West Seattle, Washington
23 Monday
Arbor Heights Community Church sends word of two upcoming neighborhood events: A crime-prevention meeting with Seattle Police is planned for 7 pm Tuesday, August 30th, at the church (4113 SW 102nd). All AH residents are welcome, as is also the case with the annual block party, happening even sooner – official announcement ahead:Read More
Four reader reports to share – three are West Seattle Crime Watch reports (burglary, theft, hit-run), and one is a “creepy” encounter that a runner wants others to be aware of:Read More
(WEDNESDAY NOTE: We’ve received several more photos from Night Out parties, and have added them to this report, which now includes scenes from 18 parties!)
6:11 PM: At some West Seattle “Night Out” block parties tonight, it’ll be as much carnival atmosphere as anything else – the folks at 32nd and Kenyon shared that photo of the bouncy house awaiting neighborhood kids. In Upper Fauntleroy, the block party we’ll be missing while out covering others already has one young attendee in place:
That’s Colin, who’s 9. We’re in Gatewood right now, as of 6:10 pm, and heading to as many stops as we can make before 9 pm (let us know if your party’s running late – we found one last year after dark).:
That’s the first of two Gatewood parties we’re stopping by – 97-year-old Louise is the star of the show; she’s lived on the block since the ’40s. Thanks to Holly for letting us know about the party in Louise’s ‘hood.
6:21 PM: A few blocks southwest of Louise and company, this jovial Gatewood group is barbecuing:
Thanks to Jill for the invite.
6:29 PM: Heading east into Westwood, a few adjacent blocks have so many parties, Kelly e-mailed to tell us they’re offering “passports” to encourage people to visit them all and meet more neighbors. Here’s Denise, who came up with the passport idea:
6:49 PM: Scenes from three of the parties in Kelly and Denise’s neighborhood:
More to come – South Delridge/Highland Park next!
7:01 PM: Marcia Ventura invited us via Facebook to stop by the 9000 block of 13th SW:
We didn’t realize that there we would also find local artist/belly dancer Dina Lydia Johnson – who made the sign in the photo (and is also a photographer – she took a group shot right before ours) – and her fellow community advocate husband Blair Johnson, as well as more of their neighbors. Next stop – High Point Community Center.
7:20 PM: Turns out the HPCC party is more a series of small gatherings elsewhere in High Point. We’re now en route to the HQ of the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network, in Hansen View, near Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor). But we do have a new photo, e-mailed from Alki by Lisa Dawson:
7:39 PM: As we head toward Pigeon Point, photos from the WSBWCN leaders’ block:
Biggest crowd we’ve seen so far – they had 80 people last year and think they’re close to that this time. They had a high-level SPD visitor too – Assistant Chief Dick Reed, with WSBWCN’s Deb Greer and Karen Berge, and neighbor Jim:
8:08 PM: At the Pigeon Point party, Pete Spalding told us they’d already had a visit from Assistant Chief Reed – as well as precinct commander Capt. Steve Paulsen. And Seattle Fire Department made its annual stop at that high-profile party – here’s the Engine 36 crew from just down the hill at the north end of Delridge:
The kids of Pigeon Point were creating street art:
And the grownups were nominating neighbors for a new “garden recognition” award to be named after the late Vivian McLean, a neighborhood giant known for (among many other things) her beautiful garden:
Visiting from nearby Puget Ridge at the center of the photo, by the way, that’s Stu Hennessey of Alki Bike and Board and Sustainable West Seattle (seen recently atop the award-winning Trikeceratops in the West Seattle Grand Parade). Pete pointed out that West Seattle Nursery donated the plant atop the nomination table.
We’re in North Delridge now – but first, Cheryl shares a photo from her block party in Fauntlee Hills:
8:36 PM: From the North Delridge party, more Seattle firefighters meeting neighbors:
And we’re now in Seaview, where SPD Community Police Team Officers Kevin McDaniel and Ken Mazzuca are visiting a party (photo added 8:54):
Thanks to Alison for the invite. We then rolled over to South Admiral – where the block party we were going to check out was packing up – does happen by this time of night. We found some night owls in Fairmount Springs last year and are going to head that way before wrapping up the Night Out 2011 journey. We’d still welcome your photos, too, as we’re likely to have one more roundup tonight or tomorrow. (editor@wsb.blackfin.biz)
ADDED WEDNESDAY MORNING: Decided to add the additional pix here. First, from Barbara, in the 8800 block of 38th Ave SW, where Ladder 11 stopped by:
In the Admiral District, Kendall shared a photo from their party *at* a fire station (29):
From Cinda on 42nd SW in Gatewood (where she says the second photo shows neighborhood kids writing “42ND ROX”):
Next one is from Seaview, where Karl reports a great turnout in the “48th Avenue corridor from Hudson to Brandon”:
From 52nd/Stevens, BD shares this photo of “one of the dads, doling out s’mores at the Night Out party. We were all about the fire and s’mores over here”:
Still a few more to come!
