Westcrest warning from owner of “double survivor” dog
That’s Mo, a Chow mix who lives with Cammie Owen — after being rescued from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, plagued by mange but ready to thrive in a new home. You would think the hurricane would have been enough of an ordeal that this dog should have had smooth sailing ever since, but then came a sudden, life-threatening sickness:
That’s Mo just days ago, his belly shaved after an ultrasound, as vets tried frantically to figure out what was wrong with him. Cammie says they believe he ingested rat poison — and she suspects that happened at Westcrest Park, where she has put up warning flyers. And she says he’s not the only dog that runs there that’s gotten sick:Read More
Welcoming a new sponsor: West Seattle Rock & Gem Show
Tonight we welcome the newest WSB sponsor: The West Seattle Rock Club, advertising here to let you know about their biggest event of the year — free to the public! — the West Seattle Rock and Gem Show, coming up February 16-17 at the Alki Masonic Temple in The Junction, featuring not only displays of rocks and gems, but also demonstrations and family activities. (Read more here.) The club’s been in West Seattle since 1965, and meets monthly, with other activities including rockhounding field trips. But you don’t have to be a hobbyist or any kind of expert to attend and enjoy the annual show; check out photos from last year’s Rock and Gem Show on this page of the WSRC’s website. We thank the WSRC for choosing to promote the Rock & Gem Show by advertising on WSB; if you’re interested in joining them and our other sponsors, please visit this page.
Update on poison concerns for pets in local parks
We have been working today on a story about a dog that got very sick after running in Westcrest Off-Leash Area, and its vet and owner suspect rat poison may have been to blame. While we are continuing to work on those details for a longer article you will see here in a little while, we have just received what looks like a followup on the Fauntleroy Park poison concern we posted here two weeks ago. This was forwarded from the Partners for Animal Welfare newsletter, quoting another organization’s bulletin:
This notice just came in via Pasado Safe Haven’s e-mail newsletter the week of January 28th . In looking into this a little more on the web, unfortunately people may be trying to poison the many coyotes that have been spotted in the area, but your dog might very easily pick up the food or treats being left out. Please watch your dogs while at any park in West Seattle!
NEWS ALERT JUST PHONED IN:
Reported Poison in Fauntleroy Park, West Seattle
If you walk your dog in Fauntleroy Park, in West Seattle, please be warned; multiple dogs have ingested poison in the park! Apparently the poison is in dog food, bones, and other dog treats. These enticing treats have been found under bushes and throughout the park. Please be careful and let anyone you know who goes to Fauntleroy, know also. Thank you!
Just as we were reading that e-mail, we got a call back from the Parks Department employee we’d called about Westcrest, Carol Baker. She tells WSB the department is NOT aware of any NEW incident of suspected poison having been found in Fauntleroy Park since this report on Jan. 14. More later on that and also the Westcrest report (we have spoken with the owner of the dog in that incident, which is recovering, but in the short run, if you take your dog to that park, sounds like it would be a good idea to keep very close watch to keep it from ingesting anything).
Just got word of even MORE city work tomorrow …
Just a couple hours after the announcement (see below) of SDOT work at California/Othello tomorrow, we just got another alert from the city — regarding work on the Admiral medians (December photo above) tomorrow, and beyond, including a request for input on the median trees when work crews return a week later:Read More
Traffic alert: California Ave paving tomorrow
Just out of the WSB inbox, from the city Transportation Department:
SDOT crews will replace concrete panels in California Avenue Southwest, between SW Othello Street and SW Orchard Street, tomorrow (Saturday, February 2), if weather permits. Work will start at 8 a.m.
Northbound and southbound traffic will be allowed through this block of California Avenue, alternating between the two directions of traffic with the assistance of a traffic flagger. The sidewalk on the western side of the street will remain open for pedestrians; crews will repair the sidewalk on the eastern side. SDOT will reopen all of the lanes of traffic once the concrete has cured, depending on weather conditions, no later than Sunday night.
The work is needed in order to restore the pavement following work on underground utilities.
