Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien is hosting two upcoming community forums on transportation. These neighborhood discussions are being co-hosted by the Pacific Science Center, Seattle City Council and Streets For All Seattle.

These discussions are part of a series of events that gather community input on different aspects of the City Council’s priority issue of carbon neutrality.

Interesting in taking part? Check out details on both events here:

• Tuesday, March 29, 6 to 8:30 p.m. – Lake City, Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517  35th Avenue NE, Seattle

Featured Speakers:
Ref Lindmark, King County Metro Transit
Kari Watkins, OneBusAway & UW Civil Engineering
Notable community representative

• Tuesday, April 12, 6 to 8:30 p.m. – Central District, Seattle Vocational Institute, 2120 S. Jackson St., Seattle

Featured Speakers:
Mark Hallenbeck, Director of the Washington State
Transportation Center at UW (TRAC)
Jennifer Wieland, Seattle Dept. of Transportation
Transit blogger Carla Saulter, a.k.a. “Bus Chick”

The forum will provide a light dinner and refreshments for attendees. There will also be educational activities provided by the Science Center’s Science on Wheels program for children 5 years old and up whose  parents and guardians are attending the forum.

Although the event is free, space is limited. Those who plan to attend are asked to reserve their place by calling (206) 443-2896 or visiting pacificsciencecenter.org/community-science-forums.

Queen Anne’s Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts are once again going “Scouting for Food,” an annual food drive put on by The Boy Scouts of America. The event is put on every March because food banks are historically at their lowest levels between the more traditional food drive times of Christmas and Easter, and in the greatest need.

This Saturday, March 19, scouts will be canvassing Queen Anne homes, leaving door hangers with information about hunger in the community and soliciting for donations of food, toiletries and diapers. The scouts will then return next Saturday, March 26, to pick up all donations. Those interested in making a donation should leave bags or boxes with donated items on their doorsteps, clearly marked with the words “Scouting for Food” or the door hanger taped in a visible place. All donations will go to the Queen Anne Helpline and Ballard Food Bank.

Last year the Queen Anne scouts raised over 1,050 pounds of foods for both organizations. For information on recommended donation items, see the Ballard Food Bank’s wish list. For more information on Scouting for Food and how to get involved, click here.

Students from Coe Elementary School will be hosting a bake sale this Sunday, March 20 from 1 to 4 p.m. in front of the Upper Queen Anne Starbucks, at the corner of Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St., to raise money for the post-earthquake and tsunami relief effort in Japan.

The fundraiser is being run by Coe Cares, a project of the Coe PTA with a mission “to engage our children in meaningful charitable endeavors that provide an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop into compassionate citizens of today’s world.”

“Teachers, Parents, and Students at Coe Elementary CARE about our school, our community, our country, and our world. Coe Cares, a committee within the school, works to teach our children and ourselves the importance of reaching out and acting when events, good or bad, happen where we can,” wrote Coe parent and Coe Cares committee member Stacy Lawson.

“Our kids will grow up one day, and we want them to be compassionate caring adults who do not avoid getting involved and do not get bogged down by thinking that they cannot make a difference. All help is needed big and small,” she wrote.

All proceeds from the bake sale will be sent to aid the Japanese people via Global Giving Japan Relief Fund.

Update 3/21 10:50 a.m.: Originally Coe Cares planned to send the money to international independent medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, but after learning that DWB could not guarantee the money would end up in Japan, the group decided to change the charity.

Seattle School Board District IV director Michael DeBell is holding a community coffee chat tomorrow, Saturday, March 19 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Caffe Appassionato Coffee Co, located at 4001 21st Ave W, just next to Fisherman’s Terminal.

These regular meetings, which take place on the fourth Saturday of every month, are a chance for community members to drop in and have an informal discussion on public school issues and future opportunities.

District IV represents the following schools: Adams, Ballard, C. Blaine, The Center School, Coe, Lawton, McClure, Queen Anne Elementary, Salmon Bay, and West Woodland.

For more information on Michael DeBell and the Seattle School Board, check the SPS website. Can’t make this month’s coffee chat? DeBell will be hosting three more–on Saturday April 16, May 21, and June 18 (same time and place)–before the school year is out.

The Seattle Weekly put out a handy-dandy map in order to help you drink your way through Seattle for this drinkiest of weekends—it is Saint Patrick’s Day, after all.

