Local photographer Chelsea Nesvig snapped these photos from the National Night Out block party at Counterbalance Park in Lower Queen Anne last night, and decided to share them with us.

The Uptown Alliance ran the party, revitalizing a number of popular events from years past all in the name of bringing neighbors together.

Many neighbors brought lightly used clothes to the annual free clothing exchange. All leftovers from the swap/trade event will be donated to local shelters.

Block partiers also indulged in another popular returning event – the “Bite of Uptown,” which provided free food samples from Lower Queen Anne restaurants.

The Counterbalance wishing wall gave neighbors an opportunity to share their hopes and dreams for Lower Queen Anne with each other and local organizations and non-profits.

All in all it was a great time with fun, games and community togetherness.

Check out more pics from Night Out at Counterbalance Park here. If you’d like to share pictures from your Night Out block party, email tips@queenanneview.com or share a link to your pictures online in the comments below.

A new hotel will soon be moving into Lower Queen Anne. The Four Points by Sheraton says it will be opening up its new Uptown location in mid-August at 601 Roy Street, currently the site of the Comfort Suites.

Sheraton’s parent company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, is currently doing construction on the hotel, which will continue to operate as Comfort Suites until opening. This will be the first Four Points by Sheraton brand in Washington state, according to a Starwood representative.

Four Points by Sheraton director of sales Shanna Kellin says the new hotel is smaller and more service-specific than many of the other brands Starwood runs, which she says will help it cater to the feel of the surrounding neighborhood.

“While we have amenities available that most all travelers come to expect, such as Wi-Fi, comfortable beds and workspace in the guestroom, restaurant and bar onsite with room service, we want for our guests to feel that comfort isn’t complicated and that is the experience of the Four Points brand. We don’t have bellman, we don’t have rooms that you must explain how to operate them, but we have programs such as Best Brews, which feature local micro beer in our bar and we have free bottled water in the guest rooms,” she writes.

Though the hotel is currently undergoing construction renovations as it transitions into the Four Points, it still honoring reservations that were made at the Comfort Suites before construction began. The hotel tentatively plans to reopen as the Four Points on August 11, if all goes according to plan, Kellin says.

While we await word on whether or not King County Metro will cut bus service here in Queen Anne, there is news about a number of proposed streetcar services in the works citywide, including one that would connect Lower Queen Anne to downtown, South Lake Union and First Hill, and another that would link downtown to Loyal Heights via SLU, Fremont and Ballard.

A preview of the report, which serves as a blueprint for the city’s transit planning for the next 20 years, was presented to the City Council’s Transportation committee on Tuesday. A draft of the full report is expected to be presented in September, according to a report by the SeattlePI.

According to the plan, two rail lines are considered to be the preferred option for transit in the “downtown connector,” which includes Lower Queen Anne.

Line CC1 would connect downtown with Lower Queen Anne via streetcar, while CC2 would run between downtown and South Lake Union via SLU’s existing rail tracks. From the looks of the map, it appears CC1 would run up 1st Ave N from S Jackson St. through Pioneer Square and Belltown to Queen Anne, with proposed stations at Denny Way and 1st Ave N, and potential terminal stations west of Seattle Center at 1st Ave N and Harrison, and at the base of the hill at Queen Anne Ave N and Mercer Street/Roy. Both the CC1 and CC2 streetcar lines would then connect to the South Lake Union Streetcar and forthcoming First Hill Streetcar, which is set to open in 2013.

The plans also outlines a Ballard streetcar line would cost about $327 million to build, including a new rail bridge across the ship canal (which would cost about $70 million) and a retrofitting of the Fremont Bridge (which would cost $10 to $12 million). Based on the map, it looks like the proposed rail line would run up and down 36th Street through Fremont en route to Ballard/Loyal Heights in one direction and South Lake Union/downtown in the other.

Of course, don’t get too excited, it’ll take a while to get this up and running. The entire plan is set-up to unfold over the next 20 years.

You can check out much more details on the plan via this PDF link.

Just one month after Nucleus hair salon shuttered its doors, a new business is opening up in the same Lower Queen Anne shopfront, and perhaps not surprisingly, it’s a restaurant. Mo’s Sub Co. will be “coming soon” to the space at 621 Queen Anne Ave N., according to the sign in the window, but beyond that little else is known.

