Snow Day #2 in pictures (updated)

Round 2: Some pictures taken on the way to and fro the View Ridge PCC, where my Thanksgiving Turkey was awaiting pick-up.

Fountain of ICE

There’s a house down the street from me with a rather fascinating collection of yard art, among which is this fountain.

You can’t quite see the ice in this still photograph, but let me tell you: Everything but that horizontal jet of water is FROZEN. Can’t wait to see what the fountain looks like tomorrow!

Festive flora

These are a couple of savvy sledders at about NE 68th St and 28th Ave NE. Note the presence of helmets, keeping their noggins both warm AND safe.

Northeast Library

"It's STILL fall!" they shouted, as we walked past.

Headed back home, with turkey in tow

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Round 1: Just back from a brief walk-about. Here are some of my pictures.

East-bound NE 65th St, in front of The Herbalist

Close-up of NE 65th St - bare and wet on the roadway most traveled

There’s a lot of side streets in this part of Ravenna that make for great sledding. And I would consider NE 68th Street as it crosses 20th Avenue NE to be the biggest and best.

Downward and west-bound, and sliding through NE 68th St and 20th Ave NE

But in order to slide it safely, you need a couple of responsible-types to stand on 20th to hold traffic.

Guard Number 1, for north-bound traffic on 20th Ave NE

Guard Number 2, watching for south-bound traffic on 20th Ave NE

The snow-covered hilly streets around here are a pain for drivers, but perfect for snow days like today.  And, on a personal note, I just love seeing everyone coming out to play, and keeping it safe for everyone.

Yard waste bin sledding "marker" at NE 70th St and 21st Ave NE (looking west)

I saw a few of these on my walk as well: Big plastic bins or tubs in the center of intersections, at the bottoms of sledding hills.  Definitely not as safe as having an actual person looking out for traffic, though.

Snow-bound information (last updated at 4:44 pm)

I’m going to keep this page updated throughout the day on things that are open, closed, working, frozen, covered, etc.

Please email in your updates as you come across any information, and I’ll add them to the list.

Furthermore, if you have a question about whether something is open, closed, working, etc., send it on in!

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Newest information at the top:

Seattle Public Libraries – Closing today at 5 pm. Open Wednesday from 12-5 pm, and closed on Thursday (Thanksgiving).

Harrissa Mediterranean Cuisine – OPEN as usual, AND on Thanksgiving

Crepe Cafe – CLOSED

Ravenna-Bryant Community Center – Officially open from 1-4pm today. Tomorrow looks like 11 am-6 pm, but that is not official yet.

View Ridge (and other) PCC – OPEN (via twitter)

Seattle Public Utilities (garbage, recycling and yard waste) – Put your bins out on their normal day of collection. If they are not collected, leave them out for the next day. If your bins have still not collected after two days, put them back out again on your next regular pick-up day.

NO SOLID WASTE PICKUPS TODAY. Put bins out on next regular pickup day (twice as much for no extra charge). Updates here: www.seattle.gov/util.

Seattle Public Libraries – open at 1 pm as warming centers
Parks/Community Centers – to close at 4 pm

Postal Service – You know the jingle. They should be out there.

Seattle Public Schools – CLOSED. That goes for classes and activities alike.

University of Washington – CLOSED. They call it “suspending operations,” but they ARE a university, after all.

Snow! (updatedx2)

UPDATE (Monday evening): Two LOVELY photos from reader Annie (click images to view full size).

UPDATE (Monday morning): I took a Ravenna snow picture to start things off.

The car in the driveway at 7 am.

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As I write this, from a church basement in downtown Seattle, it is snowing in Ravenna.

The lens on my camera is not *quite* good enough to catch any shots of snow in Northeast Seattle from here, but if YOU have any good pictures, feel free to send them in.

In times of interesting weather, I’d love to have an open post going on the site that we can keep update with pictures from the neighborhood.

Local things to see or do this weekend

If you haven’t caught my cold by this weekend, here are some local events worth leaving the house for.

