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 Haller Lake, our near neighbor to the north, has an intimate, casual, classical music venue at Haller Lake United Methodist Church (13055 1st Ave. NE., Seattle).
For about 25 years the church has hosted the Haller Lake Music Series, which offers almost monthly freewill-donation concerts. The performers tend to be local musicians whom you can meet and chat with after the concert as you nibble on free cookies and juice. This April an ensemble made up of Seattle Symphony musicians played a concert there and it was lovely. It’s wonderful having a very local music venue with such skilled musicians, and yet it is sparsely attended. I urge you to try it. Here is its website for the schedule:
https://hallerlakemusic.com
Saturday, May 19, there will be an evening of chamber music including songs by Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, Schubert’s Fantasie for Violin and Piano, and a selection of Schubert Ländler and Waltzes. The pianist, Tamara Friedman, will be playing on her magnificent 1820s-style Viennese grand fortepiano, which is being brought to the venue especially for this concert. She is joined by violinist Stephen Daniels and internationally acclaimed dramatic soprano Dolores Holt.
Check out this musical gem on the edge of our neighborhood!
 This month the guest speaker at NPAC was Sgt Richard Welch, head of the North Precinct’s Burglary/Theft Investigation Team. All the minutes are here, but I want to emphasize what Sgt Welch told us about how the unit works. I think it will explain why many who make burglary reports are so frustrated and think ‘the police don’t care’ when SPD doesn’t solve the crime.
The Burglary/Theft Investigations Team investigates property crimes and crime
committed by minors within each precinct. Being located within each precinct
allows for closer communication with patrol, and more direct follow-up with
property crime victims.
North Precinct has the highest volume in the city (it is the largest precinct, after all). 16,000 burglary/theft crime reports are reviewed each year; that is about 1,300 a month. Is it any wonder that 1300 crimes a month don’t get investigated and solved?
The sergeant reviews all the reports having to do with burglary; theft; organized
retail theft; property damage; pawn shops; dog bites; juvenile cases.
The sergeant triages the reports. That is, he evaluates them to pick out the ones that have the kind of information/evidence/leads that his team can use to investigate and follow up on. Due to staffing (and they’d love to have more investigators) and the amount of leads in the reports, only about 10% of the cases are investigated. The victim is not notified if their crime is not going to be investigated, though you can call and ask. Admittedly, he says the unit could do a better job of informing those whose cases ARE assigned for investigation.
The sergeant assigns the chosen cases to an investigator. The investigator follows
leads, examines videos, etc., trying to solve the crime. With enough information,
the investigator can write up a crime notice and send it out to the street patrols to
keep a lookout.
Videos are very useful to investigations; if a report has a good video, usually
some effort can be put into the case. When people give videos to media before
giving them to the police, and they are broadcast, investigation is tainted, and a
critical window can be lost because it can take days for SPD to get the video.
Tips:
Record the serial number of your bike and take a photo of the bike. You
can register it at bikeindex.org, a national database.
Photograph valuable jewelry and get appraisals if possible. By law, pawn
shops must keep jewelry 30 days, then they melt it down. SPD sends
photos of stolen jewelry to pawn shops in the area.
Property moves quickly once stolen. Thieves trade stuff around – bikes go
to thieves dealing in bikes, etc. So reporting stolen goods quickly with as
much information as possible is important. And remember that the more
info you have, the more likely your report will be assigned to an
investigator for follow-up.
I hope this helps explain the investigative process and shows that SPD does care, it just can’t possibly investigate and solve all the thefts and robberies that occur. Of course we can help by lobbying city council and the mayor for a bigger SPD budget so it can hire more investigators. It’s helpful to write letters to them asking for funding of specific positions like the investigators.
Lots of bikes are being stolen around Seattle these days as the weather gets better. We’ve been seeing numerous posts on our Pinehurst Seattle Facebook page about stolen and abandoned bikes. At this month’s North Precinct Advisory Council, the Community Police Team passed out a bicycle theft prevention bulletin. See below.
The sergeant mentioned that there is a national registry where you can add your bike’s serial number to a database. It’s at https://bikeindex.org/. If police pick up a stolen bike, chances of getting it back to the owner are greater if the owner reported it missing and provided the serial number. Giving SPD a photo of the bike helps, too.
In addition, SPD has a twitter feed listing photos of stolen bikes they picked up where you can look for your bike. It’s at https://twitter.com/getyourbikeback
 Traffic advisory: SDOT is going to be nearly doubling the length of the southbound bus stop on Lake City Way, just south of NE 125th St. Currently, the zone is 65-feet long and can only serve one bus at a time. When there are two coaches that approach the zone, one bus must wait on the north side of the intersection, delaying bus patrons, while also causing traffic backups on both southbound Lake City Way and eastbound NE 125th St.
To address the problem, a contractor will lengthen the zone from 65 feet to 125 feet. They will bulb out the sidewalk/curb this additional length, which will permit the two coaches to load and unload passengers without having to pull out of traffic to do so.
The project will also mean the addition of a second bus shelter, a lit cantilever shelter. The existing “box” style shelter will also be replaced with a cantilever. This style of shelter is designed to be more open, making the internal area of the shelter more visible and less prone to loitering.
