The old Greyhound facility it will someday replace started demolition last week. This week, the public process begins for the $201.5 million Denny Substation project that, starting with the planned launch of construction in 2015, will create an important new Seattle City Light facility to keep up with predicted surging electricity demand in the South Lake Union, Cascade, Denny Triangle, Uptown, Belltown, and First Hill neighborhoods.

Though the areas serviced by the new substation are not in the CD, the lines carrying the juice could be installed in the neighborhood, our sister site Capitol Hill Seattle reports.

A proposed “overhead” route for the project’s transmission line calls for a chain of large, possibly 100-foot-high towers running up Capitol Hill via Denny Way then down 14th Ave, E Spruce and 12th Ave S. Needless to say, a few neighbors already notified by mail about this week’s upcoming meetings are a little concerned.

Here is how the project’s “Determination of Significance” document describes the 115 kilovolt transmission line:

(Image of West Seattle transmission lines courtesy Bryan Comstock)

“The transmission line would involve installing massive towers in a largely residential area,” writes Bryan Comstock in an email sent to CHS about the project.

The 15th Ave resident also sent pictures of what he said are a similar transmission line and towers that run along Delridge Way in West Seattle so we could “get an idea of what these towers would look like.”

“That alternative is certainly out there,” says Michael Jerrett of Seattle City Light about Denny Substation transmission line alternative #3 — also known as “the overhead route.”

Jerrett says the city’s preferences, however, are the first two alternatives — underground routes through downtown connecting the future substation at Denny and Stewarts to the S. Massachusetts substation near I-90:

The alternatives will be one of the hotter topics at a series of public meetings being held this week to as part of the environmental review of the massive, little-talked about project. The closest session to Capitol Hill turf comes Thursday with a 4:30 to 7 PM “scoping meeting” held at Seattle University’s 12th at Marion Alumni & Admissions building. The format of the meetings will be “open house” from 4:30 to 6 PM with an hour of “oral comment.” You can also provide comments via email [email protected].

DENNY SUBSTATION STATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (SEPA) PUBLIC SCOPING MEETINGS

City Light Holding Three Public Meetings Next Week

SEATTLE – Seattle City Light is in the early stages of building its first new substation in 30 years. The environmental review process is underway and the scoping period began on Monday, Oct. 8. Scoping is the first step toward developing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and provides the public an opportunity to comment on potential impacts and alternatives to be considered.

City Light is holding three SEPA public scoping meetings to provide information about the project and to gather comments. Public Meetings will be held from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. on:

 

Monday, October 22 Seattle City Hall Bertha Landes Room 600 Fourth Ave. Seattle, WA

Wednesday, October 24 Seattle BioMed Discovery Rooms 307 Westlake Ave. N Seattle, WA

Thursday, October 25 Seattle University Alumni and Admission Building 12th Ave. & E. Marion St. Seattle, WA

All meetings will feature the same content and will include an open house from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. and an oral comment period from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Written comments can be provided at any point during the meeting.

The scoping period ends at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. The public is invited to submit comments at any time during this period. Send comments to:

• [email protected] or
• Seattle City Light, Environmental Affairs Division, ATTN: Kathleen G Fendt, P.O. Box 34023, Seattle WA 98124-4023

The new substation will help City Light serve customers in the South Lake Union, Cascade, Denny Triangle, Uptown, Belltown, and First Hill neighborhoods, as well as customers throughout City Light’s service area.

While City Light is hopeful it will succeed in achieving one of the two underground alternatives, there’s a daunting amount of process to get through before the decision will be final. The paths would take the transmission line through downtown and the ID/Chinatown areas meaning disruptive digging and construction over several months in the city’s core.

Construction time for the underground route is expected to take from 24 to 30 months. The overhead route would only need 12 to 18 months to complete. It’s also cheaper to create the overhead line. Jerrett said estimates for the overhead alternative come in between $30 and $35 million. The underground estimates fall between $45 to to $50 million of the Capital Improvement Program-powered $201.5 million project total.

