The current Windward Communications Group building at 504 N 85th Street is slated for the development of a new 6-7 story multi-family residential development, with construction starting in either 2022 or 2023.

The building will contain a variety of unit sizes including small efficiency dwelling units, studios and one-bedroom apartments. There will also be market-rate housing and affordable units under the City of Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program. Parking is not provided, per city code.

You can take the developer’s online survey to share your thoughts about the project site and components. You can also send comments that will be documented and submitted to the City here.

LEADPrep is a local middle/high micro-school whose educational philosophy is based on a collaborative, experiential, and learner-centered environment. They are currently offering full-day instruction with afternoons in-person. Housed in the Phinney Center’s lower brick building (and right now, in its parking lot!), their 6th-12th grade micro-school has a 1-6 teacher/student ratio.

LEADPrep is still welcoming new students. Here are some details:

• Hands-on project-based learning means less than 30 minutes of homework nightly, completed with the teachers from 2:30-3:00
• Kindness and collaboration are emphasized
• Afternoon in-person instruction is safe: six feet apart, outdoors, with masks on
• Multi-age classrooms allow for students to easily work at a faster or slower personalized pace
• Tuition is on a sliding scale, with financial aid available

Email info@lead-prep.org to find out more and schedule a visit.

Looking for a fun night out? For the next three weekends you can load up your car with your household, pack your favorite snacks, and come join us for carpool cinema weekends featuring stories about and starring African Americans, brought to you by University Heights Center, Project Pilgrimage, and Scarecrow Video and PNA.

This Friday (9/18) & Saturday (9/19) will feature the four-time Academy Award-nominated film, “Beasts of The Southern Wild” – a fantastical, emotionally powerful journey of a six-year-old girl who, buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, believes that the natural order is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

For the second film in the series (Thursday 9/24 & Friday 9/25), they will be showing “42” to celebrate the life of star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away recently. This 2013 American biographical sports film is about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the modern era. 

For the final weekend in the series (Friday 10/2 & Saturday 10/3), they will be showing the film “Get Out”, a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. Get Out follows the story of a young African-American man who uncovers a disturbing secret when he meets the family of his white girlfriend.

The show will be in the Phinney Center Lower Lot. 7:30 open; show at 8 pm. This is a ticketed event with limited spaces, so reserve your spot now! Visit https://www.uheightscenter.org/upcoming-events for tickets and to learn more about the upcoming shows.

Join your neighbors as a community steward this Saturday for an hour or two of weeding and clean up of planting beds in Alice Ball Park, on Greenwood Ave N. across from the Greenwood Library.

Bring your gloves and weeding tools – and your mask. The Friends of Alice Ball Park will supply buckets and bins, and some sanitizing supplies.

Due to social distancing, volunteer opportunities will be limited. Please send an email to Bill Farmer at farmerbill3@gmail.com if you’d like to join.

The park is named after Alice Ball, an African American chemist who developed the “Ball Method” that was the most effective treatment for leprosy in the early 1900s. Ball was born in Seattle, Washington and studied chemistry the University of Washington.

With last week’s permanent closure of all the Chaco Canyon Organic Cafes – including their flagship location on 84th and Greenwood – and the announcement by longtime retailer 3 Wishes Clothing Boutique that they will be closing by the end of the month, the lasting impacts of the pandemic are coming to bear. An employee of 3 Wishes relayed the owner had “really no choice under the current retail environment.”

While the City’s commercial eviction moratorium and numerous local and federal relief efforts have breathed life into many businesses, it is also clear that all businesses cannot pivot to a model that will sustain them through the coming year without continued governmental and community assistance.

The outset of the pandemic saw several losses in the neighborhood, including Body By Impulse deciding that they could not ride out their retail lease to Phase 3, the owners of Hecho deciding that it was time to refresh the space with a new concept (bringing back Martino’s) and Caffe Vita abruptly leaving. Recent months have seen the losses of Bohemian Studios, Gibran and Whole Life Yoga among others.

Some of the businesses that we have lost have moved on for reasons not clearly related to the pandemic: Luso relocated to Whidbey Island, Seattle Knife Sharpening moved to Montana, and Chef Liao is being forced out by development of the building.