Construction is likely to last three to four weeks. Most of the construction will occur on weekdays, with traffic reduced to a single southbound lane at this location on weekdays from 9 AM until 4 PM during construction. During the AM and PM traffic peaks, the contractor will be required to keep both southbound lanes open to traffic.
A big impact will occur the first weekend in May when the contractor will be replacing damaged road panels adjacent to the stop. This will require a full closure of the southbound lanes of Lake City Way at this location, from Friday, May 4 at 7 PM until Monday, May 7 at 6 AM. Traffic will be detoured eastbound on NE 125th St, and then again southbound onto 30th Ave NE, back onto Lake City Way NE.
Contact Christa Dumphys with any concerns or questions, at (206)386-5458.
SDOT realizes the loss of any on-street parking spaces in a commercial corridor is not popular with adjacent businesses. Fortunately, it is only three spots, and it hope the businesses understand why they are moving ahead with this project.
This month’s kids’ art in Pinehurst pocket park is by Zainab, age 10. Looks like it’s a drawing of the pocket park! Stop by the park, take a stroll, and check out Zainab’s art at the corner of NE 117th St & 19th Ave NE.
Join Seattle Department of Transportation, North Helpline, Literacy Source and Lake City Future First on May 12 to learn about low cost ways to get around Seattle.
At the fair, you can:
- Sign up for ORCA LIFT
- Learn about the Regional Reduced Fair Program for seniors and people with disabilities
- Check out new mobility options
- Get free gifts (while supplies last)
Date: Saturday, May 12
Time: 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Place: Lake City Community Center, 12531 28th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98125
Food and drinks provided. Please visit the Lake City Future First website for more details.
 All Pinehurstians are invited to the next community forum being hosted by the D5 Community Network, which will be a panel discussion with the two citywide council members, Teresa Mosqueda and Lorena Gonzalez, and Deputy Mayor Michael Fong.
It is Thursday, May 31, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Haller Lake Community Club, 12579 Densmore Ave. N.
Council members Gonzalez and Mosqueda are the Chair and Vice-Chair, respectively, of the Council committee that handles public safety issues, so a non-exclusive emphasis on those issues is anticipated that night, but the D5 Community Network is looking forward to a wide-ranging discussion.
If you would like to suggest a question to be directed to the panel, it is soliciting questions via e-mail now, at contact@d5cn.org, and will also solicit written questions during the first 15 minutes of the meeting, which will be a social period with light refreshments. If you submit a question via e-mail, please indicate what neighborhood you are from. There will also be time set aside that night for questions asked directly by audience members.
 Idris Mosque’s Friendship Potluck Dinner is Saturday, May 5th from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
There will be a brief presentation titled “Know Your Rights” by Attorney Jay Stansell.
This event is open to Mosque neighbors, friends and community members, and it is a great opportunity for community building. So join them for an evening filled with great conversations and delicious food.
Idris Mosque is on the corner of Northgate Way and 15th Ave NE.
 ESTATE YARD SALE
12045 12th Ave NE
Saturday, April 28th, 9 am to 2 pm.
Good tools, furniture, books, household items.
 The Lake City Emergency Communication Hub will be participating in a City-wide field exercise, No Power, No Bars—the total and unexplained loss of our regional power grid—on Saturday April 28 from 9 am – 11:30 am. We hope you will attend this exercise. The Lake City Hub is located at the Lake City Fred Meyer Store, in the SE corner of the lower parking lot.
Why No Power, No Bars?
We’ve seen and heard about the effects of sustained loss of electricity in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. Something like that could happen here. In this No Power, No Bars exercise there is no structural storm or earthquake damage—simply no power. The implications of No Power are great—no heat, no cooking on electric stoves, no refrigeration, no credit card transactions, no pumping gasoline for vehicles (or generators), no traffic lights. Are our water lines and sewer lines dependent on electricity for pumping? Without back-up generators, elevators won’t work so people with mobility issues could be trapped in their apartment homes—or unable to get back into their apartment homes. At some point back-up generators will run out of fuel. The No Bars part of the exercise is about communication. Voice over internet protocol phones (like Comcast and Century Link) will not work although true landline phones may work. Police and Fire use the same cell towers we all use. The cell phone system will be jammed with users so calls from most of us will not get through as connectivity will be restricted to official and emergency use. The Internet will be down. Radio and TV stations may be unable to broadcast. Amateur (ham) radio communication will be working.
We want to find out and learn how neighbor connectivity could help with a response should we have a major regional power outage. The Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs and the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS—the ham radio volunteer unit for the City) are conducting this field exercise.
The Hubs will practice passing information on to the community at Hub locations and also matching volunteer skills, information, and resources with people looking for the same. We know we will be dependent on each other in the case of a major disaster here in Seattle, so we are working to prepare in advance of that situation. And we want to help you and your family and your neighborhood also be prepared.
Your help is needed! Join the Lake City Hub as a volunteer to learn how you can help your neighbors in a disaster. Join us as an “actor” to use prepared messages that will challenge the Hub volunteers to help solve the problem. Stop by the Lake City Hub’s Education Tent and learn to deal with some of the situations we will all face. We would greatly appreciate your support!
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