Meanwhile, 14th Ave is the best route if the overhead alternative needs to be part of the plan. “14th is a logical overhead route due to the Right of Way layout for a large portion of 14th where there are wider sidewalks and/or planting strips,” Jerrett said. “Furthermore, overhead is not an option in Downtown Seattle due to building heights.”

With those “Right of Way” assets, Jerrett said there would be no need for any private property to be vacated along the 14th Ave route.

If for some reason 14th Ave won’t work as the overhead alternative, Jerrett said an alternate route has “yet to be determined.”

Seattle Police arrested a man Tuesday they say is responsible for a drive-by shooting in Rainier Beach earlier in the day. Nobody was injured in the shooting, though 13 rounds were fired.

More details from SPD:

Seattle police have arrested an 18-year-old Central District gang member suspected of opening fire on a members of a rival gang Tuesday afternoon in Rainier Beach.

Shortly after 1pm Tuesday, police received reports of gunshots near Waters Avenue S. and S. Carver Street.

According to a witness, the 18-year-old suspect leaned out of the passenger-side window of an SUV and fired off 13 rounds at a group of south Seattle gang members in another car, and sped off.

No one was injured in the shooting.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found the victims’ car on the street. Officers found two bullets lodged in the side of the car, which was also damaged when the driver sideswiped another car while speeding backwards down S. Carver Street to escape the gunman.

On Tuesday night, about seven hours after the shooting, patrol officers spotted the 18-year-old suspect outside of his apartment at 13th Avenue and E. Madison Street, contacted Gang Detectives, and arrested the man.

Officers booked the suspect into the King County Jail for investigation of unlawful possession of a firearm, assault, and drive-by shooting.

Mayor Mike McGinn was in the neighborhood Tuesday for a community walk followed by a town hall meeting at Kawabe House.

The evening went much more smoothly for the mayor than his June town hall meeting at the Northwest African American Museum, which ended prematurely due to heckling.

The mayor’s walking tour started at Operation Nightwatch at 14th and Main. Nightwatch works to find people on the street a place to sleep and to connect them with existing services.

Operation nightwatch.

The mayor also walked through the under-construction Casa Latina expansion on Jackson. The project will have retail space on Jackson and a main entrance for Casa Latina programs on the second floor, with walk-in access from the rear. Funding to complete a planned commercial kitchen in the new building will need to be secured before that part of the project can be completed, but the rest of the building is moving forward.

The mayor also stopped into Cheeky Cafe for a coffee and headed to Pratt Fine Arts to check out the facilities.

He also stopped to chat with Negsha Yassin, owner of the Corner Store & Deli at 16th and Jackson and the future Wonder Bar & Cafe at 19th and Jackson. Yassin voiced concerns about the lack of lights on Jackson, saying that could be one reason why the windows of his businesses have been vandalized.

In the town hall, there were only a couple CD-specific questions asked. The mayor said the budget is counting on significant revenue from any future plans for Fire Station #6 at 23rd and Yesler. This very likely means selling the property. There is a public meeting to discuss the station Wednesday evening, 7 p.m. at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.

Several people voiced concerns about broken sidewalks, which affects people with mobility issues more than others. One man stood and told his story of falling on a sidewalk crack a few years ago and getting significantly injured.

McGinn said that sidewalks are usually the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. However, problems arise when owners cannot afford to fix the sidewalk, which affects everybody in the neighborhood. Sometimes the city can patch sidewalks with asphalt to help with the worst cracks, but the backlog for significant sidewalk repairs is long.

Other questions ranged from the proper use of drones (the mayor sees them as “a low-cost alternative to having a helicopter” and said there would be a public process before they were used) and what bank the city uses (Wells Fargo, though the mayor supports the creation of a state bank for municipal funds, which could then lend to local businesses).

He was also asked whether the city can provide free Internet to residents. He is interested in letting service providers use the city’s fiber optic network for faster Internet, and this could maybe come with a mandatory low-cost option for low-income people, he said.

Mayor Mike McGinn will hold a town hall meeting tonight (Tuesday) at Kawabe Memorial House near Pratt Park.

The meeting at the 18th and Washington gets underway at 6 p.m. and will last about an hour.

