With Labor Day weekend just five days away, many Seattleites have one thing on their minds: Bumbershoot! And if you haven’t picked up your tickets yet, you could always win them from Easy Street Records, who will be giving away a pair of tickets for each day of the three-day festival.
For information on how to enter, click here. You can buy tickets here, or at the stands (incentive to enter the contest: a one-day pass goes for $50!).
The festival is celebrating it’s 38th year in Seattle this year. It is put on by One Reel.
(As always, thanks to Jesse and Easy Street Records for the image!)
Our sister site, My Ballard (and Next Door Media) has been nominated for an Online Journalism Award in the “community collaboration” category. Proof that neighborhood sites are powered by the communities they serve!
The Seattle Department of Planning and Development is holding a meeting to review that application for a second single-family structure on a 15,547 sq. ft. lot in what the city describes as an “environmentally critical area.”
The application concerns the lot at 2801 Perkins Lane W. an area zoned as archaeological buffer area, conservancy recreation, fish & wildlife habitat area, flood prone, potential slide area, Shoreline habitat buffer, steep slope and single family/urban residential.
The public meeting will be a forum for written and oral comment on the project, and will be held on Tuesday, September 15, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Magnolia Branch of the Seattle Public Library, located at 2801 34th Ave. W.
To obtain a copy of the proposed plans and other application materials, see the DPD Public Resource Center at 700 5th Avenue, Suite 2000, or call (206) 684-8467.
For more information, see the Seattle DPD land use information bulletin.
Around 3 p.m. yesterday a flash mob gathered at Kerry Park and danced to Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ for what would have been the late pop star’s 51st birthday. The mob at the famous Queen Anne viewpoint, was the last of three that happened all around the city yesterday, put on by One Degree Events.
Above is a video that shows all three flash mobs – first in Pioneer Square at 1:10 p.m., then at Pike Place Market at 2:05, and then at our very own Kerry Park. One Degree Events says that over 300 people participated. And as you can see, this was a very coordinated event.
Kept super secret until the very end, the locations of the three events were only released to participants who showed up at Cal Anderson Park at 10 a.m. this morning at to learn the choreography. That’s one dedicated group of flash mobbers!
It’s a busy weekend on the hill with so much to do and oh, so little time.
Saturday is going to the arts, with “Uptown Stroll” and “Art in the Alley” – two opportunities to check out what local artists are up to these days (and guess what, both are free!)
Uptown Stroll: A Festival of Art in Action” will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow at Counterbalance Park, located at the intersection of Roy Street and Queen Anne Ave. N.
In the afternoon head over to “Art in the Alley” located in (you guessed it!) the alley between 9th and 10th avenues, at 1610 10th Avenue West (open from 2-6 p.m.).
Or, for an early start (11:30 a.m.), participate in a pub crawl for a good cause. Join “Ring Around the Needle” and help raise money for the Melissa Erickson Foundation, the UW basketball star suffering with ALS. More information here.
Also on Saturday hit the Queen Anne library (open until 6 p.m.), because as of Sunday Seattle Public Libraries will be closeduntil September 8th! (Some locations will be open for a few hours on Sunday, like the Central and Ballard locations. For a list of locations and their hours, click here.) Thanks to Queen Anne Mama for the update!
The ninth annual “Uptown Stroll: A Festival of Art in Action” is happening tomorrow, Saturday, August 28, at Counterbalance Park. The event will be going on all day – from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – and will include around 50 local artists who will be creating artwork right there on the spot.
Many of the artists are returning participants, though quite a few are newcomers eager to join in the festival tradition. The event is free to the public, and viewers are encouraged to watch the artists at work, ask questions and engage in conversation.
Art ranges from paintings and pottery to jewelry making, puppeteering, balloon art, craft projects, and music and spoken word (to name just a few). Works created at the “Uptown Stroll” will be available for purchase during the event.
This morning I asked a man working outside on a picnic table. He said they just were finishing up and would be open 9/1.
Last time we checked in, they were slated to open at the end of the month. But what’s a few days waiting when there are sweet, sweet crepes involved? We’re still waiting to hear back from the owner, Suzana Olmos. We’ll keep you updated when we get confirmation on the opening date.
Swing by “Art in the Alley” this Saturday as two Queen Anne artists, Jennifer Phillips and Jean Bradbury, open their studios to the public and showcase work by a total of eleven local artists.
The event is located in the alley between 9th and 10th avenues, at 1610 10th Avenue West from 2-6 p.m. this Saturday, August 29. There you can sip wine and snacks while you meet and greet with the artists, view their work, check out gifts, prints and original pieces, and have a good time.
This is the first year Bradbury and Phillips, who happen to be neighbors, have done the event.
Bradbury writes,
The idea comes from wanting to share my latest work with friends…I keep inviting people to the studio and then realized I should have everyone over at the same time.
According to Phillips, Bradbury organized the whole event, which has now turned into a local artist soiree.
I live two doors down from her and being that we are both artist’s, she so graciously invited me to open my studio doors as well. So we both invited a few of our artist friends to hang work with us at our studios and viola! Now we have 11 artists all coming together to share our beautiful work!
I finally got my hands on a copy of the latest Sunset Magazine (the September issue) and sure enough, there is in fact a three-page spread dedicated to Queen Anne.
