Motorist dies near Me Kwa Mooks and Beach Drive

April 2, 2021 by Leave a Comment

This afternoon a motorcyclist died in an accident near Me Kwa Mooks park and Beach Drive. We’re told that this section of Beach Drive may be closed for a couple more hours.

West Seattle Blog has more coverage here.

We’re so sorry for this person’s family and friends.

We do not know of any other details at this time.

KIRO’s coverage

Update: April 4, 2021

The motorist who passed away has been identified as Keith Adams. We are so sad for his family and friends. This is from the Kirkland Firefighter’s post on Facebook:

 

 

Filed Under: Breaking News, Safety

Trespasser on Bulkhead

February 4, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Earlier today a neighbor reported a man on their bulkhead who appeared to be looking into other Beach Drive homes from the bulkhead.


When approached he said he was just looking at the water however, he was checking out nearby homes. When he was informed he was on private property, he left.

His picture was shown to the construction crew at nearby Emma Schmitz Viewpoint and they thought he looked like a person who had broke into a subcontractors truck, stealing a gun and wallet.

This person is described as wearing a navy blue Mariner’s sweatshirt with a hoody, black sweatpants tucked into white socks. Rough 40-ish, white with graying dreadlock type hair and smoking a cigarette.

Filed Under: Bulkheads, Safety

Barking Dog Report: Howling Wind forecasted for tomorrow

October 12, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Tomorrow is set to have extremely strong winds combined with waves. Check out this graph from WindAlert.

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory as of 3:40 pm today:

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 6 PM PDT TUESDAY...

* WHAT...Southwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts 45 to 50 mph
  expected.

* WHERE...Southwest Interior, Everett and Vicinity, Tacoma Area,
  Hood Canal Area, Bellevue and Vicinity, Seattle and Vicinity
  and Bremerton and Vicinity.

* WHEN...From noon to 6 PM PDT Tuesday.

It looks like the tides for tomorrow are

High Tide: 1:58 AM  at 8.75 feet

Low Tide:  8:27 AM at 0.57 feet

High Tide: 3:31 PM at 11.23 feet

Low Tide:  9:40 PM at 4.34  feet

Puget Sound Marine Forecast:

PZZ135-130645-
Puget Sound and Hood Canal-
243 PM PDT Mon Oct 12 2020

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH
TUESDAY AFTERNOON...
...GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY
EVENING...

TUE
SE wind 15 to 25 kt becoming SW 20 to 30 kt in the
afternoon. Wind waves 3 to 5 ft. Rain in the morning then rain
likely in the afternoon. 

TUE NIGHT
SW wind 25 to 35 kt easing to 15 to 25 kt after
midnight. Wind waves 4 to 6 ft subsiding to 2 to 4 ft after
midnight. A chance of showers in the evening then a slight chance
of showers after midnight.

Of course forecast can and do change… it’s hard to believe with how calm and beautiful it is right now that tomorrow is predicted to be a very blustery day.

Stay safe!

NOTE: It looks like I need to update some links on the “swell links” section. I’ll get to that soon!

 

Filed Under: Safety, Tides, Weather

Warning for Parents and Dog Owners about Lincoln Park

August 4, 2020 by 3 Comments

We’re just learning from a neighbor that a dog passed after ingesting meth while on a walk at Lincoln Park.

We don’t have information about exactly where or how this happened. The events are very recent and we just wanted to warn neighbors to be careful of their two and four legged loved ones.  Honestly, this tragic event could happen at any park. 🙁

We are heartbroken for the family who lost their beloved puppy.

Filed Under: Parks, Pets, Safety

Human of the Week

May 20, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Ok, we all know the real heroes have been on the front lines fighting the virus…but there are individuals deserving some thanks for making our local bubble a bit better.

Anyone that walks up or down Jacobson Road lately knows the hazard of keeping a safe 6’ from other walkers, joggers, and dogs while not getting run over by vehicle coming around a corner. The upper portion of the road only has a sidewalk on the north side. That’s if you want to call the disappearing sliver of walkway a sidewalk at all due to the ever encroaching ivy and weeds. As to the shoulder between the sidewalk and vehicular traffic, a six inch white line!

