An argument between two men near 23rd and Dearborn August 21 grew heated shortly after 10 p.m., according to Seattle Crime. One of the men pulled a knife and slashed the other in the chin. The victim was taken to the hospital. From Seattle Crime:

A police report says the victim tried to ignore the suspect, who then pulled out a “very large” folding knife and asked the victim “wanna get stuck?”

The suspect then lunged at the victim and slashed him face, cutting a 3-inch gash from the man’s lip to his chin. 

The suspect fled, and the victim ran to a neighbor’s house on 24th and S Lane where they called for police and medics.

The City of Seattle is saving $650,000 by shuttering its library system this last week of August. The move is part of nearly $4 million in cuts the library system had to make this year as the city faced continued belt tightening.

The doors to the Douglass-Truth and Madrona Sally Goldmark branches will open again September 6. In the meantime, even most of the SPL website is down.

All locations of The Seattle Public Library will close Monday, Aug. 29 through Sunday, Sept. 4, due to citywide budget cuts. The Library system will remain closed on Monday, Sept. 5 for the Labor Day holiday. Regular Library operations will resume Tuesday, Sept. 6.

“We regret any inconvenience that the closures may cause our patrons,” said Library Interim Chief Executive Officer Lin Schnell. All city departments have made significant cuts to address a $67 million gap in the 2011 budget. The Library is funded from the city general fund.

If you are looking for computer access, the city suggests the following locations:

Central Neighborhood Service Center
2301 S Jackson #208 Seattle WA, 98144 206‐684‐4767
Monday ‐ Friday: 9am‐7pm
Saturday: 9am‐5pm

Garfield Community Center
2323 E Cherry St. Seattle WA, 98122 206‐684‐4788
Monday & Tuesday: 12:30pm‐9pm
Wednesday ‐ Friday: 11am‐9pm
Saturday: 10am‐5pm
Sunday: 12pm‐5pm

Yesler Community Center
917 E Yesler Way Seattle WA, 98122 206‐386‐1245
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 1pm‐9pm
Tuesday, Thursday: 10am – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 5pm

I was awoken last night by about 10 apparent gunshots fired in quick succession a few minutes after 1am. I live at 21st and Cherry. Anyone else hear anything or know what happened?

UPDATE: A dispute that started at Seattle Center escalated until shots were fired (initial reports said the shots were at Pine and Boren, but the SPD Blotter says 12th and Boren) at Pine and Boren. The victims were not injured, but their vehicle was hit.

UPDATE x2: The initial report from SPD contradicted our original story that the shots were fired near Pine. However, after talking with SPD, they determined they made an error and corrected their post.

Police responding to the call chased the suspects until the suspect vehicle crashed into a building at 12th and Boren. The suspects were arrested.

Judging by wreckage at the scene, the suspect vehicle appears to have struck a lamp post before running to the door of Lami Nail Supply.

From SPD (revised to fix error):

On August 25th at approximately 11:08 p.m. officers responded to a call of shots fired near 12th Avenue and Boren Avenue.  Preliminary investigation indicates that the two involved vehicles were originally coming from the Seattle Center.  The suspect vehicle, a white Cadillac, was occupied by two adult males.  The victim vehicle, a Dodge pickup truck, was occupied by two males and a female.  The suspects began driving aggressively toward the victims and at some point near 12th Avenue and Boren Avenue pulled alongside the victim’s truck and fired a handgun at the victims.  The victims themselves were not struck by the gunfire but their vehicle was.  The victims were able to evade the suspects and get away from them.  None of the victims were injured.

Responding officers located the suspect vehicle while it was driving southbound on Boren Avenue and attempted to stop it.  The suspects failed to yield to officers and a pursuit ensued.  The suspect vehicle crashed into a building on the southeast corner of Boren Avenue South and 12th Avenue South.  The suspect driver was taken into custody.  The suspect passenger fled the scene on foot. 

Patrol, K-9, and SWAT officers along with Gang Unit detectives conducted an area search for the outstanding suspect.  The second suspect was eventually located in the area of the 1200 block of South Main Street and taken into custody. 

Both suspects were transported to Harborview Medical Center via ambulance for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries sustained in their vehicle collision. 

Both suspects are under hospital guard and will be booked into the King County Jail upon their release.  Booking charges are still being determined by investigating officers and detectives.

Officers observed a handgun inside the severely damaged suspect vehicle, which was impounded and taken to the evidence garage for processing.

This remains an active and on-going Gang Unit investigation.

