City takes action with notice of violation

The Seattle Department of Planning & Development confirmed this week that it had notified the landlord that the unsafe conditions at her building at 4118 E. Madison St. must be corrected.  Bryan Stevens, the Department's Public Service Manager, sent us this statement in response to the complaint we lodged with SDPD about the situation:

"We inspected the site on August 10th and observed the hazard along the sidewalk.  Per the Housing and Building Maintenance Code, the owner is responsible for removing an imminent hazard from the building and that components be reason­ably weathertight and kept in a safe, sound and sanitary condition.  We have issued a Notice of Violation to the owner, which requires the owner to make the necessary repairs by August 23rd.  If repairs are not made, then the owner could be subject to fines through the litigation process."

Rumor has it that the landlord, Constance Gillespie, has contracted for work to begin on the building on Monday. She is reported to have indicated that repairs will also be made to the rotting facade.

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Our beach makes 'best brown bagging' list

The Seattle Weekly, which specializes in coming up with "Best Places" lists each year, recently (like last week) chose Madison Park Beach as one of the Five Best Beaches in Seattle for Brown Baggin' It.  Last year this same publication picked our beach as the Best Beach for Babe Viewing, so we'll leave it to our readers to judge whether we're moving upward or downward with this year's honor.

To be clear, Madison Park Beach is Number 3 on the brown-bag list, with Alki and Golden Gardens ahead of us and Matthews Beach and Carkeek Park behind (do they have a beach there?).  Here's what the paper has to suggest as post-beach-going activities when in Madison Park: "With all the great joints up and down Madison, might we suggest stopping off at Cactus or The Attic after your BA shenanigans?"  BA in this is context probably refers to bare assed (or even bad ass) and not bachelor of arts.  Just guessing.

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Death due to natural causes

The King County Medical Examiner yesterday reported that Michael Westlake Michel, whose decomposed body was discovered in the backseat of his truck in Madison Park last month, died of natural causes. The initial autopsy was inconclusive, but later tests determined that Michel's death was the result of heart disease.  He was 42 years old.

Michel's mother, Sharon Sievers, who notified us of these findings, said she was relieved and "at peace" knowing the truth.  "Please tell all concerned how very grateful I am that they cared and cared for someone they did not know; and thank them as well," she told us. "You certainly have a wonderful community when people can be so concerned in that way.  Michael was a wonderful person. May he rest in peace."

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Can't something be done about this?

Anyone thinking that the already decrepit commercial building at 4118 E. Madison St. couldn’t become more of a blight on the heart of Madison Park’s business district was proven wrong last week when vandals smashed the plate glass window of one of the building’s two vacant shops. Building owner Constance Gillespie, notorious for her unwillingness to spend any funds to maintain the structure, is almost certainly unaware of the damage. We understand from reliable sources that she is unreachable by phone or email, and there is some question as to whether she even accepts mail delivery.

The building has been in a state of disrepair (shall we say visibly rotting?) for many years, much to the consternation of other neighborhood merchants, one of whom refers to the structure as “The Black Hole of Madison Park.” (We’ve covered this story in some detail: click here to read our previous postings.)

The question now is whether the situation is to the point where the City can step in and require some remedial action on the part of the landlord, since the recent damage clearly presents a potential hazard to passersby.  Madison Park Business Association President Terry Short has done his best to tape over the glass that remains in the window frame, but the shop is now open to both the weather and to anyone who wants to enter the premises. Glass shards could easily dislodge onto what is the neighborhood’s most trafficked sidewalk.

As of this afternoon, no one had apparently called the City to ask for an intervention; so stepping out of our journalist role, we did so.  We contacted that Department of Planning and Development and made a formal request for an inspection, citing a clear danger to the public. We were told that based on our description of the situation there would be an investigation.

We shall see.

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The rest of the story...

...of a 'dangerous dog' and its victims

It was almost a year ago that a Washington Park pit bull (or pit bull mix) named 'Honey' attacked three women in the course of an afternoon, sending two of the victims to the emergency room.  'Honey' had escaped from her yard, attacked without provocation, and was eventually picked up by animal control officers. In due course she was declared a "dangerous animal" by the Director of the Seattle Animal Shelter, and it was ordered that she either be removed from Seattle or euthanized.

That appeared to be the end of the story until this spring, when we started seeing 'Honey' (or a dog that looked very much like her) being walked around the neighborhood (on leash) and playing at one of the waterfront road ends (off leash).  That's when we discovered that as a result of an appeals hearing in February, 'Honey' had been ruled not dangerous by the examiner.  According to press reports, the law on dangerous animals set a very high of a standard for what constituted dangerous behavior. In the opinion of the examiner, the injuries suffered by 'Honey's' victims was insufficient to warrant the "dangerous dog" designation.  

