A tragedy on the extreme southern tip of Beacon Hill, in the 9000 block of 39th Avenue South, just off of Beacon Avenue before it doubles back as Carkeek Drive. Very early this morning, a bit after 2am, a man, high on PCP, shot and killed his 50-year-old father. Details in the SPD Blotter and at the Rainier Valley Post.
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Crime Notes: Inviting open windows, empty suitcases, and purported paperboys
On Saturday, Shea near 16th and Stevens wrote:
Due to the hot weather, we opened a small window on our first floor to get some extra ventilation. In the ten years I have lived in our house I have only opened this window one other time. We left this window open for several days but yesterday we noticed someone had tried to crawl in this window. It looks like two people were involved and one hoisted either a child or female (the long thin handprints left on the window sill).
Thankfully they were not able to get far and didn’t actually make it into our house. We think this happened either while we were asleep or between 2:30 and 3:30 pm [Friday] (the only time we were gone).
Near the north end of Jefferson Park, Hazel noted:
On Wed night at about midnight we heard breaking glass on Spokane, John went to take a look, saw three people (2 females, one male) carrying something. He called after them, they ran east on Spokane tossing something into the bushes. John found 3 suitcases, empty. We called the police, they took the suitcases. One had an address in West Seattle. All were lovely old-fashioned style suitcases.
Today, Whitney near 22nd and Horton wrote:
Last week, a young-ish man came up to our porch, put down a small box, and knocked on the door. When I opened it, he said, “Is the lady of the house around?” I asked if I could help him. He looked at the newspaper that was still on our porch and said, “I was just wondering if you still wanted that delivered there or in the street?” I said something about the current arrangement being fine, and he said, “We just want our customers to be happy,” picked up his box, and left. Then I saw him head to the next house down to knock on the door, and I know that neighbor does not subscribe to a newspaper.
Should I be suspicious? Does anyone know what this is about, or did anyone else get a similar visit last week?
Kelly, a few blocks away at 18th and Horton, responded:
We got the same visit and we don’t subscribe to the paper. I was not home at the time but the guys remodeling our kitchen described the exact same scenario as you. They said the young man did not look into the house but given all the recent break ins it is certainly worth mentioning to the group.
Walking with Tica: Working out on Beacon Hill stairs
If you’re looking for a great workout in our neighborhood, check out the stairs running east-west on the streets between 15th and 17th. I created a Google map to give an idea of stair locations and the route we take. Be creative and explore the area—I usually incorporate a few hills in addition to the stairs.
Depending on how much time I have (and how Tica’s feeling) we’ll walk or jog the stairs while heading north, then slow down and head south towards home along a less steep route.
It’s a great workout with some breathtaking views. I put some of my shots from this area in the Beacon Hill Blog Flickr photo pool—share yours!
Much thanks for all the hard work neighbors and volunteers have been putting in to make these stairs usable!
Free festival in Othello Park on Sunday features performers, food, and… goats
One event near Beacon Hill this weekend that we didn’t mention the other day: The Othello Park International Festival, from 12:00 noon until 6:00 pm this Sunday in Othello Park, 4351 South Othello Street. Performers at the festival will include Audio Couture, Adefua, the Zydeco Locals, Mariachi Colima, steppers and lion dancers; there will also be food vendors, goats, face painting, and container garden giveaways. Admission is free. The easiest way to get there: take Link to Othello Station, and walk 1/2 block east to Othello Park.
Beacon Bits: sidewalks, hot dogs, and cool adult beverages
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Michal spotted a new feature in the neighborhood: a hot dog cart!
Last night when I went to the Beacon Pub, I noticed there’s a new late night weekend dining option in Beacon Hill, right outside the Beacon Pub. Serves tacos, hot dogs, and burgers, they said they planned to be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and weekend mornings to serve breakfast items. There were a surprisingly large number of customers coming from seemingly nowhere, and not just from the pub.
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An afternoon round of chasing a little white ball around and hitting it with sticks is commonly accompanied by the consumption of a cool adult beverage. It is illegal to drink such beverages in Seattle public parks, unless there is a permit. So, is it legal to drink in a municipal golf course, such as Jefferson Park? Yes, as long as you buy the alcohol on site — Seattle 911
Could electric trolley buses on Beacon Hill be endangered?
In an interview with Seattle Transit Blog, short-term County Executive Kurt Triplett said they have “3 years to make that decision” because the existing trolleys have that much service life remaining. Commenter “serial catowner” posted a skeptical reply:
Having seen some of this stuff go down in my previous life, I can tell you right now you’re in extreme danger of losing the electric trolleys–and getting them back wouldn’t be easy.
The process is disarmingly simple- first, when you ask, they tell you “Nobody’s thinking of that”. And then, suddenly, it’s all “Well, that decision was made long ago, there’s nothing to be done about it now”…
…If they weren’t quietly preparing to jettison the ETBs, Triplett’s answer would have been “No, of course not, we’re not going to lose the only buses we have that can keep running when oil prices go up”.
A follow-up comment from an anonymous “transit voter” struck home:
Serial Catowner has it correct. Just remember the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line, how it met its demise. The long knives were out, and they found their mark.
We don’t claim to have any inside knowledge on what Metro’s plans are for the trolleys, and anonymous commenters on a blog are not necessarily reliable, but it seems to us that if you like the electric trolleys that run on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in the city, it would certainly be a very good time to let someone know how you feel. You can email County Exec Triplett at kcexec@kingcounty.gov or use the mailing address and phone number on his website. You can also contact King County Council members Larry Gossett and Dow Constantine, who each serve part of Beacon Hill. Constantine is running for King County Executive, so contacting him with your concerns on this issue may be particularly important.
