Today’s the big day and bars up and down the hill are opening up early to show the first matches of the World Cup! Here’s a short list of where to see the match around Queen Anne, and which spots are offering special deals:
The Streamline, located at 121 W Mercer St., opened at 5:30 to 6 a.m. this morning for the first match South Africa v. Mexico (which tied 1 to 1). They’re also offering a “basic continental breakfast” (i.e. bagels, coffee, drinks “and our overworked TV”).
“I know, it’s early. But what better way to begin a Friday than stopping by a bar on your way to work?”
The Spectator Sports Bar & Grill, located at 529 Queen Anne Ave N, also opened up shop in the wee hours of the morning (7 a.m.) and will be showing all matches save the ones that air prior to 7. Breakfast will be served from 7 to 11 a.m. Check out the TV schedule here.
Paragon, at 2125 Queen Anne Ave N, will be open during its normal hours for the World Cup (11:30 a.m. t0 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays), though they’re going to be closed today (Friday) for lunch for a special function.
Hilltop Ale House, located at 2129 Queen Anne Ave N, will be opening at 11 a.m. during the World Cup, showing every 11:30 match live. They’ll also be offering $2 World Cup pints for their Facebook friends (just print out the Coupon and redeem it during the lunchtime matches).
Know a spot in Queen Anne to catch the World Cup that we missed? Comment below with details and we’ll add it to the list. Happy fútbaling!
We’ll soon know the fate of the Queen Anne Community Center and Pool. The mayor’s mid-year budget cuts will be announced on Monday (6/14), including any cuts to the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
Queen Anne residents turned out in force back in May to fight to keep the center open. The cuts being announced for the rest of this year could involve closing centers or programs, scaling back hours, or doing nothing at all. Even if the Queen Anne center survives this mid-year round of cuts, there is still concern about even more cuts for 2011.
The mid-year cuts will be unveiled during the City Council’s budget committee meeting on Monday at 10:30am. We’ll bring you all the details, or you can watch live on the Seattle Channel (21 on Comcast) or online.
A small grass fire outside a home at 1229 3rd Ave N caused quite a bit of smoke at the top of the hill this evening. KING5 snapped a shot of the brush fire from their nearby Queen Anne tower cam.
The Seattle Fire Department was called to the scene at approximately 5:46 p.m. and put out the fire in less than ten minutes.
People nearby began Tweeting about the fire almost immediately, one joking that it is “hard to believe there’s anything on Queen Anne dry enough to burn.”
The Icebox re-opened today, Thursday, June 10, under the same name as the former grocery/sandwich spot, which changed ownership back in April, but with a new menu and a bit of a makeover.
Brigid McVeigh and Linda Hegg, the former owners of the famed The Dish in Ballard, bought The Icebox from longtime owner Hang Yee Chin and have spent the last two and a half months remodeling the space and prepping to reopen.
Much like the original Icebox, half of the store is filled with a variety of small grocery items, including some fresh produce, ice cream and a selection of beer and wine.
The rest of the space is devoted to an open seating area adorned with art by a local photographer. And as the summer appears to finally be upon us (at least for the afternoon, though the weather report says rain is coming) The Icebox also has a handful of outdoor tables for enjoying a bite under the sun.
Menu items include deli sandwiches, hot paninis, salads, daily soup selections, a few breakfast items (including waffles, oatmeal and homemade granola), some small shareable plates, and coffee and tea. (Currently The Icebox is only selling wine in the grocery section, but plans to add wine service for the sit down portion of the restaurant soon).
The Icebox, which is located at at 1903 10th Ave. W. will be open from 10 a.m. to approximately 7 p.m. daily (except Mondays, when it will be closed) until the owners can work out a permanent schedule that best fits the community’s needs.
“Right now it’s kind of a work in progress,” Brigid said. ” We’ll kind of see what the community wants and put a ‘wish list’ up [for suggestions].”
Have questions for Mayor McGinn about issues going on citywide and in your community? Tonight’s your chance to get answers. The mayor will be chatting with Seattle Channel‘s C.R. Douglas live tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. and taking questions from the public. Viewers can either tune in to Channel 21 to watch the program, or catch it streaming live here.
