A 27-year-old man on a Ducati motorcycle is in critical condition after colliding with a Volvo at 22nd and Yesler Sunday evening. He was traveling westbound on Yesler (a steep downhill) when he collided with the Volvo, which was traveling north on 22nd Ave. The incident is under investigation.

More details from SPD:

On Sunday May 27, 2012 at approximately 6:00 p.m., a Ducati motorcycle was traveling westbound on E. Yesler Wy approaching 22 Av E. At the same time, a 1996 Volvo was traveling northbound on 22 Av E approaching E. Yesler Wy. The two vehicles collided in the intersection and the motorcycle rider (sole occupant) suffered substantial injuries.

The 27 year-old motorcycle rider was treated on scene by Seattle Fire Department and subsequently transported to Harborview Medical Center via Medics where he was listed in critical condition.

The 30 year-old driver and sole occupant of the Volvo was unharmed. A Drug Recognition Expert officer responded and evaluated this driver, no signs of impairment were detected.

The investigation continues.

Community Vigil at 27th & Cherry today at 4:30pm (5/25/12)

From Ferrari’s LinkedIn profile

The man killed in the crossfire of a firefight at MLK and Cherry Thursday afternoon has been identified as Justin Ferrari of Madrona. He was 42.

Ferrari’s two young children — 5 and 7—and parents were in the van with him when a suspect “began firing a gun at individuals that he was in a verbal altercation with” across Cherry St, according to police. Ferrari’s van passed westbound into the crossfire, and he was shot in the head. The van rolled slowly to a stop between MLK and 27th Ave. Nobody else in the van was injured.

Seattle Times reports the devastating scene inside the van:

When the gunfire stopped and the young people on the street corner took off, the white Volkswagen van that was in the line of fire began to slow down, then simply rolled away from the corner of East Cherry Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Seattle’s Central Area.

When 43-year-old Justin Ferrari didn’t respond to questions, his father, who was sitting in the passenger seat, unbuckled his seat belt and only then realized his son had been shot in the head.

Ferrari’s two children, ages 5 and 7, got out of the back of the van and ran into a nearby Ethiopian restaurant, a spot where their family had dined before, to ask for help. Ferrari’s father cradled his son as he died in his arms, authorities said.

Assimba Ethiopian Cuisine owner Messeret Habeti helped Ferrari’s children after they ran to the safety of the restaurant. They stayed there for about 45 minutes after the shooting, and the restaurant made them some food. Habeti told the Times that the Ferraris were regulars at the restaurant.

Ferrari’s parents were in town to watch the kids so he and his wife could take their first weekend away together since their kids were born.

Ferrari worked at Zillow.com, a real estate website. Zillow released the following statement about the loss:

We at Zillow were deeply saddened to learn about this tragedy. Justin began working at Zillow three months ago, and worked at Expedia and Microsoft for many years before that. His passing will be felt deeply by his co-workers and friends. Our hearts go out to his family.

Vigil organizer Sully Mcginnis held an inspiring quote from Flo Ware

Dozens of neighbors attended a candlelight vigil Thursday night to mourn and express their support for the then-unidentified family. Comments on our previous story have shown a wide variety of raw emotions from community members— from sadness to anger to fear.

The vigil was organized by Kitchen Sink Project head Sully McGinnis, who wants to see the neighborhood come together to support each other and the family rather than let the incident widen divides.

Over at 18th and Union, Tougo Coffee is donating Friday’s profits to the mourning family:

Please help us put together a fund for the family that loss their Husband/Father, in a senseless issue of gunfire today. We will offer to the family that loss their daddy/husband,brother, son, family man all monies earned after operating expenses tomorrow, This we will offer to the Widow and children of today’s senseless and meaningless violence.

Your Innkeepers at the Sleeping Bulldog Bed and Breakfast are participating again this year with the Seattle Bed and Breakfast Assoc. in collecting gently used linens and towels. These linens will be dispursed to local Men and Women’s shelters in the area. This is the second year that the Seattle B&B Association has hosted this drive. Last year we collected over 50 sets of sheets that was greatly appreciated by a local Womans shelter. You can drop of your linens at Seattle’s Sleeping Bulldog Bed and Breakfast which is located at 816 19th Ave. S. Please drop off your items no later than June 7th.  Twin sheet sets are greatly needed. We hope to make this linen drive even more successful than last years event.