There is currently no website or any online information for the business, and no permit applications have come through the city for that address. But whoever “Mo” is, we’re guessing he’s not from around here, considering the misspelling of Queen Anne (sans the last ‘e’) in the sign.

Still, in the current economy, where vacant storefronts have been sitting empty and idle for months at a time before a new retailer moves in (if ever – just look at both of Queen Anne’s former Blockbusters: the Upper location was left empty for almost two years before reopening as Umpqua Bank earlier this month, and the Lower QA location is still hollow from its March closure), it’s surprising to see a business closure turn around into a new opening so quickly. What do you think – is this a sign that things are looking up for Uptown’s business district?

Rebecca was walking to her Lower Queen Anne home alone around 1 a.m. last Tuesday when she was assaulted by a man who was not interested in robbing her, she says. The incident, which took place in front of the Iris Apartment building on Roy Street near 4th Ave W, shook her. She writes,

The assailant did not take my purse, and it is clear that his intention was sexual assault. I screamed and fought and someone in the Iris apartment building shouted that they were calling the police, and the guy ran off into Kinnear Park. I managed to walk away with just a fat lip (and some stitches and bruises) – but it could have been much, much worse.

Rebecca filed a police report before going to the hospital, but as of last Friday the suspect had not yet been caught. She provided this description:

It was dark and I can’t be certain, but I think the man was a homeless guy I’ve seen in the neighborhood before: white male, 5’10″, 170 pounds, dark chin/shoulder length hair that is wavy/matted, full beard.

Rebecca hopes that her experience will serve as a reminder to those in the community to be aware of their surroundings, and cautious for themselves and their neighbors, especially at night. She wrote,

I still feel that Queen Anne is a wonderful place to live (the fact that neighbors responded within seconds when I screamed is testament to that) but we shouldn’t be complacent about safety. Gentlemen, please consider walking ladies to their cars/homes late at night. And ladies, trust your instincts – if someone looks sketchy, walk away and go to a well lit place (like Bartell’s) or carry something like pepper spray in your purse.

Also, for those of you in the neighborhood, if you hear a scream or tussle outside late at night, please don’t hesitate to call out and say you’re calling the police. I am so fortunate that the residents of that building didn’t just roll back over and go to sleep, or call the police silently and hope for the best; the reason the guy ran off is because someone shouted “I’m calling the police, and coming right down.”

In February of last year another Uptown resident, also on her way home alone, was pushed down and kicked in the face and chest repeatedly just a block away from this recent incident, at Roy and 3rd Ave W. In this case the suspect was after her purse, but the crime startled both the victim and many of her neighbors, who organized an Uptown block watch program in response. This most recent attempted assault is a testament to the need for continued neighborhood safety programs, such as block watch groups, especially in corners of the neighborhood that are poorly lit at night and susceptible to crime.

If anyone has any information on this incident, please contact Seattle Police right away as the suspect is still at large.

Update 11:40 a.m.: We just received an update from Rebecca, who says her injuries are healing up well. Since the incident she’s been working on ways to improve safety in the neighborhood. She writes,

I’m speaking with a reporter who might do a piece on it, and I’m going to try and have him focus on the response of my neighbors, but also the need for street lighting at the end of West Roy Street and the city/county/state to cough up the rest of the funds to make Kinnear Park safe. It has helped that they cleared out so much of the underbrush, but it needs lighting and the other safety features that are part of the new park design. It would also be great if the city would allow us RPZ zone parking (we keep asking and they keep brushing us off) so that residents on the West Mercer/Roy corridor can park their cars near their homes at night; I often have to park 5 or 6 blocks away if it’s a night that people are out at the bars, or there’s an event at Seattle Center.

I haven’t heard anything from the police, but my hope is that he’ll be spotted now that so many people are on the lookout. I definitely want to make sure that women in the neighborhood are smart and safety conscious late at night.

This month’s Uptown Alliance meeting is happening this Thursday, May 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Lower Queen Anne Metropolitan Market restaurant space on the far west side of the store.

Among the hot topics this month is the issue of Metro’s RapidRide D line, which aims to connect neighborhoods in heavily used traffic corridors with frequent and fast connections. The RapidRide D line is scheduled to come to Interbay and Lower Queen Anne in 2012.