From the Mayor’s Office:

Officers confiscated three loaded handguns, crack cocaine and ecstasy from a home at 27th and Spring Sunday, according the SPD blog. Officers searched the porch of a house after receiving a report of somebody with a gun, police say.

Details from SPD:

Officers seize drugs and recover at least one stolen gun after a 911 call of a man with a gun.  On October 14th at approximately 2:46 a.m. officers responded to a 911 call of a “man with a gun” in the 900 block of 27th Avenue.  The suspect with the gun was described as a black male, 5’10″ tall and wearing a white t-shirt.

The first officer arriving on scene contacted four to five subjects in front of the house in question.  The officer saw the described suspect from the 911 complaint go inside the house and then come back outside just as additional officers were arriving on scene.

As the officers investigated further they obtained consent to search the porch area of the suspect house.  Officers located three loaded handguns under a sofa and a quantity of narcotics, including suspected crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.  One of the guns was discovered to be stolen out of Tacoma.

Due to a witness being unavailable for positive identification, the subjects were identified, interviewed and released pending further investigation.

The contraband was seized and placed into evidence.

Here’s a look at some of the crime in the neighborhood in recent weeks. This information comes mostly from Seattle Police reports and public information officers.

Man carjacked at 25th and Pike while reading car manual

A man stopped his car at 25th and Pike shortly after 3 a.m. October 5 because the check engine light had come on. While reading the car manual to see what the light meant, two suspects approached the car, one of whom had a handgun.

From the police report:

Group robs Madison Valley business while owner is in back room

A group of young men robbed a Madison Valley business September 24 while the owner was in a back room. The owner interrupted them, so the thieves only made off with a laptop. More details from the police report:

Two muggings near 23rd and E Madison

Our sister site Capitol Hill Seattle reports: 

Seattle Police responded to two reported violent muggings along the same blocks of E Madison over the weekend. 

In the first incident late on October 5, a woman said she was jumped by a man who hit her in the head, knocked her to the ground, kicked her and stole her suitcase as she walked along Madison near 23rd Ave E. The victim suffered a cut to the back of her head in the attack. The woman, who said she waited an hour before reporting the attack because she has a warrant and feared arrest, told police that she saw three men walking toward her before one approached her and began the attack. She described him as a Hispanic male in his 20s, thin, 6’5″ and wearing a white shirt and dark jacket at the time of the robbery. A search for the area was not successful.

An early morning mugging in the same area sent a man to the hospital early October 7. According to the victim, he was walking home near 24th and Madison when he was suddenly jumped by an unknown attacker or attackers. The man was knocked unconscious and his wallet and his iPhone were stolen. He was taken to Harborview and reported the mugging to police the next morning when he was released from the hospital.

Middle school kid walking home robbed by older kid at 26th and Marion

A middle school kid walking home October 2 was robbed by an older kid at 26th and Marion, according to police.

The victim, 12, was walking past a house where the suspect, 14-15, was riding his bike in the driveway around 1 p.m. The suspect got off his bike and approached the victim, telling him to hand over all his stuff.

The suspect grabbed the victim’s iPhone from his hand, and the victim ran home to tell his mom. Police went to the suspect’s house and talked to someone there. The case was forwarded to detectives.

Two students robbed at 30th and Columbia

In another walking-home-from-school robbery, two students were robbed October 8 at 30th and Columbia, according to the police report (does not list their ages). The suspect had his face covered with a black bandana, but it’s possible the suspect is a classmate. He was described as being mixed race with short curly brown hair,  5’8″, 120 pounds wearing a red camo hoodie and grey jeans.

The suspect had his hand in his pants indicating he had a weapon. He took the victims’ wallets as well as one of the victim’s cell phone and backpack full of school books.

All-Purpose Pizza is closing for good Monday after seven years at 29th and Jackson. Owner Kedra Olsen said the restaurant’s operational costs do not seem likely to pencil out soon, as she had hoped.

Since the recession hit in 2008, sales have been down and have been slow to recover, she said. The shop needed more than $32,000 in sales each month to operate, and the business has been gathering debt waiting for things to improve.

