City prosecutors have filed against a Seattle man for allegedly assaulting another man with a foam golf ball during a Seattle Urban Golf tournament on Capitol Hill last October.

Around 8pm on October 18th, a golfer playing the final hole on the 9-hole course struck a bystander in the eye with a foam golf ball. The police were called and officers arrested two golfers.

Over the weekend, one of the arrested golfers, 25-year-old computer security expert David Hulton received a summons from the city, ordering him to appear in court later this month on misdemeanor assault charges. But Hutton says they've got the wrong man.

In an email, Hulton says he's been "falsely accused" and accuses the Seattle Police Department of using him as "a scapegoat for the incident."

Hulton says he was walking near the scene of the assault with several other members of his golf team—Team "That's What She Said"—when police grabbed him and another team member.

According to Hulton, an officer initially accused Hulton's team mate of committing the assault but later arrested Hulton for the crime.

At the precinct, Hulton says the officer seemed apologetic, telling him "you know the sort of people we have to deal with on Capitol Hill" and that the arrest "wasn't anything personal."

Hulton says he's looking for a lawyer so he can fight the case.

Almost a year ago, I wrote about staffing shortages and recruiting problems at SPD. Since my piece came out, the police guild has signed a hefty contract with the city, which helped department pull in 100 new officers. But was all that extra money worth it?

Well, last week the Seattle Police Department released its mid-year crime stats and it appears that, with one big exception, all of those extra cops might've paid off as (reported) crime is down 11% across the city:

As you can see, while property crimes and assaults are down, rapes are up a whopping 41%. Additionally, the stats don't include data for the late-summer months, which is when this whole apparent spike in gang-related violence picked up.

Tomorrow, the SPD and the King County Sheriff's office is holding a press conference tomorrow to talk about their new regional "gang crime information sharing project." Given the supposed growing epidemic of gang violence, the timing of the release of SPD's stat report is a bit suspicious. Obviously violence has increased enough to warrant a taskforce, so what're the odds this supposed 11% drop in crime holds through the end of the year?

By a six-to-three margin, the city council just passed a controversial bill that will require private developers to subsidize affordable housing in taller buildings around the city. It is based on similar legislation for downtown passed in 2006. A companion resolution, calling for the council to study the bill's implementation, passed unanimously.

As the city council allows taller buildings in neighborhoods—such raising height limits around light-rail stations—developers would be required to include 15 to 17.5 percent of the added floor area as housing affordable to residents making 80 percent of the Seattle-area median income. In some cases, developers could pay into an affordable-housing fund managed by the city instead of including it in the new building. If developers don't take advantage of the extra height, there will be no affordable housing requirement. (More about the bill here.)

In a protracted debate over the last year, developers insisted that the requirement to include housing at discounted rates negated the incentive to construct a taller building. Nothing would be built under those rules, they argued. But affordable housing advocates and nonprofit developers said the net profits of additional units in a taller building would more than offset the cost of providing affordable housing. Even with the affordable housing requirement, the advocates said, there was still an incentive to build.

A protest op-ed by Vulcan in today's Seattle Times and an obtuse editorial by the Times' editorial board appear to have made no impact.

The city's proposal to reduce Fauntleroy Way in West Seattle from four lanes to three to accommodate a new bike lane, as called for in the city's Bike Master Plan, is coming under fire on auto commuters on both sides of the ferry dock. As I reported, West Seattleites turned out en masse at the High Point Community Center a couple of weeks ago to protest the change, which several insisted would make their commutes several minutes longer. Tonight, Vashon Island residents will get their say at a meeting of the Vashon Maury Island Community Council, which will vote to ratify or reject a letter from the council bashing the proposal. (Background from the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber here.)

The letter, written by VMICC president-elect Jean Bosch "on behalf of Vashon Island residents," charges that reducing the number of lanes on Fauntleroy would impact "a significant number of people trying to commute to and from work and the ferry dock." It continues: "While SDOT has successfully reduced lanes on other arterials, none serve a ferry dock and the large surge loads of traffic created by ferry off-loading. ... We endorse trying to accommodate bicycles, but not at the expense of reducing traffic lanes."

The letter, which purports to speak for the entire community council, has angered some Vashon bus and bike commuters on the council who say it doesn't represent their perspective. In an email, Vashon resident Henry Haselton encouraged people to turn out and speak out against the letter and "in support of sustainability, safety and better bike infrastructure for those of us who bike or want to bike safely to Seattle." Tonight's community council meeting starts at 7:30 pm at Courthouse Square.