West Seattle, Washington
11 Wednesday
Just a few days ago, we published a WSB Reader Report about a car hit with eggs, and 2 other people added in the comments that they’d seen or experienced something similar. We’re listening to the police/fire scanner as usual during late-night watch right now, and just heard police responding to another report of “those eggers,” this time at California and Fauntleroy. If you see anything going on, remember, call 911. Vandalism is a crime.
Tonight’s WSB late-night followup — where things stand for three ex-Huling Bros. dealership employees arrested a year ago 
and accused of stealing from a mentally unstable customer in 2006. The trial date for two of them, Adrian Dillard and Ted Coxwell, has been postponed several times; the most recent date on record was today, so we dropped by the King County Courthouse downtown, only to find out their lawyers were filing a motion to postpone it again. We’ll let you know when a new date is set. (Dillard bailed out of jail last January, but Coxwell is still listed in custody on the King County Jail Register.) Meanwhile, sentencing is scheduled tomorrow — provided no last-minute postponement happens here too — for Paul Rimbey, the first of the suspects to go to trial; a King County Superior Court jury found him guilty of theft in mid-November, and he is expected to face at least three months in jail.
Thanks to LyndaB for the photo and for word of this crash that blocked the right northbound lane of 35th at Juneau for a while earlier tonight (a second car was involved too; SFD callout on the 911 log does not appear to have been too big). She told us about this one at the same intersection a month ago; clearly “I-35,” forthcoming red-light cameras and all, is worth watching even more closely in ’08.
We’ll have plenty to talk about regarding local and state election issues in the months to come, but with the Iowa caucuses tonight, the presidential race is front and center – so we’re seizing the moment to remind you again that caucuses in our state are just weeks away, on February 9. We took a closer look in this report just before the holidays, with a lot of help from the 34th District Democrats. Since then, the King County Republicans have finally put some information online — their site now has a caucus locator for local Republicans. Local Democrats can locate their caucus site from the 34th DD caucus-info page — which lists all district Democratic caucus sites (here) next to the names of the sites’ PCOs (precinct committee officers) — ADDED FRIDAY, THANKS TO WSB-ERS: to get your precinct number, go here. When we checked today with 34th DD chair Ivan Weiss for any additional advice for would-be participants, he suggested, “They should contact their PCOs if they want to volunteer to help. For example, each precinct will need, in addition to the PCO or convener, a tally clerk (top priority) and a secretary to take the caucus minutes. Also we will need volunteers to move tables and chairs around, and to staff the sign-in tables. Any voter in the 34th District can contact me any time by e-mail or phone if they need to find what precinct they are in, or for any other thing, no matter how trivial. I mean that seriously. I am set up to help them, and usually can answer their questions within minutes.” Ivan’s contact info is here; 34th District Republican contact info is here.
… West Seattle’s 95-year-old discus champion Leon Joslin is featured in the Times today. Inexplicably, the article doesn’t name the “West Seattle retirement complex” where he lives, but we just got a note from Jerald (thank you!) adding some context:
He lives at The Kenney in assisted living. He’s a long-time WS resident and retired from real estate. The triangular office building across from the Original Bakery (Fauntleroy) used to be his and is still named after him.
The USA Masters Track & Field Rankings site has a longer list of his accomplishments.
West Seattle author Lisa Haneberg is looking for a little help as she gets ready to lead a group of local seniors in writing their life stories for family, friends, and posterity. Here’s her request:Read More
According to the official website for the Washington State Ferries wi-fi Internet service,
Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth is still the next route scheduled to get it … and still no date set; after various delays last year, the site switched its public projection to “fourth quarter 2007,” and now that’s moved to “first quarter 2008.” However, if you have any reason to use WSF wi-fi on a route where it’s up and running (listed here), you can get a free week of service by taking a relatively quick (we tried it) survey.
In advance of the West Seattle open houses later this month (listed on the WSB Events page and here) about RapidRide bus service starting in 2011, Metro has now posted more West Seattle-specific info on this page, including an online questionnaire for you to fill out before February 1st, asking which route alternative (map here) you’d prefer. (Hat tip to Seattle Transit Blog for pointing out the updated Metro page.)
So says the Times. Heartening news for us fans of in-person voting.
