Obasan, Uptown’s newest Japanese restaurant, opened yesterday, supplying more cuisine choices along Mercer Street’s diverse food corridor.

Located at at 11 Mercer St., just two doors down from the block’s other most recent new tenant, Mercer Street Books, Obasan offers Japanese cuisine including traditional dishes and sushi. They are open from 5-11 p.m. daily, and offer take-out service.

I haven’t had a chance to try their food yet, but a patron standing outside Obasan this evening told me their sushi was “excellent.”

There have been a lot of car break-ins and robberies reported on Queen Anne recently. Today I received an email from one of our readers and new Queen Anne resident, Sheila, informing me that her car was broken into outside her home on 12th and Bertona after just a few weeks in the neighborhood. She writes,

I just recently moved into upper Queen Anne neighborhood earlier this month. I thought the neighborhood was quiet and safe. After only a few weeks in the area, we have already experienced a robbery. Our car was picked open and robbed of electronic gadgets, primarily our GPS system that was hidden from view inside our center console. This is quite disturbing to us as you might imagine. We thought we were moving into a safe neighborhood with friendly neighbors. What’s more disturbing is that the thieves could not have known that we kept our GPS inside the car without having watched us use it and hide it in there. One reason I think this is that we have not used our GPS system for a few days. Another reason we might suspect premeditated robbery is that there are many other cars that are parked along the street that our car was parked in, some of whom are much nicer and newer cars. Therefore, they must have known before hand to specifically target our car.

Another reader reported a similar incident in our forum yesterday. DMC writes that they had 2 vehicles broken into over the weekend on 14th Ave W (not sure of the exact location), and called on neighbors to keep their eyes open for suspicious activities.

There are numerous resources available for Queen Anne residents looking to get involved in crime prevention and community watch programs. Block Watch programs are organized through the Seattle Police Department. Queen Anne is part of the West Precinct, which also encompasses Magnolia, South Lake Union, Belltown, Pioneer Square, International District and the neighborhoods and core business district of Downtown (Waterfront, Seattle Center, Denny Triangle).

“There are hundreds of Block Watches on Queen Anne,” SPD Crime Prevention Coordinator Terrie Johnston said. “They go block by block, building by building.”

According to Johnston, community Block Watches are more successful when they’re kept small. Still there are so many already active on Queen Anne, interested residents may have the option of joining an existing group or starting their own.

Contact Terrie Johnston for more information at (206) 684-4741 or terrie.johnston@seattle.gov. Johnston offers free residential home security assessments and personal public safety talks for Queen Anne, Magnolia, and the Downtown neighborhoods.

For a business public safety talk and more information on crime prevention for Queen Anne businesses, contact Fran Tello at (206) 684-4730 or francisco.tello@seattle.gov.

It’s all about working together to keep the community safe for everyone. Sheila writes,

This is very concerning to us. We do not want to be overrun by fear in our own community.

This City Council is holding a meeting this afternoon to discuss two options for a Queen Anne fire station – rebuilding and expanding its current location or starting from scratch at a brand new site.

Fire Station #20 is located at 13th Avenue West and West Dravus Street on the north side of the hill. The other proposed site is in Interbay, on the northeast corner of 15^th Avenue West and West Armour Street.

The meeting begins at 1 p.m. today at the City Council Chambers inside City Hall, at 600 4^th Avenue. Community members are welcome to attend and participate in the discussion.

There will be a follow-up meeting on the preferred station site on Wednesday, October 7, at 9:30 a.m.

If you can’t make it to the meetings, you can view the cablecast live on Seattle Channel 21, or webcast live on the City Council’s website.

Nikki Visel moved to Seattle years ago to pursue her dream of a life on stage. After studying theater at Abaline Christian University in Texas, and working as an actress in Chicago for several years, Visel moved out west – to artistic, cloudy, theatrical Seattle – with a group of fellow actors and plans to open their own theater company. And although those plans fell through, Visel found a home in Queen Anne, where she has lived for seven years, and a life in Seattle theater.

“I moved out here to work with a group of people and start a theater company, which we did, and then that kind of fell apart as life circumstances changed,” she said. “When we looked at good theater cities, they were Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and, at the time, Denver. And Seattle was just the one that stuck, and I’m so glad that it did. I’m really at home here.”

