Here’s what we know about the gun incident that brought a number of automatic-weapon-bearing officers to 23rd between Marion & E. Columbia just after noon today.   The initial report we heard on the radio was that a man with a gun was kicking in a door just north of 23rd & Cherry.   I grabbed the camera and ran down to the scene, where I spoke to a witness that generated that call.  

The witness said that she had just gotten off the bus and was walking south on 23rd when she saw a car pull up to a house in the 800 block of 23rd.  A guy jumped out of the car and pulled a handgun out of his waistband and then ran inside the open front door of the house.   As she was watching this, another person in the car told her to mind her own business, and that the man with the gun was there to retrieve some stolen property.   The witness then reported hearing several muffled pops, which she thought were gunshots coming from inside the house.  Another pedestrian used her cell phone to make the 911 call.

Later the radio reported a separate call to 911 from a member of the family that lives in the house, saying that his nephew was the shooter.  Confusingly, he wasn’t at the house, but was calling from a work-release program somewhere else.   Two other conflicting reports said that the suspect shot at the house and then took off northbound on foot, while another said he shot at the house and then left in a car.

A 4-door sedan was pulling out of the driveway of the targeted house as police arrived.  An officer armed with a semi-automatic rifle stopped the vehicle at the corner of 23rd & Columbia, where the passenger was taken out, put in handcuffs, and searched.  He was questioned by police for about 20-30 minutes before being released and then driving away with the other people that were in the car with him.   Other observers at the scene said that he was related to the family that lives in the targeted house, but it’s not clear if he is the nephew that was described in the 911 call.

I spoke to an officer at the scene who said that she couldn’t substantiate any of the claims of guns or shots fired, and could only classify this as “a disturbance.”   No one was taken into custody.

The house that was the focus of this incident has had a long series of issues.  They’ve been cited repeatedly by the health department for the piles of junk and garbage that are periodically piled around the property.  Additionally, several residents of the house and relatives of the homeowners have long criminal records.   On June 9th of this year, six members of the family were arrested for on a variety of charges, including domestic violence and drug offenses.   That comes after a March 14th roundup where an even larger group of family members were booked into the King County Jail on similar charges.  We can also confirm that one son of the homeowner and periodic resident at that address was recently released from the Coyote Ridge penitentiary and is now assigned to the Northwest Region Work Release program.

So far it’s quiet out there.   Too quiet…

How great it was to hear music yesterday at our intersection! I did not have time to stop and see what was going on – there was a carwash, but it looked like some other activity also – but it gladdened my heart to hear and see the positive vibes coming from the plaza. Let’s have more!

Seems someone with a lot of spare time thinks that Beacon Hill ought to be called Be Hi. Enter a Times reporter with way too much spare time and I am inside ROFL reading the comments page when I really should be enjoying my garden.

My favorite comment about the Be Hi idea was from Xman in Columbia City (Colcy?) providing a new possible names to one of our venerable CD neighborhoods:
“As someone who has lived in Wall, and MapLe, SquPa (near FirHi and CaHi…for those unfamiliar), I think BeHind sounds just dandy.”

MadVal? Grf? Jack?

Here is the article http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008060725_b

What is it with our need to shorten up everything into kewl cryptic names? I could try to blame the proliferation of texting, but honestly I spent more time in years past in the worlds of computer technology, government (the WORST offenders) and corporate consulting thinking up cute acronomizations for projects and software. A few that come to mind are CMS (at least 4 different ones), RALF, PHRED. It was really a lot of people who have no background in linguistics or communications basically trying to have some fun and liven up those brain numbing technical design reviews. Then, we could be the cool kids using our new secret code words. I got kind of tired of the high school stuff, refused to understand what a person said if they use acronyms unless they handed me a glossary, decided it was much more fun and uber cool to instead use our time to think up new big words like Conphlogical (confabulation of conceptual, logical and physical) and misobstruficate (misdirect, obstruct, confuse and divide).

