six years will have passed since the first public meeting on this project. Last night at neighboring Hiawatha Community Center, reps from the city Parks Department and the project’s design firm DA Hogan presented details on the big changes that are in the works:Read More

Share This

Bulletin: Burned-out Schuck’s coming down now
December 13, 2007 8:09 am
|      24 COMMENTS
 |   Development | West Seattle news

Just back with pix and video. Demolition of the building started about an hour ago. Here are two photos of the Demo King backhoe starting its work – video to come.

schucksdemo.jpg

schucks2.jpg

The demo crew also wanted to warn drivers that trucks will be coming and going over the next couple days, every few hours, to pick up debris, so the California/Charlestown intersection may be a little more precarious than usual.

Share This

Tonight: West Seattle Art Walk, “Wrap It Up,” more …
December 13, 2007 6:58 am
|    Comments Off on Tonight: West Seattle Art Walk, “Wrap It Up,” more …
 |   Fun stuff to do | Holidays | West Seattle Art Walk | West Seattle businesses | WS culture/arts

holidaypresent.jpgGot holiday shopping left to do? Tonight you can shop throughout The Junction, and even get your presents wrapped, as part of “Wrap It Up” — More than a dozen businesses are open late (including the participants listed on the official flyer, which you can see here (linked from the Clementine blog). While you’re in The Junction, the monthly West Seattle Art Walk artwalk.jpgwill deck the halls — be sure not to miss Divina, Ginomai, and Hotwire on the north end. (Participating artists and venues are listed here.) And in the heart of The Junction, Twilight Art Collective is welcoming visitors into its new space (ex-Bikes and Brew, west of Easy Street; here’s our original report on them from last month). And this isn’t even all that’s happening in WS tonight – more on that as the day goes by.

Share This

Denny-Sealth shared campus: NOT a done deal after all?
December 12, 2007 11:59 pm
|      11 COMMENTS
 |   Denny-Sealth | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | Westwood

So suggested Sealth teacher Delfino Munoz toward the end of tonight’s Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting to update the project status; he was followed by West Seattle’s new school-board rep Steve Sundquist saying the board’s trying to get a legal opinion on whether they do indeed have the power to cancel the plan – if they wanted to. Bottom line, now more than ever is your time to speak out, if you have a strong opinion on the proposal either way; WNC president Steve Fischer provided lots of resources tonight on how to do that. Here’s our detailed report (updated 11:59 pm):Read More

Share This

West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/12/07
December 12, 2007 11:06 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/12/07
 |   Gatewood | Holidays | West Seattle Christmas lights

Two pix again tonight – this first one hit the WSB inbox just as we were getting ready to publish this item:

xmashouse.jpg

westside37thnorthofkenyon.jpg

First one is from Greg, and it’s at 4117 38th SW, east of The Junction; second one is on Gatewood Hill, on 37th SW north of Kenyon. Both are on our updated-nightly clickable West Seattle Christmas lights map, viewable any time on the WSB Holidays page, but getting to be so lively, we also wanted to show it off here:


View Larger Map

Share This

Schooner Exact scores Award #1
December 12, 2007 9:38 pm
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | WS beverages

schoonerexactaward.jpgWest Seattle-based Schooner Exact Brewing Co. is celebrating its first award — at last weekend’s 3rd annual Winter Beer Festival, their “Hoppy Holidays” brew got 3rd place in the People’s Choice competition. If you want to try this award-winner, Marcus and company @ Schooner Exact say it’ll be available later this week at Beveridge Place Pub in Morgan Junction (which by the way appears to be making great headway on the new location next door; we’ll be checking with them soon for an official update).

Share This

Tree view in Seaview
December 12, 2007 6:11 pm
|    Comments Off on Tree view in Seaview
 |   Neighborhoods | Seaview | Seen around town

seaviewtreesbill.jpg

Bill Barna (disclosure: WSB sponsor) sent the photo (thanks!) with word that a big tree-planting project is under way on a number of streets in Seaview – this photo is from 49th south of Alaska.

Share This

Reader report: Apparent car break-in on California
December 12, 2007 5:39 pm
|    Comments Off on Reader report: Apparent car break-in on California
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

cali_car.jpg

Hope that’s not YOUR car. Sarah Davies spotted it and sent the photo along with this – we share it as an alert to anyone else who parks in the area:

I passed this car on my walk home today around 4 pm in the 2100 block of California Ave SW. Looks like someone smashed the passenger window and grabbed the stereo (along with any valuables) in broad daylight.

Sarah hadn’t reported it as of our e-mail exchange but we urged her to call police, which is also our reminder to you if you see anything suspicious (or overtly criminal, of course). Keep their non-emergency number handy: (206) 625-5011.

Share This

Cool cars at college
December 12, 2007 3:24 pm
|    Comments Off on Cool cars at college
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

coolcarssscc.jpg

West Seattle’s own South Seattle Community College just dedicated its expanded Automotive Collision Repair training facility – with $1.7 million in improvements, including new painting and paint-prep facilities. We weren’t able to attend the dedication but asked SSCC’s Michael May for pix and he kindly obliged. Some of the work will involve cool restored classic cars like the ones shown above; more pix ahead:Read More

Share This

Also on the demolition front – Schuck’s is closer
December 12, 2007 2:49 pm
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   Development | West Seattle news

schuckstodd.jpg

It was really exciting about an hour ago – got a note from Todd that a backhoe had shown up at the burned-out ex-Schuck’s (California/Charlestown) — we stopped what we were doing, grabbed the cameras and raced (well, as fast as legally possible) down because this is one demolition we don’t want to miss — unfortunately, as we, and Todd, subsequently found out, looks like the backhoe is just scooping up the debris cleared from inside the building last week. (We’re going to check again in a bit just in case.) Thanks to Todd for the tip and the photo.

Share This

Demolition north of The Junction: Green goners
December 12, 2007 12:12 pm
|      19 COMMENTS
 |   Development | West Seattle news

greenhousedemolition.jpg

The view this morning from the alley behind 4116 California, where the old green rentals are coming down to make way for apartments and retail (we mentioned the demolition permit just two days ago).

Share This