Take a look at what’s on the agenda this month:

• Greetings and introductions – Approve minutes
• Honoring Uptown Alliance Founder, Janis Ford
• RapidRide D-Line stops

1. West Mercer Street stop consolidation
2. Pedestrian crossings at West Mercer stop
3. Parking loss on West Mercer St.

• Report on pending Small & Simple Grant Application supporting the outreach phase of planning for the Uptown Triangle, bounded by Denny, Broad, and Aurora.
• Committee Reports

1. Parks
2. Events: A drop-in public meeting space store front for Uptown
3. Planning & Transportation: Meeting with Exec. Dir. Kate Joncas of Seattle Downtown Assn. re/urban decay issues.

• New Business: bring your own topics and comments.

The next Uptown Alliance meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, also at the Lower Queen Anne Metropolitan Market. For more information, contact Rick Hooper at Nsilberg@silberg.net,  or John Coney at djohnconey@aol.com.

Appropriate to the recent “green” holidays, the May Queen Anne Community Council meeting dedicated much of its time to guests speaking on behalf of trees and forests last Wednesday night.

Kay Napton, a member of the Seattle Planning Commission and FOLKpark, spoke on the need of FOLKpark to raise money to fund their $1.5 million project.  The amount raised from grants, about $850,000, falls well short, said Napton. She asked the QACC to help broaden FOLKparks breadth of contacts, such as leaders in the community and environmental groups, that can help raise the remaining funds needed to renovate Lower Kinnear Park.

Plant ecologist Michael Yadrick spoke about the Green Seattle Partnership and their efforts to enhance the tree canopy across the city. He said the organization was six years into its 20-year plan to reforest 2,500 acres, which include the Northeast, Southwest and Kinnear Park Greenbelts. Much of the work is done through volunteers, and Yadrick said Green Seattle Partnership will be looking to engage and recruit citizens in the area to be involved in the reforestation process.

Queen Anne resident Judy Leshner spoke about her development of Queen Anne tree tours based in part on the work of Arthur Lee Jacobson and his book “Trees of Seattle.” Leshner has created five self-guided Queen Anne tree tours to date, but still needs to finalize the tours by verifying some of the information with an arborist.

“I wanted to come up with something that was of interest and use to the Queen Anne community,” said Leshner. “As a former school teacher, I thought would be interesting to school children … and to those in the community and outside, who may go to businesses once they’re here.”

Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce Director of Marketing Mary Chapman said she was interested in putting Leshner’s tree tours on her organization’s upcoming “Visit Queen Anne” website. She was also given ideas by council members on grants and city and organizational contacts.

Apart from the Earth Day and Arbor Day concerns, the transportation committee report headed by committee chair Glenn Avery discussed two letters addressed to SDOT and other interested parties that was passed in a vote at last week’s transportation committee meeting. Both letters were also passed by the council.

The first letter stated several points, including: QACC’s approval of SDOT’s alternative 5 for West Mercer Place; that the project be done this year; that the BAT lane south of West Mercer Place on Elliot Avenue West be converted to general traffic; and that SDOT conduct studies when finished extending the turn lanes on Elliott Avenue West to find out whether the desired results were achieved.

The second letter addressed West Mercer Place and the Mercer West Project more generally. It asked for comprehensive planning for pedestrian safety and movement throughout the Mercer/Roy corridor, as well as planning for parking requirements to sustain area businesses; the incorporation of crosswalks and traffic lights at Fourth Avenue West and Mercer Street and other corners where needed; three lanes each way on Mercer Street under the Aurora Avenue North underpass; the exclusion of in-lane bus stops on Mercer Street unless there are additional unblocked lanes; no construction to take place while the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement, including the Viaduct demolition, is underway; and comprehensive review of the project when it’s finished to find out whether it’s working or if it needs changes.

In addition, another “stronger” letter specifically addressing parking in Uptown with respect to the Mercer West Project will be written.

Councilmember Kirk Robbins also spoke about the possibility of Lake City’s temporary tent city moving to one of two sites in the Magnolia/Queen Anne area. The mayor convened a panel that picked seven possible sites for a permanent tent city, said Robbins, including one at the West Yard down on the waterfront and another on a Seattle City Light site in the West Dravus Street area of Magnolia. All of these sites are “back on the table,” and the evaluation process by the Seattle City Council was extended into July, said Robbins. QACC Chair Ellen Monrad said that they will continue to monitor the city’s decision making on the permanent tent city, and council members floated the idea of writing a letter.

The Uptown Alliance‘s monthly meeting is happening this Thursday, April 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Lower Queen Anne Metropolitan Market.

