Dispatches from Ravenna, a neighborhood in Northeast Seattle
From 6-8 PM on Wednesday, October 23, Sound Transit will hold a Roosevelt Light Rail Station Construction Open House in the Roosevelt High School Commons (1410 NE 66th St.).
The presentation portion of the event starts at 6:30 PM. Topics include:
Our live coverage of the event will start around 6 PM. Follow along below, neighbor!
The busiest branch location in the entire Seattle Public Library system? Ours. Busy for patrons, and for construction.
An open house to show off another round of improvements for the Northeast Branch is being held on Saturday, October 5, from 2-3:30 PM (brief remarks at 2 PM).
From the open house event page:
Coming soon! A larger children’s area, family-friendly seating, more filtered computers for children and more self-service checkout stations.
City Librarian Marcellus Turner, Library Board members and representatives from Miller Hayashi Architects will explain the improvements and answer questions.
Rendering of the improvements planned for the Northeast Branch (interior SE corner of the building).
The Northeast Branch doubled in size after a major expansion in 2004. It was renovated most recently in 2009.
If you cannot make it to the open house yourselves, Ravenna Blog is planning on attending. And taking lots of notes and pictures, as is our custom.
Saw some tweets a moment ago saying that the parking garage in the new south building at University Village has opened.
If every floor of parking in the new building is now open (not sure at this time three of the five new levels are now open, every day from 11 AM-11 PM), that means over 700 more spots have been added. No need to circle around on the surface lots like a vehicular vulture ever again.
Portion of a graphic by University Village announcing the new parking. Click to see the entire image.
BUT WAIT — THERE’S MORE.
Fresh from the ol’ Ravenna Blog Email Inbox we have a press release about the new stores and restaurants going into that south building. Some we already knew about (Virginia Mason, Din Tai Fung, Liam’s), but some are most likely new to you.
Keeping them in the categories mentioned in the email, and tacking on some of the descriptions therein, we have:
Calypso St. Barth – The resort-wear boutique has developed into a luxury lifestyle brand since launching in 1992. Calypso garments feature feminine style, exquisite textures and an eclectic assortment of pieces that appeal to women of all ages.
Scotch & Soda – Since the 1980’s, Scotch & Soda has offered inspired classic men’s clothing, expanding its repertoire with a women’s line, Maison Scotch, and children’s collection for boys, Scotch Shrunk, and girls, R’Belle.
Hot Mama – Hot Mama was launched in 2005 by Megan and Michael Tamte on the premise that moms crave designer clothing. More than 150 premium brands are sold at Hot Mama including Splendid, 7 For All Mankind, AG and Sanctuary.
Sunglass Hut – Sunglass Hut carries the most popular brands including Ray-Ban, Persol, Oakley, Maui Jim, Revo, Gucci, Burberry, Prada and more.
American Eagle Outfitters – Offering affordably priced, high-quality clothing, accessories and personal care products including their popular Aerie for American Eagle line of apparel.
Nike Running – Nike Running University Village will serve as the ultimate hub for athletes offering a premium assortment of Nike men’s and women’s running, training and sportswear product and one-of-a-kind services for runners including digital gait analysis, footwear trials and more.
Din Tai Fung – Best known for delicately hand-made soup dumplings, Din Tai Fung boasts an extensive menu highlighting their dumpling and dim sum varieties and includes noodle dishes, appetizers, buns and desserts.
Joey Kitchen – This new addition boasts a warm and inviting open-concept floor plan, giving dining room guests a view to the heart of the kitchen. With two large exterior patios, guests can also enjoy outdoor dining nearly all year round. Led by Executive Chef Chris Mills, the culinary team brings a high level of craftsmanship to each and every dish, ensuring the bold flavors and signature dishes that create the JOEY experience are delivered right, each and every time.
Liam’s – The latest installment from Kurt Dammeier, the man behind Beecher’s, Bennett’s and Maximus/Minimus. Named for his youngest son, Liam’s menu is meant to satisfy a variety of palates – what Dammeier calls “home-style food made better,” with a commitment to serving fresh, authentic food free of artificial preservatives and additives. The restaurant plans to open in November, with 150 seats and a large deck made for long conversations.
Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream – The scent of freshly made waffle cones lures in the customers where an assortment of whimsical ice cream flavors such as Theo chocolate, balsamic strawberry, salted caramel and honey lavender satisfy and surprise.
