Archives for July 2012

Movie magic continues at Magnuson Park

July 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s a Thursday summer night, which means it’s another outdoor movie night at Magnuson Park (NE 65th St and Sand Point Way).

20120726-115850.jpg

From the Seattle Outdoor Movies facebook page:

Join us for “The Help” tonight at the PEMCO Insurance Movies at Magnuson Park! We’ll have trivia, circus acts by JustinCredible, food trucks, games, prizes and more…

There is construction starting in the park so entering from 74th is your best bet. Event parking is still north of the athletic fields.

See you tonight! Seating opens at 7 pm.

“The Help,” stars Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer (who won an Oscar for her role), and Emma Stone.

Check out the full schedule of movies (showing through August 30) here.

Filed Under: Events, Families, Food, Magnuson Park, Northeast Seattle

Fall Parks and Recreation brochure for NE Seattle now available online

July 20, 2012 by 1 Comment

Registration starts Tuesday, August 7. Get to perusing!

Click the image to start downloading the brochure (2.9 MB PDF).

The community centers and pools in the Northeast Region are Laurelhurst, Magnuson, Meadowbrook (and its Teen Life Center), Northgate, Ravenna-Eckstein, Meadowbrook Pool and the Helene Madison Pool.

Filed Under: Families, Kids, Northeast Seattle, Seattle Parks and Recreation

Café Racer grand re-opening this Friday, July 20

July 18, 2012 by 3 Comments

We receive a lot of press releases from various organizations. This one is our favorite to date:

“No one needs to be reminded of what happened at Café Racer on May 30, 2012.

Each day the grief of losing our loved ones lessens, but not our love for them or the love they brought into our lives. Drew, Joe, Kim, Don and Gloria were people who gave more of themselves than they ever received. This is why the community was so devastated by their loss. This is also why that community of which they were a part of will carry on.

The outpouring of love and support from this community was astounding to me. Not only for the loss of our loved ones, but for the love and concern for Café Racer itself. It became clear to me that the café is more than just a place to pick up a coffee, food or have a drink, but it is a part of the community. The love didn’t just come from the ones we lost, it comes from everyone.

This is the main reason that I’ve decided to keep the cafe open, to forge ahead with the vision that is Café Racer by providing a place for diverse people and groups to come together and have a loving, safe place to gather. There may be some physical changes to the cafe, the main ingredient which makes Café Racer unique will remain the same, Love.

There is no way I can express my thanks to the hundreds of people who gave me, and everyone who is involved with the café, their love and support.

YOU make Cafe Racer what it is.” – Kurt Geissel Owner, Café Racer

We’ve been told that today and Thursday are both soft opening days for the reborn cafe. You should stop by.

Filed Under: Events, Food, Restaurants, Roosevelt

Power outage along NE 65th St blamed on crow

July 10, 2012 by 4 Comments

Shortly before 1:00 PM this afternoon, sections of seven Northeast Seattle neighborhoods lost power. At peak, approximately 3,800 customers were affected.

Screen capture of the outage at its peak taken from Seattle City Light’s System Status webpage.

Parts of Roosevelt, Ravenna, Bryant, Wedgwood, View Ridge, and Sand Point all took a hit along NE 65th St, while nearly all of Windermere went down. The estimated time of restoration was listed at 3 PM, but many customers are seeing their lights coming back on ahead of that time.

Last week’s outage was blamed on a tree (and the high winds helped, we imagine). But what’s to blame this time?

A crow. Nature is out to get us, apparently.

Filed Under: Bryant, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna, Roosevelt, Sand Point, Seattle City Light, View Ridge, Wedgwood, Windermere

Date set for Third Annual Feast in the Garden at the Picardo P-Patch

July 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

From Picardo gardener Milton Tam (via email; emphasis ours):

It’s official – this year’s Picardo fundraiser dinner will be on Wednesday, August 1, from 6 – 9 PM. This year’s proceeds will be used to renovate the north common area (by the statue) including the food bank locker and tool shed.

Yes, the Spanish-inspired tapas, the home-made wine, Chef Jim Kuhn’s amazing paella, and the dessert buffet of your dreams will all be there! Again!

Tickets are $30 each or $50/couple until July 15 ($35 each or $60/couple after). Purchase tickets by contacting Scott Sipes (dssipes@gmail.com).

You can read all about the first Feast in the Garden, and see lots and lots of pictures, in our previous coverage here.

And you can learn more about the work of Paella King and Meadowbrook resident Jim Kohn on his website.

Disclosure: We’ve been gardeners at Picardo for four years now. We also contribute to the Feast in the Garden dessert buffet as part of our volunteer responsibility to the p-patch. And everything we make is quite delicious.