Today, Thursday, June 10 Washington’s new texting while driving law–‘Text Talk Ticket‘–went into effect. Under this new law police officers will be able to pull over anyone they see holding a cell phone to their ear or texting while behind the wheel, and slap them with a $124 fine (could be more if the distraction causes an accident). The law also restricts teens with intermediate licenses or learners permits from using a cell phone at all while driving, even with a wireless device, unless they are calling to report an emergency.
This law is the culmination of years of work by supporters, including 36th District Rep and Queen Anne resident Reuven Carlyle, who has been pushing to make cell phone use while driving a primary offense for some time. Perhaps the youngest supporter was Coe Elementary 5th grader Noah Sarkowsky, who recently traveled to Olympia to share his experiences as a school crossing guard and help pass the bill.
I spoke with Noah’s mother, Stacy Lawson, about her son’s experiences. She said Noah frequently witnessed drivers by Coe who seemed more interested in their phones than the children around them.
“Noah had had many stories about what happened when people were texting or talking on their phone while dropping their kids off or driving by the school,” Stacy said. “Five seconds looking down on your phone increases the chance of an accident.”
Community member and former speechwriter for President Clinton, Lowell Weiss of Cascade Philanthropy Advisors, got involved in the campaign this last year, and suggested that Noah bring his testimony to Olympia.
“I am a daily bike commuter, and I also bike with my son to Coe every morning. I finally got fed up with all the people I saw paying more attention to their phones than to the road or us,” Weiss wrote. “My day job is helping donors turn their passion into effective action. And yet for years I had a passion around the cellphone-driving issue and was doing no more than shouting into the wind. Last summer I finally decided to use my day-job skills to try to make a difference.”
After being referred to an article about a school crossing guard’s eye witnesses experiences and her subsequent perspective on the dangers of cellphone driving by the head of pediatrics at Harborview Medical Center, Dr. Brian Johnston, Weiss decided to reach out to Noah and see if he had any similar stories.
“Dr. Johnston asked whether I could find someone like that here in Seattle. I immediately though of Noah, who is the brother of one of my son’s good friends. I called Noah and asked him whether he had had any bad experiences with distracted drivers. He told me he had almost been hit right in front of Coe. Noah and Stacy were eager to help this cause. So I drove down to Olympia with Noah, and he did a wonderful job!” Weiss wrote.
“He spoke before the house and the senate, and there was one senator in particular who’s name I can’t remember at this moment, changed his mind because of Noah’s testimony. He had never made the connection between a school child and this issue,” Lawson said. “It all happened at the right time, and finally, they decided to push it through.”
“I could tell that his testimony resonated with many representatives and senators. Noah did a great public service!” Weiss wrote.
Still Weiss clarifies that the point of this law is not to encourage drivers to use hands-free devices like Bluetooth headsets. “The evidence shows that Bluetooth and other wireless devices are just as dangerous as handheld phones. The real message is: “Park your Phone!” Weiss wrote.
See a fact sheet on the dangers of cell phone driving put together by the Driven to Distractions Task Forcehere (.pdf). Read a Q&A about the law with supporters Sen. Tracy Eide and Rep. Reuven Carlyle here (.pdf). Click here for more information on the new law, and tell us what you think: are you for the new policy?
At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, June 5 a man approached a patrolling police officer in the 1200 block of Westlake Ave N, his right hand wrapped in a towel and bleeding, according to an SPD report. The victim told the officer that he had been dancing with a woman he didn’t know in a nearby club when an unknown man confronted him and demanded to know what he was doing “dancing with this girl.” The suspect then pushed the victim, according to the report, and the victim put his hands up to his chest height with his palms facing upwards and said “Hey man, I don’t know!”
According to the report, the suspect then took out a folding knife and slashed at the victim in a downward motion, slicing away about an inch of skin from the victim’s index finger. The suspect then ran away, while the victim went to the bathroom to clean up his hand, and later report the incident to police. The victim was treated by Seattle Fire Department medics at the scene, but refused further treatment. The suspect is described an approximately 20-year-old black man, around 5’7”, balding, wearing a blue T-shirt and black baggy pants. The name of the bar was not mentioned in the report.
