April 2014

Bing Dahl, a longtime coach at Washington state high schools who played basketball at University of Washington and Washington State College, will be honored as the Old Timers Man of the Year Wednesday, May 7, at the 62nd annual Basketball Old-Timers Banquet at the Ballard Elks Lodge in Seattle.

Dahl's high school coaching career included coaching basketball, football and baseball for three years each at Colville and Kent Meridian high schools and for 30 years as a coach and counselor at Evergreen High School in White Center.

Previous winners of the prestgious award were Walt Milroy, Rod Belcher, Roman Miller and Irv Leifer.
Eldridge Recasner, a former University of Washington basketball player who played in the NBA from 1994 through 2002, will be the banquet speaker. Recasner was a three-time all-Pac-10 Conference guard who played for the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets ad Los Angeles during his NBA career.

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Hi-Yu Community Breakfast
Alki Masonic Center
4736 40th S.W.
Saturday, May 3, 8-11 a.m. Full breakfast menu includes scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, pancakes, fruit and yogurt. Adult donation $6, kids under 12 $3. Funds the Hi-Yu Scholarship Program. Hosted by the Mason’s.

Annual Fauntleroy Fall Festival Fund-Raiser
Endolyne Joe’s Restaurant
9261 45th Ave. S.W.
Tues., May 6, 5 p.m-closing. This “dine out” fund-raiser, in support of the Fauntleroy Fall Festival, will feature great cuisine of New Mexico, a raffle, and a bit of silliness, all in good fun. Invite family, friends and neighbors to join you for dinner or late-night dessert.

Sweet, Sweet Music
Fauntleroy Church, Fellowship Hall
9140 California Ave. S.W.

By Tim Clifford

Assaulted while strolling
At the intersection of Delridge WY S.W. and S.W. Orchard St. a strong arm robbery occurred at 2 a.m. on Apr. 22. Police were called the scene by witnesses who saw the incident from a nearby tavern.

The victim, an employee at Home Depot, was on a break from work and decided to take a short walk northward on Delridge. As he was walking up the street he noticed three black males having a heated discussion with a cab driver. Once the cab driver ran to his car and sped away the group of suspects turned their attention to the victim telling him not to run. At this point the victim turned around and tried to get away from the suspects as fast as he could.

When the suspects caught up to the victim one of them grabbed the victim by his jacket and threw him to the ground from behind. Two of the suspects began punching and kicking the victim in the face while the third suspect worked his way through the victim’s pockets, taking his wallet.

Editors Note: We've owned the White Center News since 1952, and the West Seattle Herald since 1974. This is a column from Jerry Robinson our publisher he wrote in 2008, looking back at some of the early days.

By Jerry Robinson, Publisher

 In 1950, the main street of White Center was only two paved lanes in the middle of eight blocks of huge mud holes whenever it rained. The county territory was ruled by Republican Bill Sears, who probably never got a vote from the hugely Democrat citizenry.

We got frustrated with governmental neglect. We ran a series of front-page cartoons depicting the muddy life of a fictitious groundhog that loved the road even though he had to scamper out of the way when drivers splashed into his territory.

After several weeks of swamping our readers with watery woes, local businessman Omar Schau came charging into our office and after castigating us for our literary attempts, suggested that if we didn't like it we could always go back to wherever we came from.

By Kyra-lin Hom

Sexual harassment. What is it? What constitutes it? How big of a deal is it really? Prior to working in a large office, I thought I had a handle on this issue. I'm a smart, strong woman. I recognize when I'm being harassed, and I can certainly stand up for myself. Well, it turns out life isn't quite so pleasantly cut and dry.

When I think of sexual harassment, I think of the TV show MadMen. I think of sex in the office, obvious weight and appearance discrimination, and blatant behavior that is oddly both paternal and sexually aggressive. I think of catcalls, sexually suggestive talk, unwanted proximity and frequent touching. That sound about right to you?

