Seattle police say they arrested a burglar yesterday who was high on crack and tried to evade arrest. They eventually booked him on multiple felonies.

From the blotter:

On 2/16/14, at approximately 11:30 a.m., officers responded to a call of a burglary in progress in the 1100 block of  26 Av S.  The resident and his girlfriend heard someone breaking a window at the rear of the house.  They called 911 and hid in the bathroom as the suspect kicked in the door.

The suspect was last seen by the victims walking north on 26 Av S, carrying 3 purses.  Officers responded  and spotted the suspect walking away from the house.  Officers attempted to stop the man who ran through a nearby parking lot until he was cornered near a blackberry patch.

The suspect attempted to flee through the blackberries but only made it about ten feet.  The man refused to comply with verbal commands and became resistive.  At one point, he reached back and grabbed hold of an officer’s duty weapon.

Officers gained control of the suspect and a stolen revolver fell from his waistband. The handgun was recovered and will be placed into evidence.

Seattle Fire responded and evaluated the suspect. While being evaluated and still handcuffed, the suspect  took off running on foot.  As the suspect was running away from the officers he slipped and fell into a parked car. He was once again taken into custody.

The 20-year-old suspect was transported to the East Precinct for processing. He was later booked into King  County Jail on multiple felonies.  The two officers were treated at HMC for minor injuries and released.

WHEN:  FEBRUARY 19TH  6:30 – 8:30 PM

WHERE:  THE BULLITT CENTER (1501 E MADISON ST)

The Central Area Land Use Review Committee (CA LURC) will be hosting a community meeting to give residents a chance to review and make comments on two new development projects at 23rd Ave & E Denny Way and MLK Jr. Way & E Union St. Please join us in providing feedback & direction to the developers in order to help them create a project that is well suited to the needs of our residents and a great addition to  the unique fabric of the Central Area.

WHO IS THE CA LURC?

We are a community group composed of residents, some of us with experience in the building industry, all working together in a positive atmosphere of collaboration with incoming developers. We aim to facilitate community conversations that constructively shape development as it enters our neighborhood.

QUESTIONS? 

Check out our website at www.centralarealurc.org or email us at [email protected]

photo by Renee sim

The Central District Flickr Pool contains hundreds of images of scenes in and around our neighborhood. Interested in being part of it? Check out the pool here. If we like your photo, we may feature it on the front page of Central District News!

Photo by swilson3971

This post is part of a series of profiles of Central District residents, part of the “People of the Central Area” project developed and written by Madeline Crowley.

Originally the Bikur Cholim Synagogue. Photo by Madeline Crowley

About Anonymous:
Anonymous remembers a time before the blare of TV and the constant roar of cars when the Central Area was a village of small shopkeepers where people gathered together to talk and play as the primary form of shared, joyful entertainment.

Anonymous on the Central Area:

I guess I should start at the beginning. The first Jewish settlers in Seattle were Ashkenazim (Jews of Eastern European or German descent) who arrived in the late 1800s. My family is Sephardic from Turkey (Jews originating from Spain, Portugal or North Africa) my uncles came to Seattle in 1909 and my father joined them in 1911. My mother came after World War One in 1920.

Now, don’t forget it was a different life over in Turkey. When my Dad first came over to America he did shoeshine for a while. A lot of the Turkish men when they first came they did shoe shine and shoe repair. Whatever it took to provide.

The Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities were pretty separate before World War II, we had different synagogues and different traditions and food. There’s a big difference between their practices and ours. After the war, there was intermarriage and we learned their dishes and they learned ours; it was a very rich time.

It was a very Jewish community but we had non-Jewish neighbors that we were very close to and don’t forget there were three churches within a few blocks. We lived around Irish, Italian, Turkish, German and Russian families in one apartment building. Everyone spoke broken English and we spoke Ladino at home. The children were all first generation Americans.

My father really discouraged us from speaking Ladino, ‘We’re in America, we speak English’ which was a point of contention with my mother.

I was a few years old; I remember that apartment and my crib. It was so crowded in that apartment that the crib was against a mirror. I was looking in it while the neighbor women were over. They got together every day for coffee. I overhead them talking about the ‘bogeyman.’ They said, beware there was a burglar, a bogeyman, in the neighborhood. I remember looking into that mirror and seeing the reflection. I was old enough to know that the bogeyman sounded scary.

When I was about three years old, I remember my Mom sent me down the side stairs to the apartment below with a bowl of melon seeds wanted for a recipe. Kids in those days were very capable, they followed orders and they delivered. If they were asked to do something they could handle it.

We learned from our neighbors. It was a real education for us, it was a benefit to see and appreciate different ways. We understood how different cultures had different ideas. The differences made us happy and appreciative. Once we moved to a house, we loved to go to our neighbors. We loved the smells of the kitchens. We loved even the Christmas tradition of the Italians.