The Seattle Weekly made some notes on the best beer options in each neighborhood. Here are the details for Lower and Upper Queen Anne:

Lower Queen Anne: Lower Queen Anne’s denizens love Schooner Exact Brewing Co.’s King St. Brown. Ozzies, T.S. McHugh’s, the Great Nabob, Spectator, and Buckley’s all have the beer on tap, so in this case, we’re going with the law of large numbers.

Upper Queen Anne: The 3-Grid IPA is what flies at the Hilltop Ale House, the upper Queen Anne watering hole of choice. It’s a perfectly calibrated brew for this ‘hood: pale, bitter, and just a little too expensive.

Looking for other places on the hill to enjoy the Saint Patrick’s Day festivities? Check out the happenings at Sully’s at the top of the hill, and the Streamline Tavern in Uptown.

If you can’t make it today, but still want to celebrate, the Streamline will be having its 23rd annual St. Patti’s Day birthday party and fundraiser this Saturday, March 19 at 6 p.m. There will be corned beef and cabbage, and all donations will go to Fighting Words, a creative writing center established by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love, inspired by Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia in San Francisco (and satellite 826 Seattle in Greenwood).

The Northwest Folklife festival, which will have a Bulgarian theme this year, may be two months away, but with the turning of winter to spring the annual Memorial Day Weekend celebration seems to be just around the corner. For those planning the festival, it is.

“This year we celebrate our 40^th Anniversary Festival and have received a proclamation from the Mayor’s office that declares May 27^th to 30^th Northwest Folklife Weekend,” writes Folklife Community Engagement & Volunteer Coordinator Holly Decker.

Folklife, a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a mission to create “opportunities for individuals and communities of the Pacific Northwest to celebrate share and sustain the vitality of folk, ethnic and traditional arts for present and future generations,” is very much a product of the community, and relies on community members to keep itself going every year all while staying free for the public.

“Though many believe we are funded by the city because our Festival takes place on the Seattle Center campus, we receive very little city funding. The organization is able to sustain its self and have the Festival remain free to the public mostly in thanks to individual donors (financial support) and volunteers (approximately 800 volunteers),” says Decker. “Since this Festival, the nation’s largest free community arts festival takes place right here on Queen Anne, I thought, let’s get this community even more involved. Volunteer opportunities for people of all ages!”

This year Folklife is looking for volunteers to work at the festival, and help make preparations in the months leading up to Memorial Day Weekend. According to Decker, the festival accepts volunteers of all ages, though those under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

The festival, which runs runs four days (May 27, 28, 29, 30), is in need of volunteers to fill shifts from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Volunteers are also needed to help set up and tear down the Festival the week before and the week after. There are no hour requirements for volunteers, and typical shifts range from 2.5 to 3 hours.

There are a number of position available, from volunteering as a Vera Gallery assistant, pre-festival merchant aide, office assistant, and “a bit of everything else in between,” Decker says. For a full list of available volunteer opportunities click here (.pdf).

“The area we need help in most is in our Greeter department. Greeters are the heart of our Festival. Greeters staff our entrances and make sure every patron is acknowledged while entering or exiting the Festival. Greeters hand out program guides to patrons and encourage them to make donations as they enter or exit the Festival. This position is for individuals who are friendly and embody the spirit of Folklife. A  typical Greeter shift is 2.5 hours and requires the ability to stand for a majority of the shift,” Decker says.

“A great new program we’ve introduced this year is entrance “sponsorship”. Northwest Folklife does not allow organizations to purchase booth space at our Festvial, but this year we are allowing community groups with similar mission statement to “sponsor” a Festival entrance for a day. That means they provide volunteers to work the entrances and in exchange are allowed to distribute outreach materials for their organization. This is also a great project for any groups who want to volunteer.”

Groups interested in volunteering at Folklife this year should contact Holly directly at holly@nwfolklife.org. Individuals who’d like to volunteer can go to www.nwfolklifefestival.org, click on the “Get Involved” tab and complete the online application.

The Seattle Department of Transportation held an open house to inform and answer questions about the West Mercer Place portion of the Mercer West Project on Tuesday night.

The open house, held from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Northwest Rooms Plaza of the Seattle Center, gave the public a look at different possible plans for the street while providing a forum for comment and criticism with SDOT representatives. In the Rainier Room, posters of the different plans, stages of development, area studies and traffic analysis were displayed with a short video presentation at the front of the room.

