West Seattle, Washington
23 Saturday
2 reports tonight: First, SPD Blotter has posted more details on the incident that sparked the helicopter-assisted search and arrest we reported early this morning (previous WSB coverage here). Seems the 41-year-old man eventually arrested for burglarizing a home in the 4300 block of Cloverdale (map) also is suspected of trying to break into another house near Lincoln Park first. Read the details here. ADDED 8:17 PM: Just posted as a comment on our original early-morning report, Kelly tells the story firsthand:
Hi All: I was the victim in this incident. A white male broke into my house in Fauntleroy last night around 12:30. I’m a single mom, home alone with two young kids (5 and 3). The guy tried kicking in my side door and then walked around up front and kicked in my front door. That noise woke me up and I went downstairs to see what was going on… and froze on my landing as I looked down and saw this jack ass standing in my doorway. I backtracked upstairs, had a complete and total moral dilemma about what to do next: cell phone and interior lock were in my bedroom, to the right but to the left were my kids’ rooms. I headed into my bedroom, locked the door, and called 911 from my balcony. The burglar juggled on the bedroom door handle and… I don’t remember much then. The police arrived within probably 5 minutes. They had been in the neighborhood because the same person had tried to break into Colman Pool (earlier) and they were just winding up their search for him in Lincoln Park. I was lucky. The police had already identified the suspect from his truck and apparently was a level one sex offender. The guy ran with a few of my household items and the police found him a few blocks away. I was taken to that scene and identified him. It was awful and scary and shattering considering the fact I thought this neighborhood was so safe. The police were excellent and gave me a lot of good pointers for security on my house. At least next time, if it happens, I’ll be more prepared.
Thanks to Kelly for sharing her story. (continuing with original 7 pm post) Meantime, we’ve just received e-mail about an Admiral break-in this weekend, including a plea for neighbors everywhere to be more watchful — read on:Read More
Among the joys of attending neighborhood-group meetings for WSB news reports: Learning more about cherished features of each neighborhood — some of which we’ve managed to miss even though we’ve lived in West Seattle for 17 years. Above, one such feature – the labyrinth in the “recovery garden” at the southwest corner of Cottage Grove Park in North Delridge (map). We checked it out because of an announcement at last week’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting: A candlelight winter-solstice event is being planned at the labyrinth, 6-8 pm December 21st – “candles, cider, music,” promised Michal-Ann McElhany, who ran the NDNC meeting this time. She also has gotten the labyrinth listed on the worldwide Labyrinth Locator; see it on this page with Seattle’s nine other listed labyrinths. (The solstice walk is now on our Holiday Happenings page.) Meantime, not too far north of there, a random blog post that came up in one of our routine searches called our attention to this public artwork on the west side of the park area at Delridge Community Center/Playfield (here’s a map):
The blog post (see it here) expressed delight in discovering that the third, darker boulder in the group (our photo doesn’t show part of the westernmost boulder because of tagger vandalism) isn’t a boulder at all, but a bronze sculpture. Subsequently searching for more information, we found this bit of the 1994 installation’s history – and thought we’d share for anyone else who’d never noticed before. P.S. Speaking of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council — congrats on another successful Adopt-a-Street cleanup yesterday — eight volunteers spent several hours brightening the neighborhood, and the rain stopped just in time. NDNC also has entered a new phase in the Cottage Grove Park tot-lot project; more on that to come.
(sign on kiosk in South Delridge Triangle area)
Dorsol Plants, chair of the Highland Park Action Committee — which not only has led the fight against two proposed city-jail sites in HP, but also is involved in a citywide effort to make the case that a new jail’s not needed at all — forwards word of a strategy session tomorrow, and anyone interested is invited: It’s being led by Real Change, and the invitation notes that RC “continues to organize around the principles that a new jail is an expensive, unnecessary, counterproductive and inhumane investment for Seattle to make. The budget process is ending. The next step being considered for this campaign is the possibility of launching an initiative against the jail to go on the ballot next November.” That’s part of the strategy that will be discussed 5:30-7:30 pm tomorrow (Monday 11/10) in Hall 6 of the Seattle Labor Temple in Belltown (2800 1st Ave.; here’s a map). The invite adds: “This will be a time for leaders from the service providers, advocacy groups, and neighborhood organizations opposed to or concerned by a new jail to come together and strategize.”
