Your Busy Northeast Seattle Weekend: August 17-18

August 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Temperatures headed into the mid-70s this weekend. Might see some PM rain on Saturday, but anything’s better than this humidity we got going on right now. *sticky*

SATURDAY

  • Be a Friend of the Ravenna Ravine.
    • Friends of Ravenna Ravine work party, 10 AM-1 PM. Meet at the Kiosk (near the Tool Box) near the lower playfield in SE Ravenna Park (north of NE 55th St. and north of the ball field). You will be most comfortable if you wear layers of clothes, and sturdy shoes, that you don’t mind getting dirty. BRING WATER. Tools and gloves will be provided.
  • Walk around Northgate and learn that there’s more to it than just the mall.

SUNDAY

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Anything else to add? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the post!

Want to promote an upcoming NE Seattle weekend happening? Email us, or use our online comment form to tell us about it. We publish these Busy Weekend posts on Thursdays.

Filed Under: Your Busy NE Seattle Weekend

Green Lake Way North Safety Improvements Open House

August 14, 2013 by 7 Comments

If you’re a regular reader of the Ravenna Blog these days, you’re into road safety improvements. (Seems to be all we post about on here lately, anyway.)

This next project is a bit out of our normal coverage area, but that doesn’t mean we don’t ever drive there.

On Tuesday, August 20, from 6:30-7:45 PM, the Seattle Department of Transportation is holding an open house about proposed safety improvements on Green Lake Way North (between N 50th and N 55th Streets) at the Green Lake Branch of the Seattle Public Library (7364 E Green Lake Dr N). The presentation portion begins at 6:45 PM.

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More details (via email):

Green Lake Way North is currently a four-lane street that borders the east side of the Woodland Park Playfields and provides access to Green Lake from the south. The Seattle Department of Transportation is proposing changes to make the street safer and more comfortable for people of all ages and abilities to walk and ride bikes, as well as safer for drivers. The changes will reduce speeds, and improve pedestrian and bicycle access.

The proposal includes installing a new center turn lane, reconfiguring the street to provide one travel lane in each direction with bicycle lanes on both sides of the street, and improving pedestrian crossings. A new stop sign will be installed at West Green Lake Way North. Traffic signal operations at Green Lake Way North and North 50th Street will be improved by removing one block of parking on the north side of North 50th Street.

For more information on the project, visit SDOT’s Green Lake Way Safety Improvements page.

Filed Under: Green Lake, Green Lake Branch, Meeting, Seattle Department of Transportation, Woodland Park

NE 65th St Town Hall at Ravenna-Eckstein CC (LIVE COVERAGE; UPDATE)

August 12, 2013 by 55 Comments

On Monday, August 12, from 6:45-8 PM, Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle Department of Transportation will hold a town hall-style meeting at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE).

City officials will be on hand to to address residents’ and area business owners’ concerns about the Bicycle Master Plan Draft Update and the potential role NE 65th Street may play in it.

Our live coverage of the meeting will begin below, around 6:45 PM.

UPDATE (Thursday, August 15): The Seattle Channel has posted their video of the event, and you can watch it right here (Flash required):

 

 

Filed Under: Businesses, Live Coverage, Mayor's Office, Meeting, Ravenna, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center, Seattle Department of Transportation, Updates

Your Busy Northeast Seattle Weekend: August 10-11 (UPDATE)

August 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

OMG, will this summer ever END? Partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-70s to 80s is the best we can do for this weekend. 

SATURDAY

  • Tour a newly renovated fire station!
    • Fire Station 40 Open House (9401 35th Ave. NE), 11 AM – 1 PM. Tour the station, meet the fire fighters, learn about fire safety, and eat Top Pot doughnuts!
  • Tour two local and historical modern homes.
    • Balch’s Wedgwood: Self-guided tours of two Paul Hayden Kirk-designed homes in Wedgwood, 2-5 PM. Check in at 2803 NE 82nd St and receive a tour brochure. Second house on the same block. Tour fee is $10 per person (cash or check only), no reservations needed, and refreshments included. Put on by Docomomo WEWA and 360°modern.

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Special Section: Magnuson Park

Magnuson Park is BUSY this weekend. Watch out!

  • Summer Fitness Day, Saturday, 9:30 AM. Half marathon, 5K & 10K run/walk, 15K run, and a kids dash. Part of the Magnuson Series of year-round races.
  • Great Kilted Run 5K. Start/finish Kite Hill parking lot. Sunday, 8:00 AM – 12:30 PM; 9:30 AM race start.
  • Outdoor Baptism. 1000+ participants. Sunday, 12:00 – 5:45 PM. Lake Washington beach, Shelter #2.
  • Obliteride: Cycling fundraising event to support cancer research. Saturday and Sunday. 1000+ participants, plus spectators. Start/finish Fields #10 & #11 to the east of Sportsfield Drive NE.
  • International Stunt School: Rappelling class and precision driving class. Saturday and Sunday, 9 AM – 6 PM. Building 30 hangar – rappelling, north end parking lot E5 – precision driving.