“I wanted to stay open for the community and because I love what I do (and because I am an optimist),” Olsen told CDNews, “but it just can’t be realized, and it’s time for me to admit that the rebound I have needed since 2008 may never come.”

UPDATE 10/14: Olsen says they had such a busy day Saturday that they are taking Sunday off. There will be a final goodbye party Monday:

We thought we could make it through service tonight but were so busy last night we will be closed (Sunday). We have a LOT of beer to drink so we will be having an open house of sorts and a final goodbye on Monday 10/15 from 4pm-9pm. 2$ beers. We also have enough food for the party (5$ suggested donation). Swing by for a casual last gathering! Hope to see you tomorrow! Kedra

Olsen updated fans about the closure via Facebook:

Dear Friends/Family of APP,
Shocking as it will seem, I have decided to close APP after service (9pm) Monday October 15th. After 7 years of business I have decided it is time to move on and unburden myself and the debt that has been amassing since 2008 and the economic crash. I have done everything I can over these past years to stay in business, waiting for brighter days, but the new economic reality doesn’t mesh with my overhead/bottom line which is, unfortunately, not negotiable.

The deficit has been incredibly daunting and it is time for me to admit defeat. I know it will leave a huge hole in the community, a place I have called home for so many years. It is extremely painful for me to make this decision and what makes it harder all of you: the people who started off as patrons, became friends, and are now family. Your love and support has meant the world to me over these years and it is because of that that I have made it this far. For that I can’t thank you enough.

I will be around tonight (Friday) and throughout the weekend. I hope that you can make it in so I can say goodbye and sling one last pizza hurrah!

Much love,
Kedra and the APP staff

It may help inform some of today’s conversations among Central District neighbors to recall that, within the lifetime of many living here, racial discrimination in employment, housing, and public services was practiced openly and without apology.  Four Seattle women who were among the founders of the local chapter of CORE, the Congress on Racial Equality, have written a history of a movement that was part of the struggle to confront that discrimination.  Seattle in Black and White is that history, and this Saturday, October 13, two of the authors of that book, Bettylou Valentine and Maid Adams, will join the Community Council meeting for a conversation about their experiences and the challenges that continue to face us.

In the early 1960’s CORE members and other fighters for civil rights were physically assaulted for efforts to force local supermarkets to end hiring practices that excluded blacks.  Actions against Central Area supermarkets included locations at 14th and E. Pine, and 13th and E. Union. (Now, some would want to call that “Capitol Hill”.)  Despite fierce resistance, the civil rights movement inflicted financial losses on the stores until they agreed to hire African American workers.

Movement workers spearheaded a ballot measure in the City of Seattle to prohibit discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.  Seattle voters, by a wide margin, rejected equal housing in a 1964 election.  Illustrative of the argument against housing discrimination is this poster distributed by opponents:

All are encouraged to attend and meet two remarkable women and learn more about the history of your neighborhood.

Other items on the agenda include representatives of King County who will provide an update on the next steps for the development of the Youth Services Center site which will include a new courthouse and office building, a new detention center, and new housing and commercial space on the existing parking lot  — after the County facilities are constructed several years from now; an update on planning for the next Seattle Schools levy and how you can participate;  and an opportunity for you to speak to other neighbors about your neighborhood.

The meeting is from 10:00 A.M. to noon, at the Firehouse location of Centerstone (formerly known as the Central Area Motivation Program, CAMP) at 722 18th Avenue.

The use of force against a hit-and-run suspect in the parking lot of the Midtown Center at 23rd and Union Saturday is under investigation after several witnesses and CDNews raised questions.

Witnesses told CDNews they saw an SPD officer use force when arresting a man Saturday shortly after 4 p.m. Two witnesses we spoke with described an officer using both hands to choke the man after he resisted being placed in handcuffs.

After the struggle, the man was bleeding significantly from a cut near his eye, the witnesses said. One witness said an officer punched the man, causing the cut. The injuries were significant enough that the man was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

The man, Leo Etherly, has been charged with one count of assault and one count of hit-and-run. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday in Seattle Municipal Court.