Original story:

A police chase ended in a wreck at Boren and Yesler late in the night of August 25 after shots were fired on Capitol Hill. The shooting occurred near Pine and Boren after a dispute between people in two vehicles, Seattle Crime reports. Police chased the suspects down Boren, where the suspects crashed into a building near Boren and Yesler. Two suspects were arrested.

From Seattle Crime:

Around 11:30 p.m., two men in a vehicle got into a dispute with a man and a woman in another car.

One of the two men then opened fire on the couple near Boren and Pine.

According to a police source, the suspects were “driving down street shooting off rounds.”

We’re working to find out whether the victims were injured.

Officers responding to the shooting spotted the suspects’ vehicle and chased them until the suspects crashed into a building near Yesler and Boren.

Officers immediately took one suspect into custody and set up a perimeter in the area as they searched for the second man with a K-9 unit. He was arrested a short time later.

An apparent dispute over a woman ended in gunshots in the early morning of August 22, according to Seattle Crime. A man and two friends were hanging out in a restaurant near 12th and Jefferson around 3 a.m. when a woman approached them. That’s when the trouble began.

From Seattle Crime:

The man tried to avoid the woman, the report says, but another man—the suspect in the shooting, who was also inside the business—apparently became jealous.

The suspect confronted the man outside the business and then walked off.

As the victim and his friends were standing by their car near 12th and Jefferson, the suspect walked by, fired two or three shots, and fled down an alley. 

One round blew out the tire of the victim’s car.

The report says the suspect may have fled the scene in a Hyundai Elantra.

A series of strange thefts on Union have people scratching their heads and searching for answers.

Central Cinema (a CDN sponsor) is on the search for the person who stole their Dune poster. They announced the theft on Facebook Wednesday morning:

They later posted a security photo of the person they say stole it.

UPDATE: According to commenter Andrew, he took the poster for a friend. He apologized and said he would return it.

Meanwhile, the week-old Alleycat Acres scarecrow is missing and feared stolen. There is no evidence the thefts are connected, but they occurred a block apart, likely on the same day. Farmers first noticed the theft when they showed up for the regularly-scheduled Wednesday work party at the 22nd and Union farm, next door to Cappy’s Boxing Gym.

“We’re risking a real-life Alfred Hitchcock story about to happen if we can’t fend off the crows,” said Sean Conroe of Alleycat Acres.

The scarecrow was made by youth as part of a summer program run by Seattle Parks and Recreation.

If you have any information, email [email protected].

A woman stabbed an alleged attacker after he allegedly tried to remove her clothing, according to Seattle Crime. The woman was waiting for her mother to pick her up near the suspect’s house on S Massachusetts St near MLK around 10 p.m. August 23 when the suspect suggested she wait in his house, where he attacked her.

SPD released this account:

On August 23rd at approximately 10:03 p.m. officers responded to the 2700 block of South Massachusetts Street for the report of an attempted sexual assault with a wounded suspect.  Preliminary investigation indicates that the victim (a woman in her mid-20′s) was outside of a friend’s house waiting to be picked up by her mother when she was approached by a nearby resident (the suspect) who is not a stranger to the victim.  The suspect, a man in his 30′s,  invited the victim inside his home so she could be inside while she waited for her mother. 

Once inside the suspect’s house, the suspect began to forcefully remove the victim’s clothing at which time a physical struggle ensued.  The victim produced a knife and stabbed the suspect in the lower torso, enabling her to break free of the suspect and flee the home.  The suspect chased the victim outside. 

Once outside the victim began screaming for help at which time the suspect retreated back inside his residence.  A neighbor heard the screaming and offered the victim refuge until officers arrived.   

Once on scene officers contacted the suspect, who was interviewed and placed under arrest. 

The suspect was transported to Harborview Medical Center by SFD medics for treatment of his non-life-threatening injury.  The suspect remains under guard and upon release from the hospital will be booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Attempted Rape. 

The victim was not injured and did not require medical attention. 

Sexual Assault Unit detectives will have responsibility for the on-going investigation.

When the neighborhood came together to keep the wading pool at Powell Barnett Park open this year, we didn’t know the summer was going to be so lackluster. Not that the summer hasn’t been nice and enjoyable, but we have not exactly gotten our $4,400 worth out the pool.

But it’s not over yet. Though August 20 was supposed to be the pool’s last day open, the city announced additional days for many wading pools around town, including Powell Barnett.

Opening day 2011

The wading pool is scheduled to be open from noon to 7 p.m. August 27 and September 3.