(2010 Night Out photo of 48th/Dawson party, by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
Tomorrow night is the biggest block-party night of the year around West Seattle and the rest of the U.S. – Night Out. 
Years ago, it started as National Night Out Against Crime, and that’s still its focus, to bring together neighbors and neighborhoods in the interest of crime prevention and deterrence. It’s not too late to get your party on the citywide map – a few West Seattle events are there now, but we know there are more! (10 am Tuesday is the deadline.) And thanks to party organizers who have sent us info on locations/times for the traditional WSB “as it happens” Night Out report – if you wouldn’t mind us potentially stopping by, please e-mail us the address and who to ask for. It’s a great chance to celebrate neighborhood spirit.
Summer break hasn’t kept local schools from making news. Today, 3 updates from Our Lady of Guadalupe School:
FLASHING LIGHTS FOR 35TH SW SCHOOL ZONE: OLG says the Washington Traffic Safety Commission has awarded the school a grant “to purchase lighting which will require drivers to reduce their speed to 20 miles per hour before and after the school day. School-zone flashing beacon lights will soon be installed on 35th Avenue SW between Othello and Willow Streets.” The announcement quotes principal Kristin Dixon: “We are grateful to the City of Seattle for working with us in an effort to keep our children and families safe!”
Meantime, OLG has been officially certified as a Level 1 Washington Green School – as you might have noticed in their award-winning West Seattle Grand Parade entry:
OLG is one of 35 “Level 1” (levels explained here) schools among the 160-plus Washington Green Schools statewide. (They’ve even produced a video about it!) Last but not least, news shared by Tom Fine about a classroom improvement (thanks to Tom for sharing the rendering, too):
OLG (Our Lady of Guadalupe) is in the process of renovation of the 6th grade classroom. The new classroom will house the school’s new Science Lab. This transformation will allow the students to spend more time exploring science and hands-on experiments. The Science Lab is receiving new cabinetry, countertops, lab stations, plumbing and electrical, to provide the students with the tools and environment to expand their learning. This modification to the school is exciting to have the students utilizing the new space from the continuing support by the families of OLG. We are all excited for this new transformation, which will be ready for the new school year.
Two Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon. The first one was a theft that happened in a flash; the second, a car break-in that led to a garage break-in. (And we added a third at 4:04 pm – all are ahead:)Read More
8:58 PM: Another citation roundup on SPD Blotter tonight; at first glance, we thought, nah, we’ll skip this one, nothing particularly major. Then we took a second look, and noticed this SW Admiral Way stop:
1 bicycle at 42 mph
First time we’ve seen them mention a bicyclist.
ADDED 11:02 AM THURSDAY: Just talked to Sgt. Sean Whitcomb of the SPD media-response unit, to follow up on this. One point of clarification: The bicyclist received a “warning” ticket, not one with a price tag – as an opportunity for awareness-raising, according to Sgt. Whitcomb, who adds that the rider, an “adult male,” was “very surprised” – both at being stopped, and once he heard how fast he was going (indeed, detected by LIDAR). This isn’t the first time ADRT has stopped a bicyclist, notes the sergeant, but more commonly, it’s for “rules of the road” type violations.
3:07 PM THURSDAY: A comment just in from Kevin, who says he’s the cyclist that was “pulled over”:
As the cyclist involved… I figure I should give my 2 cents.
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I was fine with being pulled over. I could have gotten a ticket and would have been OK with it; however, the SUV gaining on me from behind should have also been given a ticket. Going 42 (and by the way… why does everyone assume I was going downhill) on Admiral just keeps you with the flow of traffic. This morning, I was going about 30 mph and had a car zoom past on the right hand side and cut over right in front of me just before the merge to Spokane. Like it or not, it’s safer for a bike to break the speed limit and keep up with traffic (if possible) than to try to obey the law.
