Downtown Seattle

The most striking disappointment about Tim Burgess's proposed civility law—adding a $50 fine for aggressive solicitation to an existing criminal statute for aggressive begging—is the waste of time it creates for the city government that could be spent making streets safer. City council staff and city attorneys have already spent at least a month drafting the bill, revising the bill, internally debating the bill, and then publicly debating the bill at a lengthy hearing this week. Amendments, debates,

The detectives from the Arson/Bomb Unit have determined that the device used by the supect this morning was not an explosive.  It was fashioned to look like a pipe bomb, but it was not a real explosive device.  Refer to the previous post on the photo of the device.

For the past year a professional pickpocket team was believed to be responsible for countless  thefts/pickpocket incidents in the Seattle area.  The suspects would typically target victims in shopping malls, buses, and  escalators, mainly in Seattle’s  downtown core.  The suspects were described as well-dressed black males in their forties.  The suspects would typically  sandwich their victims between them.  One suspect would suddenly stop in front of their intended victim, causing the victim to bump into them.  The second suspect would pretend to accidentally bump into the victim from behind and apologize while stealing the victim’s wallet.  Most victims didn’t realize what occurred until later, when they discovered their wallets missing and unauthorized charges on their credit cards. 

Information developed during the investigation led detectives to the identities of the suspects.  On March 1st, 2010, detectives from the Robbery Unit located...

• Bad Monkey Bistro at 400 Boren Ave N (the Whale Building), opening in late March or April
• Mystery restaurant permitted at 401 Westlake Ave N (former Napa Auto Parts, under renovation now
• And the top rumor of 2010 is true, Tom Douglas will open a restaurant in the Terry Ave Building in 2011

On February 17th, just before 11:00 PM, officers from the West Precinct responded to a call of a possible burglary that had just occurred at a business in the 1100 Block of Howell Street.  Witnesses reported that they saw one male inside the business while another man stood out front, apparently acting as a lookout.  The witness also reported that they saw the man inside the store dart from the front counter to the front door, where he crouched down and exited through the lower half of the front door, which had been smashed out.  The two men then met up and walked away together westbound on Howell Street. 

Officers responded to the business where they discovered the front door glass had been broken out and the cash register had been destroyed.  It did not appear, however, that any cash had been taken from the register.  The witness provided officers with a brief description of the suspects.  An officers located two suspects three blocks away.  The witness was able to positively...

On February 4th at approximately 2:27 p.m. an adult male suspect entered a bank in the 2500 block of 1st Avenue and passed a note to the teller announcing a robbery.  The suspect fled the bank on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash.  Responding officers saturated the area and began searching for the suspect.  A short time later patrol officers located and arrested the suspect near Queen Anne Avenue North and North Harrison Street.

The 42-year-old male suspect will be booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.  This remains an active and on-going Robbery investigation.

Art Thieves in South Lake Union: Police were called to a storage facility in the 700 block of Fairview Avenue N last week after a man called 911 to report that "25-30 paintings valued at approximately $40,000.00 - $60,000.00" had disappeared from his storage unit sometime between October and January. On January 19th, the man found the door to his unit pried open, and discovered that all but one of the paintings had been stolen. Police did not find any fingerprints at the scene. One officer climbed

On January 13th, at approximately 11:30 pm, West Precinct officers responded to a strong arm robbery at a restaurant in the 1900 Block of 5th Avenue.  The victim is the manager of the business.  He stated that a very intoxicated man entered the restaurant at that time.  The manager approached the man, who swore at the victim and grabbed the victim’s cell phone from his hand.  The suspect then shoved the manager in the chest and walked out of the restaurant.  When officers arrived, the victim was able to point out the suspect  who was stopped about half a block away.  The man was positively identified as the correct suspect and placed under arrest.  The victim’s cell phone was located nearby.  The 26 year-old man was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.

On January 9th at approximately 6:00 p.m. officers responded to a department store in the 500 block of Pine Street for a report of a suspect passing a counterfeit $100 bill.  This suspect may also have been involved in a similar incident at a Northgate Mall department store earlier in the day.

Investigating officers arrested the suspect who was found to be in possession of an additional $1,500.00 in counterfeit $100 bills.

The suspect was transported to the West Precinct where he was turned over to the custody of the U.S. Secret Service who will continue the investigation.

On December 6th at approximately 2:24 am, the pedestrian (victim) was crossing the street from north to south on Bell Street at Western Avenue.  A white 2006 Honda was travelling westbound on Bell Street.  The Honda stopped at the stop sign at Western and then struck the pedestrian and turned left going the wrong way down a one-way street.  The pedestrian/victim was transported by Seattle Fire Department Medics to Harborview Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries.  The driver of the Honda was stopped and processed for signs of intoxication/impairment.  The driver was later arrested and booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Vehicular Homicide.  The Traffic Collision Investigation Squad responded to the scene and began their investigation.

On November 23rd, at approximately 7:37 pm, the victim called 911 to report a strong arm robbery.  The victim was at 3rd Avenue and Columbia Street when he was approached by two unknown black males and one  asked him if he could use his cell phone.  Although suspicious, the victim wanted to be helpful so he dialed the number the suspect wanted to call and held the phone out so he could talk.  The suspect then grabbed the phone and after a brief struggle, the victim let go to avoid any further injury.  The suspect grabbed the phone out of the victim’s hand.  Both suspects then fled on foot.  Officers responded to the area but could not locate the suspects.