CapFirHilCenAreaus Crimes Report?

Based on the comments we got back in June, there were a lot of people who were looking forward to the possibility of a new restaurant at 25th & Union.   Neighborhood residents Erin & Rebecca, owners of The Bottleneck Lounge on Madison, had proposed opening a spot for food and drinks inside the new live/work building at that intersection.

In an email sent to friends and supporters earlier today, Erin announced that the city’s Deparment of Planning has denied them a building permit for the project:

Although the building is zoned for a restaurant which serves cocktails, the Land Use staff rejected the notion that we would serve liquor in the space and denied us the right to move forward.  It was a terrible blow and we were prepared to fight City Hall (so to speak) but it would appear that the developer, Randy Spaan, sold the property the next day.  We’re out of luck.

That being said we both feel very lucky to have garnered so much neighborhood support over the course of the past month.  All those letters to the Liquor Control Board had an impact!   Although we had not yet been granted a license (the process usually take about 90 days) things were moving smoothly and we had every confidence that the outcome would be favorable. 

I’ve got to wonder what the city is thinking here.   There’s non-stop problems from bad-neighbor convenience stores that sell cheap booze to whoever walks in the door, but suddenly a nice restaurant with liquor on the menu (gasp!) is suddenly a huge neighborhood threat?  WTF?  

We’re taking on a lot of density in the neighborhood – something I generally support.   But one of the keys to successful density is to have dining and entertainment options within a reasonable walking distance.   It’s little restaurants like the one that was proposed here that help make city life fun and appealing.   But evidently that’s not something they’ve caught onto down at city hall.

Those with an opinion on the city’s permitting policy should direct their comments to the Director of the planning department: [email protected]

(I’ve also got a call into DPD to get the details behind their decision.  I’ll update this if/when I hear back from them)

From Friday July 18th, 2008

Andrew had earlier wondered whether the Starbucks next to Safeway at 23rd & Madison would be included in their list of closures.  Today the company published the complete list of 600 stores, and that store is indeed on the list.

With several long-vacant storefronts on the Madison side of that building, the loss of Starbucks will leave things in a bleak state there.

Also on the list is the store on 15th on Capitol Hill, long beset by much better, locally owned stores.  The other two Starbucks in the CD, at 23rd & Jackson and 12th & Columbia, will stay open.

As of today, there’s been some new work at the site of the proposed new apartment and retail development at 23rd Avenue and East Union. I talked with Jay Janette this afternoon, the lead architect of the project, and he says that the work is related to the on-going mission to remove toxic chemicals from the ground — using environmentally-sensitive methods such as “organic breakdowns” — in the wake of a dry cleaning shop that used to be there. So if you see more backhoes and plows out there, construction on the project is not underway just yet. But for now, it’s looking good.

That’s because new land use signs went up today around the perimeter of the site. Those notices indicate that the city, through a hearing examiner, has given a crucial green light for the rezoning of the structure from four stories to six (or 40 to 65 feet), stating there’s been “conditional approval” for the change. Janette says this is a tremendous hurdle that’s been jumped. Up next: The full city council vote, expected by early September. Janette says the company is hopeful for final approval, but stranger things have happened. Developer Jim Mueller has told us that the rezone is needed for the plan to be economically feasible, allowing more residences on the same real estate footprint. There’s been growing neighborhood support for the new apartments and stores at what’s long been a troubled part of the CD, with deadly shootings and a host of other crimes at that intersection.

(h/t to Elvis)

Where’d the sun go? (the sun joined us around noon) It’s Thursday:

I’ve always known that we have some pretty unique and talented folks in the neighborhood, and when out running errands the other day I spotted a guy on Union who may set a local record in multi-tasking, balance-based achievement.

The feat:  riding a unicycle, down a steep hill, talking on a phone.  And earlier along the path I spotted him texting.    

I guess I hadn’t previously understood how unicycles could offer such a personal productivity boost over their two-wheeled alternatives.