Elizabeth wonders if anybody else had the same door-to-door visitor she had last night at 36th/Graham (map) – read on:Read More
The next West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day — which’ll be the second one presented by WSB, after the late great Megawatt sponsored the first three — is exactly six months from today! Just wanted to mention that so you could be sure to mark your calendar. Last year was a blast, with more than 140 sales all around West Seattle (browse our coverage archive at westseattlegaragesale.com); if you don’t have an ’09 calendar yet, set an Outlook reminder or whatever it takes – Saturday, May 9, 2009, is the date. (But first, let’s savor what remains of ’08 … including the holidays … we’re continuously adding more West Seattle holiday events to our Holiday Happenings page, by the way.)
Sunday morning’s here, so it’s time for the link to the latest “ripe and ready” list of what you’ll find at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market – 10 am-2 pm, SE corner of 44th/Alaska.
We caught that jubilant jump from someone on the sidelines just as the West Seattle High School Wildcats varsity football players were lining up on the Memorial Stadium field last night to exchange handshakes with the Enumclaw players they’d just beaten, 38 to 20. Their next playoff opponent: undefeated Ferndale. Read on for the story of the Saturday night win (which we covered “live” via Twitter) that brought the Wildcats to 9-1 on the year:Read More
It’s pretty much right over our house in Upper Fauntleroy. Nothing on 911 in terms of medic call. Listening to the scanner to see if we can pick up anything about who they’re looking for and why – they’re focused on a house (where, we don’t know) where radio traffic indicates they are following footprints, plus a canine is involved in the search. 8400 block has been mentioned, on or near Tillicum (east of Lincoln Park; map). 12:43 AM UPDATE: Per scanner, it was a burglary, and there is a suspect now in custody. Helicopter has just moved on.
38 to 20 over Enumclaw. Full report later. ADDED 11:02 PM: They’ll play Ferndale next weekend, up in Whatcom County according to what we were told at the game, since Ferndale beat Bonney Lake 56-6.
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
That’s part of our quick chat this afternoon with Otis Austin of OK Corral, which just opened a few days ago (as we reported here) at 4417 Fauntleroy (between Aikido of West Seattle 
and Tervo’s; here’s a map; don’t let the old Teriyaki/Burger sign on the storefront, which hasn’t been removed yet, fool you). He says those first few days have gone so well, he’s suffered from what we might call the Zippy’s Syndrome here at WSB (after the hot Highland Park burger joint that was so mobbed the first few days after its opening six months ago, it sold out repeatedly) – and as you can hear him say in our video clip, so much for the naysayers who say that’s a lousy location. In fact, he also told us, “I think West Seattle’s going to work out even better than the North End.” (His first OK Corral is in Greenwood.) He hasn’t printed up takeout menus yet but is working on it; by the way, Otis told us he will probably be closed tomorrow (Sunday) to regroup for the week ahead, though otherwise he intends to be open 7 days a week.
The West Seattle High School-Enumclaw game’s about to start at Memorial Stadium downtown (7:45), and WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand is there to cover it the same way he covered a couple of the big games toward season’s end – not only will he write up a full report later, but he’ll be posting short, frequent game updates via Twitter. If you use Twitter, just follow wsbbizdev – or you can check the updates on the Web at twitter.com/wsbbizdev – or here on the WSB home page, look for the red Twitter box in the sidebar, over the usual blue one – the red one will show his newest update any time you refresh this page (you can use the little arrow in the lower right corner of the box to click back through previous ones).
Three weeks ago, we brought you first word of the plan to preserve images and mementos from November 13, 2008, for the time capsule to be buried next year at the new 
Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza. (November 13 is the day the Denny Party landed at Alki — 157th anniversary this year, and the time capsule will be opened in a half-century, 11/13/2058.) As Andrea Mercado of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society/Log House Museum told us at the time, they’ll be collecting items from all over the city, so the openers will get an idea of what life was like on 11/13/2008. Now that the big day is just six days away, we checked back for the latest on requirements/deadlines for submitting what you collect/create that day. Read on for the info:Read More
We reported last month that The Bohemian was going to launch Jazz Sunday Brunch as of tomorrow. Just got a note from proprietor/chef Jason Todd Rice that the plan’s on the back burner now: “I would like to extend my apology for our decision to cancel our plans for Sunday brunch service. I feel very strongly that we are not ready to do it and do it right. Our original plan was to start with coffee & pastries during the day and the bar & supper service at night. We would then expand as we were able … After six weeks of our current operations, we have been SO pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm of our guests and the community; and the volume of business has been incredible! As we are not a big corporate business, with extensive resources in personnel and budget, we are doing our best to ‘walk before we run…’ As soon as we feel that we have our current operation running at maximum efficiency and providing our guests with the best service and product possible, we will be evolving our concept and operation to the next level.”