After several attempts to get information about the incident (we were originally told there was no record of it), CDNews obtained the police report, which contains no mention of the use of force, choking or punching (UPDATE: Details about use of force typically end up in a separate use of force report, SPD tells CDNews). It simply states the suspect spit on officers and “was then taken into custody.”

Police stopped the suspect because they suspected him of hitting a person on a bicycle at 29th and Jefferson, then fleeing the scene. The license plate, vehicle and suspect descriptions were all similar to the descriptions from the hit-and-run, the police report says. The person on the bike was not seriously injured.

The official and witness accounts both state that officer approached the man in the parking lot and took him to a patrol car. When officers tried to get him to turn facing away from them so they could cuff him, he resisted. Officers then used force against him, attracting a crowd. Several witnesses told CDNews they were disturbed by that amount of force used.

Somebody may have been shooting video of the incident, according to witnesses, but CDNews has yet to see this video surface (if you know the person with footage, tell them to contact CDNews at [email protected]).

Potentially adding more fuel to the situation, one of the officers involved was Jonathan Chin, who had been accused of excessive force in a previous CD incident at 20th and Jackson. However, SPD spokesperson Mark Jamieson told CDNews Chin is not the officer who is under investigation in this case.

Here is SPD’s version of events, posted to the blotter:

Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) investigators are reviewing a weekend arrest of a suspect in a hit and run collision, 2012-342153.

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on October 6th, 911 received a report that a driver of a white van had struck a bicyclist at 29th Avenue and East Jefferson Street and fled the scene.

Officers responding to the call spotted a similar van with a closely matching license plate in a parking lot less than a mile away from the scene of the collision. As officers pulled into the lot, they saw a man hurrying away from the van. Officers stopped him, believing him to be the suspect from the hit and run.

The 34-year-old man refused to answer officers’ questions or follow their directions.

Officers strongly believed that they had the right individual and attempted to place him under arrest. An officer readied handcuffs and took hold of the suspect’s left hand. The suspect pulled away, resisting arrest. Officers began to forcefully place the man into handcuffs but before they could do so, he spit a glob of saliva into the face of one officer. The other two officers were also struck by the suspect’s spit. Officers used additional force and took the man into custody.

The suspect sustained injury during the arrest and was provided immediate treatment from Seattle Fire Department medics. Per standard procedure, he was evaluated at Harborview Medical Center and was then booked into King County Jail for assaulting officers. 

A particular force tactic employed by one arresting officer raised questions by the SPD chain of command and a decision was made to send the case to OPA for review.

The three officers who were spit upon declined treatment for exposure to potentially infectious material.

The cyclist was not seriously injured in the collision.

Just a couple months after the City Council passed legislation that paves the way for a large-scale redevelopment of Yesler Terrace, a Canadian corporation is purchasing SHA land with plans to build workforce housing at 12th and Yesler.

The SunBreak has the details:

… A half-acre of former SHA property (official sale price: $2.88 million) at 12th Avenue and East Yesler Way is on the way to private hands–private Canadian hands, in fact, since the new owners are Gracorp Capital Advisors Ltd. of Calgary, Canada. They’re partnering locally with Spectrum Development Solutions, who have been very busy around Seattle providing housing for college students. Projects include a number of University of Washington sites, and The Douglas at Seattle University.

Gracorp says the 116,000-square-foot project will provide about 120 apartments with commercial space on the ground floor totaling some 3,000 square feet. “All of the apartments are intended to be workforce housing, with 25 percent of the units committed for twenty years to households earning 80 percent or less of area median income (AMI).” That is, these 30 controlled-rate apartments could rent for more than the vast majority of SHA residents can afford.

SHA handles housing for more than 26,000 Seattle residents, and about 84 percent earn less than 30 percent of the area median income. For King County, HUD estimates that an 80-percenter can pay $1,232 in rent; a 30-percenter could manage just $463 per month.

The plan for Yesler Terrace includes housing for many income levels, including 661 “extremely” low-income units to replace the 561 currently in the neighborhood as well as 290 “very” low-income units and 850 “workforce” units. In addition, the plan calls for 3,199 market-rate units, mostly in high-rise condo and apartment buildings.

Read more about the deal at the SunBreak.