What was not reported, however, was the fact that none of Honey's victims was notified of the hearing or asked to testify about her injuries.  'Honey's' owner, meanwhile, hired an expert lawyer to represent him and to plead for the "dangerous animal" designation to be overturned.  An administrative hearing is not the same as a legal trial; and with regard to Seattle's dangerous animal ordinance, the victims are not a party to the case.  At the hearing, it is the City versus the dog owner, with the City Attorney's office arguing that a "dangerous animal" designation of the Seattle Animal Shelter Director should be sustained.  The City lost the case, and the victims are naturally upset that their testimony was not solicited by the City as a part of the hearing.

According to one of the victims, who is herself an attorney, the fact that she was not notified of the hearing is not surprising, but the outcome of the hearing is appalling: "Was the decision reasonable? Hell no!"  Furthermore, she says that although the City gave 'Honey's' owner the names and addresses of the victims as part of the pre-hearing process (and the victims were so notified), the owner has made no attempt to contact her regarding restitution or even to make an apology.  "This is extremely bad form," she told us. "This is a community and I am a neighbor."  She says she expected more.

Another of 'Honey's' victims says she is appalled at the process, the outcome, and the lack of justice for the victims.  She says that she continues to have unhealed nerve damage as a result of the dog attack.  She questions the examiner's decision since it appears that the extent of her injuries was not taken into consideration.  The City ordinance states that "'severe injury' means "any physical injury that results in broken bones or disfiguring lacerations requiring multiple sutures or cosmetic surgery."  'Honey's' victim, who is a nurse, states that her wound required multiple sutures and took months to heal. That seems to fit the definition, and "severe injury" under the ordinance is sufficient to uphold a "dangerous animal" designation.

According to Colleen Lynn, who founded the non-profit organization dogsbite.org, the victims are often left out of the proceedings when it comes to deciding dog-bite cases.  She notes also that the City's hearing examiner in the 'Honey' case has a background primarily in land-use issues.  The examiner, Sue Tanner, apparently determined that the term "lacerations" in the existing City ordinance means "multiple" injuries.  One injury, no matter how many sutures it required, apparently was not sufficient.  One of the victims, at least, also had multiple puncture wounds from 'Honey's' teeth, though in the examiner's opinion this did not add up to "lacerations," as defined by the law.  It's not clear whether any previous examiner had ever made such a narrow interpretation of the long-existing ordinance; but probably not, since the official reaction to Tanner's decision was direct and decisive.

The outcome of the 'Honey' case and another serious pit bull injury case that Tanner recently decided in a similar manner prompted the City Council to take action to change the dangerous animal ordinance to make the law more inclusive concerning what is a "severe injury." As a result of a change to the ordinance enacted in June, the law now states that "severe injury" includes one or more broken bones; or one or more disfiguring lacerations, avulsions, cuts or puncture wounds, requiring medical attention including but not limited to one or more sutures, steri strips or staples; or permanent nerve damage.

It's a victory, perhaps, for those who will be severely bitten by dogs in the future, but it comes too late for 'Honey's' victims, since the law could not be made retroactive.  One of the victims told us, however, that civil action is still a possibility and that she has retained an attorney to represent her.  This is a story we will continue to follow.

...of a door-to-door scammer and the gullible

When we reported last month that a Madison Park resident had been duped out of some money by a personable black man with an at-first-blush-plausible story about being locked out of Scoop du Jour (where he supposedly worked), the modus operandi and the description of the perpetrator rang bells with several of our readers.  We got this from a Washington Park resident the following day:

"I live on 38th Ave. East and one day around 5 p.m. I was in a hurry and rushing out with my teenager and this man encountered my son first and asked if were Seattle Tennis Club members?  I was then coming out the door and looked at him wondering why he was asking this.  He looked up at me and said not to worry "that he was just a gay black guy" that got locked out of his car at lunch and didn't have enough money to pay for the locksmith.  He said he worked at the Seattle Tennis club as a janitor.  Since I was in a hurry I told my son to give him $5 and then he said he needed another $20. I looked at him and asked him who his boss was at the club and he proceeded to give me a name of someone I knew.  I had doubts, but I was in a hurry and he sounded very convincing.  O.K., so now I feel very silly for giving him money.  I called the club that night and they said they had no one with that description that worked there.  So I am surprised he's still up to his ploy!!"

It turns out that this "I need a locksmith" story is apparently part of a long-practiced and often-successful routine by this particular con artist, who is notorious for using the ruse to get money out of people all over town.  We immediately heard from a reader in Leschi who let us know that the perpetrator has become all too familiar in the Central Area and has been extensively covered by neighboring blog Central District News.  Indeed, we found multiple stories there of people being taken by "Patrick" and later admitting to a certain sheepish feeling about their gullibility (not to mention anger about being conned).