The pool was marked for closure by the city due to budget cuts, but a citizen-led effort formed to raise the money necessary to keep it open for the summer. With the help of Central District News and our sister site Capitol Hill Seattle, All-Purpose Pizza (a CDN advertiser) and 60 different community members, organizers raised the money needed to open the pool Saturdays for much of the summer.

I can’t help but notice the days getting just a little shorter and there are leaves blowing around the streets. Fall is on its way. There is something special about this time of year. Perhaps it is all those years of associating fall with a new school year that invokes this sense that I need to reconnect with my intentions for the year and establish a new routine. Yoga is a great way to do just that. I invite you to fall back to your mat with my Fall Classes.

Rest & Relaxation Yoga

Spend your Sunday taking time to deeply unwind. In this slow moving class we will emphasize breath and mediation techniques called yoga nidra, or sleep of the yogi. Give yourself time away from the laundry and email to let your body soak up slow movements, restoring your nervous system.  Please bring a blanket to class and dress in comfortable clothing.  Registration Only                   

Sundays September 18th & 25th, October 9th & 23rd; 2-4 pm              

 Class held at the Garfield Community Center, 2-4pm                                 

$15 per class, $10 off if you register for the month

Evening Yoga 

This all levels yoga class at the Garfield Community Center helps you connect your breath your body and both to your mind.  Learn how to maintain healthy alignment for your body. Develop strength and find your flexibility as we move through a variety of poses in harmony with your breath. Drop in rate $9

Want to cultivate a yoga routine that works for you? Register for the whole month of Evening Yoga you not only save a little money but develop a more steady yoga practice.

Tuesdays & Thursdays 7:15-8:30pm Sept 6-29th, Oct 4-27th, Whole session is $48                                          

 Class held at Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St

Kids Yoga 

Roar like alion, soar like a bird and shake the wiggles out with Kid’s Yoga. We will sing, moveand play,drawing inspiration from animals, shapes and theworld around us. Learn yogaposes in aroom full of laughter and fun.

Thursdays 4-4:45 pm starting Sept 8-29th, Oct 6-27th

Appropriate for kids ages 3-9

Five classes for $39  

Class held at Madrona Shelterhouse, 3211 E Spring St

To  Register for any of these classes: Click Here or Call (206 )684-4788

Seattle Transit Blog’s Bruce Nourish dug deep into ridership figures to figure out a way to increase reliability along the corridor shared by King County Metro’s 3 and 4 buses. He concludes that moving the route to Yesler between 3rd and 9th Avenues would increase reliability. He also suggests that the southern leg of the 4 (south of 23rd and Jefferson) is redundant and could be cut.

From Seattle Transit Blog (Warning: This post gets super geeky and specific and includes some hard-to-read but info-packed graphs):

• Crush loads from downtown to Harborview in the AM peak. The average load tops out at 45, just off the chart. Keeping in mind that a Gillig trolley nominally seats 42, this means every coach is full as it heads up James. Presumably this overcrowding is already dissuading additional choice riders. This is another point in favor of the First Hill Streetcar: even though it’ll be slower, it’ll be a much more comfortable way for suburban commuters to get from the Downtown Transit Tunnel to First Hill, especially if Metro is unable to add capacity to this route in the near future. More on this below.
• Very little activity after Jefferson & 23rd, except at the two stops on 23rd at Yesler and Jackson. These two stops, in addition to frequent north-south service from the 48, have faster one-seat rides to downtown with similar headways from the 14 and 27 respectively. South of these two stops, loads are light in all time periods; boarding activity and loads increase briskly as the bus heads down Jefferson. (I’m suspicious of the apparently large number of boardings at the terminal stops on Walker; even if those numbers are true, those people have many better bus options to almost anywhere).
• Very little use of the Lighthouse for the Blind stop on Plum & 25th. While providing the ability for people who cannot drive to live and work independently is a vital function of transit, the stop here is so thinly patronized — about 15 boardings and four deboardings per day —  as to suggest that, in the context of the minimal use and almost complete redundancy of the long tail of this route, finding alternative ways to serve this facility are in order.

From the timetable

The idea of changing the 3/4 routing from James to Yesler for the I-5 crossing has been tossed around before (CDN wrote about it last year). After just a couple blocks on Yesler, the route would cut back to Jefferson at 9th Ave and continue east into the CD as it does today.

There would need to be some trolley wire changes, which could cost millions. If voters approve the $60 vehicle license fee in November, it’s feasible that some of the $20 million allotted for trolley improvements could go to this project, Nourish notes.

What do you think? Do you use the southern portion of the 4 (between 23rd/Jefferson and MLK/S Walker)? Are areas along this portion served well enough by other routes that they could be cut?