The Seattle Police Department blotter has the story:

East Precinct officers responded to a report of a burglary in progress just after midnight near 26th Avenue and East Pine Street.  As officers were enroute, the 911 operator was told by the victim that the man coming through her bathroom window might be her ex-boyfriend. The operator also heard the victim yelling at someone to get off her bed and get off her before the line was disconnected.

Officers quickly arrived at the house and were met by the victim.  She indicated that the suspect, her ex, had fled to the basement.  Officers went down to the basement where they could see the suspect hiding inside a crawl space, trying to conceal himself with insulation.  Officers were able to get the suspect to climb out of the crawl space and arrested him.

The vicitm told officers that the suspect is her ex-boyfriend and that he had climbed through a previously broken window.  She also told officers that as she was on the phone with 911, he had grabbed her and forced her out of her bedroom into the living room.  He grabbed the phone from her hand and disconnected with 911 before throwing the phone to the floor.  It was at that point that officers were at the front door, so he fled to the basement.

The suspect gave officers several different names before finally admitting to his true identity.  Officers located several outstanding warrants for his arrest, as well as a Domestic Violence No-Contact Order with the victim listed as the protected person.  The 24-year-old man was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary, Investigation of DV Assault, the outstanding warrants, and officers are requesting the additional charge of interferring with the reporting of domestic violence assault.  Detectives will handle the follow up investigation.

A recent glassblowing demonstration at the Pratt Fine Arts Center. (photo by Alec Miller)

The Pratt Fine Arts Center is hosting free Glassblowing classes for all veterans and their families this Saturday, November 9. Pratt’s classes are part of a nationwide initiative to offer free glassblowing instruction to veterans in honor of Veterans Day on Monday

“The goal of the event is to expose men and women to the world of glass art as well as affording troops the chance to develop a technical skill. Veterans Glassblowing Day hopes to unify the glassblowing community, and bring awareness to the craft and various organizations through their involvement,” Pratt announced in a press release.

The instruction will be split into two sessions, with a morning group from 9:30am to 1:30pm and an afternoon group from 1:45pm to 5:45pm.

Veterans and their families can sign up online  www.pratt.org/classes

Organizations participating in the Veterans Glassblowing Day hope to make these classes a permanent opportunity, starting a nonprofit that offers scholarships for veterans to learn glassblowing and secure apprenticeships with professional artists. They’ll then have a marketable skill and the invaluable ability to self-express through art.

Greenway alternatives

City planners will meet with the community tonight to talk about a fantastic opportunity to overhaul a major connection between the Central District, eastern Capitol Hill and Montlake. Here’s what Seattle Bike Blog has to say about the process to plan a $46 million overhaul of 23rd Ave including a proposed greenway system for bicyclists and walkers to travel across the area:

A neighborhood greenway is simply not a replacement or alternative to building safe bike lanes on commercial streets. These commercial streets should be places that bring neighbors together, not walls that split a neighborhood in half. People should be able to walk and bike safely from their homes to the doors of neighborhood restaurants and cultural centers. A neighborhood greenway might get you a block or two away, but that’s a block or two short of the goal.

So yes, let’s build a great neighborhood greenway (or two) in the Central District. But let’s also keep working to make sure investments in the city’s planned remake of 23rd Avenue put neighbors first.

Wednesday’s meeting will focus on potential paths (seen on the map above) for routes parallel to 23rd Ave where a bike friendly greenway could be implemented.

You’re Invited!

The city is seeking input on where the 23rd Avenue Corridor greenway should be constructed. Please join us at a community open house to discuss the route and some of the features it will include. Be a part of creating a great greenway for all!

Community Open House

Wednesday, November 6

5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Nova High School auditorium

300 20th Avenue East

Seattle

To request an interpreter, please call (206) 733-9990.

You can also provide feedback to planner [email protected].

Potential features of the greenway include:

• Pavement markings and signage to alert motorists to expect people bicycling

• Improved crosswalks and ADA curb ramps to make pedestrian mobility easier

• Way-finding to provide guidance along the route, letting people know where the greenway goes and what’s nearby, like parks, schools and business districts

• Median islands, traffic circles, curb bulbs and speed humps to help reduce vehicle speeds and discourage drivers from avoiding arterials by cutting through on neighborhood streets

• New signage to control traffic crossing the greenway and make crossings easier for pedestrians and bicyclists

Planning for the bike and greenway component is part of the 23rd Ave Complete Street initiative being pursued by SDOT:

Supporting Multi-Modal Improvements to the 23rd Avenue Corridor: The 2014 Proposed Budget allocates $2.9 million of Real Estate Excise Tax and state grant funding to support improvements to the 23rd Avenue Corridor. This investment supplements an additional $13.8 million in other funding sources supporting the project. A vital multi-modal corridor, 23rd Avenue connects much of southeast and central Seattle with Capitol Hill, the University District, and other northeast Seattle neighborhoods. In response to community feedback, SDOT will change the street from four lanes to three lanes between East John Street and Rainier Avenue South and develop a parallel greenway route for bicyclists.

The three-lane design allows for substantial pedestrian improvements by reconstructing sidewalks and reducing the curb-to-curb width by eight feet in most places. It also allows SDOT to adjust the traffic lanes to conform to lane- width standards, as opposed to the narrow lanes existing today. SDOT will reconstruct pavement and upgrade signals to meet transit signal priority needs and accommodate ITS features, such as travel time information.