This is in Gatewood, acrosss from Seattle International Church, about a block south of Caffe Ladro (map)
West Seattle Weekend Lineup: February kickoff
(Photo by Emeline Chabanne, courtesy Gansango Music & Dance [2007])
The Gansango show tonight at SSCC is one of 31 West Seattle weekend possibilities you’ll find listed ahead (including free yoga as a Super Bowl alternative, a fundraising bake sale this afternoon, a free Wii class for grownups, a karaoke contest, and more):Read More
Think spring: West Seattle Soccer Club registration begins
Another local kids’ sports league starts registration today: the West Seattle Soccer Club‘s spring season. It’s open to players ages 5-12, and it’s a fairly low-impact commitment – games on Sunday afternoons, no practices, various fields around West Seattle; the season starts April 6 and runs for six weeks (no games on Mother’s Day) — $40 per player. You can register any time from now till March 1 by going to the West Seattle Soccer Club website (click here), where you will also find lots of news about the league — which has a fall season too (with almost 1,300 players last year!).
Reader report: Rocks thrown at Admiral-area cars
Just out of the inbox from Meredith:
Just seen at Grayson & Belvidere (just north of Admiral): Three police cars with one teen in custody (Caucasian, about 14-years-old). Chased down after caught throwing rocks at cars. Officer says this kid, plus two others have been reported in 20-30 incidents along the Admiral Way corridor (37th – 41st). Two kids still at large, reportedly around 14- to 15-years-old, one Hispanic, one with longish red hair. PLEASE alert drivers for their own safety, and ask residents to keep an eye out for these kids. Their actions could case an accident, perhaps a death for one of those b*****ds speeding up the hill. Kids are also suspect in the knifing of a neighbor’s tires, theft from vehicles in the area, and rocks thrown thru home windows.
The area and description are similar to the 1/11/08 reader report we published on the Crime Watch page, involving a brick thrown through a front door, after three teenage boys were seen “cruising” the area.
Suspect in Delridge, CD shootings just booked into jail
23-year-old Rey Davis-Bell (photo left) has just been booked into the King County Jail within the last 40 minutes, according to the KCJ register, for investigation of homicide, assault, and drive-by shooting. Almost every citywide source that has posted about this has a different nugget – the Times has the most thorough information on his criminal background, for example. It’s been widely reported that the Longfellow Creek Apartments unit on Delridge where he allegedly fired shots through a window 
yesterday morning (photo from WSB contributor Sage K) is where his girlfriend lives; exactly what ties he had to the Central District restaurant where he is accused of opening fire half an hour later, killing the restaurant’s owner and wounding another man, is still not clear, though the owner’s niece is quoted as saying her uncle did “know” Davis-Bell somehow. The suspect was captured after a manhunt that is said to have involved more than 100 officers, many of them out on the streets all night.
“Megawatt’s Legacy Lives On” – and we/you are part of it
As you may recall, the community-building organization Megawatt decided last month to disband, but its leaders were hopeful that its legacy, and its best-known events, would carry on, with new organizers. As just officially announced in Megawatt’s last e-mail bulletin, that’s going to happen:
Megawatt’s Legacy Lives On
Megawatt is thrilled to announce that the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day and the Gathering of Neighbors will continue in 2008 and beyond under new leadership.
The West Seattle Blog is the new organizer of the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. Tracy Record and Patrick Sand have a lot of creative ideas for this beloved West Seattle event. Check out the West Seattle Blog at www.westseattleblog.com for ongoing updates.
The Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association will take on leadership for the Gathering of Neighbors. DNDA is a trusted West Seattle steward and under their guidance GON will continue as an inspired community event. Contact Derek Birnie at www.dnda.org for more information.
Megawatt is officially signing off. Thank you for making all of this important work possible.
Here’s to community. Here’s to West Seattle.
Congratulations to Megawatt founder Mary Ellen Cunningham, her board, and their colleagues for everything they’ve accomplished. And to DNDA for taking on Gathering of Neighbors, which is an awesome way to find out more about community resources and opportunities. And now, about those garage sales — We are thrilled that Mary Ellen and the Megawatt board decided to trust WSB with Community Garage Sale Day. It’s something that truly and literally all of West Seattle can be part of – as sellers and/or shoppers (and we’re hoping for some community partners in other roles too) – and something that also can draw people from other areas to come visit our fabulous peninsula. Plus, we can all talk a lot about it online before, during, and after. Megawatt created an instant tradition by launching this event in 2005, and we hope you will help make the 4th Annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day ’08 a ton of fun. If you were a seller or buyer last year, and you have a thought on what you hope won’t change and what you think would make it an optimal experience, please leave a comment here or e-mail us any time at a special mailbox we’ve set up: garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Oh, and mark your calendar – we want to continue the Megawatt tradition of scheduling this for the second Saturday in May – that’ll be May 10th, 2008! We’ll talk more about this soon, and we’ll set up a forum topic when it gets a little closer.