Those are two of the foster cats available for adoption now through 3 pm at Southwest Community Center (here’s a map). It’s happening in the community-room area on the lower level – go in through the back (south) entrance.
We got one of our cats at an event like this six years ago and she of course is a joy. The foster parents, like these two, are all volunteers, whose work helps Seattle Animal Shelter house more animals while permanent homes are sought:
Again, the adopt-a-thon’s happening till 3 pm. Parking is a little crunchy down there right now because of a football game at neighboring Southwest Athletic Complex, but it’s not impossible to find – remember there’s that big lot immediately to the south.
A recent note asked whether we knew why work crews like that one appeared to be drilling around Roxhill Elementary School. We took the question to Seattle Public Schools‘ communications team what they could tell us, and they finally got to the bottom of it, so to speak: The crews are checking whether any gasoline from tanks at the recently reopened “Ruxbury” gas station across the street seeped into the water table. David Tucker from the school district says they’re only working on weekends, and whatever they find, it’s no danger to the school or its students/staff because water used there doesn’t come from the site. We’ll be checking further on the extent of the investigation. Meantime, at another gas station a couple miles north, a new price milestone:
Gas prices are truly falling, in more ways than one, at Delridge Arco, first West Seattle spot where we’ve sighted a price in the $2.20s. Will we see sub-$2 gas? Any bets? Tomorrow night, by the way, we’ll be making the rounds for our usual Sunday night price survey of all West Seattle gas stations (here’s last week’s – Arco has dropped 20 cents since then).
The Seattle Lutheran HS girls’ soccer team plays Life Christian at 2 pm today (at Sammamish), for the district championship. SLHS’s volleyball team is playing Rainier Christian this morning and a win would send them to the state tournament. In football, 7:45 tonight at Memorial Stadium downtown, the West Seattle High Wildcats face Enumclaw in a playoff game (WSB will be there to cover it, including live Twitter updates at twitter.com/wsbbizdev). Last night at SWAC, Chief Sealth lost to Lakeside, 20-7.
That’s West Seattle milliner Izzie Lewis, showing and selling “women’s and men’s hats, expertly blocked and finished” at the Fauntleroy Art Show, which continues 10 am-4 pm today in the fellowship hall of Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor), as part of the church’s centennial celebration. More than 20 area artists working in a variety of media are participating, including “tribute artists” – they’ve left this plane of existence, but their work lives on, and was loaned for the show. They include carver/sculptor Frank Evans:
Other tribute artists at the Fauntleroy Art Show include Moses “Moe” Beerman, best known for the Murals of West Seattle (read about them in this West Seattle 101 on WSB feature), but celebrated here for his caricatures. Meantime, fabric art also is part of the show – including Ruth Leonard‘s batik designs:
Admission is free if you just want to browse:
Fauntleroy Church is across from the old schoolhouse, about half a mile uphill from the ferry dock, at 9140 California SW; here’s a map and directions.
That’s one of the beaver ponds in the Delridge Natural Area, across from the temporary home of Chief Sealth High School (map). It’s one of 4 West Seattle greenspaces that would love to have your help tomorrow for Green Seattle Day. They’re in our West Seattle Weekend Lineup but one more shoutout seemed like the thing to do – a whole lot of planting’s going to be happening, rain or shine, and EVERY pair of hands is a gift: Orchard Street Ravine, 9 am-1 pm; Camp Long, 10 am-1 pm; Delridge Natural Area, 10 am-2 pm; West Duwamish Greenbelt, 10 am-2 pm. (P.S. One more place you can help out tomorrow – North Delridge Adopt-A-Street cleanup, meet at Delridge Community Center at 10 am.)
Another update tonight from West Seattleite Lila Tran, the sister of 30-year-old Duy Tran, pulled from almost 100 feet of water near Seacrest after a diving accident last Saturday: Lila says Duy died last night. She has posted about it on her blog, along with a thanks to the man who “literally risked his life” to rescue Duy after something went wrong, and she also thanks WSB readers for the kindness they have shown in the comments on our three previous reports since the Saturday tragedy. The family photos on her site include one with her, her brother, and their siblings while they were growing up in Vietnam, and the observation:
Looking at this picture, I realize that death has taught me to respect and treasure every moment that is spent with those you love because one day they may pass away and you will never get that chance to tell them how much you really love them.