With state Bridging the Gap funding pushing the budget above $46 million, the project is now being planned to change the corridor from Rainier to 520 by transitioning 23rd Ave’s four pinched lanes into a new three-lane layout south of John. Meanwhile, the entirety of the route is planned to be repaved and enhanced to improve traffic flow from the south of the CD to Montlake and 520. Oh, and, yeah, Seattle Bike Blog, god bless its hard-pedaling little soul, wants bike lanes on 23rd Ave, too.

The City is pushing for the first phase of the greenway between Jackson and John to be completed by the end of 2014.

An SDOT presentation on the project is below.

FINAL_June2013_23AveCorridor_WebUpdate.pdf by Chs Blog

“CRIME FACTS OR RUMORS?  AN UPDATE ON CRIME IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD” – Community Meeting
Wednesday, November 6, 2013 (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
The Central (500 – 30^th Avenue South)—one block south of Jackson at King Street
For more information call 206-322-8613 or email [email protected]

23rd AVENUE ACT (Advisory Core Team) – Monthly Meeting
Monday, November 25^th (5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.)
The Central (500 –30^th Avenue South)
For more information, contact Kerry Wade ([email protected] or call 206-733-9091)

A GREAT BUSINESS COMMUNITY – 23^rd Avenue Action Team Monthly Meeting
For more information contact, Karen Estevenin ([email protected])

NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC SAFETY MEETING – 23^rd Avenue Action Team Event
Coming soon!!  Date/Time TBD
The 23^rd Avenue Livable Streets for All Action Team is working with SDOT to put on this event

For more information on these happenings, please contact Kerry Wade ([email protected] or call 206-733.9091)

Turns out Seattle Schools was listening when parents at Capitol Hill public school Stevens Elementary “strongly opposed” proposed attendance boundaries — the latest draft of the new attendance boundaries looks a lot like the old boundaries. You can see the updated map, below.

The new boundary plan will be presented to the School Board Wednesday afternoon in a session expected to be jam packed with public comment as neighborhood issues with the latest boundary proposal from across the city get worked out.

The same session will also include the board’s consideration of a proposal to provide district facilities to the Central District community groups that have taken over the Horace Mann school at 23rd and Cherry.

While the school district seems ready to meet the demands that Stevens attendance zone south of Madison be maintained, we haven’t yet heard back from officials about how maintaining the same borders will address overcrowding at the school.

In a letter sent to school families, members of the Stevens attendance committee said they “strongly oppose the proposed expansion of our boundaries to the north and east.” “These expansions would displace the south-of-Madison group of families and siblings that are already integral to our community and who bring Stevens much of its diversity, only to replace them with other families,” the letter read. “Our community does not welcome this solution, which does not appear to solve our capacity issue while negatively affecting diversity at Stevens.”

More on Wednesday’s board meeting and agenda here (PDF).

implementation maps.pdf

Cheryl Peterson (board member) and Lottie Cross (director) of Clean Greens Farm & Market (photo courtesy of Solarize Seattle).

Solarize Seattle has just announced that it successfully exceeded its goal to sign 60 contracts for solar power systems at homes and businesses in Central Seattle. In fact, Solarize Seattle has 65 contracts signed for systems in the area, meaning Central District nonprofit Clean Greens Farm & Market (along with Bike Works) will receive donated 3 kW solar systems.

The donation is a project of Solarize Seattle, part of Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (Northwest SEED) and Seattle City Light. It aims to increase solar energy installations through a group purchase, which will bring down the price for each home. To participate in the project, you must have attended one of several free public workshops to learn more about solar energy and to receive a free site assessment for your home or business.

Solarize Seattle is still conducting site assessments and is hoping to get another 35 customers on board, bringing their total to 100.

A battle over inequality and “sub-standard” resources that has a community group taking over a Central District schoolhouse slated for a significant construction project may finally have reached a point of solution. Wednesday night the Seattle School Board will consider and vote on a proposal that will give community groups currently in control of the district’s Horace Mann building at 23rd and Cherry access to Seattle Schools-funded portables on the Mann campus and rooms at another district facility.

In September, Seattle Public Schools told us it was working out a deal with the Central District community groups using the Horace Mann building. It’s November and the old school house lined up for a major renovation is still filled with community groups who said they’re not going anywhere — even if it puts a major wrinkle in the SPS plans to move programs there to make way for the $14.2 million project to rebuild Capitol Hill’s Meany Middle School.

The groups were told to vacate multiple times since summer so renovations could begin to make way for a planned return of the Nova Alternative High School return next fall, Central District News reports. Grassroots community group More 4 Mann continues to operate out of the building, according to CDN. The revelation prompted the Seattle Times to go on the offensive as the paper called More 4 Mann “squatters” and called for the groups to be removed from the building.

More 4 Mann, however, says it is doing much more than squatting in the building:

We want to continue to show the unified community of African-American parents, educators and students working together to take responsibility for the education of our children.

Now is the time to rectify the past inequities and ineffective methods to educate our children.

We will no longer accept and allow sub-standard resources, results, programs and policies directed to our young scholars.

Saturday, More 4 Mann scheduled an afternoon press conference “to announce the positive educational outcomes and programs that our community will offer and our exciting forthcoming partnership with Seattle Public Schools.”

The proposal to be considered by the board later this week would cost approximately $1,120, according to Seattle Schools staff.

The proposal also describes how the situation played out over the summer: