Dispatches from Ravenna, a neighborhood in Northeast Seattle
We realize that we posted this picture on Halloween last year, but we’re still pretty darn proud of our handiwork:
Grew those ginormous zukes at Picardo, too.
We’ll be Trick or Treating on our street tonight, as is our custom.
How do you spend your Halloween evenings in the neighborhood? Tell us in the comments — they WORK now!
As is our custom, we took a stroll through Picardo P-Patch at the beginning of the month to capture some autumnal farm foliage pictures. Here they are, for your Saturday Brunch pleasure*:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
And, what the heck. Here’s a set of pictures from fall of 2010:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
____________________
*Unless you’re using an iOS device. Which we do. So, clearly, we need to find another slideshow solution, darn it.
CleanScapes, one of the city of Seattle’s waste collection providers, has announced its 2011 Neighborhood Waste Reduction Competition winner. And it’s US!
Our collection area, Tuesday North (which also includes parts of Roosevelt, Bryant and Wedgwood) has won $50,000 towards a community improvement project to be built in 2012.
From the press release:
Between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011 the residents of these neighborhoods decreased their waste by 400 tons, a 4.7% improvement over the same period the previous year. The runner up was CleanScapes Tuesday South collection area (Queen Anne and Magnolia) with a reduction of 325 tons.
Every year CleanScapes challenges neighborhoods in the municipalities it serves to reduce their waste footprint in this annual competition. Working together, Seattle neighborhoods in CleanScapes service area lost a total of 1,226 tons in 2011: an impressive waste reduction accomplishment and a huge step toward the City of Seattle’s 2020 Carbon Neutrality and Zero Waste goals.
Congratulations, everyone! We made less waste, together.
Now, how do we spend our spoils?
Starting today [October 28, 2011] through January 31, 2012, all Seattle residents are invited to submit a project proposal for the $50,000 reward. To be eligible for consideration, projects have to meet four basic criteria: the project is a capital improvement, located in the winning neighborhood collection area, easily accessible by the public and the total cost of the project does not exceed $50,000.
That’s right: Anyone in Seattle may submit a proposal for a project to be built within the Tuesday North neighborhoods. But the proposals will be reviewed and a winner chosen by a volunteer committee representing community councils in the Tuesday North collection area.
Project proposal criteria and a proposal form can be downloaded here. Proposals are due by January 31, 2012.
Last year’s inaugural winner of the CleanScapes Neighborhood Waste Reduction Competition in Seattle was a Thursday collection area that included portions of Montlake, Madison Park, Madison Valley, Capitol Hill, First Hill and Yesler Terrace. The winning proposal built a new playground in Washington Park.
Ah, autumn: The crisp air, the bright colored foliage, the opportunity to keep warm by huddling together with your neighbors at community meetings (many of which include snacks).
Here is a list of community meetings being held in the first half of November. As always, we recommend attending them all. However, if you can only choose one, we’d steer you toward the Advisory Council/Community Meeting at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center. Your input into the future of center operations — prior to the big budget decisions happening in City Hall in November — is vital.
____________________
If we’re missing any other community meetings in early November on this list, do let us know. We’re happy to add them.
We’ve been doing “drive-by tweets” of Heidelberg Haus progress (2122 NE 65th St) for a few weeks now, but today we have something even better…
…the MENU.
Heidelberg Haus menu (click to make FULL SIZE)
WE were SO excited to see the offerings that we forgot to ask about an opening date. Please forgive us. We’ll try and rectify that error tomorrow.
There is a website for the new restaurant listed on the menu (Seattle-Eats-German.com), but it’s not alive as of yet.
A very mixed bag of tweets this week: The grand opening of the University Village Microsoft Store, increasing signs of life at new German restaurant Heidelberg Haus, and the sudden and unexpected death of 46th District State Senator Scott White.
How much fall family fun can be had for just three dollars a person?
Find out Friday, October 21, as the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE) holds its Fourth Annual Freaky Fall Festival.
Halloween's still a couple weeks off, but that doesn't mean you can't try out your costume early.
From the event description:
It’s that spooky time of year again! Join us for this annual evening of treats and a few tricks. Come in costume and enjoy carnival style games, crafts, a jumpy toy, and more! Meet your neighbors, let your kids loose in the gym and have fun!
The event runs from 6-8PM. After that, you’ll have to find somewhere else to haunt.
Those spiders look serious.
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 20, the new University Village Microsoft Store (2624 NE University Village St) holds its grand opening, with more events spilling over into the following two days.
Opening week events include playing Kinect with newly-retired Kasey Keller and less-newly-retired Edgar Martinez, and rocking out in the parking lot to the musical stylings of The Black Keys and OneRepublic.
Here’s the schedule of events:
Thursday, October 20
9 AM Grand Opening Ceremony with Microsoft corporate vice president Rich Kaplan, and more than $1 million in software grants awarded to local organizations (based on how members of the local community voted on the Microsoft Store Facebook page).
9:30 AM Ribbon cutting and doors open
5 PM Play Kinect with Seattle Sounders and USA goalkeeping great Kasey Keller
7 PM Play Kinect with legendary Seattle Mariners slugger Edgar Martinez
Friday, October 21
7:00 PM The Black Keys perform
Saturday, October 22
2:30 PM OneRepublic performs
Tickets to both concerts are free, and available at the Grand Opening (while supplies last).
The University Village Microsoft Store is 1 of 14 for the company, and the 2nd for Washington state.
For a more in-depth look at the business of Microsoft Stores, see today’s article in the Seattle Times (“U-Village store fits Microsoft consumer strategy”).
____________________
We wish store manager (and Ravenna resident), Melinda George, a smooth and problem-free opening. And much less rain than the forecast is predicting.
Once again we welcome back the weekly round-up of notable tweets from the Ravenna Blog twitter feed from the past week.
This week’s selection includes some archival photos of Wedgwood Elementary from the Seattle Public Schools Flickr account, a town hall with Mayor McGinn at Nathan Hale High School, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines upheld against a certain Roosevelt-area landlord.
Stay Connected