 

Anything else to add? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the post!

Want to promote an upcoming NE Seattle weekend happening? Email us, or use our online comment form to tell us about it. No yard sale is to small

Filed Under: Updates, Your Busy NE Seattle Weekend

Town Hall on Monday, August 12 to address NE 65th St/Bicycle Master Plan concerns

August 8, 2013 by 53 Comments

The time to comment on the Bicycle Master Plan Draft update is over.

Or is it?

According to the Cascade Bicycle Club’s blog, the Seattle Department of Transportation “received more comments on the NE 65th Street protected bike lane than any other project proposed in the draft Bicycle Master Plan Update.”

Not a surprising observation to hear, especially after a less-than-stellar open house on the BMP Draft on June 13 at Roosevelt High School, and a “small business owners/residents meeting” held on June 23 at the Varsity Restaurant on NE 65th St.

We think it is a fair point to make, for all sides of the issue of NE 65th Street’s place in the BMP Update, that there is a lot of confusion around the issue.

Which is why we are grateful to see that a neighborhood town hall regarding NE 65th St and the Bicycle Master Plan Update is being held at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6353 Ravenna Ave NE) on Monday, August 12, from 6:45-8 PM.

NE 65th St

Click the image above to view the Neighborhood Town Hall invitation in full.

 

If you yourself are not able to attend this meeting, and/or would like to read about it after the fact, the Ravenna Blog will be providing live coverage of the events. We’ll post the link here on Monday the 12th.

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If we may be so bold: If you are planning on attending the meeting, please consider taking an alternate mode of transportation than your usual. The journey might give you some insight into the concerns of others in the area.

Filed Under: Businesses, Mayor's Office, Meeting, Ravenna, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center, Seattle Department of Transportation

Birthday party time! Plus a few ways to help support the Ravenna Blog

August 2, 2013 by 2 Comments

5

This month, the Ravenna Blog turns five years old.

Can you believe it?! We hardly can.

We started the site back on August 8, 2008 with the following post:

The goal here is report on the doings and transpirings in Ravenna, a residential neighborhood in northeast Seattle.

Drop us a line if you see anything remotely interesting happening in the area.  As a new blog with no readers, we certainly appreciate any and all help.

Since then we’ve covered townhouses driving down the street in the middle of the night, made a video of President Barack Obama’s motorcade driving through the neighborhood, toured a still under construction light rail station, provided live coverage of 12 events, and taken pictures of the mayor with a goat.

And since we started keeping track on May 31, 2010, the Ravenna Blog has been visited 204,182 times by 121,443 unique visitors.

Pretty darn good for a five-year-old, eh?

To celebrate this mighty neighborhood news site milestone, we’ve put together a bunch of ways readers can help make the next five years pretty darn good, too.

Birthday Party!

Gosh, we’d love to meet you. And share some cake with you.

On Thursday, August 15, from 5-7 PM, we’re holding an open house-style birthday party at Zeeks Pizza (2108 NE 65th St). There will be cake, pizza, free Ravenna Blog pins, a few of our new Kalevetica t-shirts for sale, a “News Tips” Jar for those who would like to make a donation to the site, and us!

Please be sure to RSVP to the party — we need to make sure there’s enough cake for all!

 

New “Support the Ravenna Blog” page

We’ve heard from regular readers for a while now that they’d like to help support the site in some way. We have advertising for local businesses available, but nothing in place for everybody else.

So, in honor of our five years (so far) of local news and events coverage, we’ve launched the Support the Ravenna Blog page.

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We’ve come up with four ways that readers can help support the work of the Ravenna Blog:

1. Reoccurring support: “Subscribe” to the Ravenna Blog at a level that works for you and your household.

2. Flat donation: Make a one-time donation — tell us who you are or be anonymous.

3. Swag: We’ve taken five long years to come up with a t-shirt that (we believe) fits the spirit of this parking-strip-planting, modern-life-loving neighborhood — and you can be the proud owner of one.

4. Advertising: We love seeing local businesses represented on the site. And the Ravenna Blog averages 12,250 pageviews and 5,200 unique visitors a month, so these ads get seen.

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But no matter what, dear reader, thank you for coming here. Thank you for the new tips, the questions, the pictures-from-the-scene, the “Why is that helicopter over my house?” inquiries, and all the words of encouragement. They have meant more than we can say.

We hope we have represented you well these past five years.

Filed Under: Businesses, Events, metablog, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna

Heavy police activity in area Thursday afternoon (UPDATES)

August 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

Not long after 3 PM on Thursday afternoon, Seattle Police Department officers with a K-9 unit began searching yards in the area of 25th Avenue NE and NE 65th Street, assisting the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office with a robbery case.

