Around 2am this morning near the intersection of Denny and First Avenue, police say a man walked up to a Dodge Charger with three occupants and fired up to 8 shots into the vehicle.  The 22 year old driver was hit in the arms and back, and a 22 year old passenger was struck in the chest and hip.  The injuries aren’t believed to be life-threatening. 

KING 5 photo of victims’ car.

Although there were a number of witnesses, investigators had very little information.  One person said a Jeep or Explorer type SUV was seen speeding away.

The SPD Blotter picks up the story from here:

At approximately 3:15 AM, Seattle Police responded to a call of a collision in the 100 Block of 5th Avenue North; approximately 5 1/2 blocks east of the shooting scene. Officers responded and located an unoccupied silver Jeep Grand Cherokee on the sidewalk. It appeared that the vehicle had careened into one of the Monorail cement posts. The posts sustained no damage, but there was considerable damage to the driver’s side of the Jeep. On the passenger floorboard of the Jeep officers found a handgun. Witnesses to the collision told officers that four black males got out of the Jeep after the crash and got into a second SUV-type vehicle which was following the Jeep. The second SUV then sped off northbound. The Jeep and the Charger were impounded for processing. The Gang Unit will be responsible for the follow up investigation on this shooting.

Click here to see more photos from KING 5 and their story.

A car heading northbound on Aurora Ave. flipped in the pouring rain on Saturday night, coming to rest on its side right up against a condo building.

The accident happened on the approach to the bridge, at Crockett St. Despite the heavily-damaged vehicle, a firefighter on scene tells us there were no serious injuries. The vehicle snapped a water line for the condo.

This stretch of Aurora is always a speedway — in fact, we watched as some cars came up on the accident scene unexpectedly. A good reminder to drive safely.

Twirl Cafe is having a grand opening celebration this Saturday, October 9 from 10 a.m. onward at its brand new digs in the Sweetbrier building, at 2111 Queen Anne Ave N.

We first heard that Twirl was coming to Queen Anne back in June, when we spoke with Queen Anne resident and Twirl owner Rebecca Pelletier. The idea behind Twirl was to create a community oriented family-style gathering space—part kids play space, part cafe.  Pelletier ultimately decided to open her play cafe in Queen Anne, thanks to the neighborhood’s vibrant community atmosphere.

Twirl will offer classes and activities for kids and adults, childcare services (while the parents enjoy some downtime or in-house workshops), and yummy health-oriented eats. And from the look of things so far, even the food will capture the Queen Anne feel. ‘The Howe,’ ‘The Galer,’ and ‘The Bigelow,’ are all specialty sandwiches on the menu.

Read more about Pelletier and Twirl Cafe here.

The Mercer Corridor Project is moving into its first construction phases and that means some road closures. This will impact 9th Ave North and eastbound traffic on Broad Street starting with the morning commute on Tuesday (10/12) if the weather permits.   Specifics are below.

The future of Mercer East

9th Ave North

Closure: 9th Ave N between Aloha Street and Republican Street closed to through traffic, with access for Metro transit and local business traffic only. Businesses will remain open and access to businesses will be maintained.

Duration: Approximately six months.

Purpose: Allow replacement of a nearly 100-year-old sewer line; additional utility and roadway work.

Detour: Westlake Avenue N between Aloha Street and Valley Street will be re-striped as a two-way street to provide an alternate to Ninth Avenue N; Dexter Avenue N is also an alternate route. Advanced warning signs are located at the intersection just west of the Fremont Bridge to alert drivers to traffic revisions.

Metro routes: Metro Transit Route 17 will have some temporary detours and bus stop relocations during this construction. Rider Alerts about the changes will be posted at the affected bus stops and online. Route 30 will continue on its regular route until further notice.  You can find more information here– check the “Alerts Center” for adjustments to these routes.

Eastbound Broad Street

Closure:  Eastbound Broad Street between Fifth Avenue N and Ninth Avenue N.   Westbound Broad Street will remain open during this period.

Duration: Approximately 12 months.

Purpose: Allow construction of an interim connection from future westbound Mercer Street lanes to westbound Broad Street, as well as a new eastbound Broad Street connection at Eighth Avenue N.