Saturday

  • Pancake Art Contest (Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center, 6535 Ravenna Ave NE, 9-11 am; breakfast admission $3, Pancake Artist entry fee $5) – Enjoy a pancake breakfast (including toppings, bacon and beverages) and/or show off your pancake decorating skills in competition. Prizes awarded to each age group. Money benefits the Ravenna Community Garden (Project Ravenna Phase 2).
  • Will Bake For Food (University Congregational Church’s Ostrander Hall, 4515 16th Ave NE, 10 am-2 pm; food donations or money) – Over 60 local food bloggers hold a bake sale for Northwest Harvest, their baked goods exchanged for your donations. Read the Ravenna Blog post about this event, or head to the Will Bake For Food website for more information.
  • Free Wine Tastings (McCarthy & Schiering, 6500 Ravenna Ave NE, 11 am-5 pm) – Two try this Saturday are two 2005 Corliss Estates Reds. Read more about them here.

Sunday

  • Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale (Ida Culver House Ravenna, 2315 NE 65th St, 11 am-5 pm) = Selection of homemade jewelry, quilts, paintings, organic dog treats, greeting cards, baked goods and more will be for sale. Proceeds benefit the retirement community’s garden club.

Ravenna-Bryant Community Association meeting tonight

It’s the third Wednesday of the month, and once again the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association is holding its monthly meeting, from 6-7:45 pm tonight.

One part of the monthly routine has changed, however. The location for tonight’s meeting is Zeeks Pizza in Ravenna (2108 NE 65th St). The big room of the library was booked, you see.

I have not seen an official agenda has of yet, but you can bet I’ll be talking about this week’s other two meetings: The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s Land Use Committee’s rezoning meeting on Monday, and the Crime Prevention meeting from last night.

I also have copious notes from each of these meetings* that I’ll be working into posts for this week.

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*This may be a good time to mention: If any of you loyal readers also happen to be preschool owners in the area, perhaps you would consider a childcare-advertising swap? You’d be doing a public service, here.

Stay Safe: Out-of-Area Phone Contacts

Welcome to the first post in a series on emergency preparedness by Ravenna Blog’s designated safety expert, Shannon (AKA safetygirl).

Shannon has been attending the Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare (SNAP) training sessions offered by the city, and she has graciously offered to share her knowledge with the rest of the community on the Ravenna Blog.

Shannon will be bringing us tidbits on emergency preparedness every Tuesday until she runs out of ideas (or the apocalypse occurs, whichever comes first).

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After a local emergency or a natural disaster, long-distance phone lines are more reliable than local lines or cell phones, which will be jammed with local people calling each other to get information.

Ask a friend or relative who lives outside of Washington State to be your family contact, and then make sure every member of your family has their number.

The Office of Emergency Management also reminds us:

The phone system will most likely become unavailable after a disaster, almost always caused by overuse of the system. Stay off all phones, both cell and land line phones, for at least 3 to 5 hours after a disaster, unless you need to call 911 for a life-threatening situation.

In the event of a local emergency like an earthquake, your family contact will become a relay point to share information with all your household members. If your household is separated during the emergency, which is likely if it takes place during a weekday, everyone will have a better chance of getting through to the out-of-area contact than to each other.

Remember, this plan depends on everyone having the contact’s phone number! Put it into your family’s address books, cell phones, or somewhere else accessible.

You can download a helpful PDF here.

While you wait for tonight’s Crime Prevention meeting, a couple crime updates

Two Three bits of crime news for you this afternoon.

Charges filed for half of the Maple Leaf Six (updated)

Of the six burglars caught in the Maple Leaf neighborhood last week, three have now been charged by King County prosecutors.

From the article by Maple Leaf Life posted today (“One adult, two juveniles charged in Maple Leaf burglary”):

“We filed on the driver of the car … and the two juveniles who were caught in the house,” said Ian Goodhew of the prosecutor’s office. The student and two other juveniles were outside in a car “and did not actively participate in the burglary,” Goodhew said, but are still being investigated.

The three other teens have not been charged yet.

Seattle Crime also has a piece up about the three charged teens (“Three charged for Maple Leaf break-in…”), which includes this rather disappointing section (the Maple Leaf Life post alludes to it as well):

Police initially believed that the three teens–and three other teens who were caught with them and have not yet been charged–may have been connected with nearly 20 burglaries in the North Seattle area. However, department sources tell us that now, detectives aren’t so sure, and that police are having trouble connecting the teens to the other burglaries.