Our neighborhood hill has – count them – 121 hidden public stairways. And for the “Inside Seattle” city scape feature, writer Kathryn True highlights four can’t-miss routes for urban hiking up and down Queen Anne’s historic staircases.
For those of you who aren’t able to pick up a copy, here are True’s top picks:
The Galer Traverse: a nine stairway, 225-step (QA’s longest!) route beginning at the East Queen Anne Greenbelt and ending at the Galer Crown, the highest stairs on the hill.
From Kinnear Park to Kerry Park: soaks in the views from Kinnear to Parsons Gardens Park to Wilcox Wall and finally Kerry Park, where you can catch a view of the whole city.
The Garden Route: Start at Soundview Terrace Park and make you way over to the Interbay P-Patch Community Garden for a tour of colorful gardens with a view of the Olympic mountains in the background. (P.s. Keep you eye out for pick-able blackberries along the way).
The Romantic Walk: Begin at the Comstock Grande Dame and make your way down the “kissing” staircase just a hop and a skip away from Queen Anne Avenue.
Back in February True did a longer piece about Queen Anne’s hidden stairways for the Seattle Times. Read that story here.
For a hand-drawn (and waterproof!) map of Queen Anne’s historic stairways, check out the “Map of the (Oft) Pedestrian Public Stairs of Queen Anne Hill”, created by Thomas Horton, an architect and cartographer who lives on Queen Anne Hill. You can pick one up at Queen Anne Books for $5, or order it online from the Queen Anne Historical Society.
Seattle Times writer and illustrator Gabriel Campanario, swung by the Queen Anne Farmers Market yesterday afternoon, and says a trip to the top of the hill “is worth it for an extra dose of summer spirit.”
The Queen Anne Farmers Market takes place every Thursday from 3-7 p.m. at Queen Anne Ave. N. and West Crockett Street through October 1. That means there are only five more chances to enjoy the fresh eats, chef demos, book signings and live music at the market this year. Don’t miss out!
The tallies are in and Queen Anne residents can be proud. We went from 22 participants to 159! Kudos to everyone who took the survey! The next step: the Planning Commission will take into account the neighborhoods’ responses, and decide where to go from there.
For neighborhood plan updates, check the city’s status reports. For those of you looking to take more direct action, the next Planning Commission meeting is Thursday, September 10 at City Hall, Room L280, from 3-5:30 p.m. (There was one at 7:30 this morning, but we were running a little late. Click here to read the meeting agenda from today’s session).
According to My Ballard, free car wash day at Brown Bear has been packed since opening at 8 a.m. this morning, and is expected to stay just as busy until closing at 8 p.m. tonight.
But don’t be daunted by the long lines running into the street. According to an employee, they get through the lines in about 15 minutes – a small amount of time to wait for a free car wash!
The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is currently amid plans to begin construction on a barrier on the Aurora Bridge that would protect those working and living below and help deter people from attempting suicide by jumping off the bridge.
Although the project is currently scheduled to begin in January or February, according to WSDOT spokesperson Greg Phipps, construction could start even earlier.
After two years of public meetings and comments by community members and representatives, the plan cleared final approval in early June when WSDOT representatives presented their revised plan to the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board. The picture above illustrates a mock-up panel the WSDOT installed last March as a test.
Currently, according to Phipps, contractors are looking over the plans, and WSDOT intends to sign one on by mid-September. “We will know more when we have a contractor on board,” Phipps said. “There will be information sent out.”
Plans to build a barrier on the bridge first began in the spring of 2007, largely with the efforts of Seattle F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (Fremont Individuals & Employees Nonprofit to Decrease Suicides) founder Ryan Thurston. Thurston provided the picture above, taken in November 2008, when witnesses gathered anxiously watching as someone considering suicide lingered at the top of the bridge.
Get the full story from new Fremont Universe contributor (writer and lifelong Fremont resident), Kirby Lindsay, here.
With only six weeks of the Queen Anne Farmers Market left, don’t miss tonight’s event, centered around wellness and preservation.
Stop by the Info Tent every half hour from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and enjoy a tour of the market with Wellness Coach Jenelle Strine. Enjoy live music by American folk/rock/country guitarist and singer songwriter Stephen Bucklew (from 3-5 p.m.), and traditional blues/Americana tunes by JD Hobson (from 5-7 p.m.).
Catch a cooking demo and book signing with Poppy chef Jerry Traunfeld, author of The Herbfarm Cookbookand The Herbal Kitchen (both will be available for purchase through Queen Anne Books).
Also, in the spirit of preservation, don’t miss a canning demo with Sonja Skalbania (5:45-6:45 p.m.), and canning information and ideas by Kim O’Donnel, cofounder of Canning Across America and writer at True/Slant.
Also special to the market this week: Anita’s Crepes (yum!).
The Nabob restaurant and lounge has applied for a sidewalk cafe permit with the Seattle Department of Transportation for its 5th Ave. N. location.
Before SDOT approves or denies the request, they will first open it up to public comment. Comments regarding this application will be accepted through Tuesday, September 10th, at which time SDOT will make a decision based on public feedback.
For more information, click here. To publicly comment on the application, send an email to annualpermits@seattle.gov or mail to SDOT, Attn: Annual Permits, PO Box 34996, Seattle, WA 98124. Make sure you include the application number (93939), application address (819 5th Ave. N.) and contact information with your comment.
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