There are a number of interesting topics on the agenda for this month’s meeting, including ongoing developments in the West Mercer Place debate, the redevelopment plan for the Uptown Triangle area, and possible locations for a low-cost housing development in Uptown. Check out the agenda here:

1. Greetings and introductions – Approve minutes
2. What are your potential Uptown Alliance topics, concerns, issues? We’re listening to you!
3. West Mercer Place and Mercer West Project: SDOT presentation (Eric O’Brien) – Should Uptown Alliance give further input to Mercer West?
4. Community Day School Assn. (Matt Adkins) (5 min.)
5. Uptown Triangle EIS: Next Steps (Hooper, Kenny, Coney) – Should Uptown Alliance apply for a small & simple grant to begin funding of the EIS process, leading to a larger DON grant in ’12?
6. Low-cost housing in Uptown: (Hooper) – Possible locations.
7. Minor rezone considerations for Uptown (Hooper, Coney, Kenny)
8. Privately Funded Mobility Plan report (Coney)
9. Urban Decay symptoms: (Coney, Kenny) – New Center City leadership group is forming.
10. New Business: bring your own topics and comments.

The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 14 at Met Market. As always the meeting will take place in the Met Market restaurant space on the far west side of the building. Meeting attendees should enter the market under the escalator at the southwest corner of the building and turn left past the cash registers at the lunch counter into the restaurant space.

For more information on the Uptown Alliance group, its activities, and meetings, contact Rick Hooper at Nsilberg@silberg.net or John Coney at  djohnconey@aol.com.

Apparel and accessories boutique Peridot moved to its new home 532 Queen Anne Ave and opened six days earlier than expected this weekend.

The new space, the former home of Underdawg Records, is larger than the boutique’s previous shop just one block away on 1st Ave W, allowing Peridot to expand its stock to include more clothing designers, jewelry and shoes.

Find out more about the shop and its offerings at the Peridot website. More details on what you can find at the new space here.

Just down the block from the new Peridot, the Lower Queen Anne Blockbuster closed its doors for good this weekend.

Blockbuster first announced it would be closing the Lower Queen Anne store back in February, a year and a half after shuttering the Upper Queen Anne store. The store shut its doors for the final time on Sunday, after selling the majority of stock on clearance. The shop’s shelves were pretty bare on Saturday, with a handful titles interspersed here and there throughout the empty isles. Everything that wasn’t sold before closing was moved to another store, according to a Blockbuster employee. Still no work on what, if anything, will go into this storefront.

After Abraxus Books announced it would be closing just 20 months after moving to Lower Queen Anne from Ballard, its home for seven years, neighboring store Mother Nature’s has said that it too is closing its doors this month.

Mother Nature’s, a natural health store that has been a staple of Lower Queen Anne retailers for 35 years, is closing up shop at the end of the month, according to owner Stephanie Gilbert.

This drawing was created by Mother Nature’s employee Sara Spidell, depicting Sara, Stephanie and Elaine (Stephanie’s mom and prior owner). The date is inaccurate, according to Gilbert, who says the store has been open since 1974.

The store, which has been in Gilbert’s family since the ’70s, has seen declining business for some time now, she says.

“I grew up in the store—since I was 12 I’ve worked here. In the ’80s and ’90s it was a rocking store. We’d get 160 people in the store a day. Now we get 60 people a day,” she said. “Business has been pretty crappy, to be frank, for the past couple years… it’s just hard to be an independent retailer in the city. If we were in Cle Elum, we would probably be fine.”

Though the mixed-use development planned for 100 Republican Street spurred the decision to close, Gilbert says the saturation of the market (with customers coming into the store, finding what they want, and then buying it from larger suppliers who can offer cheaper prices like Costco, Super Supplements, or online) has ultimately led to the store’s choice to close down, rather than relocate.

“It really bums me out that people don’t make a conscious effort to shop local,” Gilbert said. “It’s destroying our communities.”

The property owners of the building that houses Abraxus and Mother Nature’s, the Burkheimer Family LLC, plan to turn the Seattle Center and KeyArena-adjacent site into a residential/retail mixed-use development that will span from the current storefronts to the edge of the empty lot at 100 Republican.

The six-story building will house 275 units–studios, 1-2 bedrooms and 10 town homes–parking, 17,725 square feet of street level retail space, two rooftop courtyards, and a 2,000 square-foot outdoor plaza on Republican that will serve as an entrance to the building. After a series of public hearings on the project, developers have been given the go-ahead to move forward with the project. Developers expect to complete the project in 2012.