“It’s been a good conversation and I think we had a good turnout,” said SDOT Project Manager Eric Tweit.

SDOT presented five alternative plans for West Mercer Place: Alternative No. 1 adds a sidewalk to West Mercer Place, Alternative No. 2 adds a sidewalk and a bike lane, Alternative No. 3 and No. 4 add the sidewalk and bike lane and extends the merge lane on West Mercer Place. Alternative No. 5, which can be a standalone or combined with any of the previous 4 alternatives, would extend the left-turn lanes on Elliott Avenue West. The illustrations of alternative No. 1 and No. 2 can be seen here, No. 3 and No. 4 can be seen here, and Elliot Avenue West left-turn lane extension with the alternatives summary can be seen here.

“More traffic is going to try to use Mercer, so the question became can West Mercer Place handle it? Do we need to or do we want to even increase the capacity?” said Tweit. “We were pretty concerned about what the cost and impact would be, so this is really the culmination of that evaluation of whether there is a benefit to doing it.”

The changes in traffic through West Mercer Place with the Mercer Corridor Project and the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct prompted many of those who live in that area to voice their opposition. (See our past coverage of public meetings and community events surrounding this debate here.)

“We recently heard from a lot of reasonably and understandably concerned people who live on West Mercer Place, so this is an opportunity… for people to see and comment on the project,” said Tweit.

Tweit said that those he spoke to were opposed to the addition of a lane on West Mercer Place, and, along with the increased traffic, many of them were concerned about the possible loss of parking in the area. He said of the alternatives, No. 1 and No. 5, those that made the least amount of change to the area, were most popular.

Community representatives, from organizations like the Queen Anne Community Council, the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Neighborhoods were on hand to speak to the public and SDOT officials. Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce Director of Marketing Mary Chapman said she was glad to see SDOT taking input from residents and businesses in the area and thought it was a positive sign.

“I feel that the mayor did not listen to us in terms of the Nickerson street road diet, [the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce] does not support the road diet, but we really hope that they will be listening more actively as the plans for West Mercer are being developed by the Seattle Department of Transportation,” said Chapman. “We highly suggest that everybody make comments and do so very soon so that they can get as much realistic input from the people who live in the neighborhood as possible.”

FOLKpark volunteers were on hand to present their conceptual plan for Lower Kinnear Park and the proposed Uptown Loop, a collection of pedestrian and bicycle routes that circle and traverse lower Queen Anne. FOLKpark Chair Debi Frausto said that, as the Mercer West Project coincide with Kinnear Park projects, they hope they can leverage dollars with SDOT to save money on different aspects of development, like design and surveys.

“There are things where there are overlaps between us, like at entrances to the park. Let’s work together so that where we do them coordinates with pedestrian crossings, bicycle safety and those types of things so that we’re not designing in isolation,” said Frausto.

The next step for SDOT is to present the alternative plans to the local community organizations and councils and evaluate public comments. This will last through April, after which SDOT will make a recommendation to Mayor McGinn.

Comments on the alternative plans or other ideas and considerations can be e-mailed at mercerwest@seattle.gov.

Update 4:40 p.m.: Traffic moving through West Mercer Place is projected to reach more than 800 vehicles every hour by 2015, according to figures by KPFF, an engineering firm used by SDOT. These figures, presented at the open house, take into account the waterfront construction during that time. Between 590 to 660 vehicles per hour are expected to move through West Mercer Place after the Mercer Corridor and waterfront construction is completed, compared to the estimated 372 an hour that move through the street now.

A new restaurant/noodle house is coming to Lower Queen Anne, in the former Taco Del Mar space at 12 Mercer, in between Ten Mercer and The Melting Pot.

The building that used to house Taco Del Mar, which quietly closed its Queen Anne location back in November, has has its windows covered in brown paper for the past few months while preparations for its new tenants – Wanna Noodles – are being made.

The new restaurant, which will be opening in coming weeks, will have items in the $10 price range, will be open for lunch, dinner and drinks, and will be catered toward the casual walk-in crowd and families. Take out will also be available.

While we don’t know when exactly Wanna Noodles will be opening, it must be getting close because the owners are currently looking to fill a number of remaining staffing positions, including cooks, food prep and counter positions.

Wanna Noodles is holding a job fair at its new store tomorrow, Thursday, March 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those interested in applying for a job should send a resume to jobs@wannanoodle.com before attending the fair. For more information, check out this Craigslist ad, or contact management at jobs@wannanoodle.com.

