Your slightly delayed report on the wackyness in Seattle’s East Precinct:

Seattle Crime has the more details on the drive-by shooting that damaged a Madison Valley home two weeks ago, including alleged ties to a previous drug-involved shooting in north Seattle earlier in September:

A man and a woman inside the home said they heard loud “booms” and the sound of glass breaking as they huddled inside with their infant child.

Following the drive-by, the mother of the man who lives in the home told police her son had been having trouble with a gang member nickamed BG Velle, who tried to steal a chain from her son the week earlier. Her son later told her “he was going to take care of the problem himself,” police records say.

Police records say BG Velle, 25, is a D-Dub (Down Wit the Crew) gang member who “hangs out downtown and sells drugs.”

SPD records indicate that last month, man apparently targeted in the drive-by was shot in the arm in anapparent drug deal at 105th and Aurora on September 16th. It’s unclear how the two cases are connected, but gang detectives are following up on both incidents.

On September 27th, detectives went looking for the car used in the drive-by, and spotted it leaving Roman’s Casino in Skyway.

More details at Seattle Crime

Our buddy Andrew sent us a tip that the big apartment project at 12th & Broadway has received final approval from the Seattle City Council.

The council approved the project’s request for a rezone that gives them up to 70 feet in height, allowing them to build retail spaces on the ground floor that will be compatible with the steep slope of the property.

Once completed, the 6-story project will contain 100 market-rate apartments targeted towards employees in the nearby medical facilities, and the first-floor retail will have room for five to eight new neighborhood businesses.

The developer had previously stated that the project had a commitment for full funding that ran out in the fall of this year. While it appears that the city processes have met that timeline, we’ve been unable to reach anyone at the developer’s office to confirm that. We’ll try again today and will update this if we learn more.

We cover a lot of neighborhood news here, but there’s a lot in any given week that we miss because we just don’t have enough time to be able to report on all of it.

So we’re looking for a good man or woman to help out on a paid basis.

Here’s the requirements:

• Must live somewhere south of Madison, north of I-90, west of Lake Washington, and east of Broadway
• Must have demonstrated ability to write fun, engaging, informative prose that is at least as grammatically correct as mine (last part is a pretty low bar)
• Must be able to devote enough time to post every day, attend community meetings on evenings and weekends, and be able to jump at the drop of a hat to cover live events like fires, crime, or other calamities.
• Must come prepared with an objective eye for hard news, and interest in writing softer feature pieces too

Interested? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Welcome to the 6th day of October in Seattle’s East Precinct:

The streets of Madison Valley have been invaded by a variety of big construction machinery. Scores of dump trucks are hauling away dirt every day from Washington Park. Big excavators have been digging deep holes along MLK. And today crews are preparing to launch a large tunnel boring machine under 28th Avenue East.

It’s all part of Seattle Public Utility’s efforts to fix Madison Valley flooding problems once and for all by providing massive new capacity to catch and store rainwater that would otherwise overwhelm the city’s old sewage system.

It’s been almost four years since valley resident Kate Fleming was killed in her basement by a flash flood that roared down the hillsides around Madison Street. The first part of the city’s multi-million dollar project to fix the problem was completed this summer with the opening of an expanded storage basin at 30th & Denny Way.

But now construction is well under way on phase 2, which will add a big new pipeline on the west side of MLK, directing runoff down to a large new storage tank next to the ballfields in the south end of the Arboretum. So far crews have dug two holes 25 to 30 feet deep at MLK & Madison and 28th & Roy. A tunneling machine is now on site, and crews are preparing to lower it down inside the hole closest to Madison, running it north until it hits the hole that has been dug at Roy.

Tunnel boring machine on site, ready to be lowered into the first hole

Inside of the hole where the boring machine will be launched

The next step of that process is under way now, with crews digging another trench in the small triangle of city land at MLK & E. Arthur Place. Over the next year, crews will repeat that process four more times, digging holes, launching and retrieving the boring machine, eventually creating a 48 inch pipeline stretching from 27th & John to the new storage tank north of Madison in the hillside corner of Washington Park. 

Massive amounts of earth are also being moved to create that storage tank. The hillside has been retained to form the west walls of the structure, and crews are now digging down below that and make room for the 2.1 million gallons of water storage that is required for the project. By this time next year concrete will be poured to create the shell of the tank, and it will finally be landscaped to fit in with the rest of the park.

But for residents who may be tiring of beeping, shaking, and the sound of heavy machinery, hang on. There’s about 9 months more of that still to come. 

Excavation under way on the water storage tank in Washington Park

Last week we told you how the Central District and surrounding areas fared pretty well in the lean new city budget, preserving existing levels of service in parks, police, and fire protection. But the folks at the Seattle Neighborhood Group have dug into the details and found that some of the programs they provide are at risk of being cut.

The Seattle Neighborhood Group is a social service agency that promotes public safety, helps people with addictions, and helps to organize neighborhoods to build stronger communities. Although they serve the whole city, their headquarters is on Yesler near 18th Avenue.

The mayor’s proposed budget cuts $60,000 in their community building contract, which they’ve used to fund park concerts, community barbecues, community gardens, and more. In an email, SNG’s Executive Director  Kay Godefroy says that they’ll be unable to continue those services in 2011 if the full cut remains in the final budget. She’s asking people to contact the city council and urge restoration of at least $30,000, which would be enough to continue at a smaller scale than in previous years.

But it’s not all bad news. The GOTS program, which works to take long-term drug addicts off the streets and into treatment, is recommended for full funding in the mayor’s budget. That’s the first time in recent years that the program has received mayoral support.

Here’s the full report from Seattle’s East Precinct on a sunny Tuesday:

There was one surprise in the draft list of projects slated to receive funds from the Parks Levy. While we’ve talked a lot about the 12th & James Woonerf, the proposed park 19th & Madison was news to us and many of our readers in the Miller Park area.

A query to the Seattle Parks Department produced the 19th & Madison project application, which proposes for the city to buy the vacant lot on the southwest corner of the intersection and hold it for future development of a small park.

The corner was the historical home of a neighborhood fruit stand. When the brothers who ran the stand passed away in the previous decade, the property was bought by developers who started the permitting process for a mixed-use building on that site. But like so many others, that project died in the turmoil of the great recession.

Project plans call for a “tranquil green oasis” in that urban stretch of Madison Street. It would be fully accessible to all the neighbors near it, including the many residents of the nearby Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center (HSDC) and the Seattle Association for Jews with Disabilities.

The property is a small 5,000 square feet, but the project planners want to take advantage of the angled corner of the lot to create “interesting streetscape features” and make good use of the space available.

HSDC has secured a one-year option to buy the property for $450,000, and will transfer that option to the city if the project is funded. The remaining portion of the $473,000 project budget would pay for administrative costs and legal fees on the property transaction.

It’s important to note that the project is only funded for property acquisition and not park development. Organizers say they have an offer of pro-bono design services from a landscape architect to design the details of the park. But that would still leave a multi-hundred-thousand dollar bill to construct the park and make the project a reality. Funding for that is not identified in the project documents, but will likely require a future application through one of the city opportunity funds.

Another, sadder bit of news we found on our weekend walks through Leschi. It appears that Triumph Multi-Sport went closed their doors in the last week.

According to their Facebook page, they’re closed for the season and are looking for a new location to lease. Commenters there are lamenting the move.

But with every change comes some opportunity. Leschi has some really good businesses in their two-block commercial strip. If there’s anything specific that you’d like to see, leave your votes in the comments below.