Detour:  Detour route is northbound Fifth Avenue N to eastbound Mercer Street.  An advanced warning sign is in place at Broad Street and Denny Avenue N alerting drivers to this upcoming closure.

You can follow the Mercer Corridor Project at the city’s special webpage.

Despite the crazy warm weather we’ve been having, it is officially fall, and sadly that means the end of the Queen Anne Farmers Market, which is having its last day of the season today (except, like last year, there will be a special Halloween market at the end of the month—but more on that later). For now, check out the lineup for the market’s closing day:

• 4 p.m.—Chef Demo with Greg Atkinson of Westcoast Cooking

• 5 p.m.—Kids’ Cooking Class with Hsiao-Ching Chou, of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution-Seattle

• 6 p.m.—New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp Demo with Matt Lewis of Where Ya At, Matt?

• 5 to 7 p.m.—Music with The Canote Brothers

The featured nonprofit this week is the Queen Anne Helpline. To celebrate the closing of the season, all vendors will enjoy free chair massages from Laurie Swanson, LMP.

As always, the market will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. on W. Crockett Street at Queen Anne Ave N.

The Queen Anne Community Center gym may become part of a larger budget battle apparently brewing between Mayor McGinn and the Seattle City Council.  The fight to stop the gym from closing took a twist Wednesday night when City Councilman Tim Burgess attended a meeting of the Queen Anne Community Council.

“This is not a City Council idea (to close the gym).  It came from Mayor McGinn,” Burgess told the audience.  “You have lots of support not to do this on the Council.”

Gym at Queen Anne Community Center

Frustrated residents and volunteers at the community center voiced their concerns about Mayor McGinn’s proposed plan to close the gym next year and turn it into a production studio for a children’s television program.  That would mean the loss of several activities including youth basketball, toddler gym, Family Fridays, and senior aerobics.  One volunteer said the producers of the television show toured the gym this week and had no idea just how bad the community center’s condition is, including old wiring.

“I said fellas if you think you’re going to put some big t.v. lights in here, you’ve got a surprise coming,” saidvolunteer Pat Barger.  “This is not a done deal and I hope it is never a done deal.”

The community council plans to send a letter to the City Council urging them to keep the gym open and suggesting that Seattle Center be used as a location for the television studios instead.  One community council member summed up the mayor’s plan to close the gym this way.

“It’s anti- Queen Anne.  It’s anti-family.”

The Queen Anne Community Council discusses the mayor’s plan to close the gym.

Councilman Burgess also hinted that the City Council may be prepared to make changes to the mayor’s proposed budget.

“You just need to remember, where are the centers that they’re cutting?  They tend to be, except for Alki, they’re in the north end of the city.  You can see a pattern here of public policy decisions that the mayor has been making that, I’m not going to question his motives, but they are dividing our city.  The way I look at this on the community centers, he’s daring us to restore this money to these community centers” said Burgess.

We have a message in to the mayor’s office to see if he has any comment.

Burgess urged Queen Anne residents to email the City Council, attend the last two public hearings on the budget, and to voice their opinions during regular City Council meetings over the next few weeks.

Seattle Police now believe the same men are responsible for robberies at businesses in Queen Anne, Phinney Ridge, West Seattle, Renton and Des Moines. In the early morning hours of September 23, two masked men with a gun and knife robbed a Chevron in Renton. About an hour later, they hit a store in the 1600 block of Queen Anne Avenue.

Police say the men then robbed a store on Phinney Avenue on September 27, followed shortly after that with a store in Des Moines. Authorities now believe the men were responsible for a similar crime in West Seattle. Below you’ll find images from one robbery (photos are from SPD and can’t be enlarged, there are no faces visible but the clothing may be important) and a description of the suspects:

Suspect 1: White male, 18-20 years-old, medium build, White t-shirt, tan pants, wearing a mask or bandana.

