Looking for someplace to let your halloween spirit flow? Then check out the festivities Saturday afternoon and evening at the Jackson Place Business Association’s bi-annual open house at the Hiawatha Lofts.

They’ll have art, live music, and other performances from 3:00pm to 8:30pm, down at 851 Hiawatha Place South.

Costumes are encouraged, and they’ll also be gathering food donations for the Community Foodbank at St. Mary’s church.

Our friends at The Bottleneck (CDNews sponsors) are hosting their 4th annual Hillside Harvest Feast Saturday from 4pm onward.

Food for the event will be provided from the delicious Skillet airstream starting at 5pm and going until the food runs out.

And the bar will have Two Bells Pumpkin Spice Ale, Spire Dark and Dry Cider, and seasonal vodka cocktails.

It’s so impressive to us to see a grassroots project like the memorial to fallen Officer Tim Brenton come together so smoothly and on schedule. Just three months since it was announced to the public, the project is on track for dedication next weekend on the anniversary of the police officer’s brutal murder.

This Saturday you can lend a hand to make it a reality, as the public’s help is needed to plant the focal tree, spread topsoil, and clean up the area surrounding the memorial.

The work party begins at 11am at 29th & Yesler, and some pizzas will be provided for lunch by All Purpose Pizza.

A group of thugish girls are apparently fighting the trend of lower crime in the neighborhood, attacking another teenage girl near 16th & Yesler on Monday afternoon.

According to a police report, a man driving by witnessed the assault and stopped to help, causing the three suspects to run off.

The victim said the group approached her and demanded her cell phone and purse. She refused, prompting one suspect to try and grab the items while another punched her in the face three times.

The victim suffered minor injuries to the face that did not require medical attention. She also held on to the purse throughout the ordeal.

Thanks to CDNews member Truman who sent us the details on last night’s school board vote on the fate of the old MLK school property in Madison Valley.

The board voted 5-2 to approve the sale to First AME church, which will use it to run a new series of social services to help children, veterans, and others.

Directors Martin-Morris and Smith-Blum voted against the measure after their amendments were voted down by the rest of the board. Smith-Blum was in favor of further studies to determine whether the district should keep the property, and Martin-Morris was in favor of selling the property to CCC@MLK, a group of Madison Valley residents who wanted to use the property for a community center.

Adrienne Bailey, President of CCC@MLK issued a brief statement following the vote. “Obviously we wanted a different outcome, with a decision ensuring a community center of, by and for the community. The property covenant ensures some community use of the property, but we want to make sure the community has input into the programming at the space.”  

First AME now has 60 days to prepare title paperwork, inspect the building, and gather the  $2.4 million in funds to purchase the building. The majority of that amount will be provided by the State of Washington, which has set aside capital funds to allow community groups to purchase abandoned school buildings.

Today the Seattle Police Department released a sketch of a man suspected in the Monday arson that heavily damaged a house on 33rd Avenue in Madrona.

Police say that the man knocked on several doors on the street prior to the arson, including on the victim’s, asking if he could check the backyard for a ball. Police say “it is believed this was a ruse to determine if anyone was home prior to committing his crimes.”

The SPD blotter contains more details on the suspect description:

The suspect is described as a black male with a medium to dark complexion, 18 to early 20′s, 5’11″ tall, 150 lbs., athletic build, and hair in corn rows. 

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police immediately and refer to this incident. 

This remains an active and on-going Seattle Police Arson investigation.

It’s a day of tears here at CDNews World HQ as we had to say goodbye to our friend and mascot Carson. He was put to sleep this morning after a 3-month battle with liver cancer.

Carson joined the family almost exactly ten years ago, in November of 2000. Born into a litter of incredibly cute Golden Retrievers in Shoreline, he added an immeasurable amount of happiness to all of our lives.

He was often a companion on our news gathering outings as we walked the full length and breadth of the neighborhood together. Whether waiting patiently outside meetings or tied to our waist as we took photos at parades, he was always an enthusiastic member of our team. That teamwork is spread throughout many of our archived photos, whether it’s a dog reflection in a window or a bit of dog head hanging at the bottom of a snapshot.

His main interests in life were typical of the breed, loving nothing more than to chase down a frisbee or ball and bring it back to you. Combining that with water was just heaven for him. His energy in doing that job would exceed the stamina of any human participant.

People often remarked at what a well trained dog he was. But the truth was that it was not due to any dog training talent on our parts, and instead a result of his neverending desire to please. He wanted nothing more than to try and understand what you wanted and would do his damnest to comply.

He never begged at the table, always keeping a respectful distance, and would go outside or to his bed on command. He never jumped on the bed, but would sneak up onto a couch when we’d leave the house. And of course he had mastered all of the other usual tricks to, including sit, lay, stay, shake, speak, and roll over.

Carson was always a popular dog. When he was a puppy we would walk around Seward Park and everyone that passed by had to stop and coo and give him a pat on the head. And that held through even in his older white-faced years. On a family trip to Victoria this past summer, we walked all over the city and people would always want to stop and say hi. We joked that it seemed like no one in Canada had seen a dog before. But the truth was that he was just so darn charming that it was difficult to resist.