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Yes, our community is changing. People ask me what it was like here before Westwood Village sprang up draining the swamp that once produced mosquitoes. And they often wonder if the air would be less polluted if we had not dug up the streetcar tracks and bought buses from Germany, or wherever they came from. Well, I can tell you that the air would have been cleaner.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that high rises without adequate parking spaces bring on increased street parking and increased car traffic. And it doesn’t take much wisdom to realize that the local business owners are now being displaced by corporate sprawl almost blotting out the sun setting behind the tall buildings. Does all this complaining mean that I am not with the times? After all there must be living spaces for all the new workers at Amazon when it moves into Seattle.

By Eric Minor

The $15 per hour minimum wage proposal being considered by the Mayor and the Seattle City Council is, in a word, disastrous. Many economists agree that minimum wage laws do more harm than good as they make it impossible for young and low skill workers to find jobs. Washington State already boasts the highest state-wide minimum wage in America at $9.32 per hour, though several localities such as San Francisco and SeaTac have recently enacted local ordinances that raise their minimum wage above their state levels a little or a lot.

If $9.32 makes the door to employment sticky for low skill workers, $15 slams it in their face and throws the deadbolt. Having attended the first three city council meetings on this subject, one almost gets the impression that it is a vanity project for the city leaders to see if they can one-up some of the other municipalities that are threatening to outshine them as most progressive kid on the block. This is of course a poor basis for policy, especially policy that uses the coercive power of government to intercede in the freely made choices of others.

UPDATE April 28 from Seattle Police Blotter

Seattle police arrested a 45-year-old man for burglary and assault Sunday evening after he threatened officers with a knife and led them on a brief foot chase through West Seattle.

At about 5:30 p.m., police received a report of a burglary in the 2200 block of Fairmount Ave Sw. The victim reported that, among other things, his $800 camera had been stolen. The victim told police he knew the suspect, who had been living in one of the victim’s vehicle outside the home.

A short time later, officers located the suspect and the vehicle a few block away from the burglary scene.

When officers tried to contact the suspect he got out of the car and threatened officers with a dagger. An officer attempted to use a Taser on the suspect and take him into custody, but the suspect fled on foot with officers in tow. Officers were able to Taser the man, forcing him to drop the knife. However, the suspect got back up and charged at officers, who were able to take the man into custody after a brief struggle. Neither the suspect nor the officers were seriously injured.

I went to the meeting in the Council Chambers last night. I came away deflated and saddened.

There were the usual strange people there. One man was "saluting" the Council members with the German Heil, mein Führer!" and another woman had flyers with the names of "innocent people" that Seattle Police have "murdered".

The OPA Review Board was there. The CPC group was there. (Why do we have them?) Why is it that a member of that "team" - a "community team", does not even live in our "community?

I signed up to speak for an allotted 2 minutes. I followed everyone else. I came away wondering why I bothered. I recalled a recent meeting here in West Seattle where Ron Sims asked me why I felt "invisible", why I felt like no one was listening - or worse yet, cared about what I had to say. There was no expression on any of their faces last night. No reaction to anything. Nothing I had to say then, was considered....I know that. I think those meetings - to get public opinion for the Chief search, were just for "show".

Isn't that pathetic? Sad?

The AAUW (American Association of University Women), Seattle Branch, recently honored girls from 9 area high schools for their achievement in the areas of Math, Science and Technology.
Four girls honored were from West Seattle including Chief Sealth HS: Nicole Carter (Science) and ThuTrinh (Math), and from West Seattle High School: Nafisa Ali (Science) and Noriel Sarquilla (Math).

AAUW promotes equity for women and girls. Our Seattle Branch held its 14th Annual Scholar Recognition Program on April 9th, recognizing senior girls from nine Seattle area high schools for their achievement in the areas of Math, Science, and Technology. Dr. Deborah Jensen, President/CEO of Woodland Park Zoo was the guest speaker at the event.

The Scholar Recognition Program is all about encouraging more young women to become interested in STEM careers by honoring their achievements to date, with a goal of encouraging better representation of women in these fields in the future.