Well, our Human of the Week has been working to make things better up there.


This humble human’s not looking for recognition so no need to enlarge the pic to zoom in on his identity 😉

I caught our human trimming back the holly and hedges on the south side of the street carving out some room for pedestrians to use both sides of the road near the top. After thanking him for the effort I found out he also weed whacks over a hundred yards of the notoriously bad north side starting at the fire hydrant on the top corner. He says “I just want to give people some room!”.

If you have a person you’d like to nominate for Human of the Week (aka HOW) please contact our Chief Editor, contact info is at the bottom of this blog.

Scupper, reporting for the BDB

Filed Under: Not on Beach Drive, People, Safety Tagged With: ,

Walking the newly closed Beach Drive for Stay Healthy Streets

May 10, 2020 by 3 Comments

This morning, after writing about a portion of Beach Drive being closed, my hubby (aka our intrepid reporter, Scupper) and I decided to check out the newly closed road along Constellation Park. I actually did not expect the closure to include Alki Avenue to 63rd (the intersection by Cactus).


Vehicle traffic was definitely reduced. Gone are the cruisers and car clubs hanging out along the sidewalk.


64th was the only side street that I noticed was blocked.


This stretch of Beach Drive is no stranger to cars peeling out. The City has tried passing noise ordinances for this area but I doubt it’s been successful. Neighbors we talked to are pretty pleased with this stretch being closed.


I don’t know if I’ve ever seen open parking on a warm sunny day along Alki Avenue.
The closure stretches all the way from Alki Avenue at 62nd to Beach Drive and 62nd. There were still a handful of cars (possibly residents), driving along with bicyclists, skateboards (some motorized) and all sorts of wheeled contraptions mixed with people walking or jogging in the street.

It’s a new experience to walk down the street…it’s a bit liberating. It’s also a lot easier to keep the “safe six” feet away from others.  There are a lot of cars from residents along Alki Avenue to Beach Drive where there are condos, apartments and street parking for houses. This stretch is still very popular (and may become even more so) with bicyclist and joggers. If you’re wearing ear-buds, you may need a shoulder-mounted-rear-view-mirror!

It will be interesting to see how this evolves as bicyclist and resident cars, service/delivery vehicles and rule-avoiders are now dealing with people walking in the Mayor’s new “Stay Healthy Street”.

Please stay safe and be kind! This is a new experience for all of us.

Filed Under: Alki, Beach Drive Homes, Safety, Traffic

Lincoln Park and Alki Beach Closed this weekend

April 9, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Mayor Durkin has announced Seattle’s 15 largest parks will be closed this weekend in an effort to assist with social distancing, including Lincoln Park, Alki Beach and West Seattle Stadium. The closure begins on Friday, April 10, 2020 at 11:00 pm and the parks will reopen on Monday, April 12, 2020 at 4:30 am.

From the Mayor’s statement:

“These are the beautiful weather days we crave all winter, but we are living in unprecedented times and the Governor’s order isn’t stay out – it’s stay home. Seattle’s frontline medical workers,  vulnerable residents, and displaced workers need you to stay home. While Seattle is expecting near perfect weather, friends and families should not have family or friend outings, picnics or gatherings in parks. Stay home unless you need to go to an essential job or business.  If you need to take a walk in your neighborhood, be smart and don’t help create a crowded place. Too many friends, residents and families are continuing to gathering for picnics, BBQs, basketball games, and group walks.  Because we still are in danger of a spike in infections, hospitalizations and deaths we have to keep doing out part. Easing up on social distancing too early will put more people at risk, could overwhelm our health care system, and could delay the reopening of businesses. Stay home, and if you must leave your home, be smart, follow social distancing guidelines by stay at lease six feet from everyone and wear a mask” said Mayor Jenny Durkan. “Our collective effort has made an impact flattening the curve, but we must continue or face even greater and longer term consequences.”