Rap pioneer and record producer Kurtis Blow will be at the Garfield Teen Life Center giving a talk about solutions to youth violence and hip hop culture Monday as part of the Memorial Day Youth Townhall Forum. Blow is considered the first rapper to be signed to a major record label.

Blow’s talk is part of a morning of events at the Teen Life Center starting at 10 a.m. and going until 1. The Youth Townhall Forum will also feature a video about the Tuskegee Airmen, a chat about youth violence prevention and, of course, a chat about hip hop culture.

From Seattle Parks:

Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Youth Violence Prevention Program and Bembry Consulting Services invite you and your youth to come out and join legendary Hip-Hop Pioneer and Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Kurtis Blow, in a talk back at Garfield Teen Life Center on Monday, May 28 from 10am – 1pm to address “The Facts, The Challenge and The Solution” to youth violence and sustainable communities.

Our focus is on youth/young adults 16 – 30 years of age. Spread the word and join us, Let your Voice be Heard!

Here’s the video for Blow’s 1984 single “Basketball.” (I love the karate dance breakdown and the man eating an exceptionally large hot dog in front of a dancing chicken.)

Cafe Flora at 29th and Madison is turning 20, and they are throwing a party June 2 to celebrate. The party will be “an evening of food, wine, beer, live music and more,” and will feature many of the partners the cafe has developed since it opened in 1991.

The Puget Sound Business Journal recently profiled the vegetarian cafe:

Born in an abandoned laundromat in October 1991, it became an immediate fixture in Seattle’s Madison Valley neighborhood. It looked good and felt right in a rustic but casually sophisticated kind of way. And it had lines out the door, especially for weekend brunch.

What made it extraordinary was that the food was upscale vegetarian, presented with flair. Elsewhere at the time, vegetarian in Seattle generally meant hearty but unremarkable dishes. Café Flora took it to a new level.

“I’ve got to tell you, I was kind of intimidated that it was vegetarian. I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ ” said , who started as a line cook at the restaurant in 1992 and is now its executive chef. “The food was very lively and colorful. The flavor combinations were surprising. It was new.”

Read more…

Four projects in the neighborhood have received funding from the city’s Department of Neighborhoods, ranging in goals from food access to park restoration to a new park at 19th and Madison. The money comes from the department’s Small and Simple Projects Fund, which allocates up to $20,000 for selected projects, all of which must provide a volunteer match amount equal to or greater in value than the grant.

So if you like any these ideas, get involved. All the organizations have volunteer hours they need filled in order to bring the projects to life.

Clean Greens

Clean Greens received $20,000 to provide healthy produce to the neighborhood at an affordable price (full disclosure, as a member of Fork + Frame, I biked Clean Greens CSAs around the neighborhood last year and will likely do it again this year). Clean Greens has a farm in Duvall operated with the help of CD volunteers. The produce is sold at stands around the neighborhood during the summer and as part of their neighborhood CSA program. Their project description:

Provide non-chemical produce by Green Market Stands to low income, inner city residents so that they may eat healthy food at an affordable price. It will supply the types of vegetables relevant to African Americans and African immigrants which is lacking in the area. Neighborhood volunteers will distribute the produce. The project includes the purchase of equipment and community education.

Madrona Woods SE area restoration

The Friends of Madrona Woods received nearly $20,000 to restore an acre or so of the woods and add new signage.

Restore .5 – 1.5 acres in the southeast corner of Madrona Woods by removing invasive plants and planting native plants. The project would include Improvements to the safety of the trailhead entrance across from the Spectrum Dance Studio and add a kiosk and interpretive signage.

19th and Madison park

The Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center received $15,300 to create a new accessible, art-filled neighborhood park at 19th and Madison. The HSDC has been working on the park idea there for years.

Begin process to develop a fully accessible, art-filled, sustainable park for all ages and abilities involving local residents, affordable and transitional housing residents, nonprofit neighbors, and members of the Deaf and Deaf- Blind communities who receive services and work at 19th & Madison. The vision is to create a place for education, reflection and respect for residents and clients who are part of this neighborhood.