(Left to right: Charity Parenzini, Aaron Finley and Nikki Visel. Photo by Erik Stuhaug.)

After ten years working full-time in marketing for Restaurants Unlimited and spending her evenings rehearsing and performing plays around town, Visel left last spring to dedicate herself to acting full-time. And with her long local theater ties (she’s worked with Seattle Public Theatre, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Theatre 9/12 and Women Seeking to name a few), she’s found a home at Greenwood’s Taproot Theatre staring in their production of “Enchanted April”, opening next week, and working as their part-time marketing director.

“Enchanted April” is based on the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, which later inspired a play by Matthew Barber, a 1992 film and a 2003 Broadway production staring Molly Ringwald (Visel is playing Ringwald’s part!)

The play is about two British housewives just after World War I who, feeling distanced from their husbands, decide to take a holiday and rent a castle in Italy with two other women and some money they’ve squirreled away for their escape.

(Aaron Finley, Nikki Visel and Charity Parenzini. Photo by Erik Stuhaug.)

A scandalous (for the time) exploration of magical realism, the play is a humorous look into two women who escape from unhappy conditions only to find a change within themselves that ends up transforming their futures.

“That’s the first act, this sort of dark, dismal February in London. And then they go to Italy, and once they get to Italy they start to change,” Visel said. “I think the obscene beauty of the place helps shift their lives.”

“And so the second half of the story becomes a love story, in that everyone is falling in love. Perhaps with their husband, perhaps with someone they’ve met, or perhaps with being alive,” she said.

Much like Visel’s own relationship with Seattle, “Enchanted April” is all about exploring a new environment and ultimately transforming. A Midwestern girl at heart, the first year Visel moved to the Pacific Northwest, it broke a record in rainfall. But despite some doubts during that first winter season, she says that by next fall she learned the Seattle rain survival mantra: “put your hood up and keeping moving.”

And according to Visel, the play ends on a very hopeful note – “They’ve all had their ‘Enchanted April.’”

“It’s a romantic comedy with a bit of an epic message,” she said. “You can expect to be invited into the endless possibilities that we have and you can expect to fall in love.”

You can spot Visel on stage, or running lines on any given morning at some of Queen Anne’s caffeine-watering holes. Teacup, on caffeine corner, is a favorite of hers.

Taproot Theatre’s “Enchanted April” opens next Wednesday, September 23, and will be showing until Saturday, October 24. Tickets range from $20 to $33. For more information on dates, times and tickets, click here.

Photo credit: Erik Stuhaug. Thanks to Daytona Strong and Taproot Theatre for the photos!

The Queen Anne Community Council annual elections are tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16.

Despite the information listed on their website, council chairperson Ellen Monrad confirms that the meeting will be held at 7 p.m. the Queen Anne Community Center, and not at 7:30 p.m. at McClure Middle School as originally reported. (The meeting location changed due to a conflicting event that will be taking place at the school.)

Voting will carry on until 8:30 p.m. and any Queen Anne resident or stakeholder interested in attending is welcome participate and vote for up to 12 candidates.

Have questions about the neighborhood? Seattle City Council and Mayoral candidates will answer those questions in a community forum to be held at the Ballard High School auditorium on Monday, October 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Magnolia/Queen Anne and Ballard district councils, the candidate forum will be moderated by C.R. Douglas of Seattle Channel. Community members are encouraged to attend and participate in the discussion of key neighborhood issues, including the SR-99 corridor and tunnel, crime and public safety, the future of industrial lands and the maritime industry, and controls on growth and development rates.

The Magnolia/Queen Anne District Council meets monthly to share ideas and garner community interest in public issues. For more information contact Christa Dumpys, the Neighborhood District Coordinator for Magnolia and Queen Anne at (206) 684-4812 or at christa.dumpys@seattle.gov.

According to the Seattle Police Department blotter, the pedestrian hit on Aurora Friday night was transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and is currently in critical condition.