One of our readers wrote it reporting a daytime burglary today, Wednesday, June 9 on the west side of Queen Anne. Karen and her husband returned to their home, located on the 3200 block of 13th Ave W, this evening to find that their house had been broken into while they were at work, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Although only a few items were taken, both of their passports were among them.
My husband just asked around with the neighbors and they didn’t see anything unfortunately. The back door to the deck was unlocked when we got home, but the dog door also looked suspiciously messed up… so not sure which one of those they came in.
Karen and her husband called SPD and plan to file a police report tonight. If anyone saw any suspicious activity around 13th Ave W today, please comment below.
The featured nonprofit at the market this week is the Seattle Center Foundation. As always, the market will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. on W Crockett St. at Queen Anne Ave N.
A man who claimed that he was injured by police outside the Lower Queen Anne Dick’s Drive In in 2007 has filed both state and federal lawsuits this week, alleging “a pattern of excessive force and police misconduct” in the Seattle Police Department, according to our news partner, The Seattle Times. From the Times:
The lawsuits say Dewoyne Lowe suffered a concussion and severe face cuts from police who knocked him to the ground outside the Queen Anne Dick’s Drive-In after Lowe and a companion argued with a security guard about whether the restaurant was open.
Lowe’s attorney, John Kannin, said one of the officers accused of punching his client is Officer Camilo DePina. Kannin says DePina is among the officers seen standing by in a videotape of a recent racially charged incident in which a Latino man was beaten by another police officer. That incident is under investigation by the FBI.
According to the Times, Lowe’s lawsuits allege two incidents involving DePina. In the first Lowe claims DePina knocked him down face first in the Dick’s parking lot. In the second he states that DePina slammed his head into a counter at a Seattle police station later. The lawsuits also names a second officer, Christopher Christman, who Lowe claims assisted in the attacks against him. Kannin stated that Lowe’s injuries were so severe that he required treatment at Harborview Medical Center. One noted injury was a cut through his eyebrow that required 12 stitches. From the Times:
Renee Witt, Seattle police spokeswoman, said the department would not comment on an active investigation or pending lawsuit.
Both the Garfield and Roosevelt High School jazz bands will be in concert at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, June 9. Both bands were top finalists for the 2010 Essentially Ellington Festival Awards, with Garfield taking First Place (for the second year in a row) and Roosevelt earning an honorable mention.
(Photo from the Seattle Center website).
The jazz bands have just returned from the Essentially Ellington Competition in New York, and have decided to put on a show as leaders in high school jazz bands nationwide. The concert is “pay what you can,” with a suggested donation of $20 at the door to benefit the bands, their high school music programs and the Seattle Center Foundation. Both bands will be performing “big band standards, including the great works of Duke Ellington.”
It will be a time for great music and celebration. The event is part of Seattle Center efforts to invite the community to participate in activities on the campus that delight and inspire the human spirit.
A driver who was stopped at the traffic light at Elliott and Mercer says he had a frightening experience. Around 7:15 a.m. on June 5, a man who had just picked up some coffee was sitting at the light with the car window rolled down. That’s when a man walked up to the car and punched the victim in his face. After grabbing the victim’s wallet, the attacker also demanded his ring. No description of the suspect is given in the police report, and officers say no other drivers called 911 to report the incident.
There’s a new twist today in the controversial plan to put Nickerson Street on a road diet. This morning, three state lawmakers from the 36th District (representing Magnolia, Queen Anne, Fremont and Ballard) went before the Seattle City Council’s Transportation Committee to voice their concerns. Representative Mary Lou Dickerson, Representative Reuven Carlyle, and Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles stopped short of calling for the project to be killed. But they urged the Council to wait on a WSDOT traffic analysis due out in early September before moving forward. However, Seattle DOT officials say they already have the information contained in that upcoming report and have used it in their own analysis.
The proposed rechannelization of Nickerson would eliminate a car lane in each direction of Nickerson Street while adding a bike lane and bike sharrow. The three state lawmakers want the Council to look at a more integrated and comprehensive approach to traffic in Northwest Seattle instead of taking on one road at a time. They worry about the impact not only to car traffic, but also freight traffic coming from Ballard and Interbay.