While the new development will house ground-level retail, Gilbert says the rent would have been too high for Mother Nature’s to re-open in the new building. But despite the fact that Abraxus and Mother Nature’s will be closing to make way for the development, many in the community support the project. In a negotiation with the city to allow the development to use part of the alleyway bounded by Mercer Street, Republican Street, 1st Avenue N and Warren Avenue N, developers added plans for a public plaza (equipped with a rain garden) to the plan.

On top of that, Uptown Alliance co-chair John Coney shared his support of this proposal with City Council’s Transportation Committee this past fall, noting that he believed the project would revitalize a “dead block” in the neighborhood.

“It’s an important redevelopment on what is now a substantially dead block of Republican,”  he said.  “It is going to bring housing onto Warren Avenue North.  We believe that is important because that is another dead block in an urban center.”

For the time being, Mother Nature’s and Abraxus are making preparations for closing.

Gilbert says her lease is up on the 28th. She plans to keep the store open until just a few days before then (though no final date has been set yet), to clear out its current stock and say goodbye to longtime customers. Everything in the store is currently 30 percent off. Gilbert says discounts could go as high as 75 percent as the end of the month nears.

Abraxus will be closing in just a few days, on Saturday, February 12. “Our building is being torn down and we’re calling it a day on this chapter,” the owners Carol and  Tony wrote on the store’s Facebook page. The last month since announcing plans to close has been a “pretty emotional time” for them, Carol wrote to us.

Everything in the store is being sold at 50 percent off, and bookshelves and other fixtures are also up for sale. The store will be open from 12 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on its last day Saturday.

After announcing that it would be reviewing the Seattle Department of Transportation’s new pay parking rates around town yesterday, the city and SDOT released adjusted rates today that will be rolling out across Seattle over the next two months.

See a larger version of the map here. (.pdf)

The new rates originally announced two weeks ago were set to bring down prices from $2/hour to $1.50/hour in Lower Queen Anne’s Uptown neighborhood, and to $1 to $1.25 in the area known as the “Uptown Triangle”—between Denny Way, Aurora, and Broad Street. (The $1 rate was set for short-term parking between 2 and 4 hours, while the $1.25 rate was for long-term parking up to 10 hours at a time).

The new rates didn’t lower parking citywide however, with many neighborhood retail districts seeing rates increase as high as $4/hour. This, alongside SDOT’s plan to extend pay parking hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in a number of the city’s thriving nightlife districts–Uptown, the Commercial Core, Belltown, Pioneer Square, Chinatown/International District, Broadway, Pike-Pine, and the University District–fueled a strong backlash from community groups and neighborhood and city business associations calling for a review of the plan before implementation.

In response the city made modifications to its initial rate change plans. From SDOT:

Based on a thorough review of the City’s rate-setting approach, rates for 2011 will go up in four neighborhoods, down in 11 neighborhoods and will stay the same in seven others as compared to 2010 rates. This will result in 73 percent of paid spaces having either no change or a rate reduction.

The new rates in Uptown will stay at the initial decreased price of $1.50/hour, however in the Uptown Triangle area SDOT opted to further drop rates to $1/hour for both short-term and long-term parking stays.

The city says the new changes should allow it to achieve its goal of having one to two open parking spaces per block on average.

Two weeks ago we reported on SDOT’s announcement that it would be implementing changing parking rates and extended pay hours all around Seattle, including a $0.50 to $1/hour decrease (paired with an increase in pay hours from 6 to 8 p.m.) in Lower Queen Anne. Many around the city, and here in QA, were displeased. And you weren’t alone.

A number of residents and community groups citywide have spoken out against the parking rate changes, particularly in the areas where hikes will push rates to $4/hour. On Monday a collation of local organizations wrote a letter to City Council voicing their concerns and urging them to revisit the methodology behind the rate hikes.

We do not believe that increasing meter rates to $4.00 per hour Downtown, or $2.00 per hour in neighborhoods such as Fremont and the University District, is consistent with the policy objectives established by the City Council nor do we believe the proposed increases are supported by SDOT’s study. Further, charging for on-street parking until 8 pm in some neighborhoods will directly impact many restaurants that bring pedestrian-scale vitality to our business districts.

