No matter what a woman does for a living, it’s against the law to assault her and take her purse. Seattle police officers and a medic crew were dispatched to an area near Viretta Park early Saturday morning after a woman called 911 to report she had been assaulted and robbed by a man she said had picked her up in Belltown and brought her to the 200 block of 39th Ave East around 4:30 AM.
The woman admitted to police that she worked as a prostitute and said that the man who had driven her to the area attacked her, hitting her and taking her purse. A medic crew at the scene treated the woman but she refused further medical attention.
A search for the man came up empty.
Viretta Park is known as a favorite hangout of late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain who lived — and died — nearby.
A cream colored Chevy Monte Carlo with what appeared to be two bullet holes was pulled over near 22nd Ave and James early this morning after several reports of gunfire were called into 911 just after 12:30 AM Saturday.
No details yet on what went down but police took a person into custody at the scene at 22nd and James. A gang unit was called to the location but there were no significant medical callouts in the area.
Witnesses at the Twilight Exit told police they heard between five and six shots coming from somewhere near 23rd and Cherry around 12:37 AM.
Might as well start here. The scanner is gone, baby, gone. We’ve lived without it for a few weeks now on CDN and, while we miss getting some of the little bits of important news on the site and, yeah, the entertainment value, we’re doing fine without it. We saw the comments from scanner fans and appreciate how much you valued it. Traffic to the site has actually been higher without the daily posts. But I’m not here to kick you, scanner. We still need you and you did a great job. We just can’t spend the time to listen to your updates. There’s news to cover.
Now that we got that off our chest, CDN is sheepishly offering up its second ‘open thread’ (here’s the first — thanks for the nice notes!) since taking on this new responsibility. The first weeks have seen a lot of good and some less good but the information flow is up and running. Beyond most of my jokes bombing so far on the site, I worry with all the boundary news that some of you won’t have faith that this Capitol Hill carpetbagger knows where the CD *is* and some of you might be partly right. But anyway, here’s hoping for a bunch of good, interesting, nobody-gets-hurt news right in the heart of things. Here’s also hoping for more and more of you to get involved with the site. We’ve already got Lisa, Tom and, soon, LIz in the mix as well as the great community posts we’ve been getting. Can you help, too? Send me mail if you’d like to come on as a contributor.
We also need to give these people things to write about. CDN has an editorial planning calendar that is still pretty flimsy. This is a spectacular time to wield your influence on the site and give us some inspirational coverage ideas. Go brainstorm style and give us a list. Or just let us know which areas — geographic or coverage topics — we should focus on. You can even tell us how much you love the scanner. Again.
Hopefully the result of all this is a continued increase in interesting news and information on the site. And fewer open threads :)
A man told police he was robbed by two teens who “displayed a gun” as they stole his backpack near the 2200 block of South Main Tuesday night. SPD responded to the scene around 6:30 PM on November 9 and searched for the two black male teenagers, one wearing a red jacket the other a blue and grey jacket, the victim told police had robbed him. It was not clear what kind of weapon the teens were carrying.
The Tuesday night hold-up is one a string of four robbery reports near Jackson this week, three of them reportedly involving weapons. While the activity is on the edge of the range CDN typically covers, we are working to gather more information given the number of incidents and the South Main hold-up. In one of the other Jackson area attempted hold-ups in an International District restaurant bathroom, a weapon was not seen and the suspect gave up and walked away when his hold-up target wouldn’t give him any money. We’ll update when we know more about the other three incidents including the two where weapons were reportedly involved. The most recent incident, a strong arm robbery reported in the 2400 block of South Jackson Thursday night, does not appear to have involved a weapon.
Meanwhile, in further gun-related crime activity on the edges of the CD, police and K-9 units fanned out across Yesler Terrace, also Thursday night, searching for a man that reportedly shot at another man around 9:30 PM. An extensive search didn’t turn up the suspect and no other witnesses but the reporting victim said they heard any shots.