“We’re in real danger of losing a lot of our industry in the city and we can’t let that happen,” said Sen. Kohl-Welles. “It’s very difficult for industry to transport their goods to their port on a bicycle.”
One resident who lives on Nickerson said he sympathizes with cyclists, but believes the road is already pushed to its limits.
“In reality, that street is already at capacity with automobiles. You can’t reduce it more than that. During rush hour when the Fremont Bridge goes up, you have traffic going all the way back to SPU just sitting there.”
Cyclists and other supporters of the road diet also showed up at today’s hearing. They urged the committee to put safety first.
“We find it unconscionable that people would support configuration of a roadway that puts themselves and their neighbors at risk for any longer than possible,” said David Hiller of Cascade Bicycle Club.
Karlen Bere, who lives on north Queen Anne near Seattle Pacific University, shared a horror story with the committee. She says her roommate was hit by a dump truck on Nickerson Street while riding her bike.
“She was stuck in between parked cars on her right and the dump truck on her left,” said Bere. “The restriping of Nickerson is a faster and more efficient solution to our problem than the reworking of the Ship Canal trail which is deeply needed but would take more time, resources and many more meetings.”
The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, which advises the Council on bicycle safety issues, also supports the road diet and is asking for monitoring prior to the project and after it is completed. Although supporters of the rechannelization say it will make Nickerson a “complete street” for all modes of transportation, those who oppose the plan say the diet will make things even worse when Nickerson becomes an alternative to access the new waterfront tunnel. The 36th District lawmakers also pointed to a letter from former mayor Greg Nickels who assured them that the city would provide all reasonable access for residents in North Seattle to the new tunnel.
The Transportation Committee did not take any action today, but Councilman Mike O’Brien said he’s ready to move the project forward while keeping a close eye on it.
One of the best things about having a festival center and cultural hub at the base of Queen Anne hill are a few of the fun and unexpected perks that come along with the large crowds drawn to the city center and utter lack of parking during Folklife and Bumbershoot. I’ll give you a few examples. One, there’s almost always something going on. And two, often times that something is fun, and free!
The Center offers the program as “a lunchtime opportunity to stretch, breath, build muscle and develop balance” in the middle of a crazy and hectic day. Here’s a little more about the two classes:
Tai Chi is a form of Chinese exercise created to improve health and well-being. Movements are slow and graceful without using force or power. The speed of the breathing matches the speed of the movement. By improving the respiratory and circulatory systems, basic joint and muscle flexibility and overall muscle tone, Tai Chi helps to release stress that accrues in daily life.
The weekly Hatha Yoga class offers stretching, balancing and strengthening, mixed with fun. The practice of yoga, around for thousands of years, originally developed to keep the body strong and healthy so that practitioners would be able to sit for long periods of meditation. Individuals now participate in yoga to exercise, deal with stress, and heal injuries.
The results are in from our survey on the proposed changes to Nickerson Street. The so called road diet would reduce the car lanes and add bicycle lanes to Nickerson. Over 700 people have taken the survey since we posted it a week ago.
Based on the results, you can see that we have a community divided with 48.4% of respondents in favor of the plan while 51.6% are opposed. The survey was designed so that people could only vote once to avoid stacking the results. We also posted the survey on our sister sites MagnoliaVoice and MyBallard since those areas are also impacted by any changes to Nickerson.
It’s that time of year again: the list of events is out for this year’s Family 4th at Lake Union. The Independence Day celebration at Gas Works Park was almost scrapped this year due to lack of funding, but will go on thanks to nearly 300 businesses and individuals who banded together to save the fireworks show.
If you were like me last year,and missed the memo about the late Puget Sound fireworks (I know there were others because I was just one of a couple hundred disappointed folks who set up camp at Kerry Park only to hear the Lake Union show in the distance), then make sure you pick out a nice spot on the east side of the hill to enjoy the festivities!
If instead you’ll be heading down to Gas Works Park for the show, here are a few events that will be going on:
Field Games, Hosted by Starbucks: Starbucks is hosting activities and fun field games on the Playfield featuring coffee sack and three-legged races, coffee bean bag tosses, and more.