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The officer was nice about the whole situation (and seemed to get a kick out of pulling over a bike). He said he had been looking for a bike to pull over for a while (apparently, I was the first going fast enough). He told me he was careful to write a neat contact report so that I could frame it. If only I had known I was going to be clocked…
While also planning to report this to police, PJ wanted to share the word of a suspicious incident involving someone knocking at the door around mid-afternoon today, just north of The Junction:Read More
One week from tonight – on Tuesday, August 2nd – it’s Night Out, the annual nationwide celebration of neighbors banding together to fight crime. If you want to close your (non-arterial) street for a block party, hurry! Other neighborhoods have already done it – like the lively people of Pigeon Point, whose official signpost invitation to neighbors is up (artwork by Jim Sander, photo courtesy Pete Spalding). The registration link is on this Seattle Police Department infopage. And if you wouldn’t mind us stopping by your party for a pic, please e-mail us the location and who to ask for!
Meantime, if you use Twitter, and follow the feed for Seattle Police, you were probably startled this morning (we were!) to suddenly see their feed changed into an information stream with single-line messages about calls officers were handling around the city. (Usually, the SPD Twitter feed only has a few messages a day, mostly links to updates on their SPD Blotter site of selected incident summaries.) At a mid-morning briefing about Night Out, they explained they’re doing a “tweet-a-thon” today, 6 am to 6 pm, highlighting incidents that the public tipped them about. Media Response Unit leader Sgt. Sean Whitcomb explains it here.
P.S. Before Night Out gets here – make sure your Block Watch is linked up with the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network! You can find them on the Web, on Facebook, and this Thursday night, info-tabling at the West Seattle Candidates’ Forum (6:30-9 pm at South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center – updated details coming up later this afternoon).
Out of the WSB inbox today, from Jason:
Our house near 36th and Barton was burglarized during the day on 7/21. The front door was kicked in and several items were stolen. Please let others know so they can keep an eye out for suspicious activity In their neighborhoods.
Police say door-kicking is a common method of break-in; here’s their advice on burglary prevention.
Only two weeks till this year’s Night Out Against Crime, Tuesday, August 2nd. Still time to register your block party so you can close the street, providing it’s not an arterial. Here’s where to sign up.. You can also check out the Night Out page on Facebook – find it here. And if you wouldn’t mind us stopping by your party as we travel around that night trying to get to as many as possible, please send us the address (here’s how to reach us) before party night, and let us know who to ask for! Also note the city is inviting people to map their parties by adding them to a calendar – this is the first time ever for that – once you’re in the calendar, there’s a map on the city Night Out page showing locations that have been added!
This is one of those reports that’s hard to interpret – maybe it wasn’t what it seemed – but Todd asked that we share it, just in case:Read More
Keith Ramsey just sent word – again, via Twitter, like the first time – that SDOT, as promised, has been out to take care of the overgrowth on Delridge Way’s east-side sidewalk near the Southwest Precinct and Home Depot. If you missed the original story, he called attention to it by making a video and publishing it on YouTube, as featured in our story from last Friday. And of course, he has created a followup video – YT says it’s still processing; we’ll add it here when it’s done.
3:01 PM: The link has now gone away completely (checking with Keith on that) – but we ran over to the zone in question to photograph (albeit from across the street) the new-mown proof.
11:23 PM: Keith has published an updated video – saying that the spot where the SDOT mowing stopped was short of their property line:
We’ll check with SDOT in the morning.
ADDED MIDDAY THURSDAY: From SDOT’s Rick Sheridan: “Given landscaping needs elsewhere, work like this is sometimes spread over multiple days. Although we were not able to finish mowing yesterday, a crew should be back on site now to complete the work.”
ADDED THURSDAY AFTERNOON: Done, says Keith, tweeting this photo as proof.
Reminder before night gets closer … pet experts say keeping your cats and dogs inside tonight is the humane thing to do – fireworks are not only a direct danger, the noise also scares them to the point where they might run out of home territory. Already today, after a night with hours of illegal fireworks, we’ve added five new lost/found pet listings to the WSB Pets page. It’s here if you need it, but better yet, just don’t run the risk.
Two reader reports with words of warning – one a scare in Alki traffic this afternoon, one a sort of road-rage incident along California SW between Morgan and Alaska Junctions earlier in the week – read on:Read More
In case you weren’t there, leaders of the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’ Network are sharing tips on how to have a successful “Night Out” block party this August 2nd, as discussed at their meeting last night. One of those tips – you can apply for a city grant to help cover some of your expenses – but tomorrow’s the deadline! Find all the info in this update on the WSBWCN site. (And be sure to register your “Night Out” party ASAP, too – do that here.)
