CAPITOL HILL Andrew Geske, 26, was walking home with his
roommate from the Capitol Hill gay bar Pony at 2:30 a.m. on September 3
when, according to a police report and Geske’s own account, he was
attacked by a young man driving a black BMW and dragged down Broadway
as the car sped away and a passenger held onto Geske’s arms. Geske, a
bar back at a nearby bar and a personal trainer, suffered sprained
fingers and scrapes on his back, elbows, and knee, but is otherwise
unharmed. “It was a gay bashing,” Geske says. “Word needs to get out
that gays are still being targeted. Call me naive, but I didn’t think
this could happen here.” The attack is being investigated as a bias
crime. (A witness told police she heard the people in the car calling
Geske and his roommate “faggots” and “homos.”) No one was able to get
the license plate. —ES
EASTLAKE On September 7, 19-year-old Bryce Lewis was riding
his bike toward the University Bridge on Eastlake Avenue East. As Lewis
approached the intersection at Eastlake and Fuhrman Avenue East, he
collided with a dump truck and was dragged for 25 feet. Lewis was not
wearing a helmet and died at the scene. A fellow biker—the pair
had recently moved here from Colorado—was also dragged under the
truck, but only suffered minor injuries. The Seattle Police Department
did not cite the truck driver, who was turning right onto Fuhrman.
According to SPD spokesman Jeff Kappel, “From preliminary indications,
there’s no reason [the driver] should have been cited.” David Hiller,
the advocacy director of the Cascade Bicycle Club, disagrees. “The
jury’s out on exactly what happened. The bias tends to be against
[cyclists] in these conditions.” —JS
BALLARD The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is getting
involved in the fight to save Lock Vista Apartments in Ballard, which
are slated to be converted into condos. SHA is thinking about
purchasing Lock Vista to preserve the 192 low-cost rental units. But
the with a price tag of $15 million to $20 million, SHA is struggling
to come up with the cash. If SHA was able to acquire the cash, it could
use eminent domain to force Lock Vista’s current owner to sell the
building to it instead of the Northlake Group, which wants to buy the
complex in the next few weeks. —JS