There’s breaking coyote news too
Two things, actually. First is that we actually got a coyote PICTURE for the first time after all these coyote reports. Thanks to JF for sending the photo taken this week of his neighborhood’s “resident coyote.” Second thing, the Discovery Park coyote just got a reprieve. According to this article, instead of trapping/killing the coyote, authorities will work on educating the public to co-exist with wildlife.
Cafe owner: “Looks like Charlestown has won the first round”
So says Charlestown Cafe owner Larry Mellum, 
in an e-mail response to our inquiry about a note that a reader saw posted at CC, saying it looks like the project that posed the most immediate threat to the restaurant’s future is indeed stalled, or maybe even dead. (Background: First word of CC losing its lease was a year and a half ago; the community started rallying to save it last March; most recent Design Review meeting on the Petco store proposed for the cafe site was last August our last report on the project’s nonprogress was in December.) Tonight — here’s what Larry just e-mailed to WSB:
By all indications it appears that Madison Development has pulled out of the project. The Landlord’s agent, Rick Megenity, and I spoke last Friday and that is what he said.
Further, he indicated that Madison has not responded to the Landlord’s requests both in writing or verbally to tell them what is going on. Nor have they been able to meet the formal time lines for development that were laid out in the agreement between them. All that being said, Madison has NOT and I repeat HAS NOT formally backed-out. I don’t however believe that they have to. Because by virtue of their non-performance the contract likely has been breached. What this means without putting words in anyone’s mouth is that the Landlord is likely to proceed in finding some other means of re-development at the Charlestown location. They have indicated that this is how they would hope to proceed. In my conversations with them, we discussed putting some type of multi-use facility here that would include space for a restaurant suitable in size for a “Charlestown-like” location to be included. Although they cannot or will not lock themselves into anything at this juncture, I believe they would like it developed in that way.
So, there you have it. It looks like the community and ‘Charlestown has won the “first round” and by all indications we could be here for a long time to come. If not in our current form it will be in a form suitable for the landlord to receive what he wants — which is more rent out of the property, BUT STILL HERE situated with a couple of other retail and/or office tenants.
Thank you for your inquiry … and to all of West Seattle, thank you for your overwhelming support. It is truly humbling.
Best wishes,
Larry Mellum
Charlestown Street Cafe
We had checked both with Petco and with city planners in the past few weeks; Petco said only that they hoped to stay in West Seattle one way or another, city planners said they hadn’t heard anything in quite some time. (Previous WSB coverage of the Charlestown Cafe situation is all archived here.)
Two more West Seattle coyote sightings
It bears repeating, we share these e-mails about coyote sightings NOT to fan any flames of anti-coyote hysteria, but just to remind everyone that West Seattle is full of wildlife large and small, and if you think “well, not in my neighborhood,” think again. We’re going to try to save them to share in bunches, though, rather than one by one, unless there’s something truly urgent to report. First, Charles sent this yesterday:
We live in Arbor Heights and around 2 AM were awakened by the yips and yaps that are common to coyotes. I have heard them before when I was in Arizona, but never in West Seattle. Looked out the window, and 2 or 3 were running through our yard and down to the ravine that empties out at Seola Beach.
And today, Mary sent this:
My neighbors have been sending e-mail out this week about a coyote that has been seen on Maple Way in the Lincoln Park Annex area (the Annex is just two blocks north of the park). She/he just showed up in my back yard and was a good size ‘doggie’ and is not afraid of people. It appeared she was headed for the park since she trotted south along our easement. On occasion we have heard of one, usually this time of year but only one or two sightings. This one has been in our neighborhood for over a month now and is frequently out during the day.
Once again, here is our favorite official state link about co-existing with coyotes.
Bank merger closes this week
Didn’t realize till reading this post on The Mortgage Porter (WSB sponsor) that Washington Federal is acquiring First Mutual. Both have West Seattle branches, both on California Ave; WF’s newly renovated branch in Morgan Junction, FM’s newly built branch is just north of The Junction. The acquisition closes on Friday.
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