Here are some more details of the incident released by the SPD: At approximately 9:15 p.m. on Friday, September 11, a 24-year-old man was driving a gold 2003 Volvo northbound on the 1300 block of Aurora Avenue North in the curb lane. A male pedestrian was running west to east across Aurora at Comstock Street, when the Volvo hit the pedestrian, knocking him to the curb. KOMO has reported that the pedestrian is 35 years old, though his name has not yet been released.

Officers evaluated the driver and determined that there were no signs of impairment, or intoxication by drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident. The driver was interviewed at the scene and then released. Traffic Collision Investigation Squad detectives continue to investigate the incident.

At just after 10 o’clock this morning firefighters were called to the Jem Way Apartments, located at 915 Queen Anne Ave N.

According to the Seattle Fire Department dispatch log the call was for an alarm bell. We were on the scene, finding that there was no fire. This is the second day in a row firefighters have been called to this building.

Yesterday an anonymous source on the scene alerted us of a fire at this same apartment complex. According to the SFD dispatch log, firefighters were called at 1:34 p.m. yesterday, September 11, for a fire in the building. Our source on the scene said the fire was in a small utility room in the basement, and that no injuries were reported.

We’re uploading a video of the scene yesterday now. Check back for more details.

At around 9:18 last night a pedestrian was critically injured after he was struck by a car, reports KOMO News. According to the report, the 35-year-old man was hit on the 1200 block of Aurora Avenue North by a gold Volvo, before being rushed to Harborview Medical Center. The driver was not injured. Police are currently investigating the cause of the crash.

The man’s name and condition have not been released. Check back for more details later. In the meantime, get the full story on KOMO.

Parfait has just rolled up outside Caffé Fiore. They’ve been parking here on top of the hill every Friday from 3-7 p.m. And I’ve just confirmed they’re here to stay!

Owner and chef Adria Shimada says she loves being part of the Queen Anne community, and plans to continue to grace the hill with delicious home-made organic ice cream.

Currently Parfait visits Queen Anne twice a week, on Thursdays at the Farmers Market, and on Fridays at Caffé Fiore. Adria says when the Farmers Market ends on October 1, she may change the schedule around a bit, but don’t worry, Queen Anne will still be on her stop list!

Check out where Parfait parks the rest of the week here.

According to a press release published this afternoon, the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee is holding a meeting next week to discuss site options for the rebuilding of a Queen Anne fire station.

The committee will weigh the expansion of Fire Station #20 at its current location at 13th Avenue West and West Dravus Street on the north side of the hill, to the acquisition of a new site in Interbay, on the northeast corner of 15^th Avenue West and West Armour Street.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and contribute their thoughts. The meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers inside City Hall, at 600 4^th Avenue. The meeting begins at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15. The Committee will also hold a follow-up discussion on the preferred station site on Wednesday, October 7, at 9:30 a.m.

If you can’t make it to the meeting, you can view the cablecast live on Seattle Channel 21, or webcast live on the City Council’s website. The site also has archives or previous meeting minutes and news releases.

Today is the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and many are choosing different routes to remembrance. One Degree Events is putting on a “philanthropic flash mob” – the Candlelight Chorus – an online drive that is raising money for the American Red Cross and the NYC Firefighter Foundation all day today. For more information, see our story from earlier this week.

One of our readers, WildernessBarbie, posted another suggestion for how to honor those who tied on 9/11 in our forum and in MyBallard’s forum this week. WildnernessBarbie writes,

I encourage you to join me in showing your appreciation and paying homage to those who have fallen by baking something for your local fire station (police stations can’t accept food, but you could take them flowers!). They will be there when you need them the most. It’s a great activity for kids and families.

The Seattle Times (our content partner) has published a story about an 80-year-old Queen Anne resident who donated $14,000 to the Seattle Parks Foundation for the restoration of nine mosaics in Marshall Park that depict the work of famed Seattle artists. The restored works, which were originally installed in 1977, were unveiled in a celebration on Thursday. Read the full Times story here.

Five more victims were robbed at Greenlake Park and along the walking path last night, at approximately 11:25 p.m. according to a Seattle Police Department report.

The three suspects matched the description of the suspects who robbed four Magnolia teens early Wednesday morning, wearing bandanas across their faces and brandishing at least one handgun. Police believe the two incidents could be related to the robbery in Magnolia. For more information on the robbery and the aftermath, see our sister site, Magnolia Voice, who is covering the story.