Drat.

UPDATE (10:56 pm): Casey McNerthney, the Crime beat reporter at the Seattle P-I, has an article on the arrests as well. Read it here.

Those Security System Solicitor Guys

A Monica in the neighborhood was wondering about those door-to-door home security system selling guys.  One had been to her house lately, and I’ve heard from several others in the comments of other crime posts about these solicitors.

Here’s what our North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator, Diane Horswill, had to say about them:

Some years ago ADT became a franchised company so some of the franchisees use sub contractors to do certain jobs.  When a concerned citizen calls the main ADT office to ask about these door to door sales, the employees are unaware of the subs so they tell them there are no ADT employees out soliciting.  Now that burglary reports can be viewed online and there are many blogs and websites on neighborhood activity it is not hard to find the hot spots.  So it is likely that this is what is going on.  I strongly recommend that people do not make a decision about an alarm (or anything else) from a solicitor.

Various and sundry updates, and other news Ravenna can use

SEO be darned. Sometimes, you just gotta cram a lot of different stuff in one post.

Crime update:

Meeting updates:

Miscellaneous tidbits:

On November 20th, Eckstein will launch Saturday School, a new intervention program for students who have four or more missing assignments and a grade of D or E in a class. Teachers will refer students to Saturday School and counselors will call the student’s home to let families know that the student is expected to attend from 8:30 – 11:30 am.  Students who successfully turn in all missing work by Thursday afternoon after being referred to Saturday School will be excused from attending. The purpose of this intervention is to encourage students to take responsibility for their work and to give them additional time and support if they are stuggling to complete it.

There’s also a request for volunteer tutors during those same dates and times (November 20, and December 4 and 18). To volunteer or ask questions about Saturday School, contact Eckstein Volunteer Coordinator LauraLeigh Young at llyoung@seattleschools.org.

Will Bake For Food: The Ravenna connection to next week’s event for Northwest Harvest

By my count, about half of the neighbors I follow on twitter are also into food. WAY into food: The eating of GOOD food, certainly, but also the blogging of it — describing the ingredients, preparing them, detailing the flavors…and the PICTURES! Don’t get me started on how great the pictures of all this food looks.

Ravenna resident Jenny Richards has been blogging about food on her website, Purple House Dirt, since 2007.  She and fellow food blogger Jenny Miller (Rainy Day Gal*) are co-hosting an event for Northwest Harvest next Saturday, for which over 60 food bloggers have donated their time and tasty talents.

I talked with Jenny Richards about how the event works, and the role that social media (specifically, twitter) had in bringing the event to life.

Ravenna Blog:  How did the idea to gather local bakers to trade their creations for food bank donations come about?

Jenny Richards: Jenny Miller (Rainy Day Gal) had the idea that we could swap baked goods for donations to Northwest Harvest. Food is what we do, and it’s how we take care of people, and we had a feeling that others would feel the same way.

In April 2010, Keren Brown (Frantic Foodie) organized Seattle’s response to the National Food Blogger Bake Sale (which benefited Share our Strength), and the turnout was terrific. This time of year, we’re all baking like mad anyway, and we knew that if we caught the wave at the right time, we’d be able to host a single event that everyone could contribute. We knew that together the community could make a much bigger impact than smaller splinter events.

On November 21st, when we have the final counts of how much we baked and how much we collected, we’ll know if it was a success for Northwest Harvest. For us, it’s already a success.

Will Bake For Food sign, designed by CakeSpy (www.cakespy.com)

RB: Now, how does Will Bake For Food work? I show up with canned goods donations and/or money to donate, and then what happens?

JR:  We’re really encouraging folks to bring non-perishable items, and we’ll swap those items for tickets. You can then enter the bake sale and buy whatever you want with those tickets. There will be a higher value assigned to items Northwest Harvest is in critical need of – diapers, formula, gluten-free foods – which gives you more tickets to spend on goodies.

The bakers are ‘pricing’ their goods in tickets, so that you might pick up a cookie with a ticket or a pie with a few more.
We’ll also be taking monetary donations, and we’ll hand out tickets for those as well.

