July 2009

Earlier in the day on July 22, the 18-year-old male victim and the 19-year-old male suspect had some sort of dispute at a park along Lake Washington.

Later that day at approximately 8:33 p.m. the victim was driving with friends when they passed by the suspect’s house. The suspect came down to the street armed with a rifle and fired one shot into the victim’s vehicle, killing the victim. The suspect fled into his house in the 700 block of 32nd Avenue South.

When officers arrived the suspect’s mother told officers he was gone, but would not cooperate. Fearing the suspect was still in the house, officers surrounded the residence and the SWAT team was called to the scene.

After repeated attempts to contact the suspect were unsuccessful, the SWAT team made entry and determined the suspect was not in the house.

Homicide and CSI detectives responded to the scene. Officers and detectives canvassed the neighborhood and interviewed witnesses.

**UPDATE**

The Seattle Department of Transportation has announced that the city is on track to meet 2009 goals for Bridging the Gap.

Department Director Grace Crunican thanked Seattle residents for the voter-approved initiative.

“Residents are seeing the results of their (Bridging the Gap) dollars," she said. "The (transportation department) is steadily improving city streets, bridges, sidewalks and bike facilities, making it easier and safer for everyone to travel around Seattle.”

The city cites the following progress:

- Major asphalt and concrete paving projects are underway on some of the city’s most traveled streets and more than 20 lane-miles of paving will be completed by the end of this year. Work is underway in West Seattle, downtown and south of downtown.

- More than 17,575 square feet of sidewalk have been repaired and the equivalent of five new blocks of sidewalks have been built. Additionally, 42 schools now have improved school zone signage and 32 pedestrian countdown signals have been installed.

The Rainier Valley, Magnolia and the Central District are among areas where pedestrians are already benefiting from these new enhancements.

Katy G. Wilkens is a department head for Northwest Kidney Center and has a master of science degree and nutritional sciences from the University of Washington. Her columns will be appearing regularly here.

What is this outrageous plant with leaves as big as elephant ears and ruby red stems that are sour beyond belief? Despite poisonous leaves, this plant has the nickname “pie plant.” This plant is rhubarb!

Find rhubarb in your neighborhood farmers’ market or grocery. The color of the rhubarb stalk may vary from deep red to speckled pink to pale green, but it is all good to eat.

If you have an out-of-the-way corner of your garden, buy a piece of rhubarb root, stick it in the ground, fertilize it once a year, and water it once a week. You will be rewarded with a spring and summer supply every year.

Cook the stalks in a variety of ways. Stewed, they yield a tart sauce that can be eaten like applesauce, served over ice cream, or used as filling for pies, crisps or tarts. If rhubarb is a new food to you, try mixing it half-and-half with strawberries or apples. Rhubarb is good flavored with grated orange peel, ginger or cinnamon.

Seattle Mayoral candidate and Greenwood resident Michael McGinn is focusing his campaign on his opposition to the deep bore tunnel project, which he stresses is still not a done deal.

Speaking at the Ballard Kiwanis Club's weekly luncheon at Louie's Restaurant in Ballard July 23, McGinn said that Mayor Greg Nickels' biggest blunder is his push for the $4.2 billion Alaskan Way Viaduct Tunnel, which McGinn speculates will experiences huge cost overruns while being impractical in routing traffic through downtown Seattle.

"It's too expensive," declared McGinn, a Long Island, New York native who has lived in Seattle 20 years.

"The city portion of the cost would be $930 million in taxpayer funds," he said. "The state says Seattle will have to pay for cost overruns. The city says it doesn't want to pay for overruns, so no one knows where that money would come from. We need funding for homeless housing, police hiring and purchasing more public buses."

His solution?

King County is requesting the public's feedback on the role county government should play during the next five years.

King County is developing a countywide Strategic Plan to map out what goals and priorities the county should set and how attention and resources could be allotted to achieve these goals. The public is invited to two meetings to share their vision for the future and help develop a countywide strategic plan that better aligns county functions and services.

Workshops will be held next week on:

Tuesday, July 28 6:30 - 8:00 RiverRock Grill and Ale House  4050 Maple Valley Highway, Renton, WA 98058  

Thursday, July 30  6:30 - 8:00 The Hall at Fauntleroy, Emerald Room 9131 California Ave. S.W.