The inaugural Ales for Alzheimer’s pub crawl of 12 Lower Queen Anne bars last weekend raised over $12,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association, according to Western and Central Washington State Chapter director of communications Keri Pollock.

With over 400 participants for one night of fundraising and celebrating, Pollock calls the event a “big success!” The money raised, she wrote, “will go directly to programs and services that support individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”

Photo taken from the Alzheimer’s Association, Western & Central Washington State Chapter Facebook page.

Check out pictures from the event on the chapter’s Facebook page.

iMusic, a new event center and “ultra lounge”, has moved into the vacant building adjacent to the Seattle Center and EMP, the former home of the troubled Club Diamond, which closed down last June.

The business, which quietly opened at 332 5th Ave N a few months ago, started its transformation by painting the outside walls white with black trim, and introducing a new concept to the space. Instead of opening up another club, which the space has had many incarnations of already, and none without their share of problems (particularly crime) in recent years, the new owners opted to turn the space into a venue for a variety of events – from live concerts, to fashion shows, comedy shows, corporate events, private parties and others.

Check out the upcoming events calendar for iMusic here. To find out how to reserve a table on a club night, or reserve the space for a party or event, click here.

If your child will enter the Seattle Public School system this year, or if you want a school other than your attendance-area elementary, middle or high school, be sure to apply through Open Enrollment, which runs today, March 15, through April 15.

Forms and detailed information are available at the Seattle Public Schools site. Families may also contact an Enrollment Facilitator at the Service Center at the John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Ave S (3rd and Lander), via telephone at (206) 252-0010, or via fax to (206) 252-0761. There is also a Recorded Information Line at (206) 252-0410.

Registration and application materials may be mailed, faxed or submitted in person. The mailing address is:

Seattle Public Schools
SPS Service Center
MS 11-174
P.O. Box 34165
Seattle, WA 98124-1165

All school choice forms received during open enrollment are processed together after open enrollment ends on April 15. There is no advantage to submitting forms earlier or later during the open enrollment period. The first few days and the last few days of open enrollment are the busiest. To avoid long lines, families are encouraged by SPS to consider this when planning their visit to the enrollment center.

Current students may drop off School Choice Forms in a 24-hour drop box in the JSCEE parking lot at 3rd and Lander. Forms must be filled out completely and signed to be accepted. The drop-off box is only for school choice forms for current students who already have a school assignment but would like to apply for a different school. New students must submit enrollment materials either in person, by fax or email.

Seattle Public Schools enrollment staff will also visit libraries and community centers around the city throughout March so parents may enroll new students and/or submit School Choice Forms for the 2011-12 school year. Staff will be at the Queen Anne Library, located at 400 W Garfield St., on Tuesday, March 29 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Yes, you read that right – Queen Anne is going to have a brand new ice cream shop come this summer, a la organic, seasonal, locally sourced, hand-made ice creamery Molly Moon’s.

Back in December Molly Moon’s launched a competition between three neighborhoods – Queen Anne, Ballard and Madrona – to determine which ‘hood to open its third shop in. The local ice cream chain, which already has bustling locations in Wallingford and Capitol Hill, named Queen Anne as the winner of the competition Monday.

The competition was run through Facebook page campaigns, to gauge community interest in a new shop in each neighborhood. As of Monday evening the Queen Anne page had 462 ‘likes’. Madrona came in second place, with 163 ‘likes’.

Molly Moon’s has not yet finalized the location for the Queen Anne store, but they plan to open the shop in July, just in time for the summer heat. The ice creamery will also be opening a “micro-shop” in Madrona. To celebrate Molly Moon’s will be giving out free ice cream scoops to kids out of its truck, which will be parked at 2231 Queen Anne Ave. N., on Sunday, March 20, from noon to 2 p.m. Here is the full press release:

Molly Moon Neitzel today announced that she is expanding her ice cream family this summer with a new scoop shop in Queen Anne and new “micro” concept shop in Madrona.

Neighborhoods for the new locations were selected by Molly Moon’s enthusiasts during the three-month long “Shop 3, where will it be?” campaign that encouraged Seattle’s ice cream lovers to, despite the frosty weather, visit Moon’s ice cream truck while it set-up shop in their respective ‘hoods.