This soft-spoken scammer often says that he's a new neighbor and that he's locked out of his house.  Sometimes he even forgets that he's already targeted a certain residence and comes back with the same story (which doesn't work quite as well the second time around, apparently).  The guy (or a copycat scammer) has also been written about on both the Roosevelt Neighborhood blog and the Green Lake blog.

Now that we think of it, we must have been victims of this very scammer a couple of years ago in the  parking lot of the Safeway on Madison Street.  In that case, however, he had a very convincing story. It seems that he had borrowed his cousin's car but had locked himself out of it and needed to get a locksmith....

...of a spec house and a sad ending

When we reported last month that the neighborhood's most expensive speculative house had gone pending, we knew a bit more about the situation than we disclosed.  Because KING-TV made the story public last month, we feel comfortable in reporting a tragic side note to this potential house sale.  One of the three developers of this property, located in Washington Park on 34th Avenue E., was Wayne Boswell, founder and president of The Stratford Group, a real estate investment company.  With his real estate empire collapsing and bankruptcy looming, Boswell shot and killed himself in the garage of his Seattle condo on April 1.  The failure to sell his Washington Park spec house (which has been on the market for well over two years) was certainly not high among the reasons Boswell decided to end it all.  It now seems evident that Boswell had been mismanaging the funds entrusted to his company on behalf of investors in a vain attempt to remain solvent.  For those interested in the details, the KING-TV story is available here.

...of a lost bird and his new cat 'friend'

We queried our readers last month on this subject: "Anyone missing a parakeet?" No one responded, so finders keepers.  Madison Park residents Karen and Dick Lehman, who also put up "Lost Bird" posters at the hardware store and the vet's, have created a new home for the little green and yellow bird which suddenly appeared in their garden. And they've named him 'Hobo'.

They may need to get a bigger cage, according to Karen, since the family cat, 'Louis Prima', keeps moving the cage around with his paw. 'Hobo' may soon be getting a new cage-mate to keep him company (of the bird variety, that is).

[Photo of dangerous pit bull, at top, is not a picture of 'Honey', who has been declared not dangerous.  Photo of 'Hobo' courtesy of Karen and Dick Lehman.]

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Bomb on the bus? Never mind

We weren't there to witness the excitement, but we understand that E. Madison Street between Broadmoor and the business district was closed for a brief time around 5 pm yesterday while police investigated a "suspicious package" discovered on a Metro bus. Because the evacuated bus was parked on Madison near the residence of the Russian Consul (at 38th Avenue E.), several of our readers wondered if the multiple Seattle Police units (plus at least one King County Sheriff vehicle) were on the scene because of some incident occurring on Russian territory.

Not so, according to the Seattle Police.  After a brief investigation, the officers determined that the package found on the bus was not suspicious and the bomb squad did not need to be mobilized.  Traffic was restored to Madison Street and the bus continued on its way.

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Broadmoor eagle probable collision victim, but this may not be the end of eagles here

A small bald eagle was killed by a vehicle on the 520 floating bridge this morning, and it is highly likely that it was "Eddie," one of the Broadmoor pair, who was often seen perched on a lightpole on the bridge.  According to Bill Hebner, an Enforcement Captain for the State Department of Fish & Wildlife, "Everything is speculation, but the eagle had probably landed on the roadway because there was some attractant." Hebner notes that while "eagles are very adept at catching their own prey, they are also scavengers who take advantage of road kill."  In this case, Hebner says, it is possible that a duck or other bird was on the road, or perhaps a fish dropped by an Osprey, of which there are many in the area.  Once it has landed, an eagle cannot get airborne quickly, Hebner notes, so it would not have had a chance against a quickly moving vehicle.  The Seattle Times today reported that the eagle flew into the windshield of an oncoming Metro bus, the driver later reporting the incident.

If the dead eagle is "Eddie," it means that the female may leave their Broadmoor nest in order to search for a new mate. This does not necessarily mean the end of bald eagles nesting above the Broadmoor Golf Course, however. While it's true that bald eagles mate for life, if one of a pair dies the other will sometimes return to the same nest with a new mate, according to Hebner.  "We hope that will occur in this case," he told us. This pair's "young of the year" are already old enough, he said, to be out of the nest by now and on their own.  So though this event is tragic, it doesn't have the same implications that it would have had if the young were still being reared.

The eagle was picked up by the State Department of Transportation and is being delivered to the National Eagle Repository in Denver, Colorado.  The bird's claws, beak, and feathers will be preserved and given to a Native American tribe for ceremonial uses, according to Hebner, who notes that while this eagle's death is a sad loss it is a small part of a larger and more hopeful story.  The bald eagle population has been recovering nicely in Washington over the past 30 years or so, and the bird was removed from the federal Endangered Species list in 2007.

[Thanks to Jim Waltz for alerting us to this story.  Upper photo of "Eddie" above the 520 bridge by Todd Bates; lower photo from KING-TV video of "Eddie" taken from a helicopter, available here.]

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