Back in December the Seattle Center announced that it would be constructing a 200-foot observation wheel at the former Fun Forest site as part of The Next Fifty, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair and the birth of the Center. But now the Ferris wheel, which was supposed to open this spring, may not be coming to the grounds at all, according to Seattle Center representative Deborah Dauost.

Great City Attractions, a British company that operates observation wheels in Asia and Europe and had planned to transport, construct and operate the wheel at Seattle Center has met trouble securing liability insurance for the ride, according to a report by The Seattle Times. This would have been the first wheel the company constructed in the United States. From the Times:

“We’re still talking with Great City, but we’re looking into other options as well,” Dauost said. The Center’s master plan calls for an iconic ride to replace the carnival rides and arcade games that operated at the site.

According to the report, Seattle Center representatives became concerned over Great City’s difficulties in securing arrangements for the wheel over the past couple of month when the company asked to push back the opening from April to July, and later told officials that the wheel would meet further delays due to the royal wedding in London.

Seattle Center officials were hoping to bring the giant observation wheel to the campus as a tribute to the carnival spirit of the original World’s Fair, with a futuristic design that looked to the years ahead for the campus and the city surrounding it. The ride, which was supposed to run through October 2012, was projected to attract half a million visitors per year.

But even if the Seattle Center cancels its plans to bring an observation wheel to the campus, the city may be getting one soon in a different iconic location –  Pier 57 owner Hal Griffith is currently in the midst of getting the necessary permits to bring a similar Ferris wheel to the city’s waterfront, according to the Times report. Read the full story here.

Last month Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn finished a walking tour of our sister neighborhood blog Maple Leaf by saying he had new information about the proposed deep-bore tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

“The deep-bore tunnel, with tolls, causes more congestion and delay on city streets than any other option,” McGinn told the March 19th meeting at Aljoya Thornton Place, 450 N.E. 100th St.

Apparently he repeated the claim on KUOW public radio last week, according to Sunday’s Seattle Times “Truth Meter:”

The claim: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said last week on a radio appearance that the state’s data show the planned Highway 99 tolled tunnel would cause the worst downtown congestion of all options to replace the 58-year-old Alaskan Way Viaduct.

What we found: half true

We took a look at the same numbers, and the state does predict its tunnel plan would mean more car traffic in the area, which the anti-tunnel McGinn points to as more congestion. But the state’s research also says drivers would reach their destinations sooner compared with the surface-transit option McGinn favors. Because of that, we find McGinn’s statement half true.

You can read the full story here in The Seattle Times.

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.

Queen Anne loves its street food. There’s plenty of food trucks that come and go, some stay longer than others and almost all of them bring tasty food with them.

However it’s a tough racket to run a food truck in Seattle. Restrictive city laws make it hard for many small businesses and impeded the growth of the street food scene in neighborhoods like Queen Anne.

That may be changing very soon, according to a report by The Seattle Times.

New legislation is expected to go before the City Council by the end of the month, detailing changes that would make it easier for street-food vendors to set up shop and, in the process, help bring more economic vitality to neighborhoods.

“Urban neighborhoods are where we want our growth,” said Gary Johnson, center-city coordinator for the Department of Planning and Development, which helped craft the proposal. “A street-food scene can help brand a neighborhood in a positive way.”

Outside of the sunnier months and the Seattle Center grounds, you don’t see many sidewalk vendors in Queen Anne. Right now, street cart vendors in the city of Seattle are limited to mostly selling coffee, popcorn and hot dogs. Under the new guidelines, the city would “allow everything on the push cart except raw proteins.”

The Seattle Department of Transportation also wants to designate zones where curbside vending would be allowed. Right now vendors have to work out deals with business owners, which is why you always see food trucks in parking lots or outside local companies.

The flip side of this possible change is that local restaurants could see their business decrease, especially if a like-minded food is available down the block on a food cart.

Here’s the full rundown of the proposed changes. We’ll keep an eye on how this unfolds as we hear more.

Before you ask, yes, there is a publication called Seattle Beer News. They are one of The Seattle Times’ news partners, alongside us, the rest of the Next Door Media team, and and a number of other neighborhood and special interest news services in the greater Seattle area.

Although no Queen Anne pubs made Seattle Beer News’ recent list of Top 10 Seattle Beer Spots, our neighborhood is leading in a poll SBN is putting on asking Seattle-ites which neighborhood most needs a new beer bar or brewery.

So far Lower Queen Anne is leading with 16 percent of the votes, followed by Ballard, South Lake Union and Wallingford (all with 12 percent), and Magnolia and Lake City (with 11 percent). Upper Queen Anne is in tenth place, with 6 percent of the votes so far.

Think Queen Anne needs a new beer bar or brewery more than any other neighborhood? Cast your vote with Seattle Beer News here.

The construction of a suicide prevention fence along the Aurora Bridge has been completed, according to a report by The Seattle Times. City officials and Seattle residents now hope it can prevent more people from joining the list of 230 jumpers who have leapt to their deaths from the bridge to date.

Construction of the 8-foot, 9-inch-tall safety fence started in the fall and cost $5 million, according to a state Department of Transportation news release. The Legislature’s 2009-2011 transportation budget included $3.6 million to build the fence.

The fence’s construction was lobbied for by Fremont residents and those that work underneath it and was supported by the city of Seattle, King County and the state Legislature. Read more about the need for the fence and why it matters here.

Tracking the progress of potholes in your neighborhood, or along your commute, just got a whole lot easier. The Seattle Department of Transportation, taking a feather from the hat of The Seattle Times, has launched a Pothole Status Map where you can see all the city’s potholes that have been reported since March 15, 2010.

SDOT recently increased its number of “Pothole Rangers”, and according to the SDOT webpage, the crews filled 2,584 potholes in December 2010.

On the map above you can see all the potholes that have been reported, and filled across the city. The green dots indicate potholes that have been fixed in the last three months. Blue dots indicate new reports, and pink dots indicate potholes that are currently in the process of being repaired. The full map can be found here.

Know of an untended pothole that’s not on this map? The city would like you to report it so that it can be fixed. According to SDOT the map is updated nightly, though its currently posted statistics are not as up-to-date. SDOT says that as of Januart 30 there were 1,175 open requests to fix potholes, and that 1,365 others had been repaired in the previous seven days.

In 2010, we reviewed our methods of patching potholes. We found that there were better methods that would provide a longer-lasting patch, and have made those changes. This method takes more time when a pothole is fixed, but will last much longer than the method we have used in the past. In the long run, this will leave Seattle streets better off for a longer period of time. Our goal now is to repair potholes within three business days of receiving a report.

Have a pothole you’d like to report? Use this form to report potholes and other non-emergency problems (minor street repairs, malfunctioning traffic signals,  damaged street signs) to SDOT.

The optometrists office at 166 Roy Street, formerly known as Eye Doctors Ltd., changed its name to Eyeballs last week.

The new name and signage is just a small face lift for the practice, which is staying under the same ownership, according to an employee.

Longtime Queen Anne resident and optometrist Dr. James McCrum and his wife Paula Whelan remodeled the building themselves in 2005, creating a 1,700 square-foot urban home above the office. Read The Seattle Times’s large Pacific Northwest magazine piece on the project here. McCrum continues to operate the practice below.