“I’m so excited to be welcoming two new neighborhoods in to our Molly Moon’s family” said Neitzel. “I love that Molly Moon’s is a place where families and friends can create memories and I can’t wait for Queen Anne and Madrona residents to have the opportunity make the new shops a part of their communities.”

Queen Anne, Seattle’s most-devoted ice cream eating neighborhood this winter, will be receiving its well-deserved scoop shop in July of 2011. Stay tuned, as the location is still being solidified and will be announced in the coming weeks.

Madrona, the runner-up in the “Shop 3” campaign, will be awarded a Molly Moon’s micro-shop in May of 2011. This petite version of a Molly Moon’s scoop shop will serve pre-packaged pints and scoops of Moon’s delicious ice cream, sorbet-sicles, and ice cream sandwiches.

In celebration of this exciting news, the Molly Moon’s ice cream truck will give away kids scoops this Saturday, March 19, from Noon to 2 p.m. while parked at Buggy in Madrona. The kids in Queen Anne will receive free scoops on Sunday, March 20, from Noon to 2 p.m. while the truck is parked at 2231 Queen Anne Ave. N.

For additional information about Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, please log on to mollymoonicecream.com.

Correction 12:40 p.m.: An earlier version of this story stated that Molly Moon’s is organic, when in fact not all of its ice cream flavors contain organic ingredients. Here is more information from the website:

Are all of your ingredients organic? No. My priority is to purchase locally-grown ingredients from great Northwest suppliers. I try to use local AND organic, but when faced with situations where I have to choose, I choose healthy local options that are not always certified organic. Some of our organic ingredients include organic vanilla, peppermint, maple, ginger, and orange extracts, organic coconut, organic lavender from Sequim, Washington, organic baby beets, carrots, and rosemary from Full Circle Farms, organic Meyer lemons from the Napa Valley (as close to us as they grow), organic mint and cantaloupe from eastern Washington, organic bacon and cherries from Vashon, organic sugar cones and cake cones, and organic sprinkles.

Genki Sushi, located in the same building as the Lower Queen Anne QFC, has got a $1 sushi lunch special happening this month.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day through the end of March all sushi at Genki will be $1 per plate (not including off-the-menu items). All side dishes, desserts and beverages will be at their normal prices.

Genki Sushi is also having a grand opening for its new location in the Factoria Mall (at 055 Factoria Blvd SE), the fourth location in Washington State (the rest are all in Hawaii), this Thursday, March 17. This new location will be running the same $1 promotion through Sunday, March 20. The Factoria location will be open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The chain also has locations in Renton and on Broadway in Capitol Hill.

John Hay Elementary‘s annual auction is coming up, and this year the silent portion of the fundraising event will be held virtually online.

The live auction will be held at The Showbox on April 30. The silent auction will go live on the web on April 15, through April 26 when bidding will close.

John Hay will be posting items online as they get them. So far there are 163 items up for grabs in the silent auction portion. Though bidding doesn’t begin for another month, you can check out the auction items on the John Hay auction website. Items include everything from gift certificates to local businesses and services, to tickets to the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders, a one-night stay in Bavarian Leavenworth, a week in Whistler, signed sports memorabilia, local arts and entertainment passes and much more.

Those interested in donating an item to the John Hay online silent auction can sign up online here. Want to receive email updates on auction news? Sign up to receive updates in your inbox here.

The recent rain has taken its toll over in Magnolia.

Our sister site, Magnolia Voice, is reporting that there have been several slides, including this one on the 3200 block of West Galer St which took a truck with it.

You can see more photos of the slides here.

Here’s a look at what’s make headlines in other nearby neighborhoods:

• ‘The Oracle of Ballard’ passes away
• Medical marijuana dispensary opens in Greenwood
• Not a Number re-opening delayed
• Red-winged blackbirds arrive at Green Lake Park
• Police searching for missing UW student

Coe Elementary’s robotics team, ‘Coebotics‘, will be traveling to California in May to compete in FLL (First Lego League) national competition at Legoland, according to a story by Mary Cropp in the Seattle PI. The eight-person team made up of 4th and 5th graders will be the sole representatives of Washington state at the competition.

Using the Lego Mindstorms systems, Coe students work together in FLL competitions to solve realistic world issues, “such as using a robotic unit to rescue victims from, or deliver supplies to a burning or unstable building,” according to Cropp. From the Coebotics website:

Robotics is the ultimate team activity. All good robots and robotic devices are created by teams of engineers, biologists, artists and programmers to name a few disciplines. Because of this need of integrating many science, engineering and social science skills into a great Robot, it is an ideal discipline to start teaching as young as Kindergarten. It allows students of any ability to be part of a great accomplishment.