This summer, the Central District News was quite upset about the state of the CD economy as King Creole Louisiana Gumbo & BBQ was shutting down on East Cherry. But remember: When it comes to the restaurant business, things are always opening and closing. And opening again. CDN is now happy to report a return, of sorts, of the King as Louisiana Grill & Deli opened recently on 23rd Ave next to the post office and the 99-cent store.
In grand community news gatherer fashion, we learned this breaking culinary news from a CDN review and more details when owner Jifar Wakjira bought an ad to announce the Grill’s December grand opening and gave us a few details on the new shop:
Our restaurant is located at 1106 23rd Avenue and is designed as a take-out only joint. The head chef used to run a restaurant in the madrona area, King Creole’s Louisiana Gumbo & BBQ (29th and Cherry). He started working in this new restaurant under new management last month…
The Grill is open Monday through Saturday from 7 AM to 9 PM and Sundays, 9 AM to 8 PM so, yes, that means breakfast is on the menu. It’s a takeout joint so we’re talking breakfast po’ boy sandwiches here. The hot link variety, for example, will set you back $5.95. The rest of the menu includes everything from po’ boy (lunch and dinner!) sandwiches, gumbo, chicken and slices of pie. The menu also says they offer shakes to which CDN says, excellent call.
The grand opening party weekend is planned for December 3rd and 4th.
Louisiana Grill & Deli is located at 1106 23rd Avenue.
Public officials and representatives from the task force that created a new set of recommendations for transforming the way Metro makes service and route planning decisions presented their work and heard from the community — and Metro drivers, themselves — about public transit needs in Seattle at a town hall meeting held on the Seattle University campus Tuesday night. A recurring theme for many of the community speakers: increased efficiency within Metro is good but there should be fewer cuts to public transit if regional governments are continuing to spend money on creating more roads. Meanwhile, labor was also present Tuesday night as the drivers union made its concern about increased workload and more aggressive scheduling known.
We’ve included the final recommendation report from the King County Regional Task Force and some highlights from the plan, here. Despite the broad nature of the plan, much of the public comment was, of course, very specific and personal.
“I really sympathize with people who lose their favorite bus. I lost my favorite bus,” one Capitol Hill resident who spoke said.
With representatives from the task force were Larry Phillips, King County Council’s transportation committee chair, Larry Gossett, also from the county council, and Tom Rasmussen, chair of the Seattle City Council’s transportation committee.
While many of the public speakers praised the idea of a more efficient public transit system, the details of the recommendation left some wanting more. One speaker called the task force “intellectually dishonest” for presenting a rational framework for planning but not including specific requirements for how Metro must implement many of the recommendations.
Representatives from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 voiced their concern to the task force about the increasingly hectic scheduling for drivers and its impact on health, performance and safety. One driver went so far as to call for the county to “stop the barbaric treatment of Metro drivers.”
Another speaker pointed out a missing element in the plan, asking the task force why it has apparently glossed over the future of Metro’s trolley system. Metro must make a decision on how to best replace its fleet of aging electric trolley buses that serve many of the city’s most-hilly neighborhoods and several key routes in the Central District.
We’ve attached the final recommendation document to this post.
Now that the final recommendation report is out, comments should be directed to elected officials and Metro’s leaders, Council member Phillips told CHS after the meeting. “It’s time now for the electeds to forge legislation based on these recommendations,” Phillips said. You can mail Phillips at [email protected] and Seattle City Council transportation chair Rasmussen at [email protected].
Medical emergency crews and police responded to the intersection of 12th and Jackson just before 7 Monday night after a car struck two people causing serious injuries.
We don’t know the specific conditions of the two victims but we know that one female was found lying the eastbound lane of Jackson and another victim was found in the westbound lane. Traffic in the area was snarled during the medic response and investigation of the 6:45 PM incident.