UPDATE (Wednesday, August 28): Got a press release from Molly Moon this morning! Included the following info:
- Instead of wood floors we’re using … wait for it … tile.
- This shop opens at 11 a.m. – that’s a whole extra hour of ice cream access compared to the Wallingford, Capitol Hill and Queen Anne shops.
- Let’s be real, November is a weird time to open an ice cream shop in Seattle. Weird, special … same diff.
Virginia Mason University Village – Will open this fall as the Sand Point Pediatrics clinic is relocating to the Village. Part of the Virginia Mason Medical Center network established in 1920, the new location will offer comprehensive pediatric care for infants, children and teenagers. Services include laboratory facilities and X-ray.
We can’t let Sand Point Way NE have all the lane closure fun, can we?
The Seattle Department of Transportation sent out an advisory this week about upcoming work on the NE 45th St Viaduct that will cause various lane closures from August 5-19.
Structures crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation will close one lane at a time on the Northeast 45th Street Viaduct starting next week to repair an expansion joint. They will start on the outside, westbound lane and progress to the opposite side of the roadway. When the eastbound lane is closed, eastbound traffic will be shifted to temporarily use one of the westbound lanes, providing one lane in each direction. The closures will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. from August 5 to August 19.
But on the bright side, it’s good to get this work done before the UW students come back to town, right?
On Wednesday, July 24, from approximately 6:30-9 PM, Ravenna Blog will be attending the NE 75th St Design Alternatives Review meeting being held at the Wedgwood Presbyterian Church (8008 35th Ave NE), and will provide live coverage below.
The agenda for the meeting, released by SDOT’s Jim Curtin via the NE 75th St listserv on Monday, looks like this:
7:00 Welcome and Announcements
7:05 Recap of Spring Meetings
7:15 SDOT Presentation
7:45 Questions and Answers
8:15 Speak Directly with SDOT
9:00 Adjourn
If you have not yet done your NE 75th St homework, please look over the four SDOT proposed designs for the arterial here.
UPDATE (Thursday, July 25): SDOT has made the presentation available online, with a few updates made for the Thursday afternoon presentation (as requested with more visuals!). You can download the PowerPoint presentation itself here (5.7 MB), or just the slides in PDF format here (2 MB).
Here’s an example of some of the added graphics (this one of what NE 75th St might look like under Proposal 4 with increased pedestrian crosswalk features):
The text under this new slide in the SDOT NE 75th St redesign presentation says “Pedestrian refuge and crosswalk, Business district improvement, Easier to mark pedestrian.”
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[UPDATE (Friday, July 19): We’ve added a poll! Read about the design options below, vote for your preferred design, and then discuss in the comments.
And one more thing: Tom Fucoloro over at Seattle Bike Blog showed us this nifty online tool that lets you play around at redesigning a road for yourself: Streetmix. Choose a road width of 40 feet for NE 75th St, and give it a shot!]
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At a press conference this morning at 33rd Avenue NE and NE 75th Street, Mayor Mike McGinn and the City Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang announced four different design proposals for a safer NE 75th St for all users.
[More information about this morning’s press conference to come — check back here later.]
ALL four proposed designs include marking the lanes off distinctly (“defining channelization”). Speaking prior to the press conference this morning, Chang said that this feature of a future NE 75th St was very strongly desired by residents, according to the community feedback the Seattle Department of Transportation had collected prior to the design phase.
Here is the full NE 75th ST design proposal (500 KB PDF) for you to read. But we’ve also taken the liberty to talk about the changes below ourselves.
Existing conditions on NE 75th Street (between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE)
The above graphic shows existing conditions along NE 75th ST, between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE: Two undefined lanes in each direction, with off-peak parking in the outside lanes.
And now, the four different proposals, combining various new roadway configurations to reduce speeds and improve safety, and in order of increasing changes and safety features.
Proposal 1 for NE 75th Street (between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE)
Proposal 1 is exactly what we have now, but with the painted white lines clearly indicating travel/parking lanes (“defining channelization”). Parking along both sides of NE 75th St would not be affected.
Some of the safety limitations SDOT sees in this design are that roadway crossing distances for pedestrians are not reduced, the efficiency of the roadway is not improved, cyclists are still mixed in with motor vehicle traffic, and little to no change to vehicle speed is expected.
Proposal 2 for NE 75th Street (between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE)
Proposal 2 sees one lane only in each direction of NE 75th St, but in wider travel lanes. Parking on both sides of the street would have no restrictions, and would be well marked with white lines (again, “defining channelization”).