[For a list of food that Northwest Harvest could use the most, click here.]

RB: Social media (specifically twitter) had a hand in getting you guys your coffee and cider donations for the event. (I had just started following you when I saw it happen.) Can you tell us about it?

JR: Twitter really did change the game for this event. Jenny [Miller] and I had our first conversation about ‘a possible food drive in the fall’ the last week of September, but we didn’t actually meet about it until October 19th. A week later, we’d done our groundwork – found locations and contacted Northwest Harvest, and then started to contact folks via Twitter. One night we sent about 60 messages in Twitter to food bloggers we knew, just trying to gauge their interest. At that point, we weren’t sure if we would have enough to really pull this off, so that was our litmus test. By midnight that same evening, we had nearly 40 confirmed bakers. Responses came fast and furious, and because those folks are used to talking in 140 character snippets, the speed at which the event came together was frightening, actually. The website and e-mails started a few days later, and we’re hitting a few hundred messages (e-mail and Twitter) a day from participants.

By doing this publicly, we actually got some offers to help that we hadn’t expected – and that’s where coffee, cider, and a raffle came in. We asked online about coffee service – neither Jenny nor I could see ourselves making drinks that day with this much already going on – and that’s where Brett and Curtis from @drippr came in. They’ve done coffee benefits for the American Heart Association and offered to do the service, as well as ask for coffee donations from local shops. It was an enormous weight off our shoulders.

And one of the folks I contacted early was Lisa Kennelly, who works with Whole Foods. She contacted me because Whole Foods was willing to donate Skagit Valley cider to the event. That’s some terrific stuff, I use it when I bake and brew every fall, and we couldn’t have been happier. Brett stepped in to coordinate that with Lisa directly, and suddenly we have hot drinks, all because we had our conversations online.

And finally, the raffle idea started because Lisa Nakamura of Allium on Orcas donated a gift certificate because she couldn’t bake for the event or be present. At first we were unsure of what we would do with it, but thought about a small raffle – just in case other businesses wanted to donate in that way. Since then, we’ve gotten donations from Red Mill, Sur La Table, and we’re crossing our fingers about a response from Tom Douglas. All had heard about the event by following someone on Twitter.

On the day of the sale, folks can put in 3 tickets to enter the raffle, and they don’t even have to be present to win.

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Will Bake For Food takes place next Saturday, November 20th, from 10am-2pm.  Bring some donations for Northwest Harvest and your hungry self to University Congregational Church’s Ostrander Hall (4515 16th Ave NE) if you’d like to participate.

To see a selection of the over 60 food bloggers who are donating to the event, click here.

Four the official press release for Will Bake For Food, click here.

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*Jenny Miller’s site has the BEST INDEX PAGE for a food blog that I have ever seen. I SWEAR she’s got a smell-o-vision plugin for WordPress.

Arrests made, yet local burglaries continue (plus Crime Prevention meeting info)

Just two days ago, I relayed the good news that six burglars were caught in two separate acts of burglary in an area of Maple Leaf (“Three burglars caught breaking into North Seattle home this afternoon“). Great news. Perhaps the recent rash of burglaries would finally come to an end.

It seems as though any celebrating may have been premature.

A home at approximately 25th Ave NE and NE 60th St was broken into just yesterday, Thursday, November 11. A resident reported being gone from the house for only an hour and a half that morning, returning to find the back door broken into and items missing.

After the burglary was called in, police made their way through the area, alerting neighbors to the burglary and to the Crime Prevention meeting being held next Tuesday.

UPDATE (6:37 pm): Seattle Crime has a post up with more information about the arrests made in Maple Leaf on Wednesday.

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Roosiehood and I are in close contact with Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center’s Coordinator, Trevor Gregg.  We have let him know that our Crime Prevention meeting on Tuesday has the potential to get far more people wanting to attend than we originally anticipated.

We will update you tomorrow on the status of the meeting space and how many more people we will be able to accommodate. We certainly don’t want to turn anyone away, if possible.

The meeting is currently showing as “SOLD OUT” on our RSVP system, but I urge you to get on the waitlist so we can see how many more people are interested in attending.