Tonight we have two reports that WSB’ers wanted to share with you – first one involves a ransacked car; second one, a mom who says someone was behaving suspiciously as she and her children passed – read on for both:Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Throughout this spring, West Seattle has been in an unusual spotlight – making a regular appearance on the Seattle Police Department‘s SPD Blotter website, as the Aggressive Drivers Response Team reports citation totals from staking out speeding-rich spots such as the east Admiral Way hill, the West Seattle Bridge, or “I-35.”
Like this (May 27th).
And this (April 21st).
And then there was the 92 mph citation on the West Seattle Bridge.
When this started to become a frequent occurrence, we asked for the chance to ride along. Police ride-alongs are fairly routine news-media fodder, particularly in TV, but since your editor here had spent so many years as an office-dwelling manager/producer, the opportunity had never presented itself.
The SPD media-response unit accepted the request, and after some weeks of phone tag, one gray day last month, we finally got the ridealong.
Not entirely what we expected. But if you’re interested in details about how the ADRT works – plus the one video moment when our assigned officer chased and snagged a(n alleged) speeder – now we know what the Charger sounds like from inside! – read on:Read More
(UPDATE: As of 10:10 pm, STILL closed in the westbound direction)
If you’re heading toward Highland Park Way westbound (uphill) from West Marginal Way SW (etc.), sorry, you can’t go that way – police have blocked it off. We’ve had multiple reports of some kind of slick on the hill, with people “fishtailing” according to Stephanie‘s report via Facebook. A state trooper is there along with SPD (photo above), and he tells us a truck spilled fuel – they had been “following it for a while,” he said – and the hill will stay closed, westbound, till they can get it cleaned up.
From a longtime WSB’er – who begins her note, “My family was almost killed today on the WS bridge” – a road-rage report. Read on:Read More
Someone tried to lure a child into a car last night, according to this report just in from Sandy, who wanted to “warn parents and schools in the neighborhood about this”:
I just wanted to let you know about something that happened yesterday in the Admiral District.
At approx. 6 pm, my eleven year old nephew and his 9 year old brother were skateboarding and biking around our block (the 1500 block of California ave SW) [map]. They were just going around it in a circle, as they are not allowed to cross the street. For just a brief few minutes, the older boy was out of our sight. He went to the top of the block and was coming down the sidewalk near our home when a man in a black car pulled up and opened his rear passenger door and said, “Get in, I’ve got some licorice for you.”
Thank God this kid was old enough and smart enough to run as fast as he could to get help. The man drove off quickly.
The police did come and take a report and were wonderful with this scared young boy. They assured him that he had done nothing wrong and had in fact done everything right.
We checked the time-lag police-report map, and there is indeed a “suspicious circumstances” call logged for that area for that time last night. We are checking with the Southwest Precinct to see if there have been any other similar reports lately, or if this seems to have been an isolated report.
2:34 PM UPDATE: From the police report, a more detailed description: White man, 30-50, black hair, mustache, medium build, gray shirt, blue jeans, heart-shaped earring, smaller black car.
Since that crash last Thursday, with a car hitting a house in the 1700 block of SW Holden, we have learned more about the circumstances and what happened to the driver who police say was to blame. And we’ve heard from someone else on the same street whose car was smashed by a different driver days earlier. Read on:Read More
Some fire calls seem relatively simple: Food on the stove, out before engines arrive. But when the alarm goes off, firefighters don’t know what they’ll face, and they have to be ready for the worst – ready to push themselves to the max, racing up stairs, lifting heavy equipment, wielding tools to break through roofs or walls or windows or cars to get to victims and/or fire sources – and rescuing people. Some of those particularly demanding skills were showcased in a competition this morning at the city’s Joint Training Facility, on the southeastern edge of West Seattle (9401 Myers Way). Our clip shows one competition sequence from the first-ever “Battle of the Bravest: Seattle Firefighters Intramural Combat Relay Challenge” was a team relay, with proceeds going to Seattle’s Bravest Charity. The Seattle Fire Department communications team says SBC “benefits victims of fires, helps elderly residents through a Home Rescue Program, and donates bike helmets to children in need.” (They promise to let us know who won, so we’ll add that when we get word!)
12:54 PM: Just got word from SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore that the team from Station 32 in The Junction won! (Their time was 1:45, beating Station 33 by six seconds, and Moore says the six teams collectively raised $3,088 for SBC.)
3:12 PM: A photo of the winning Station 32 team, courtesy of SFD:
In the photo: Dean Ronhar, Jake Bange, Tom Hofland. Congratulations!
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