Work-It-Out job fair

The People’s Family Life Center and Work-It-Out Seattle received $20,000 to host a job fair in the community. Work-It-Out is the current tenant at the old Horace Mann School building on Cherry.

Host a community-wide WIO (Work-It-Out) Job Fair for unemployed and underemployed people reflective of the community demographics including veterans, seniors, young adults, and teens to meet diverse employers. A follow-up survey will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the event.

Capitol Hill Seattle has the details on nearby projects in that neighborhood. Here’s the list of all the project awards in the city:

120515PR-Spring2012SASawards

The man who allegedly shot and killed Officer Timothy Brenton in Leschi Halloween night 2009 will face trial September 13, 2013, the Seattle Times reports. Christopher Monfort has been charged with the murder of Brenton and the attempted murder of Officer Britt Sweeney.

Monfort has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case. If the trial does start on the stated date, it will be nearly four years after the alleged murder.

Officer Brenton, a veteran of the force, was training Officer Sweeney that day. Monfort—who is also charged with firebombing police vehicles days before the Halloween shooting—allegedly pulled up next to Brenton and Sweeney’s police cruiser as it sat near 29th and Yesler and fired several rounds. Brenton was killed, and Sweeney was grazed.

The community has honored Officer Brenton with a memorial near the scene of the shooting.

After the shooting, Monfort was on the loose for nearly a week before officers confronted him in a Tukwila apartment complex. Monfort allegedly tried to shoot a pursuing officer, but his gun misfired. Officers shot him in the abdomen and face, but his injuries were not fatal.

A “very intoxicated” man led police on a dangerous car chase around Leschi May 18, according to police. The man, a convicted felon, was arrested and in illegal possession of a firearm, but not before crashing his car into multiple parked cars and nearly striking a couple people walking on a sidewalk.

The suspect allegedly showed up at a home near 26th and King around 11 p.m. armed with a handgun and demanding to speak to a woman there. The woman’s parents told him to leave, and he began making threats at them and smashing bottles from a nearby recycling bin.

When police arrived, he hopped into a car and sped off. From SPD:

As officers arrived at the scene, they saw the suspect speeding away in a silver Hyundai. The suspect drove up onto the sidewalk, nearly hitting two people, then veered back into the street, where he slammed into a parked car. Undeterred by the crash, the suspect kept on driving.

With officers in hot pursuit, the suspect sped down 26th Avenue S, where he struck a second parked car, and kept on moving.

The suspect turned onto S. Lane Street, sped up a hill, drove over a traffic circle, and got his car caught on a sidewalk near 25th Avenue and S. Lane.

As officers pulled up behind the suspect, he threw his car into reverse, freeing himself from the curb. And then he sped off again.

The suspect flew down S. Jackson Street at high speed, sending a shower of sparks flying as he bottomed out at Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. He drove for one more block, to 28th Avenue and S. King Street, where pulled over, jumped out of the car and ran behind a house.

Officers caught up with the man and arrested him. Police also found a 9mm handgun lying in the back seat of the car.

A 27-year-old man went to the hospital with significant injuries to his face after his moped collided with a car near 25th and Spring early Saturday morning.

The car’s 51-year-old driver was assessed for DUI, but officers found no signs of impairment. They do, however, suspect the moped rider was intoxicated, according to a post on the SPD Blotter.

The man’s injuries are not considered life-threatening.

From SPD:

At approximately 1:30 am this morning a 27 year old male was riding his 1979 Puch (Austrian made) moped northbound on 25th Avenue approaching East Spring Street.  At the same time, a 1989 Chrysler New Yorker driven by a 51 year old was eastbound on East Spring Street approaching 25th.  The two vehicles collided in the intersection and the moped driver was thrown to the street.

The 27 year old sustained substantial facial injuries.  He was wearing a helmet, but no face shield.  Seattle Police and Seattle Fire responded and the medics treated and transported the rider to Harborview.  His injuries, while significant, are not considered life-threatening.  The moped rider did exhibit signs of alcohol impairment.  He was evaluated and processed for DUI.  The driver of the car was also evaluated at the scene by officers, but no sings of impairment were detected.

Detectives from the Traffic Collision Investigation Squad (TCIS) responded and processed the scene.  They will continue to investigate this collision.