September 2005

David Darling remembers riding in his dad's car as a youngster up Southwest 108th Street toward 12th Avenue Southwest and seeing the "big brick presence" of Mount View Elementary School at the top of the hill.

Today Darling is the principal and he opens the brand-new Mount View School for the first day of school this week. It was important to him that the new school have an architectural presence like its predecessor.

Today a high atrium, visible from 108th Street, rises above the central hall of the school to form the new building's crest.

Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver supports building a downtown waterfront tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, opposes the monorail, but supports a light-rail line to West Seattle.

McIver is running for his third four-year term on the City Council. His challengers include King County Councilman Dwight Pelz and housing advocate Robert Rosencrantz.

McIver favors a regional approach to the transportation problems of the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area. It would take a new regional agency to coordinate buses, commuter trains, light rail lines and monorail, he said.

Dwight Pelz has spent the last eight years serving on the Metropolitan King County Council, but said he now wants to try his hand at the many "exciting decisions facing the Seattle City Council."

Besides the fact that Pelz' seat on the County Council is to be eliminated due to county downsizing, he said he is running for City Council because he says it is at the forefront of many of the important decisions being made that effect the direction of the city.

"I think you can sense from my energy that I like problems, I like discussing them and coming up with answers," he sai

In 1992, Angel Bolanos moved to Seattle from Ecuador without any ability to English speaking ability, but now he is running for a second time for the Seattle City Council.

He said in an interview last week that he will win the primary in two weeks.

Bolanos ran against Council member Jim Compton in 2003 and came in third with 18,000 votes. Compton was re-elected.

"I was an unknown, no one knew about me," said Bolanos. "People believe we need change."

At the time, Bolanos said he was working full time and raising a family.

A man, appearing intoxicated and carrying a "Wild Turkey" bottle, pestered a woman at an Alki-business patio to give him a ride. She refused but he continued to make small talk as she avoided him. He suddenly grabbed her cell phone from her hand and walked off. When the woman described the man to officers a bit later, they realized that the suspect was already in custody for a nearby altercation. The 35-year-old Tacoma resident was booked into King County Jail for investigation of strong-arm robbery.

I haven't been to West Seattle for a while. Let's eat out.

How about Taco Time?

It's summer. Parking at the beach will be tough.

No, not there, it's a Tully's now anyway. I meant the Taco Time on 35th.

It moved?

Yeah. 35th and Fauntleroy.

You mean where the Gilly's was that became Shakey's and then turned into Boston Market?

Yes.

Naa...they might be something else by the time we get there.

How about Rainier Roaster?

I am tired of the gangs in our parks. I think we should have two policemen walk the parks and when they catch the perpetrators with guns or committing a crime they should charge the parents along with the kids, or they should start up the Civilian Conservation Corps camps again. Then they could help with roads and keep the parks clean for room and board.

If the children come from the United States this is how they should handle the kids. Even if they have come from other countries to be citizens, take away all and send kids and parents back to their own country to never return.

I'd like to say thank you to the business owners for signing the petition to "Improve Public Safety" (about under-age drinking, disorderly conduct, vandalism, loitering, harassment, littering on numerous businesses parking lots and illegal street vending in the White Center business district). And thank you to King County Sheriff Sue Rahr for responding to our concerns with a letter dated Aug. 16.

"Sheriff's Office staff has begun to put a team together with a goal of solving crime and disorder problems,"

Aug.

I never have envied anyone but now I have changed my mind. I have decided to envy Peter Jacobsen.

If you play golf you know who he is. If you don't he is the boy wonder of Portland, Oregon, who has won many tournaments, has won millions on the PGA tour, just turned 50 and joined the senior tour.

He'll continue his winning ways, I'm sure. He is a talented mimic, a man immensely popular as a comic and an entertainer who could easily be elected governor if he so chose.

My interest in his career goes beyond mere admiration for his golf game.

Officers performed a wellness check on the resident of 32417 8th Avenue Southwest. A friend of the resident called to report that she had not seen the man in four days and was worried about him. The man had suffered a stroke about four years earlier and lived alone. Officers entered the residence using a key provided by the neighbor and found the 73-year-old man dead in his bed.