Continuing our series of late-night followups when there’s no urgent news at this hour — we noticed today that construction is moving fast on the townhouses at the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda site in the 5900 block of California. First, from last February, the old restaurant’s festive facade just after it closed and the sign came down:
And the townhouses-in-progress, today:
Good news from our latest review of Seattle Police reports at the Southwest Precinct — no major crimes reported in West Seattle over the New Year’s holiday. Not to say things were completely quiet, of course – here are four incidents of note:Read More
Police are on the scene of an accident that’s causing some traffic trouble if you are trying to turn northbound on Delridge from westbound on Roxbury. Doesn’t look too major; we’re just alerting you to avoid the area (map).
All sorts of West Seattle stuff on the city’s press-release site today. We first told you last Friday (with a lively discussion erupting afterward, of course) about the public meetings coming up later this month for the future parks at Morgan Junction and Myrtle Street Reservoir; the official city press releases are out today (Morgan Junction 1/15 meeting here, Myrtle 1/22 meeting here) so we’re mentioning them again in case you missed the news during the holiday crunch.
This just in from the city press-releases page: 35th/Thistle and 35th/Avalon will get cameras this year to snap photos of red-light runners. If you get caught, it’s a $124 fine (up from $101 last year). Specifically, at those intersections, the cameras will watch drivers heading south on 35th @ Thistle (above photo, right) and west on Avalon @ 35th (above photo, left). Full citywide list of present and future cameras here; map of West Seattle locations here:
And thanks again to our fabulous tech consultant Stuart Maxwell for troubleshooting: Long story short, because it includes some behind-the-curtain stuff you should know — The world of “spam” online doesn’t just affect your inbox; it also affects websites like ours that accept comments. Automated programs are out there relentlessly patrolling for places to try to post fake comments with addresses for porn sites, pharma sites, things like that. There’s an excellent spam-fighting program called Akismet that we and many other sites use, and it catches literally thousands of spam comments per day, on WSB alone. (Sometimes it accidentally nets bonafide comments too, so if a comment you post never turns up, that may be what happened.) According to what Stuart found out, Akismet had a glitch very early this morning, so the spam comments were flooding in, and the site-hosting company disabled the function till the problem could be solved. All’s well now, the old comments are back, and you can post new ones too. Sorry for the snag!
Just to let you know – we’re having some trouble with the “comment” function right now, including posting them and reading them. Sorry about that; will let you know when it’s fixed.
Since we first reported two months ago that the last remaining space in the ex-Alki Market would become the “Alki Urban Market,” hopes have run high, as has the volume of questions. A few more facts emerged when a sign appeared on its door December 21st featuring an e-mail address with the “seattleurbanmarket.com” domain, thus confirming AUM will be part of a group of stores run by Eastside businessman Thampipillai Thilakarajah (WSB photo above). But the website doesn’t have Alki specifics (yet), so to find out more, we requested an interview. Here’s the result:Read More
Just west of The Junction, and a couple houses west of Ercolini Park, you’ll find this deteriorating old home whose current appearance doesn’t hint much at its vital past as a neighborhood market — unless you look at the “past” photo sent by neighbor Bill Leaming (who also sent the “present” one below):
If you had trouble reading the inscription on the “past” photo of Fraker’s Grocery, it’s from 1956. County property records show the building dates back to 1926. City records don’t show anything new currently proposed for the site. Thanks to Bill for sharing the past/present photos; we love history tidbits here, so they’re always welcome. (Speaking of neighborhood markets, our Alki Urban Market update will be published first thing tomorrow morning.)
The first Southwest Design Review Board meeting of the new year, one week from Thursday, is scheduled to look at the Spring Hill apartment/retail mixed-use building proposed for 5020 California and 2 parcels south of that address (area photo above; developers BlueStar told WSB last week there’s no project rendering yet). As mentioned in our December 11 update, it’s now outlined as a 6-story building with 90 apartments, 100 parking spaces, and 4,000 square feet of retail. Area resident Mary wanted other neighbors to know that she’s drafted a letter opposing it and that they can contact her if they want a copy of it or are interested otherwise in joining forces:Read More
What a New Year’s Day along the West Seattle shore. First the Polar Bear Swim (see below), then the Seattle HOG (Harley Owners’ Group) taking off from Don Armeni on their annual “Chilly Buns Run” to Federal Way:
The cheering section outside the Alki Tavern was a nice touch.
Pix of this morning’s swim, courtesy of Dan E (thanks!):
Water temperature, by the way, was 48 degrees (warmer than the air, though!).
Also happening on Alki this morning – Harleys gathering for their annual New Year’s ride, south through Burien and on to Federal Way. Video of that in our next post; meantime, a few more Alki Polar Bear pix from Dan E:Read More
Nominate somebody for the West Seattle Community Recognition Awards. Quick, easy, free. If you missed our announcement just before Christmas, read it here.
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