Acrobatics and Circus Arts: The School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts will provide a static aerial rig, tightwire, and juggling equipment to engage, entertain and delight kids in the exploration of acrobatics and circus performance.
Euro-Bungy and Climbing Walls: This all-ages activity center offers participants the choice of jumping mid-air, twirling, and spinning on a bungee trampoline platform or climbing the face of a 24’ ft. rock wall and overcoming the challenges on the way to the top.
Face Painting: Kids can let their faces be the canvas as talented face-painters use their artistry to airbrush colorful and creative designs to decorate smiling faces and celebrate the holiday.
Kite Making: Kids are invited to dive into a wide variety of art supplies and kite-making tools to create a kite that expresses their unique artistic vision.
Wacky World: A giant, inflatable play center for kids 3-12 is 120’ feet of slides, tunnels, obstacles and fun.
SPD is working on a similar traffic control plan as last year, which will allow residential access to the neighborhood only. A map is being worked on and will soon be posted at family4th.org. Both the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce websites will be posting a list of local businesses staying open late for anyone waiting for post-fireworks traffic to subside.
If you’ve got a question for Mayor Mike McGinn, call in to the Seattle Channel at 7 p.m. Thursday as the mayor chats live with host C.R. Douglas.
Call 206-684-8821 during the show, or email askthemayor@seattle.gov anytime to record your question for the mayor. The Seattle Channel is on cable channel 21.
Do you have questions for Mayor Mike McGinn? How will the mayor choose Seattle’s next Police Chief? Even though the City faces a $50 million budget deficit, can the mayor find money for his “Walk.Bike.Ride.” initiative to improve transit and people-powered transportation? Do other political leaders share the mayor’s concerns about cost overruns on the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel?
Don’t miss the opportunity to dialogue with City Hall’s new CEO! Also watch past episodes now.
Back in March the Space Needle proposed to redevelop the area into a 44,000 square-foot glass house with Dale Chihuly exhibit space and public garden, which sparked a debate among community members both for and against. Ultimately the Center decided to ask the public for more alternative bids, receiving eight additional proposals by the due date last Friday, June 4.
One of the bidders, the Northwest Native Cultural Center Initiative, would like to use to space to build a cultural center for the First Peoples of Seattle in the pavilion and surrounding garden. From our news partner, The Seattle Times:
The group proposing a Native cultural center wrote in a news release that its proposal would fix a “glaring oversight” in Seattle — the lack of a prominent place to honor Indian culture.
Roger Fernandes, a Native American artist and storyteller, notes that Seattle Center site was once an Indian gathering place and duck-hunting ground. The group proposes a free, indoor-outdoor exhibit space with exhibits and walking tours.
Other proposals include a Seattle Museum of Mysteries, the building of “Center Park,” a bid from non-profit radio station KEXP to relocate its studio to the site and landscape open space, and a suggestion by the company that owns the Fun Forest rides to put them back into operation.
The Center, however, did not release the full project proposals for all nine bids, opting instead to only publish the project names and a brief one-sentence description. You can view the full list here (.pdf).
According to the Times, a selection committee will be tasked with deciding which proposal will be “the best fit for the Center.” Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams will then make a recommendation to Mayor McGinn and the Seattle City Council.
A couple of weeks ago Molly Moon’s asked Seattle neighborhoods to tweet them suggestions for where to park their brand new ice cream truck, and Queen Anne was among the winning ‘hoods to get a first taste of the sweet new mobile ice cream experience.
Enough fans in Madrona, Ballard and Queen Anne tweeted the ice cream makers begging them to swing by, that we won first route rights! In fact, we hear the truck was parked outside of Queen Anne’s own Eat Local from 3 to 5 p.m. yesterday, Sunday, June 6.
I didn’t get a chance to stop by myself, but I hope others in the neighborhood did! Maybe if we send them some more love over Twitter and the blogosphere, they’ll come back to Queen Anne soon!
See ratings and reviews of
A man who claimed that he was injured by police outside the Lower Queen Anne Dick’s Drive In in 2007 has filed both state and federal lawsuits this week, alleging “a pattern of excessive force and police misconduct” in the Seattle Police Department, according to our news partner, 
A couple of weeks ago Molly Moon’s 