Our sister site, Magnolia Voice, has posted an update on the armed robbery that occurred early yesterday morning in Magnolia.

The four robbery victims – all 18 or 19 years old – were sitting in the park in the 2600 block of Magnolia Blvd. West when three black males ages 18-21 approached them, addressed them briefly, and then produced handguns and robbed them of their belongings.

Terrie Johnston, Crime Prevention Officer for the Seattle Police Department, believes there is a possibility that this robbery fits with others that have occurred in the North Precinct recently.

Although the victims called 911 about five minutes later, and according to Johnston, four Queen Anne sector patrol cars responded within 5 minutes and set up containment for a K-9 track, the search was terminated after one hour and returned negative results. The case has now been assigned to a robbery unit detective.

In cases like this, Johnson encourages community residents to “be vigilant and call 911 if you see anything suspicious,” schedule Block Watch meeting and actively engage your community in crime prevention.

Queen Anne residents interested in organizing community crime prevention may contact Terrie Johnston, the SPD Crime Prevention Coordinator for the West Precinct, at (206) 684-4741 or terrie.johnston@seattle.gov.

Click here to read Magnolia Voice’s robbery coverage.

One of our readers, Lisa, emailed these photos she snapped of the flying kites over Gas Works Park yesterday.

The 121 kites were part of a day-long art installation commissioned by Discover Credit Unions.

The company hired performance artists/kite expert, Seth Abramson, to fly the kites all day yesterday – from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

From the looks of these pictures, several people at the park that day were able to enjoy the kites first-hand.

Thanks to Lisa for the pictures!

There are only four more chances to experience the Queen Anne Farmers Market, so don’t miss out! Today is “Wild & Wooly Day” and is sure to be – you guessed it – full of wool-related fun!

Check out a wool spinning demo by Renee Fredrickson at 3 p.m. (hats will be available for purchase, with profits going to the Heifer Project).

Watch Skillet Street Food owner and chef, Joshua Henderson, give a cooking demo at 4 p.m. (Check out our story on Skillet from last week – they’re going to be on Queen Anne every Friday!)

Stop by “Knit In & Give Back!” from 5:30-6:30, where Shannon Garcia, of Hilltop Yarn, will demonstrate a quick method for knitting fun baby-sized hats. Participants are invited to donate the hats they create to Family Services’ Baby Boutique, which will distribute the hats to babies in need all across King County. (Don’t forget to bring your own supplies, or swing by Hilltop Yarn and pick some up).

Enjoy live music, as always, with The Blair Street Mugwumps from 3-5 p.m. and Chantelle Tibbs, Melanie Keller and Indie Abundance Tour from 5-7 p.m.

Sounds like a wooly good time!

A couple of hours ago I published this story with the wrong date (tonight, rather than next week). My apologies! Here is the correct information:

Just a reminder that the Queen Anne Community Council is holding its annual elections next week, on Wednesday, September 16 at the Queen Anne Community Center. (Not at McClure Middle School, as stated on their website. The meeting location changed due to a conflicting event  that will be taking place at the school). The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. and voting will go on until 8:30 p.m.

Anyone in attendance at the meeting is eligible to vote, as long as they are Queen Anne residents or stakeholders. Each ballot will list all the candidates and you can vote for up to 12.

So sorry for the confusion!

Yesterday we reported on a cool public art event that’s going on all day today at Gas Works Park. Performance artist/kite expert, Seth Abramson, is flying 121 white kites over the park, which are supposedly viewable from Upper Queen Anne.

This event is being funded by a grant from Discover Credit Unions of Washington, who commission Abramson for the job.

Outreach Coordinator for Kites Over Washington, Christine Stepherson emailed us with an update just a few minutes ago. She writes,

We’ve got 80+ kites in the air and still adding!

They have put together a website and forum where they invite people to submit pictures of the kites from all over the city.

I can’t see the kites from my south-facing apartment halfway up the hill. But it’s supposed to be an interesting site, and will be going on until 8 p.m. tonight. If you catch a glimpse of the kites, email us pics and comments at tips@queenanneview.com.

Read the full story here.

Thanks to Christine Stepherson for the photo!