Filed Under: Events, Food, Fundraiser, Picardo P-Patch

Flue fire gets the works on the fourth

July 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A full Seattle Fire response filled the streets near the intersection of 25th Ave NE and NE Blakeley St shortly before noon on Wednesday, July 4.

20120705-101015.jpg

Photo above taken from the east side of 25th Ave NE looking north. Photo courtesy Thomas Field.

A small fire had started in a cooking flue extending from the roof of the multi-story, multi-use building at the northwest corner of the intersection.

Kyle Moore of the Seattle Fire Department shared the details (via email):

At 11:45 a.m. a 911 call came in to the Fire Alarm Center reporting smoke coming from the roof of a building in the 5100 block of 25th Avenue NE. Dispatchers sent a full-response which involved 6 engines, 2 ladder trucks and a medic unit, an aid unit and other apparatus.

University District’s Ladder Company 9 arrived first and ran an aerial to the roof to investigate the source of the smoke. Firefighters used thermal imagers to detect the fire was confined to a flue at the roof. Crew used water from their pump cans which are basically large fire extinguishers to knock down the fire.

After some investigation, firefighters learned that residue had built up in the flue and caught fire. The owners of the flue were advised to clean the pipe regularly.

Filed Under: 911, Photos, Ravenna, Restaurants, Seattle Fire Department, University District

Happy Independence Day

July 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Here are some city legal fireworks for you to enjoy today.

Filed Under: Holiday

Two blown transformers heard to be blamed for NE Seattle power outage (UPDATES)

July 3, 2012 by 3 Comments

UPDATE (2:58 PM): A quick check of the outage map reveals everything back to normal.

UPDATE (2:08 PM): Outage down to approximately 1,200 customers now.

UPDATE (1:03 PM): outage is down to approximately 1,800 customers Mostly in the Matthews Beach/View Ridge area of the map below affected.

____________________

No, it’s not a comment on any Michael Bay movies — it’s a power outage.

Seattle City Light outage map screen grab from 12:45 PM.

More info on the Seattle City Light’s Power Lines blog:

Seattle City Light crews were responding to a power outage Tuesday that affected about 3,600 homes and businesses in the Ravenna, Roosevelt, View Ridge and Wedgwood neighborhoods of northeast Seattle.

The outage started about 11:20 a.m. A cause was not immediately known. An initial estimate for restoration of service was set for 3 p.m.

The general boundaries of the outage were NE 94th Street on the north, NE 65th Street on the south, Roosevelt Way NE on the west and Lake Washington on the east.

As of this posting, the cause is listed as “tree,” and the restoration time is estimated at 3:00 PM.

As we were calling the North Precinct about the dangerous traffic conditions at 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St — signals are out and many drivers on NE 75th St are not noticing and treating as a four-way stop — the officer on the other end of the phone blamed the outage on two transformers lost from the tops of poles, but we haven’t had confirmation of the exact cause from Seattle City Light.

Filed Under: Bryant, Maple Leaf, Northeast Seattle, Power Outage, Ravenna, Roosevelt, Seattle City Light, Seattle Police Department, Traffic, Updates, View Ridge, Wedgwood

July Story Time schedule for the Northeast Branch (plus library history) UPDATE

July 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Here is your Northeast Branch (6801 35th Ave NE) Story Time schedule, courtesy the Children’s Services Librarian, Erica Delavan:

Toddler Story Time
(Geared for ages 1-3)

Thursdays, July 5, 12, 19 at 10:15 & 11:15 a.m.
(No story time July 26)

Preschool Story Time
(Geared for ages 3-5)

Tuesdays, July 3, 10, 17 at 10:30 a.m.
(No story time July 24 or 31)
 
Pajamas & Puppets
(All Ages)
Wednesday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.

And since we’re on the topic of libraries, did you know that the Northeast Branch started as a humble deposit station at 6259 33rd Ave NE in December of 1945? And that the building at the library’s current location was designed by the primary planner and principal architect of the Seattle World’s Fair?

Read all about it (and see some pictures of the older incarnations) at HistoryLink.org (“North East Branch, The Seattle Public Library”).

Fellow local site and Seattle Times Local News Partner, the Montlaker, sent us the link to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database listing for Paul Thiry, the aformentioned designer of the Northeast Branch building. Over his lifetime, Thiry designed 55 structures, including the Frye Art Museum, the Washington State Library in Olympia, and, for the World’s Fair, the Washington State Coliseum (now Key Arena).

Filed Under: Kids, Northeast Branch, Northeast Seattle, Story Times