Suspect 2: White male, 18-20 years-old, medium build, light colored t-shirt, jeans

Suspect 3: White male, 18-20 years-old. (only seen in one incident)

The clothing description varies. In one incident S/1 wore a black skeleton mask and S/2 wore a black ski mask. In another incident S/1 was wearing a black jacket with a hood and S/2 wore a red football jersey with the number “50″ and possible “Barton” printed on the back.

Anyone with informaton on these robberies is asked to call Robbery Detective Tom Healy at 206-684-5537.

A neighborhood in Queen Anne is one of 19 across the city that has just been awarded free trees.  Community members applied for the Tree Fund, a program by the city’s Department of Neighborhoods, that awards free trees for groups of neighbors from at least five households.  Neighbors in the area of 9th Ave West and West Armour Street will receive their trees later this month.  To learn more about the Tree Fund, click here.

Just a little over a month since it first went up, the new mural on the Dexter Way underpass has already been vandalized.  We were there this morning as someone from Urban Artworks was busy painting over the graffiti.  She expects to have the mural back to normal later today.

Back in August, community members helped paint the new mural to replace the old one that was full of graffiti.  New lights were also put up in the overpass and volunteers cleaned up needles and trash.  The new mural will soon get anti-graffiti coating that should help stop future vandalism.

A Seattle Police officer is recovering after a crash today on Queen Anne.  Just before 9am, the officer was responding with lights and sirens to a burglary in progress in the 1900 block of 10th Ave West.  A woman driving a Honda was traveling in front of the patrol car.  As the officer moved left to go around the Honda, the woman turned left into the officer’s car.  The officer was taken to Harborview for treatment.  The woman wasn’t hurt and was released pending further investigation.

There are a lot of coupon and deals sites popping up in Seattle, but they’re mostly run by out-of-town businesses and focused on the entire metro area. After hearing some ideas from local businesses, we’re happy to introduce North Seattle Guide, a new site powered by our network of neighborhood blogs that offers deals right here at home, from the Space Needle to Northgate Mall.

North Seattle Guide features printable and shareable discounts that don’t cost you a penny. They originate from our neighborhood sponsors, who can post deals for no additional charge (see details). This is a big departure from many other sites, which keep a big cut of the revenue and sent it to their corporate offices in Chicago, San Francisco or New York.

Our hope is these deals will help encourage everyone to shop here in North Seattle, especially as we near the holiday season. Visit NorthSeattleGuide.com, or get deals via Facebook (below), Twitter or email.

We only have a few deals to start, but please be patient — more are coming soon. And thank you for shopping local!

The proposed closing of the gym at the Queen Anne Community Center will be one of the topics of discussion at this month’s meeting of the Queen Anne Community Council. The meeting is this Wednesday (10/6) at 7pm at the community center. The public is invited to attend.

As we reported last week, the mayor wants to close the gym next year so it can be used as the production studios for a children’s television program.  There is some talk that the Magnolia Community Center is volunteering to help take on some of the programs that would be lost in Queen Anne.

SDOT began work today on 15th Avenue West from Nickerson Street to the Emerson Street Overpass. One southbound lane on 15th will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays through October 11. The crews are installing conduit for electrical lines.

There’s been a lot of turnover in Queen Anne businesses lately. However, while many have been closing up shop, new leases are also coming in. The most recent addition in Uptown: Piece of Mind is opening up a new location, at 623 Queen Anne Ave N.

This will be the fourth Seattle location for the specialty glass pipe and smoke shop, and the ninth in the Northwest, according to part owner Quinn Sharpe. The other locations are in Fremont, Lake City and the University District. Sharpe writes,

We are shooting for Oct. 30th for opening and probably will do a soft opening before that.

The Than Brothers are opening a new location in Lower Queen Anne.

The local pho chain has locations all over the Seattle-area. The owners say this new outpost could be open as early as next week. Reader Erin had this to say about the restaurant:

Just saw signs last night that the Than Brothers are opening up in the old martial arts space on Mercer, around the corner from Toulouse Petit.  Not be best pho in town, but certainly cheap – and you get a cream puff!

Now I’m no pho expert, but having frequented the location on Market Street in Ballard several times, I’d venture to say there’s nothing wrong with this tasty, extremely affordable pho house. Welcome to the neighborhood!