I’m concerned that the closure of these popular parks are only going to push more people to Beach Drive, which already seems more crowded with runners, walkers, bicyclist and walkers… and according to this study, 6 feet may not be enough distance from people who are walking, running or biking.

And while I’m at it… can folks please stop spitting and emptying their noses (aka snot rockets) in public areas? We walk Beach Drive and local parks and have seen all sorts of people doing this. I personally think even if we were not in the middle of a pandemic that this is a disgusting practice – but we definitely should be doing this right now. Rant over! 🙂

We hope you have a happy and healthy weekend!

Filed Under: Parks, Rants and Raves, Safety Tagged With: , ,

If a tree falls in the forest…RUN for your life!

March 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment

I probably shouldn’t be making light of this… my husband, aka our intrepid reporter Scupper, was almost struck by a giant mature maple just moments ago. He was walking our dog on the Mee Kwa Mooks trail when he heard the tree starting to crack. He and our dog literally started to run for their lives. No sooner did the cracking start, the tree came down just missing them.


As one of our neighbors say, hubby used up one of his nine lives by and our dog narrowly escaping this.

Mee Kwa Mooks is filled with mature trees, including end-of-life, maples. It’s not unusual to walk the trails and have to step over recently downed trees. This is the first time (hopefully the last) where we’ve experienced this close of an encounter.

We will be reporting this to the parks department to see if they can target dangerous trees.

Stay safe, friends!

Filed Under: Parks, Safety Tagged With:

Back at the Beach Drive Speed Bumps

June 5, 2019 by 3 Comments
Measuring the Beach Drive “cushions”.

A crew from the City of Seattle are out this morning measuring the newly reinstalled speed bumps along the 4700 block of Beach Drive. I tried to talk to one of the gentlemen who seemed to be supervising, however he was less than chatty. He told me the group is there to measure “tolerances”. As I was not able to pry another word out of him, I’m assuming this was to see if if the humps can be raised higher while allowing emergency vehicles to “tolerate” the bumps.

I told him that the neighbors would really like to see more done on this stretch of Beach Drive as it’s often difficult to cross the street and unsafe with how some drivers use it as a freeway to and from Alki. I pretty much just received a blank stare. Maybe next time I’ll bring them coffee. 😉

A few days ago, KOMO4 news addressed the speed cushions and how the neighborhood is less than impressed with the effectiveness. It’s my guess that their coverage is what dragged the City back to the bumps.

Bumps, humps or cushions, it doesn’t matter to me what the term is, we need more done to stop the speeding and the passing that is constantly taking place in our neighborhood. Two nights ago, while walking our dogs, a neighbor and I witnessed two cars passing two cars flying north on Beach Drive. If someone would have been trying to cross the street, they would have had nowhere to run to get out of the way.

I hope that it doesn’t take a serious accident to have the City take real action to make Beach Drive a safer road for all of us. I don’t think that raising the cushions an inch is going to help deter the speeders – especially when they just scoot to the center of the road where the slope is lower (as it’s intentionally designed for emergency vehicles).

Is it time for our neighborhood to create a community organization to address issues like this?

Filed Under: Crime, Safety Tagged With: ,

Ahhh…. the Traffic Calming Speed Bumps

May 20, 2019 by 3 Comments

The long awaited speed bumps are being installed along Beach Drive between SW Angeline and Beach Drive Terrace SW.

We can all take a deep breath and relax with total faith knowing that these traffic calming improvements are going to slow down the speeders.

 

Or will they? They don’t appear to be enough to slow down a Suburu appearing to go the speed limit prior to flying over the bumps. So why are the bumps so minute?

Beach Drive is considered a main road and the new asphalt bumps are apparently as high as they are allowed for emergency vehicles.

We’ll see if the speed bumps provides Beach Drive any calm with the increased summer time speedy cruisers.

Filed Under: Crime, Safety Tagged With: ,
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