Google Street View just went live for Seattle, so now you can take a virtual “walk” around the neighborhood just by browsing Google Maps in Street View mode. It looks like the photos of Beacon Hill were taken in early July or late June. Check it out:
I will miss these polling sites when we switch to all-mail voting next year. There was always something special about going in to vote next to your neighbors, and exchanging a few words with the poll workers. It was a great bit of Americana, and I think we’ll have lost a piece of our community’s soul when it is gone.
“Crime Is Actually Down in Southeast Seattle” said a headline in the Stranger Slog yesterday. Jonah Spangenthal-Lee’s post lists SPD statistics that supposedly back that up. Is it just me, though, or is the math completely off here? Here’s what the article currently says (emphasis added is mine):
“According to SPD records for the South Precinct—which covers everything between Georgetown and Lake Washington south if I-90—as of the end of September, there have been 821 assaults—including 401 shootings—193 strong-arm robberies, 120 burglaries and 9 murders.
“Last year, there were 1,214 assaults, 202 strong-arm robberies, 955 burglaries and 7 murders (statistics on shootings aren’t available) in the South Precinct. That’s 400 fewer assaults, and 800 fewer burglaries.
“In 2006 there were 1,388 assaults, 232 strong-arm robberies, 1218 burglaries and 6 murders.”
Comparing “as of the end of September” totals with whole-year totals and then claiming the numbers are lower is not particularly useful. Of course the numbers could be lower; there were still three months left in 2008!
But here’s the rub — the numbers aren’t even necessarily lower. When you do the math and consider that the totals for this year only include 9 months, some of the numbers are lower, but others are not. We are on track for 1095 assaults this year, so, yes, that’s a downward trend. Good. But we are also on track for 257 strong-arm robberies, a substantial increase. Burglaries are down, but they are down so far that I suspect something is glitchy with the numbers there. You don’t go 1218 to 955 to 120 without a darn good explanation. If they are down that far, that’s great — but I don’t believe it.
And then you get to the murder stats. As of the end of September, we were on track for 12 murders this year. 12. That is twice the number of murders in 2006, and nearly twice the number in 2007. This is not what I would call a drop in crime.
Over at the Mid Beacon Hill blog, JvA has done a great job of reporting that the city’s crime stats are often, well, wrong. And then on November 2, the P-I published a story claiming that, according to the King County Medical Examiner, there were no shooting homicides in Seattle between April and October, which is demonstrably false.
So then we get to this week. Multiple shots were fired in the area of 5400 23rd Avenue South. Two kids shot in the Central District on Halloween, one killed. Then further shootings in the CD, in what the Central District News suggests has become a “gangland revenge free-for-all.”
So, do you really feel like crime is going down in Southeast Seattle, or not?
Around 11:30 last night, numerous shots were fired in the 5400 block of 23rd Avenue South, just off Beacon Avenue South.
The SPD Blotter reports:
On November 2nd at 11:30 PM South Precinct officers responded to numerous calls that multiple shots were fired in the area of 5400 23rd S. Officers found over 20 shell casings in the roadway and 6+ bullets and fragments inside a nearby residence. No one inside could give a reason as to why their house was targeted. A car that matched the description of one used in an earlier shooting was parked outside the house. Officers located the owner, got a consent to search the car, and found a gun and drugs in the trunk.
The goings-on at the house fired upon have previously been an issue with nearby residents.
The Rainier Valley Post also has a report.
Thanks to Katrina on the mailing list for the alert.
You know, I’ve never been to the Golden Daisy Chinese restaurant, and were I to want to remedy that, it looks like I’d need to wait until the 8th: they’re closed through November 7th for remodeling.
Golden Daisy is located on Beacon Avenue near 15th Avenue South, next door to Spoon’s.
Since I’ve never been there, if anyone has a review or can recommend a particular dish that I must try, please say so in the comments.
Two weeks ago, State Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos arrived (late) to speak to the Beacon Alliance of Neighbors. Her visit, or rather her apparent lack of awareness expressed through her words, left a bit of a bitter taste in many neighbors’ mouths.
Craig Thompson’s latest Beacon Lights article at the P-I website has a full rundown of the representative’s numerous misses with the community, touching on her disconnects with Beacon Hill neighborhood organizations, race and reaching out, El Centro‘s community involvement, public safety, and parks and trails.
The Rainier Valley Post covered Tomiko Santos’s awkward visit earlier.
Barbecue and meat lovers get ready!
Rebekah Denn notes in her Devouring sEATtle blog that Culinary Communion‘s Gabriel Claycamp is preparing to expand into a retail operation selling BBQ, chicken and veal stock, sandwiches, bacon, and a variety of cured meats. Permits have been submitted and preparations made for turning the basement of the building into “The Swinery.”
The article doesn’t mention if these products will be available for purchase directly from The Swinery’s home here on Beacon Hill, instead mentioning plans to take the savories across town one day a week for sale near the West Seattle Farmers Market. Let’s hope there will be something a little closer to satisfy a fine bacon or barbecue hankering.
We at the Beacon Hill Blog are still recovering from Halloween. No, not from drinking or eating candy, but from staying up late with friends, playing Rock Band 2. At any rate, we’re curious. Did you all get trick-or-treaters? How many?
We must have had over 100 in our part of North Beacon, considering how much candy we went through. Unfortunately, a very large number were teenage kids, not in costume, putting candy in their backpacks or pockets. I asked the first group of kids who showed up sans costume what they were dressed as. The kid in front said, “a thug.” I am not kidding. That group was pretty polite, though. It was another group of kids that stole one of our decorations. And there was also a teenage boy who, after I gave him candy, pushed forward, stuck his hand into the candy dish, grabbed a huge handful of additional candy and ran off. I learned to hold the bowl away from the kids after that. We ran out of candy before the final trick-or-treaters showed up, and we had bought a lot of it.
The cute little kids in costume made up for the bad taste left by the older kids, who are really too old for this. Though I wouldn’t mind if they’d dress up for it.