Also in her post, a PayPal link for anyone who wishes to help with the medical bills of the past week as well as funeral costs (here’s a direct link). Mr. Tran is the second diver to die after an accident in that area this year; the first was Josh Magee in January.
Seattle Public Schools has gone public tonight with its timeline for a new round of school closures; the proposed list of buildings to be closed will be released two days before Thanksgiving:
• November 12: School Board meeting, vote on motion to amend policy on notice for public hearings
• November 25: Superintendent’s preliminary recommendation
• December 3: School Board meeting – discussion of recommendation
• December 15, 16, 18: Public hearings at affected buildings
• December 17: School Board meeting
• January 6: Superintendent’s final recommendation
• January 7: Recommendation introduced at School Board meeting
• January 21: School Board meeting
• January 22: Final public hearing
• January 29: Board vote on recommendation
No specific schools anywhere in the city have been listed as likely candidates for closure so far, but West Seattleites are watching particularly warily for reasons including the fact the north end is struggling with overcrowding, and the fact a district manager has mentioned at meetings regarding the Denny Middle School site’s future that an elementary school might be built on that site in the future, as a replacement for “three closures.” Meantime, the news release in which this timeline is laid out also invites public comment on “capacity management,” which includes forthcoming closure proposals — e-mail schoolboard@seattleschools.org. Also: For more context, including some interpretation from citywide PTSA leaders, check out this post on the always-excellent saveseattleschools.blogspot.com site.
That’s one of the photos Fauntleroy resident Chris Porter sent us for his story published here about being an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. Chris has a lot of natural enthusiasm, to say the least — on Election Day morning this past Tuesday, we found him with cheering sign-wavers atop the Fauntleroy overpass:
Hours later, after an early stop at the state Democrats’ party downtown — which he was just leaving when the projected Obama victory was announced at 8 pm — Chris went home, “giddy, tearful, and excited,” to host his own party. Now he’s looking ahead to a trip to D.C. for the inauguration; we sat down to chat with him on Thursday and ask what he thinks as the country comes down from the high spirits of a history-making night and starts looking ahead to what “change” might really mean:Read More
We first read about it on the Seattle Lutheran High School website this morning – students working on a tight deadline to put together care packages for troops, after finding out that an SLHS (civilian) mom was heading for Kuwait with deploying troops:
When we sent a note seeking more info, turned out Bil Hood at SLHS was already rustling up those photos and more information — and he subsequently sent us this article by Kayla, SLHS senior and Key Club vice president:
As Miss Sacha Mann, a Math Teacher and Key Club faculty advisor at Seattle Lutheran High School, was counting money for UNICEF, Mr. Adair Hinds, Head of Seattle Lutheran, approached her with a great opportunity for the school.
A parent of one of the sophomores, who works in the airline industry, will be taking 400 soldiers to Kuwait, and Miss Mann was asked that Key Club put together packages of items that would be donated by students and their families. “I was impressed with the overwhelming generosity and involvement by our students and their families to bring in the donations and write thoughtful cards in such short notice,” said Miss Mann, referring to the very short 2-day timeline the school was given. Key Club not only packaged these gift bags, but also supplied cellophane bags and granola bars for the packages.
The student body helped write thank-you notes to the soldiers and signed a banner that reads, “Seattle Lutheran High School supports our troops.” (top photo) Some students wrote short stories and jokes as well as thank you notes on their cards. “It feels good to know that we’re making a difference in a soldier’s life!” said senior Emily Meyer, Key Club president, as she was writing a thank-you card.
With a very short deadline from Tuesday to Thursday, the school was able to put together more than 350 packages. In an effort to continue to support our troops, we have a Soldier’s Angels Club that is sponsoring 2 Marines who have been deployed to Iraq, and anyone interested in donating items for the care packages can bring them to the school office with a note for the Soldier’s Angels Club. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Seattle Lutheran High School is on Genesee between 41st and 42nd; here’s a map.
Two big names on the roster tonight. Frances Farmer’s Revenge (read our in-depth preview here) at the Admiral, and Twelfth Night Productions‘ “Bullshot Crummond” (WSB sponsor) opening night. Then tomorrow is Green Seattle Day and there are ways you can help (yes you can!) – a cat adopt-a-thon at Southwest Community Center too … Those are part of the 41 West Seattle events, from live music to work parties to a FREE dinner (with just one catch), on our handy list ahead:Read More
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