The results of SDOT’s study demonstrate that occupancy levels in most Seattle neighborhoods fall below the threshold of 78% established by SDOT for a majority of the day. SDOT has indicated that their recommendation to increase rates is based on the occupancy levels at the point in the day when demand is greatest (“peak period”.) Setting all day rates based on the one hour of the day when demand is greatest is the equivalent of the Seattle Seahawks charging Super Bowl ticket prices for regular season games. We believe this approach is fundamentally flawed and will discourage people from parking in neighborhood business districts.

We urge the Council to look closely at the study methodology and the basis for raising rates. The proposed increases in meter rates are not in keeping with the letter or spirit of your policy direction and will have harmful impacts on the viability of small businesses in Seattle. Consider for a moment that under this proposal Seattle would have some of the most expensive on-street parking of any city in the country.

Groups represented in this letter included the including the Downtown Seattle Association, Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Belltown Business Association, Greater University Chamber of Commerce, Washington Restaurants Association, and Seattle Business Association. Read the full letter here (.pdf).

It seems the city was listening to these groups and neighborhoods, many of which would be facing a new $4.00/hour parking rate. According to a report by The Seattle Times, the city is putting these revised rates under review before making them official. From the Times:

At a lunch-time forum at City Hall, Councilmember Tim Burgess said the City Council has asked for a review of a parking study used by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to set the new rates.

Mike Estey, SDOT manager, said staff were “scrubbing the numbers, the data and methodology” in the wake of criticism that the rates would hurt small businesses and were based on peak-occupancy, not typical parking availability.

No word on what changes might be in order and whether or not this affects Lower Queen Anne/Uptown specifically, which was facing decreased rates in the new plan. At least for the time being you can expect parking to stay at the same-old $2/hour rates  at the foot of the hill.

The area bounded by Denny Way, Broad, and Aurora, squeezed between the Seattle Center and South Lake Union, has been called by many names, but is probably most known as the “Uptown Triangle.” Some like to call it the “the lost triangle.”

The 36-acre area just southeast of Queen Anne, highlighted in pink above, is currently filled with wide roads and industrial buildings. But over the last year the Uptown Alliance and representatives from the Queen Anne Community Council have been working to get the city to redevelop the area, alongside development plans already in the works for the nearby Mercer corridor and deep bored tunnel projects.

In September QACC Land Use Regulation Commission and Planning chair Craig Hanway presented the City Council’s Committee on Built Environment with a plan (.pdf) to fix up the space. From the report:

A 36 acre area in Seattle’s Uptown Urban Center [is] surrounded by a vibrant community, rich with jobs, public amenities and cultural assets. However, the Triangle remains neglected and underutilized. It’s time to heal the scars created by Broad Street and the “Mercer Mess”.

At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 27 Hanway and Uptown Alliance and QACC transportation chair John Coney will present the recent planning recommendations for the Uptown Triangle in a public forum.

With ideas on everything from building bike lanes and parks, mixed-use retail and apartment complexes, and promoting connections between the urban centers of Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and downtown, Hanway and Coney envision creating a more residential, family friendly, transit-served, bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhood with its own identity. The ultimate goal of the Uptown Triangle development project is to create a vibrant urban community that serves as a crossroads between the high-tech, telecommunications, and arts and global health hubs that surround it.

Some of the early ideas being considered for the Uptown Triangle include:

• Adding a major bicycle route to John Street;
• Running streetcar lines on Thomas Street, 5th, and Republican;
• Envisioning Thomas Street as a café-lined thoroughfare with ground-floor retail;
• Townhouses on John Street, Taylor, and 6th;
• Diversity of housing types and affordability;
• Transit and walkable links to Denny Park and the Seattle Center;
• Using trees and green space to offset the urban environment at the Harrison Street portal to the SR 99 tunnel.

Thursday’s meeting will take place at GGLO Architecture, at 1301 First Avenue, Suite 301 (located on the north side of the Harbor Steps, across from the Seattle Art Museum). The QACC and Uptown Alliance are eager to hear comments from the community about the plan. For more information, contact John Coney at 206-283-2049.

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.

Abraxus Books at 524 1st Ave. N. in Lower Queen Anne is due to close. The bookstore opened at the current location in June of 2009, transferring from Ballard where they operated for seven years.

The store is holding a  50 percent off sale for all their used books.

Photo taken from Abraxus’s Facebook page.

Owner declined to comment about the closing and the closing date, but we will update you when we have more information.