Baffling “neighborhood” planning continues
by Frederica Merrell
(Freddie is heading up an effort to wrangle the city’s planning department, to get it to more fully engage with the community and develop concrete neighborhood-enhancing proposals, with an ad-hoc group of neighbors as the North Beacon Hill Planning Advisory Committee. At tonight’s committee meeting, Lyle Bicknell with the Seattle DPD was invited to come and discuss the next steps in the neighborhood planning process. See the event calendar for upcoming meetings. — Ed.)
The City is speeding to a conclusion on our neighborhood plan update! Lyle Bicknell, our man at Department of Planning and Development (DPD), came and chatted with 17 residents who attended the North Beacon Hill Planning Advisory Committee meeting tonight. He shared sketchy preliminary plan recommendations and described next steps for the process. Here are my best notes on what I heard. Please pipe in with your own views if you attended. We met at El Centro thanks to Executive Director, Estella Ortega giving us a nice space in room 307.
Mike Podowski from DPD, who is an expert on zoning, generously gave us 30 minutes of his time to start. We received a “primer†on the neighborhood commercial zone rules and proposed multi-family zone rules. He provided handouts and I am putting the extras at the library. I won’t go into all the details but here are points of note:
- Most of the existing zoning in our urban center is neighborhood commercial (NC-40) with a pedestrian orientation.
- We also have some multi-family zoning intermittently along Beacon Avenue and on 14th (L2, L3)
- Within the lightrail overlay near the station, there is no requirement for parking to be built for new multi-family housing or for commercial development.
- We have a pedestrian overlay which also precludes the construction of parking or street entry between any new business development and the sidewalk.
- Many of our existing businesses do not meet this code but are grandfathered in, so the pedestrian character will only develop as new buildings are constructed.
Phone snatchers, gold grabbers near the hospital
Debbie writes with an account of a couple of brazen robberies last night along Beacon Avenue near Jefferson Park:
I was walking north along Beacon Ave yesterday evening, using my earbuds with my iPhone on a call. The phone was in my left hand. At about 7pm, I passed by two young black guys in white T-shirts and shorts. One was wearing a light gray knit cap. They turned around and one of them grabbed the phone from my hand and the two took off down the sidewalk. When they turned and saw I wasn’t pursuing, they slowed to a walk and cut into the VA parking lot. They had pulled the earbuds off the phone and tossed them to the ground. I ran to pick them up and caught up to them. I demanded my phone back, but they denied having it. I didn’t think it was worth physically fighting over, so I turned back as they continued to walk through the lot.
A man who had just parked his car saw me run toward the thieves. When I was within earshot of him, I said they had stolen my phone, so he called the police. The two crossed Beacon Ave and jumped the fence into the golf course. After our reports were taken, the officer took me to the Jefferson Community Center, where there was another report. A woman had a 14 kt necklace ripped from her neck about 15-20 minutes earlier than my incident. It sounded like one or two of the men involved with her necklace were the same as the ones who stole my phone.
She also passes along some advice:
I had a first generation iPhone, so it isn’t worth a whole lot these days. But when I get another phone, I’m going to get black third party earbuds so it won’t look like I have an Apple product. I will be more careful when I have the phone out on the street, I’ll save involved and lengthy conversations for indoors, and I will be more aware of the people around me and make eye contact as the officer advised. The part of Beacon Ave that the theft occurred in is also somewhat empty, so as much as possible I’m going to walk along 15th Avenue instead until it connects to Beacon to avoid walking around the VA area.
I’m not sure I’d agree about that stretch of Beacon being much less ‘safe’ than the sparse stretches of 15th, but I’ll add another safety tip: instead of keeping your i-device in your hand, put it in a pocket.
SDOT plans 15th Avenue South improvements
At the July North Beacon Hill Council meeting, Judith Edwards invited Brian Dougherty of the Seattle Department of Transportation to present SDOT’s possible improvements to the 15th Avenue South corridor from Beacon Avenue south to Spokane Street and on to Columbian Way. Neighbors along this corridor were specially invited to attend and share their views and opinions about what’s wrong and what’s right about traffic there, and to weigh-in on the potential improvements.
Q: What’s the difference between a bike lane and a sharrow?
A: Sharrows for wider areas of roadway that are not wide enough for a dedicated lane, or for downhill stretches where bikes are expected to maintain vehicle speed.
The changes are largely driven by the bicycle master plan which prioritzed routes along 15th Avenue South & 12th Avenue South from Jose Rizal Park to Columbian Way. The changes for bike facilities are planned for this year. Markings and traffic changes can be installed with relative ease with current configuration from Jose Rizal Park to Beacon Avenue. At Beacon, peak parking restrictions (7-9am, 4-6pm) cause problems for bike facilities. Neither bike lanes or sharrows work in current configuration.
Almost unanimously, the neighbors along 15th felt that traffic runs too fast for the street, and when combined with the parking situation and lack of well-marked and signalled crossings makes it very dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.
The slides of the presentation are below. If you’d like to share your thoughts with SDOT on possible traffic flow or parking improvements, you can email Brian at brian.dougherty@seattle.gov.
Click for the rest of the slideshow.
Continue reading SDOT plans 15th Avenue South improvements
Not just good looks: station lights indicate elevator position
Edited to add: I watched them tonight and the colors constantly change, whether the elevators are moving or not. When an elevator opens, the light over that elevator does turn blue — but it also turns blue randomly when the elevator isn’t even moving. When the elevator closes and goes down again, it does seem to turn purple. But since the colors randomly change, and the blue color change does not come until the doors open, it doesn’t seem very functional. It’s awfully pretty, though!