WS bridge safety
Noteworthy tidbit in this P-I article about inspectors checking area bridges after the Minneapolis collapse: The Admiral Way bridge is one of five in the city with special electronic detectors that monitor it for signs of trouble. (Side note for historic-photo geeks like us, the city archives have lots of shots of its 1949-50 construction, such as this and this.)
Weedbusters
Just spotted on the slope beneath the Sealth/SWAC field, north of Westwood Village, people in protective suits attacking the weediness, Scotch Broom and all … gee, you would think it would have been safer to call in the goats instead.
Heroes on the 21X
This just arrived in our inbox from a WSB reader:
I wanted to note a scary incident on the 21 Express to West Seattle Friday evening.
A female rider became verbally abusive on the bus when she realized the bus was making the right turn onto the Columbia on-ramp to Highway 99. I’ve dubbed her the ‘scary bus female’ (SBF) because she definitely was not a lady. The bus had already started on the on-ramp so could not let her off. She insisted to the driver that she had been let off before. As the bus progressed, she returned to her seat loudly expressing her displeasure. She was upset and very vocal about it. The entire ride was unnerving for those who sat in the back with her.
Midway on 99, she made the ride much worse making threats to kill a woman and her grandson. Fellow riders, including a gentleman beside me, quickly got up to help control the situation. The grandmother and her grandson and other riders moved away from SBF. Several riders stood creating a human fence to block SBF from the rest of us. F or the rest of the trip on 99, until the first stop at 35th and Avalon, SBF was corraled until it was time for her to get off. The driver alert Metro base and we last saw SPD arrive at the scene but our bus was not detained per the wish of the grandmother as she wanted all of us to get home. I hope they’re okay as this was a horrible experience.
It was admirable what these people did. It made me only think of what happened several years ago when a Metro bus went off the Aurora bridge. Kudos to these riders. They helped prevent something that could have been worse.
Seafair Free Friday, the “low show” lowdown
The “barely a sliver of sun before Sunday” forecast turned out to be SO not true today. Things improved steadily after our arrival on the lakeshore … see the two different views of the sky over Stan Sayres Pits, 11:30 am-ish and 1:30 pm-ish:
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The Blue Angels still did their so-called “low show,” no doubt planned hours earlier thanks to the same gloomy forecasts. Fun anyway. More miscellaneous pix and tales, after the click:Read More
Liftoff for JuNO
Christopher Boffoli tells WSB that the first meeting of the new Junction Neighborhood Organization, JuNO, had a great turnout last night (especially considering the temptations of a warm summer night). He also passes on some updates about area crime, procured from a Seattle Police rep in attendance — click to read what Christopher reports about that:Read More
WSB on TV
Yes, the blog was shown for a few seconds on King5 News at eleven o’clock Wednesday night (part of actual tv screen shown below), when their anchorguy announced that the station’s excellent site collecting Seattle blogs, Citizen Rain, had picked WSB as “Blog of the Week.” Makes up for losing the “Best Neighborhood Blog ’07” title to our witty and talented pals at Capitol Hill Seattle (though we didn’t even know there was a competition till we heard they won; maybe we’ll have a chance in ’08).
You’ve seen the signs, now see (and hear) the people
Political signs are multiplying along every busy stretch of road in WS (and elsewhere in the city). This is because the primary election, earliest ever, is less than 3 weeks away. The hottest Seattle races are for School Board (including the WS district, whose rep, Irene Stewart, is not re-running) and City Council; we are now just a few days away from your chance to see/hear the School Board candidates in person, at an outdoor forum, Pathfinder K-8 School lawn (Genesee Hill), Monday night, bring a picnic dinner, enjoy free ice-cream treats courtesy of the Pathfinder PTSA –picnicking and mingling with the candidates starts @ 5:30, speeches @ 6:30. One PS on the August 21st election: Two King County ballot measures will be decided, both tax levies — Proposition 1 for regional/rural parks, Proposition 2 for parks, trails, and Woodland Park Zoo.
WS woman’s kidnapper/attacker “lived in a van”
That’s according to this story (video clip included), including an interview with the husband of the victim, now identified as Terry Leffard. Still no additional info from other coverage or Seattle Police of exactly who the kidnapper/attacker is, except that he is described as a transient living in a van. One clarification — with verified address info (9800 block of 33rd SW), we know the area where this happened is Arbor Heights, not Westwood as we mentioned earlier.
Missing woman found
Seattle Police just told us the WS woman reported missing (previous post) has now been found, and officers are going to talk to her to find out what happened. This all unfolded in the Westwood area. At least, that’s where police say the victim lives; this update quotes family members as saying the victim was found in Cle Elum. We have asked Seattle Police to let us know if it turns out later there is a suspect we all need to be watching for.
Ex-WS tycoon now vacating Vashon
The tycoon who brought WS the Delridge megaflag (photo below, looking south from outside Uptown Espresso) has just put his Vashon ranch up for sale (Beachcomber story including detailed property description here; Times story here), less than a year after moving his company out of West Seattle. (The ex-SGA Delridge building, by the way, is no longer listed for sale anywhere that we can find. Oh real-estate insiders out there, does it have a new owner?)
Alki Statue of Liberty: Latest from the pro-plaza organizers
Just in from Paul Carr, who with wife Libby Carr is heading up the group that is picking up the stalled proposal to build a plaza for the recast Alki Statue of Liberty. His unedited e-mail responding to recent comments, questions, and criticisms, as well as some questions of his own, and the latest on their committee’s efforts, all after the click:Read More
At the computer briefly between Blue Angels and the rest of Saturday afternoon fun — we want to make sure everyone saw 
Every so often, we get a request to ask everybody in WSB-land for suggestions about something. (Recent examples: 
… you should see it again. Nine days after a sharp reader 
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