I think in many ways he was a much better dog than we were dog owners. In his younger years we would take him on mountain biking trips that were always huge family fun. But we pushed the limits on one ride at Tiger Mountain, and arrived back at the truck to find that we had almost worn the pads off of his paws. Even though they were bloody and raw, for the last few miles of the ride he trotted along right behind us, never complaining, just wanting to keep up with his pack.

Margery Facklam once wrote that “we give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare, and love we can spare. In return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made.”

Nothing could be more true in our case. We were very fortunate to have been able to spend time with Carson, and will miss him terribly. But we were clear beneficiaries of that bargain, and will count ourselves luck if we ever have a dog that’s even half as good.

PS – If you ever have a pet dealing with cancer, we can’t say enough good things about Dr. Sarbu and her team at the Veterinary Oncology Center. She was compassionate, skilled, and incredibly helpful to us.

A burned chair sitting next to the curb gives visual evidence of a fire that occurred at a boarding house in the 2700 block of S. Washington Street last night.

And it appears to have been intentionally set, according to spokespersons for the Seattle Fire and Police departments.

The damage was approximately $11,000, described by the fire department as “mostly damage to contents, not the structure of the home.”

SPD spokesperson Mark Jamieson says that it is an active police investigation, and that detectives have information on a possible suspect in hand. He also said that last nights fire doesn’t appear to have any connection to the arson in Madrona from earlier in the week.

After years of proposals, campaigns, and numerous public meetings, today could be the day when the Seattle School Board makes a final decision on the fate of the old MLK Elementary school property. The board is scheduled to vote on the issue in a meeting tonight at district headquarters.

The board’s finance committee voted unanimously in September to accept the superintendent’s recommendation to sell the MLK building and property to First AME church for $2.4 million, turning down competing offers from CCC@MLK (a group of Madison Valley residents favoring a new community center), the Central Area Development Association, and The Bush School.

But two amendments have been offered by board members that could derail the plan to hand over the property to First AME. The first amendment, offered by Director Kay Smith-Blum (attached at left), would delay a decision until February of 2011, giving the board time to consider whether the property should be kept in public ownership to help alleviate overcrowding in other schools around the Central Area.

According to Smith-Blum, all but one school in the “central cluster” are at or near capacity, and a shortage of playfield space is driving Garfield sports programs to practice in far-away locations such as Marymoor Park in Redmond. Smith-Blum suggests that the district may need to hold on to the 4-acre MLK property and use it to provide playfield space for school programs, and allow revenue-positive rental of the space to private sports programs.

A letter sent to the board last night from Adrienne Bailey, a leader of the CCC@MLK organization (attached at left), urges the board to vote down Smith-Blum’s amendment, as the clock is ticking on the deteriorating buildings that the group hopes to turn into a community center. The Seattle Department of Planning & Development have set an end of year deadline for the sale of the school, and a February decision would exceed that deadline and result in the buildings having to be brought up to current building codes before being used, something that is financially infeasible for any of the parties that hope to make use of them.

But CCC@MLK is strongly in favor of a second amendment offered by Director Martin-Morris that would direct the district to accept CCC@MLK’s bid for the school. The short summary of the amendment (attached at left), states that the CCC@MLK proposal is $100,000 higher than First AME’s bid, and is “the only bid that truly keeps the property in the public domain.”

Bailey also launched a series of strong accusations against school staff and the First AME bid in her most recent letter to the board, calling the district staff recommendation “tainted, misleading, and incorrect”. Citing “ambiguities and tainted information”, she urges the board to allow full presentations from CCC@MLK and First AME in public hearings, giving each side an opportunity to prove the value of their proposals.

Tonight’s meeting starts at 6pm at district headquarters at 2445 3rd Avenue South.

Our friends at the Seattle Times have a good story today about the sanctions given to the Garfield High School sports programs following violations of league eligibility rules in a September 10th football game:

Because of the incident, athletic director Jim Valiere was placed on administrative leave and he was asked to give back his school keys.

“My reaction is sadness and confusion,” Valiere said, who believes he’s been fired.

As part of KingCo Conference sanctions imposed Monday, Garfield will not be eligible for the football postseason this year and in 2011. In addition, the school forfeited its 24-22 win over Sammamish.

All of the school’s teams are on probation until Sept. 1, 2012, but will be eligible for the postseason.

When asked about the severity of the punishment, Garfield principal Ted Howard said, “It may seem harsh, but I can’t really elaborate on some of the other things that were going on behind the scenes. For it to get to that extreme, there were definitely some other things going on.”

Allen and Kelley said they felt they would have been fired if they hadn’t stepped down.

“There was some really hard thought taken into consideration, knowing how much Anthony Allen means to Garfield and the alumni here,” Howard said. “He’s a phenomenal coach … I hired him. It was something that wasn’t taken lightly.”

The article says that the issues came up due to failures in a system of academic probation periods, but communication breakdowns led to ineligible players participation in the September game. Read the whole story at The Seattle Times.