A 40-year-old missing man, Hoang “Wayne” Ba Nguyen, was located by Seattle Police uniformed patrol officers on Wednesday, November 11th at around Noon.  Officers on patrol downtown spotted Nguyen at 8th Avenue and Pine Street.  He was subsequently returned to his family safe and sound.

On October 30th, at approximately 11:37 p.m., the victim was waiting at a bus stop in the 300 Block of Pine Street.  Two suspects approached the victim and asked him for money.  The two suspects then began to assault the man.  Two more suspects joined in the assault.  During the assault, one of the suspects took the victim’s wallet.  The victim received some contusions as a result of the attack.  At approximately 12:54 a.m., the victim called back to 911 to report that at least two of his attackers were in the area of 3rd Avenue and Pine Street.  The suspects were positively identified by the victim and taken into the custody.  The two 19-year old suspects were later booked into the King County Jail.

Historically when times were good and rents were high and cities were full of it and themselves, sex-related businesses—sex-toy shops, dirty movie theaters, strip clubs—had a hard time getting a toehold. When landlords could take their pick from shoe shops, high-end restaurants, and pricey boutiques, they were reluctant to rent to sex-related businesses that annoyed their neighbors and invited unwelcome scrutiny from authorities who wanted to keep sex-businesses out of "upscale" retail districts.

...someone gets her head blown off.

There was a zombie walk in downtown Portland today. It was a beautiful day for staggering around in stage makeup and torn clothes. Looked like fun. But joining a zombie walks is too risky. Maybe I'm paranoid—maaaaaybe—but I think it's only a matter of time before some lunatic sees a crowd of zombies coming down the street and reacts the way he's seen the hero react in a million zombie movies: shoot the zombies in the head. I went to the gym instead.

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Post by news intern Garrett McCulloch

Earlier this week, Susan Hutchison said the light rail line to the Eastside line that voters approved last fall should cross a new 520 bridge across Lake Washington instead of using the existing I-90 express lanes. Bad enough idea in itself—added delays, an Eastside route that skips most of Bellevue, and generally impractical—but wait! How long does Hutchison want us to wait before light rail would be built? In early September, she said (here and here) that Sound

Everyone, including KING 5, is saying that tonight's debate—taped earlier today—is a brawl. That's not surprising. The ballots have arrived in mailboxes, people are voting every day, and Mike McGinn just seriously altered his position on one of the central issues in the mayor's race: the deep-bore tunnel downtown.

Mallahan immediately attacked him for destroying the voters trust. McGinn responded that he would "continue to ask tough questions" even if he's now willing, as mayor, to execute the agreement

Posted by news intern Garrett McCulloch

I talked to mayoral candidate Mike McGinn downtown shortly after he announced that he wouldn't try to stop a tunnel—a radical departure from his campaign platform and McGinn's reality as we know it. "I'm gonna keep raising the issue of how are we gonna pay for cost overruns and how are we gonna pay for this in a way that fits our budget," he said. "If we don't have a good answer to those, we may find that the council and the legislature are gonna have to revisit

First, the downtown library is hosting a free lunchtime reading of "The Wrong Grave," which is a story by the great Kelly Link. It's a scary story for adults. This sounds like fun.

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger is at Town Hall tonight. Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age is another one of those tiresome "this is what's wrong with you kids

On Wed/Oct 13/09, Officer William Robertson composed this report about an incident that happened in the very middle of the most urbanized (the most concrete) area in this state:

The Seattle Fire Department had responded due to a suspicious gas released in a downtown hotel. Floors were evacuated due to tenants having trouble breathing. After SFD contacted witnesses, it was discovered that subjects had checked out at at 0856 and had left a container of BEAR REPELLANT in the room. Witnesses, while

On October 17th at approximately 9:02 a.m. a female SPD Parking Enforcement Officer (PEO) was driving her scooter northbound on 4th Avenue passing through the intersection with Blanchard Street on a green light. A male driving a 1996 Geo Metro was traveling eastbound on Blanchard Street and according to witnesses, failed to stop for the red light he was facing and struck the PEO’s scooter. The PEO was transported to Harborview Medical Center with minor injuries. The driver of the Geo Metro was cited for a red light violation.

URBAN WATERFRONTS 27, an annual international conference on waterfront planning, development and culture, will take place in Seattle, WA at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront from October 22-24, 2009. 

Representatives from 27 states, eight Canadian provinces, New Zealand, Australia, China and South Korea will converge in Seattle for three days to confront the challenges of waterfronts world-wide. The nonprofit Waterfront Center annually brings together a dynamic group of experts focused on waterfronts to exchange ideas. Seattle will host this year’s event. 

Two notable headliners will be featured at the Waterfront Center’s 27

Renowned aerial photographer Alex MacLean of Boston will open the session on Friday, October 23, showing images from his latest book, OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point, a beautiful but disturbing portrait of America. The book is said to “compel us to reconsider...

This week in the paper-paper, some musings about the speakeasy stylings of Tavern Law, brand new on Capitol Hill, brought to you by the gentlemen of Belltown's well-reputed, extremely popular Spur Gastropub:

At Tavern Law, the high-concept quote-speakeasy-unquote cocktail-culture fad has been taken to a mighty extreme: dapper barkeeps outfitted in suit vests and ties, many complicated and/or historic cocktails with house-made thises