Pluses for safety with Proposal 2 includes a reduced crossing distance for pedestrians and a likely reduction in vehicle speed.
Limitations with this proposal include no separation between cyclists and motor vehicles, again, and no designated left turn lanes (decreasing the efficiency of the roadway).
Proposal 3 for NE 75th Street (between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE)
Proposal 3 continues the defining channelization theme, and includes separated lanes for cyclists. As in Proposal one, there is one travel lane in each direction (again, slightly wider than lanes are currently), with permanent parking on one side of NE 75th St only*.
Safety improvements in Proposal 3 include reduced crossing distance for pedestrians, separated cycling lanes, and a likely reduction in vehicle speed.
Left turns are once again going to decrease the efficiency of the street.
Proposal 4 for NE 75th Street (between 15th Ave NE and 35th Ave NE)
Proposal 4 combines all of the safety improvements we’ve seen so far — defining channelization, one lane travel each way (reducing pedestrian crossing distance), separate lanes for cyclists, a likely reduction in vehicle speed — and adds a designated left turn lane down the center. Roadway efficiency is said to be improved as left turning vehicles are removed from moving traffic.
Downside? Well, what is missing from the graphic above?
Parking.
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The goal for the NE 75th Street Road Safety Corridor Project is, yes, safety. But what vehicular amenities will Northest Seattle residents be willing to surrender in the name of safety? Find out by attending one of the two community meetings next week to discuss these proposed changes to NE 75th St. If you are unable to attend either of those meetings, Ravenna Blog will have live coverage of the meeting on Wednesday, July 24 (available here the day of the meeting).
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UPDATES: Of course, we weren’t the only ones at the press conference this morning.
9:03 PM: Here’s Q13FOX’s coverage which, of the evening newscasts below, was the most on message about the proposed changes to NE 75th St. [Video removed for now, due to auto play.]
6:58 PM: Here’s KOMO 4’s coverage, which included some thoughts from Marilyn Schulte, daughter of Judy and Dennis Schulte:
Here’s KIRO 7’s evening coverage of the Mayor/SDOT press conference this morning:
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*The SDOT PDF lists the south side of NE 75th St as the side of this proposed all day parking; however, it is our feeling that with Eckstein Middle School’s location also on the south side of NE 75th St, this may be in error. We will attempt to clarify this point prior to the meeting on July 27 (or bring it up there).
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has gone through all the feedback they received and data they’ve collected about NE 75th St and nearby roadways, and come up with some design alternatives for the area. And the big reveal is coming soon.
Via the NE 75th Street Road Safety Corridor Project email list (emphasis ours):
Please join the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to review proposed roadway design changes on NE 75th Street and other nearby streets. Two meetings have been scheduled to consider the proposals and gather public feedback:
Evening Meeting: Wednesday, July 24th, 7-9PM in the Fellowship Hall (downstairs) at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church (8008 35th Ave NE)
Daytime Meeting: Thursday, July 25th, 1-3PM in the Fellowship Hall (downstairs) at Messiah Lutheran Church (7050 35th Ave NE)
The proposed alternatives will be released to the email list and the project website in advance of these meetings, so be ready for a little homework ahead of time.
The Ravenna Blog is planning on attending the evening meeting on Wednesday, July 24, and will have LIVE COVERAGE running for those of you at home — follow along live and/or read later.
Our favorite kind of news? NEW RESTAURANT NEWS.
And we have LOTS.
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Coming soon, to the old Pied Piper Alehouse space (2404 NE 65th St) is…
…a Patty’s Eggnest.
There are currently nine Patty’s Eggnest locations in Washington State, all of which are independently owned and operated. Patty’s specializes in breakfast. So much so that their Eggs Benedict have their OWN MENU. NINE different kinds, people.
Here’s more about their menu, from the About page:
We serve delicious, hearty meals made to order and made from scratch with fresh, choice ingredients. In a comfortable, family-friendly atmosphere, we’ll be happy to fill your table with home-cooked breakfast favorites. Fresh-squeezed orange juice, Swedish pancakes, scrumptious scrambles, and hearty chicken-fried steak are just some of the dishes that we feature on our menu at all locations. We also feature tasty lunches, like hot delicious sandwiches, big burgers with seasoned fries, and fresh salads. For several of our locations, we are open for dinner hours as well, serving fresh roasted turkey dinners and soup made-from-scratch.