It was a wonderful neighborhood, very diverse neighborhood; we were surrounded by great neighbors. One neighbor was Swedish, she had lots of cats, too many cats. The lady behind us, her landlord was Chinese, and she had two tenants who were Jewish.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

The latest installment of Ethan Stowell’s apparent attempt to take over Seattle is Red Cow, a brasserie in Madrona. Red Cow opened last night with a packed house; diners filled nearly every spot in the 1,800-square-foot restaurant on 34th avenue.

Red Cow takes over the spot formerly occupied by much-loved Restaurant Bea. The space is divided into a brighter, family-friendly dining room, with 35 seats, and a 20-seat bar area that’s dim and romantic and looks into the kitchen.

The menu is decidedly meaty, with a focus on steak frites. You have six cuts to choose from: Hanger, Chuck Roast, New York Strip, Filet Mignon, Boneless Ribeye, and Short Ribs. Housemade charcuterie and local seafood round out the menu.

I stopped in and tried the short ribs, because…short ribs! I added a compound butter sauce, which the ribs soaked up beautifully. I also tried the frisee and bacon salad, which came topped with a lovely poached duck egg and thankfully didn’t shy away from the dressing.

Stowell isn’t finished with Madrona. He’s working on a small, boutique dining space called Noyer, which will open behind Red Cow this spring. Expect to pay $300 per person for the privilege of dining here.

“This will be a special occasion restaurant, a luxurious experience in Seattle with excellent wine and excellent food,” Stowell told the Puget Sound Business Journal back in November. “We want to give people something where they say, ‘Wow, we got a great experience for the money we spent.’”

Meanwhile, Red Cow is open for dinner seven days a week. Given the opening night reception, you’d do well to make a reservation.

Developer The Madrona Company has set its sights on 1141 MLK Jr. Way, at the corner of Union Street. There’s long been an empty lot and a small, two-story building at the address; soon, the spot will hold four-story residential building.

According to a Land Use Information Bulletin, the plans by developer Marty Liebowitz include a proposed “4-story structure containing 50 residential units and 7,500 sq. ft. of commercial space. Parking for 25 vehicles to be provided in below grade parking garage. Existing 2-story structure to be demolished.”

Back in 2008, The Stranger gave Liebowitz the title of “coolest developer in Seattle,” for his ideas to add cheap music practice spaces for “the rock-and-roll kids” who make only 10 to 20 thousand dollars a year. It’s unclear whether that vision is still a part of the design, though, as the building’s plans have undergone changes since the post. The Madrona Company also built the Central District’s Yesler Mews and Madrona’s Bowling Green building.

The public has the opportunity to learn more at an Early Design Guidance Meeting:

February 26 at 8 PM
Seattle University
1000 E James St
Student Center – Multi-Purpose Room #210

You can also comment before the meeting in writing “to assist in the preparation of the early design guidance through February 26, 2014. You are invited to offer comments regarding important site planning and design issues, which you believe, should be addressed in the design for this project.” Email [email protected] or write to:

City of Seattle – DPD – PRC
700 5^th Avenue, Suite 2000
PO Box 34019
Seattle, WA  98124-4019

For more information, check out the Notice of Design Review online.

The Seattle Fire Department responded to a fire in a duplex yesterday at 149 28 Ave. SFD says the fire was started accidentally after smoking materials were improperly discarded. The duplex has been vacant for about two years and there were no injuries in the blaze. Damage is estimated at $50,000.

Seattle resident Sarah Schaht is suing Central District restaurant Ambassel Ethiopian after she contracted a debilitating E coli bacteria infection. Schaht is now crusading for a simpler grading system and to make public the grades King County health officials assign restaurants based on their latest health inspection.

As KIRO reports, “Schaht chose the Ethiopian restaurant because customers on Yelp gave it nearly four stars.  What she didn’t know was the restaurant had failed six health inspections since 2010 and had one of the worst inspection scores of any Seattle restaurant last year.” Workers were flagged for not washing their hands. Insects and rodents were spotted in the restaurant, and raw meat was being prepared on the same surfaces as cooked food. Health officials shut down Ambassel, though the owners have reopened as Laco Melza, which doesn’t yet have any Yelp reviews.

As a result of Schaht’s efforts, Seattle and King County public health officials are asking for input on their inspection system, which you can provide online.

More from KIRO:

Schaht has started a petition to pressure King County health officials to adopt a simple letter grade system, in which restaurants are required to post an A, B, C or F grade in their front window so diners know how the establishment performed on its latest inspection. Cities in nine states have letter grade requirements, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. After going to the letter grade system in 2010, New York City’s Department of Health reported a 14 percent decline in salmonella cases in the first 18 months.

In L.A. County there’s been a 20 percent drop in the number of people hospitalized with food-related illnesses.

You can sign Sarah Schaht’s online petition, and learn more about how other restaurants fared in their latest inspections.