May 2012

West Seattle’s police force is holding an Alki Neighborhood Safety Walk on June 1, in response to months of crime and public safety concerns rising up from Alki / Beach Drive residents and visitors in the aftermath of the still-unsolved murder of Greggette Guy on March 12.

Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Pierre Davis provides the details:

We will be conducting our Alki Neighborhood Safety Walk on Friday June 1st at 6:30 pm. This will be an opportunity for police, other city agencies and the Alki /Beach Drive Community to partner, walk and discuss crime prevention topics and strategies relating to their neighborhood. We will muster at Emma Schmitz Park and canvas a portion of Beach Drive, completing our walk at Me Kwa Mooks Park.

Friday, June 1, 6:30 p.m.
Meet at Emma Schmitz Park and “canvas” to Me-Kwa-Mooks Park.

Eric Utne, founder of the Utne Reader, will visit Seattle to discuss his book "Brenda, My Darling".

Fridtjof Nansen, Norway’s greatest explorer, humanitarian and winner of the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize, met the writer Brenda Ueland in New York City in 1929. He was 67 and she was 37. They had a brief love affair and a year long correspondence until his death.

"Brenda, My Darling" presents Nansen’s letters to Ueland, (hers to him are lost), and a sampling of Ueland’s published work and unpublished diaries. Available for the first time, his letters are some of the most passionate, candid and eloquent in the English language. "Brenda, My Darling" offers profound insight into the lives of two extraordinary individuals.

“Over 80 years after they were written, these letters take us far from the mists and glaciers of Nansen’s Arctic adventures,” writes Per Egil Hegge in the book’s Foreword. “They give us the opportunity to admire the literary Fridtjof Nansen and his abilities as a writer of love poetry.”

A body was found Tuesday morning inside a burning Class-C, E450 Ford motorhome parked in the driveway of a Normandy Park house.

Normandy Park Interim Chief of Police Chris L. Gaddis told the Highline Times, "At a little after 7:00 o'clock this morning our officer and King County Fire were dispatched to the 1900 block of Southwest 170th Street for a report of a motorhome on fire. Once we were on the scene the fire department put out the fire. There were reports that an elderly female was living in the motorhome as kind of a caretaker (for residents) inside the house. However, we've got no clarification on the sex of the deceased.

"The King County medical examiner is on the scene along with the fire investigator from the Tukwila Fire Department, and it could be quite a while until we know more. The King County fire investigator is on medical leave now so Tukwila Fire Marshall Don Tomaso is doing some reciprocal work for him."

We will update.

The Aurora Bridge seismic retrofit project reaches a milestone that measures less than an inch this week.  Crews will close both directions of SR 99 overnight Tuesday to jack up the structure ¾ of an inch and install new one ton bearings that will allow the bridge to gently sway during an earthquake.

This sets the stage for the final phases of work on a $5.7 million project that will help the 80-year old historic bridge better withstand seismic shaking.

Construction:

Since April 2011, crews have been under the bridge reinforcing the steel and concrete on the north and south ends. Work includes adding steel to the skeleton, thickening concrete girders and covering existing columns with fiber designed for shaking. Crews also are digging deep into the ground to create stronger foundations. Work scheduled in the final phase includes new bearings and a new expansion joint.

When I moved to Ballard sixteen years ago friends said, “Ballard? Only old people and fisherman live there. Nothing happens in Ballard, why would you want to live there?” I laughed at their misperception back then, and have marveled how Ballard has continued to be the place to be over the years. A bit too much for my taste at times, but hey, I’m a sucker for quiet.
Ballard Ave was part of what drew me to Ballard all those yeas ago. More than the quaint brick buildings, bell tower and historic feel, I marveled at the simplicity of some of the merchants. “There’s an entire store for bookshelves!” I told friends. “Nothing else, just bookshelves. And next door is a guitar shop! No pianos, flutes or even ukuleles, just guitars!” I don’t necessarily get excited about stores and am constantly purging my house of “things,” but these items were deemed worthy, if not vital, because they are related to the arts. Even better, they stood complacently as in, “Sure, I’m here if you want me, but I’m certainly not going to call out for you,” adding to their appeal.

By Bob Sims

This is a follow-up report to our pre-fight story about Federal Way boxer "Vicious" Vincent Thompson, two of his coaches, West Seattle-raised Jack Stafford, Jr., and Ballard police officer Sam Ditusa, a Normandy Park resident.

Life is good these days for 29-year-old professional boxer "Vicious" Vincent Thompson.
He is the new father of a baby girl, Hannah. He won his first fight on national TV Friday night, easily defeating Joell Godfrey (14-7-1, 6 KOs) in eight rounds and remaining unbeaten at 11-0. He's traveling to Austria on June 9 for two weeks to spar with the No. 1-ranked heavyweight and world champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KOs). And he just signed a five-year contract with Philadelphia-based Banner Promotions, helping secure his financial future.

Red Star Pizza at 7514 35th Ave. s.w. was already known for their pizza, their PeeWee Baseball teams and for their outrageous paint scheme but owners Michael Supino and Shannon Cross decided it was time to change things up.

The previous paint job, completed in September of 2010 was amazing but Supino really wanted to expand on the vintage "space age" theme he had in mind.

Chester Carlson, the muralist who was given a free hand the first time, was called again, but this time Supino had a sketch. He wanted planets, robots and spacecraft to decorate the north wall of the business. "He kind of wanted a no-batteries included old time space theme with Mars, Halley's comet, and kind of like a Space Odyssey," said Carlson.

Carlson, who works as an electrician during the day, has been doing murals with spray paint for more than 20 years he said. The mural work should be complete sometime in the next two weeks.

By Bob Sims

This is a follow-up report to our pre-fight story about Federal Way boxer "Vicious" Vincent Thompson, two of his coaches, West Seattle-raised Jack Stafford, Jr., and Ballard police officer Sam Ditusa, a Normandy Park resident.

Life is good these days for 29-year-old professional boxer "Vicious" Vincent Thompson.

He is the new father of a baby girl, Hannah. He won his first fight on national TV Friday night, easily defeating Joell Godfrey (14-7-1, 6 KOs) in eight rounds and remaining unbeaten at 11-0. He's traveling to Austria on June 9 for two weeks to spar with the No. 1-ranked heavyweight and world champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KOs). And he just signed a five-year contract with Philadelphia-based Banner Promotions, helping secure his financial future.

       It was the spring of 1954. The smell of the grass field, a fist smacking a fielder's glove, the crack of the bat when a pitch was perfectly hit. Those were the signs of America's pastime in small towns across the land.

     The Seattle Rainiers baseball squad was our only hometown professional sports team. Once in a while we took the kids to a game. I got the coach, Dewey Soriano, to get me a ball signed by the members of the team. That ball became an honored treasure in our house. My own boys wanted to mimic the pros. They got games going in the front yard. A homer sent the ball into the neighbors' hedge. Their friends were joining teams and playing on regulation fields. 

    One of the neighborhood dads asked me if I would help out with coaching a team. I was soon coach of the Beverly Park Pikers.  It was my duty to guide raw athletes and teach them the finer points of the game.  I was unqualified. They didn't know I'd never made my own pony league time in 1934. 

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Yes, I know you are aware of the youth culture. The airbrushed images in magazines are impossible to match in real life. So look young or die. But I am still hoping that the focus on science and technology which has always vied with wisdom and human experience for attention will finally take a back seat for a change. It is the old struggle between yin and yang, male and female, dominance and submission, the world of business as compared to focusing on human enlightenment and nurturance—you name it. If you don’t fit in you are out of it entirely. Unless you have young skin wrapped around a youthful body you are out of the loop.