Update 1/19 9:30 a.m.: After hearing the news yesterday we reached out to local literary rock star and Library Journal 2011 Librarian of the Year Nancy Pearl (who is a fan of Abraxus Books on Facebook) for comment. “The closure of any independent bookstore – new or used – is a sad event for the reading community,” she wrote to us this morning.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced Friday that parking rates in the Uptown neighborhood will decrease from $2 an hour to $1.50. Pay hours in Lower Queen Anne, however, will increase.

As part of the 2011 budget, Mayor McGinn and City Council introduced a new policy that allows the city to set on-street parking rates and hours by neighborhood, “so that, on average, one to two spaces are available for visitor and shopper access.”

The new policy will see parking rate increases in nine neighborhoods where occupancy and demand are high. Rates in 13 other areas, including Lower Queen Anne, will either stay the same or decrease.

The new parking rates, which will be effective in February and March, will see hourly rates decrease to $1.50 in the majority of Uptown, and to between $1 to $1.25 in the area known as the “Uptown Triangle”—between Denny Way, Aurora, and Broad Street. (The $1 rate is for short-term parking between 2 and 4 hours, while the $1.25 rate is for long-term parking up to 10 hours at a time).

A number of the city’s thriving nightlife districts, including Uptown, the Commercial Core, Belltown, Pioneer Square, Chinatown/International District, Broadway, Pike-Pine, and the University District, will also see paid parking hours extended until 8 p.m. From SDOT:

Seattle’s center city and many neighborhood business districts are active destinations for customers and visitors well into the evening. Charging in the evening will enhance parking turnover and access in areas with an active nightlife and other evening businesses.

Currently paid parking hours end at 6 p.m. The new, extended hours will roll out beginning in April and continue through September 2011.

Along with the coming changes to on-street paid parking, the city will also be initiating a new way for people to pre-pay for parking. Beginning in February and March the hours that pay stations collect payments will also change. Currently pay stations do not accept payment between closing at 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. Under the new system pay stations will close at 6 p.m. (or 8 p.m., depending on the neighborhood) as usual, but will re-open at 10 p.m. to allow drivers to pre-pay for the first two hours of the following morning.

It’s a sad day for neighborhood film buffs. This morning Seattle Times moviegoing musings writer Moira Macdonald broke the news that Queen Anne’s Uptown Theatre (AMC Uptown 3) will be closing its doors for good come November 28.

An AMC representative confirmed the closure with Macdonald, adding that the company systematically updates its theatres by upgrading and adding new screens, and “disposing of older screens through closures and sales.” The representative added:

Unfortunately, the AMC Uptown 3 has been identified as a theatre that no longer competes effectively in the marketplace and will close at the end of business on Nov. 28.

“Losing the theater is a real loss to the neighborhood. Any word if a buyer will keep it a movie theater?” Queen Anne-er John Carter told QueenAnneView this morning. He hopes that another local organization will get involved to save the historic theatre, which originally opened with a single screen (with two more added later) in 1926.

“Maybe SIFF would get involved?” Carter wrote. “Even though SIFF has that downstairs theater I know they want more (no money of course) Maybe Vera Project? (no money of course)…Mayor’s Office of Film & Music comes to mind… Save the Uptown!”

I contacted SIFF to see if they, indeed, would be interested and have the resources necessary to take over the Uptown. I received a response almost immediately.

“It really is unfortunate that Uptown theater is closing. I used to go there many times and even when I was growing up so personally it’s a shame that it is closing,” SIFF representative Tod Steward wrote. “Maybe Paul Allen or someone like him would finance it to stay open…just like what he did with Cinerama.” Unfortunately Steward says that SIFF currently is not in a position to take over the theatre.

Although the Uptown plans to close in ten days, what will become of the landmark theatre with the quirky pink marquee is still up in the air. A note to AMC asking about its plans for the property was answered as follows:

“The landlord may be able to answer your questions and/or provide information about the future plans or use of the theatre space,” wrote AMC representative Justin Scott.

We haven’t been able to reach the landlord of the Uptown yet, but will keep you posted as we hear more.

With little time until closing day, some in the community are hoping to find a suitor to not only save the building, but keep it in the business of screening films. Since the news broke this morning Carter has been busy posting notes all over Facebook—on the walls of the Office of Film and Music, Community Cinema, Seattle Area Filmmakers, and others—asking community members to gather in support of the theatre and voice their opinions in our forum and in the comments to this post.

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!