To read more about the Coebotics program, check out the team’s website. Read the full Seattle PI store here.

Lisa McKibbin and her mother, Nancy Bostdorff, the owners of the six-year-old German shorthaired pointer named Sammy who died after stepping onto an energized streetlight ground-cover plate on Queen Anne Avenue on Thanksgiving Day, have filed a $60,000 claim with Seattle City Light over the dog’s death, according to a report by The Seattle Times.

McKibbin and Bostdorff are being represented by Bellingham-based attorney Adam Karp, who specializes in animal law. The 17-page claim, which was filed Friday, included a note from Karp that the two would settle for $30,000 if City Light would agree the the following three conditions:

1. That City Light post contact-voltage safety tips on its website;
2. The City Light would take part in an annual contact-voltage safety conference;
3. That City Light would make contact-voltage scans annual rather than every four years.

After Sammy’s death City Light conducted inspections of more than 37,000 streetlights and associated equipment citywide, finding and fixing a total of 56 sites where contact voltage of at least 30 volts was detected.

From The Seattle Times:

In the claim, Karp said that since the 68-pound dog, Sammy, was purchased in 2004, the daughter and mother had spent over $10,000 on the dog, with the big-ticket items being $5,212 for “doggy day care,” $2,400 on vet bills over the six years of his life and $1,339 for emergency treatment and cremation after the dog was electrocuted.

In the claim, Karp said Sammy “did not have a fair market or replacement value,” but “a unique value.”

“My clients loved Sammy as if he were their child. … The avoidable and wholly unexpected death by electrocution of Sammy caused complex grief and emotional harm to both my clients,” said the claim.

McKibbin originally purchased Sammy for $200.

Included in the claim were photos of Sammy on vacation with his owners, and postings by McKibbin from the blog she created shortly after his death. Karp told the Times that McKibbin needs counseling that she cannot afford because she does not have medical insurance.

The claim said McKibbin “will testify to complex grief, emotional and physical stress, haunting flashbacks replaying the witnessing of Sammy’s death, fear of herself also being killed by lethal voltage and losing him so tragically and unexpectedly.”

Suzanne Hartman, spokeswoman for City Light, told the Times that they will take a look at the claim and put it through the “normal processing to determine the reasonableness.” Karp told the Times that if no settlement is reached within 60 days, a lawsuit will follow. Read the full Times piece here. See our past coverage of the tragedy and inspections that followed here.

The Alzheimer’s Association is putting on the first ever Ales for Alzheimer’s fundraiser this Saturday, March 12 in Lower Queen Anne.

For a flat fee for $30, attendees will tour 11 Lower Queen Anne pubs and bars and savor a variety of ales along the way (the registration fee comes with one drink ticket at each of the tour stops).

Participating pubs include Bandits Bar, Chopstix, Floyd’s Place, Hula Hula Lounge, Jabu’s Pub, McMenamins, Ozzie’s, SkyBox, The Spectator, Streamline Tavern, Taqueria Jalisco and Tini Bigs. Check out the tour map here.

All funds raised directly supports the Alzheimer’s Association’s free programs and services, benefiting individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementias.We want you and your friends there for a great turnout for this first-time event, creating a new Chapter-favorite for our supporters and partners who are helping us in the fight against this disease!

All participants will receive an Ales for Alzheimer’s t-shirt for helping to raise money for the cause. The event starts at 3 p.m. and goes until 8 p.m., when there will be pub crawl after party at Chopstix (tour-goers get in free).

For more information contact the event manager Karen Aparicio at karen.aparicio@alzwa.org or 206.363.5500, ext. 241. To attend Ales for Alzheimer’s, check out day-of registration information here.

The Alzheimer’s Association, Western & Central Washington State Chapter, is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Here are some facts about Alzheimer’s provided by the association:

• Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States
• More than 5.3 million Americans are living with this disease
• 110,000 of these individuals live here in Washington state
• The population of those living with Alzheimer’s is expected to triple by 2050

You may have seen the illuminated signs announcing lane closures on the Ballard Bridge and Aurora on Saturday. The Seattle Department of Transportation has canceled the work because of an unfavorable weather forecast.