According to police radio, responding officers did not determine that the driver was impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Both victims were transported to Harborview with serious injuries. We’ll update when we know more.
The incident is a reminder to be especially cautious on the streets as we transition into the dark winter months.
A Tuesday ‘town hall’ will give King County Metro’s Regional Transit Task Force an opportunity to brief the public on seven recommendations the group has made on reinventing the way the agency plans its service and routes. It also presents an opportunity for you to come out and voice your support for a proposed plan that seems well aligned around the transportation needs of an urban city environment like Seattle’s core neighborhoods across Capitol Hill, First Hill and the Central District.
Tuesday, November 9 6:30-8:00 p.m. Seattle University Campion Ballroom 914 East Jefferson St.
We have reviewed a draft of the final recommendations from the task force and some of the edits and changes can be viewed in the embedded document below. The seven recommendations would create a Metro that would leave its old ways of planning behind and move the agency to a more data focused and analytical approach to transit route planning. It would also be a planning process conscious of what the task force calls ‘social equity’ — here’s the passage from the recommendation doc complete with revision markings:
Metro’s ‘old way’ is described by the task force thusly:
The current policy for transit service growth and reduction is based on three King County subareas (east, west and south) and was established in Metro’s 2002 – 2007 Six-Year Transit Development Plan. For service growth, every 200,000 hours of new transit service is to be allocated with 40 percent to the east subarea, 40 percent to the south, and 20 percent to the west. This is called the 40/40/20 policy. Any systemwide service reductions are to take place in proportion to each subarea’s share of the total service investment. Based on the current hours of service in each subarea, 62 percent of the reduction would have to come from the west subarea, 21 percent from the south and 17 percent from the east. This is commonly called the 60/20/20 policy.
Here is a summary list of the recommendations. Below, we’ve also embedded the draft recommendation document.
Recommendation 1: Metro should create and adopt a new set of performance measures by service type, and report at least annually on the agency’s performance on these measures. The performance measures should incorporate reporting on the key system design factors, and should include comparisons with Metro’s peer transit agencies.
o Evaluate individual routes – This will allow for analysis and comparison of each type of Metro service, including the different “families” of fixed route by service type.
o Evaluate overall system performance – This will allow for a better understanding of how the system as a whole is performing, including the ability to achieve some broader policy goals, such as the seven key system design factors.
o Evaluate performance against peer agencies – This will allow for a metrics-based comparison with other transit agencies that will help Metro understand how it might improve performance of its transit system.
Recommendation 2: King County and Metro management must control all of the agency’s operating expenses to provide a cost structure that is sustainable over time. Cost control strategies should include continued implementation of the 2009 performance audit findings, exploration of alternative service delivery models, and potential reduction of overhead and internal service charges.
Recommendation 3: The policy guidance for making service reduction and service growth decisions should be based on the following priorities:
1) Emphasize productivity due to its linkage to economic development, land use and financial sustainability;
2) Ensure social equity; and
3) Provide geographic value throughout the county.
Recommendation 4: Create clear and transparent guidelines to be used for making service allocation decisions, based upon the recommended policy direction.
Recommendation 5: Use the following principles to provide direction for the development of service guidelines.
Transparency, Clarity and Measurability
Use of the System Design Factors
Flexibility to Address Dynamic Financial Conditions
Integration with the Regional Transportation System
Recommendation 6: King County, Metro, and a broad coalition of community and business interests should pursue state legislation to create one or more additional revenue sources that would provide a long-term, more sustainable base of revenue support for transit services. To build support for that work, it is essential that King County adopt and implement the task force recommendations, including use of the service guidelines and performance measures, and continued efforts to reduce Metro’s operating costs.
Recommendation 7: Metro staff should use the Task Force recommendations and discussions as the framework for revising Metro’s current mission statement, and creating a vision statement (as one does not now exist_). Both draft statements should be included in the draft Comprehensive and Strategic Plans scheduled to be submitted to the County Council in February 2011.