 

Cops in the hood and helicopters overhead

A neighbor in the area got a picture of a group of officers searching along 26th Avenue NE.

 

Cops in the hood and helicopters overhead

As officers searched, streets were blocked by SPD patrol cars. Southbound 25th Avenue NE was blocked for a time, then officers moved eastward.

KIRO’s Chopper 7 was in the area for some time, and we snagged a couple screenshots from the live feed:

K_9

This (fuzzy) shot is of the K-9 unit searching down an area street.

 

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And this shot is of a white van on the 2100 block of NE 61st Street that may be related to the case. Police were calling for a tow truck for this vehicle (per scanner) during the time when all the other activity was happening in the area.

We’ll update this post when we have more information.

UPDATE (4:33 PM): MyNorthwest.com is reporting that the suspect is Timothy Lussier, a convicted felon being sought by Everett police in connection to an armed robbery in July.

A violent offender task force tracked [Lussier] down to the Kenmore area Thursday, where he fled in a stolen car.

“There was a brief pursuit that followed and the suspect then ditched the stolen vehicle in the Ravenna area,” Ireton [with the Sonohomish County Sheriff’s Office] said.

Lussier is considered armed and dangerous. If you see him, call 911 immediately.

Picture of Timothy Lussier (Washington's Most Wanted)

Picture of Timothy Lussier (Washington’s Most Wanted)

UPDATE (4:52 pm): The Everett Herald describes Lussier as being 6 feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds. He is 35 years old.

UPDATE (11:37 PM): Lots of folks, ourselves included, reported hearing hovering helicopter noise again this evening, starting around 10 PM.

Turns out it was air support courtesy the King County Sheriff’s office, looking for the suspect. But they didn’t find much:

Filed Under: Bryant, Crime, Photos, Ravenna, Seattle Police Department, Updates

Joint work on the NE 45th St Viaduct starts next Monday

August 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

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?

Filed Under: Construction, Northeast Seattle, Seattle Department of Transportation, Traffic, University District, University of Washington, University Village

Heads-up! The Fall 2013 Parks and Recreation Brochure is out!

July 31, 2013 by 3 Comments

We have had an amazing summer so far, have we not?

Still, it’s time to start planning for FALL.

The Fall 2013 Seattle Parks and Recreation Brochures are out! Pick up a physical copy at your local community center, or click the image below to download the Northeast Brochure now (2.95 MB PDF).

BEHOLD: The Northeast Seattle Parks and Recreation Fall 2013 Brochure. Click to download the 2.95 MB PDF.

BEHOLD: The Northeast Seattle Parks and Recreation Fall 2013 Brochure. Click to download the 2.95 MB PDF.

 

Registration opens on Tuesday, August 6!

Filed Under: Families, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center

Your Busy Northeast Seattle Weekend: July 26-28 (CORRECTION)

July 25, 2013 by 2 Comments

One of those Busy Weekend posts when you could DO ALL THE THINGS!

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FRIDAY

  • Enjoy some music in the park with the whole family.
    • Family Summer Concert Series at the Magnuson Park Amphitheater (6344 NE 74th St), 7 PM. Caspar Babypants performs. PCC Kid Picks Mobile Van will also be there. FREE, but donations accepted.

SATURDAY

  • Git yer square dance on, and fight hunger and homelessness.
    • Hoedown for Hunger, Magnuson Park (7400 Sand Point Way NE), 11 AM-4 PM. Barbecue, live music, games, face painting, antique farm equipment, beer garden, square dancing, more. FREE, but donations to North Helpline (nonperishables) are being accepted

     

  • Tour two local and historical modern homes.
    • Balch’s Wedgwood: Self-guided tours of two Paul Hayden Kirk-designed homes in Wedgwood, 2-5 PM. Check in at 2803 NE 82nd St and receive a tour brochure. Second house on the same block. Tour fee is $10 per person (cash or check only), no reservations needed, and refreshments included. Put on by Docomomo WEWA and 360°modern.
    • JUST KIDDING: These tours are scheduled for Saturday, August 10. Thank you to Wedgwood’s historian-at-large Valarie Bunn for the catch. We regret the error.
    • But until August 10, you can read up on Albert Balch on Valarie’s site, Wedgwood in Seattle History, here.

SUNDAY

  • Work the soil, take home some vittles.
    • Work party and harvest at the Ravenna Community Garden (NE 68th St and 21st Ave NE), 2-5 PM.

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Anything else to add? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the post!

Want to promote an upcoming NE Seattle weekend happening? Email us, or use our online comment form to tell us about it. We publish these Busy Weekend posts at noon on Thursdays.

Filed Under: Your Busy NE Seattle Weekend
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