King County provides regional services to 1.8 million residents in 39 cities, including 340,000 people living in unincorporated areas. Services include Metro transit, public health, wastewater treatment, courts, jails, prosecutors, public defenders, community and social services, the King County International Airport, and local services such as police protection, roads services and garbage collection.

Ballard has made more progress on the goals from its decade-old neighborhood plan than almost any other Seattle neighborhood. But, thanks in part to the large amount of growth in the area, much remains to be done when that neighborhood plan is updated in the coming years.

Representatives from Ballard and Crown Hill met with a member of the Seattle Planning Commission July 23 to discuss where the neighborhood is right now, how it has changed since the last neighborhood plan and where it needs to go in the next one.

The key goals from last decade's neighborhood plan were the completion of the Burke-Gilman Trail, the acquisition of the Crown Hill School, the establishment of a commuter rail station, and the development of the Ballard municipal center that includes the library, neighborhood service center and Ballard Commons Park

Craig Benjamin, a member of Sustainable Ballard and Ballard's Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee, said so many of Ballard's key goals from the previous plan have been accomplished because of the organized people and groups that reside in the neighborhood, but also because the growth in Ballard has necessitated that accomplishment.

By Steve Shay

Residents at Providence Elizabeth House, a senior living facility at 3201 S.W. Graham St. in the High Point neighborhood, received a "retired" city van Thursday, July 23.

"There is no grocery shopping near here except for Thriftway, which is expensive," explained Elizabeth House Director Therese Jensen.

"The residents here are low-income seniors and some prefer the more affordable Safeway and QFC," Jensen said. "Also, our residents are diverse, and Asian residents prefer shopping at the White Center Market and the small markets at 12th and Jackson in the International District. That is why the van is needed. We'll have meetings where to go, which will include field trips."

"Every county council member is allowed to select two or three vans per year and receives applications from those in need," said State Rep. Sharon Nelson, who presented the van for King County Council member Dow Constantine who could not be present.

"Providence Elizabeth House was Dow's choice and I'm real pleased," Nelson said. "This is very exciting."

While the van was a gift, over $2000 was raised by area merchants for the van's maintenance and operations.

A proposal to demolish and reconstruct Greenwood’s Fire Station 21 was presented at a city council public hearing and came out with positive reviews.

The public hearing took place in Seattle Council Chambers Wednesday afternoon, July 22, on the recommendation from council member Sally Clark, to approve the proposal for the fire station’s remodel and safety upgrades.

“Our main design concepts are currently in the construction documenting stage of the project,” Scott Wolf of Miller Hull Partnership said. “It’s a relatively small site and from the urban design, the key feature is to bring the facility up to property lines to match the store front establishments so the existing character of the street is continued.”

Fire Station 21 is located at 7304 Greenwood Ave. N.

Wolf explained that building the facility to property lines would make the front apparatus bay (side with fire station garage doors) more visible, giving citizens the opportunity to see more of station operations.

Council member Sally Clark agreed that the station doors are always open and that fire fighters are always out front communicating with the public.

Nearly 70 homeless residents from the Nickelsville encampment and more than15 homeless activists vacated their South Park tent city Thursday, July 23 and caravaned with three yellow moving vans of possessions a couple of miles north to Terminal 107 Park, 4700 West Marginal Way, at about 8 p.m.

The encampment had been ordered to vacate their South Park digs with a 7 p.m. deadline Thursday by Gov. Chris Gregoire's office and the Washington State Patrol because they were on land owned by the state Transportation Department.

The state then given a grace period of an additional 15 hours, but the homeless encampment vacated by about 7 p.m. yesterday. They had been on state land since June 6.

The eight-acre Terminal 107 Park is one of several owned by the Port of Seattle. Signs are posted at the camp that say "No camping allowed."

The widening of the sidewalk space was the only additional revision made at the Southwest Design Review meeting for the apartments to be built at 4532 42nd Ave. S.W.

The complex, located near the Alaska Junction, will measure six stories high and have 35 apartments and two levels of underground parking containing 55 parking stalls.

The public meeting took place Thursday, July 22 at the West Seattle Senior Center.

This was determined after the board listened to architect Neal Thompson’s presentation, which was followed by clarifying questions from the board, public comments and concerns.

Then the board determined that the two biggest concerns were: the width of the sidewalks and the stairs in the commercial entrance way.

Some community members noted that increased pedestrian traffic around the Junction is causing people to weave in and out of each other. Therefore the building will likely be set at eight feet back, to allow extra room for pedestrians and sidewalk landscaping.