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Headed into some of the new restaurant space in the new south building at University Village is a new restaurant by Beecher’s Cheese Head, Kurt Dammeier: Liam’s.
Via Eater Seattle, Dammeier says:
We’ll serve all Northwest wine and our basic food I describe as ‘upscale homestyle’ — mostly dishes that are familiar or reasonably familiar to a suburban crowd, but made better.
Dammeier is also the guy behind Pasta & Co., which already has a home at University Village.
That same Eater piece claims that “a Joey’s and a Din Tai Fung will also be moving in.” That’s a lot of restaurants. But with 24,626 sq. ft. of restaurant space available in that new building, anything is possible.
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Over in the Laurelhurst direction, Bill the Butcher is getting a new, unlikely neighbor:
Vegan bakery next to butcher. Keeping the 98105 weird – twitter.com/floraandflying…
— Nazila Merati (@floraandflying) April
11, 2013
Violet Sweet Shoppe, a vegan bakery and cafe, plans to open along NE 45th Street in May. If you’d like to help them along, financially, they’ve got a Kickstarter going.
I can’t believe it’s not butter.
(Cake picture courtesy Violet Sweet Shoppe.)
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The old Casa D’Italia location (2615 NE 65th St) has been leased again, to a business under the name “Conception Hermosillo” (according to records with the Washington State Liquor Control Board).
But this is about all we know so far. TO BE CONTINUED.
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The overlap section of a hypothetical Northeast Seattle Venn diagram of “Cloud City Coffee” and “Magnuson Park” will be excited about this last one.
Another find from the Washington State Liquor Control Board’s list of new liquor license applicants: CLOUD CITY SAND POINT.
O RLY? What’s the address? “6327 NE 74TH ST?”
View Cloud City Sand Point location? in a larger map
Hey, that’s inside Magnuson Park! What’s that address look like right now?
Oh my.
Let’s zoom out.
I don’t think it’s ready yet, do you?
Another one for the TO BE CONTINUED pile. We’ll contact Cloud City and Seattle Parks and Recreation on this one and report back.
UPDATE (5:35 PM): We’ve heard back from one of the Sand Point Tennis Center managers, Scott Marshall, who said, “Cloud City will be the cafe operator inside of our 6-court building. We are extremely excited about this partnership.”
Learn more about the Sand Point Tennis Center being built at Magnuson Park here.
On Monday, April 1, the Mayor’s Office and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) shared a NE 75th Street Improvement Plan they had been working on since the tragic events of March 25.
Part of that plan was a timeline for this improvement work (PDF), and it is time for Element Number 2: Issue Identification and Outreach.
Intersection of 25th Avenue NE and NE 75th Street, looking east.
This is where YOU come in.
SDOT has set up three meetings in neighborhoods along NE 75th Street at which residents can share their frustrations about and ideas for the arterial, as well as discuss these issues with SDOT staff.
There are three dates for residents to choose from. Please attend whichever date fits your schedule.
View NE 75th St Community Meetings w/SDOT in a larger map
After these community meetings, the next step on the NE 75th Improvement Timeline is taking community input, combining it with collected traffic data, and coming up with a conceptual design to bring back to the community.
In the early afternoon of Monday, April 1, before the Memorial Walk for the Schulte family, neighborhood groups, pedestrian/bicycle safety advocates, and staff from Eckstein Middle School, gathered at Eckstein (3003 NE 75th St). They met with representatives from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), the Mayor’s Office, and the Seattle Police Department and discussed plans to improve the safety of NE 75th Street.
The Mayor’s Office met with SDOT several times throughout the last week, and developed a list of planned improvements and actions for NE 75th Street (4 KB PDF; presented to the assembled groups that afternoon), including:
• Installing a flashing school zone beacon on Northeast 75th Street in front of the school
• SDOT will begin the process of evaluating and potentially installing a school zone speed camera on Northeast 75th Street
• The crosswalk at Northeast 68th Street and 25th Avenue Northeast will be remarked with fresh and highly visible paint
• The intersection of Northeast 68th Street and 25th Ave Northeast will be evaluated for a traffic signal
• SDOT will install new pedestrian countdown heads [crosswalk signs with timers] at 75th Street Northeast and Northeast 31st Street
• SDOT has already installed pedestrian countdown heads at 75th Street Northeast and Northeast 35th Street
The timeline for these improvements shows a tentative completion date of August 2013 (just before Seattle Public Schools are back in session for the 2013-1014 school year).
Read more about the planned street safety improvements on the Mayor’s blog, here.
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