However, in the midst of all this change, Phinney Ridge and Greenwood are still known as a great place to be a small business. We have seen some notable openings that were in the works before the pandemic, including the already beloved RidgeWood Bottle and Tap and – in the PNA’s parking lot for now but soon in their space in the Phinney Flats – the Bar Method. The former Luso space is going to be Baraka Gemstones and Jewelry, and Caffe Vita quickly became the second location of the Pie Bar. Local building owners and real estate agents are reporting there is high interest in many of the spaces that are now vacant.

The big difference between this business district and others is a collective commitment to community and buying local. If you ask most anyone who lives in Phinney Ridge and Greenwood what the best part of living here is, you will invariably be told that it’s the walkabilty and access to our business district. From the anchors of our community – Ken’s and Greenwood Hardware – to the incredible collection of community-focused banks, to truly unique businesses like A la Mode Pies, Versatile Arts, The Cozy Nut, Couth Buzzard Books, and so many more, we are truly blessed.

As always, the best thing we can all do is Buy Local and then Buy Local some more to support the businesses in the neighborhood we love get through this difficult and challenging time.

he people have spoken and the Phinney Center listened: the PhinneyWood Garage Sale Day can’t be missed! Whether you have accumulated stuff and haven’t wanted to wait in the long lines at Goodwill, or you love to shop the bargains and treasures, mark your calendar for the 27th iteration of our neighborhood’s favorite annual event (wearing masks and safely distancing, of course.)

In order to pull this off in a short turn-around before the weather gets rainy, this year may be a bit pared-down version from years past, with a Google map instead of the professionally custom-made map that has been provided before.

There won’t be a flea market, plant exchange, or tool sale at the Phinney Center this year. 

Register your yard sale by Sept. 22

On Aug. 31, title for the Ballard P-Patch property transferred from Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church to the nonprofit organization GROW Northwest for $1.95 million. GROW, which owns or co-owns six other properties in Seattle’s P-Patch program, now owns the 1.66-acre parcel. Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods continues to manage the community garden.

A bridge loan, secured through Verity Credit Union, allowed the purchase to close in a timely fashion, prior to King County Council’s official approval of the garden’s application for a $1.25 million Conservation Futures Tax grant. A motion passed by King County Council in March indicates that the CFT grant will be fully funded when the Council makes its vote this fall.

Some $300,000 remains to be raised, to cover the difference between funds already raised and the CFT grant, which is contingent on matching funds. Ballard P-Patch must pay off the loan within two years.

“We are so grateful to Jeanne Kohl-Welles and her staff, to our entire Washington State Legislative team, and to each and every one of our volunteers who have pitched in to make this seemingly impossible project a reality,” effused Ballard P-Patch co-chair Cindy Krueger in email to the garden membership last week.

GROW’s long-term goal is to preserve the land as open space, operated as a community garden and open to the public.

Gardeners in the P-Patch program pay a yearly fee to maintain garden plots, and volunteers at Ballard P-Patch host community events, educate about sustainable gardening practices, and grow organic produce that supplies area food banks and senior center feeding programs. P-Patch sites have also been designated as community emergency hubs throughout the city – gathering places in cases of emergencies such as earthquake or fire.

To help complete their fundraising, Ballard P-Patch is holding a virtual fun run Sept. 25-27. The event is a 5k that participants complete on a route of their choosing. Sign up to participate here. Donations can also be made anytime at saveballardppatch.org.

For more information about Ballard P-Patch, visit their website at ballardppatch.org.

The Emerald City Game Masters Guild is a local group of professional game masters who run various tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The Guild has moved its games online this year and is currently offering a fall program of after school activities for ages 10-18, every day Monday-Friday from 4-6pm.

How about Tuesday’s Icewind Dale club? “The darkness of a stormy winter. The terror of haunting sounds in the night. The beating of your heart in your chest as you burrow deeper under your cloak. Only the promise of mysteries unfolded, magical treasures, and an end to the darkness keeps you searching the edges of civilization. Can you survive the horrors and dangers of this deadly winter? ‘Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden‘ is the newest adventure from Dungeons & Dragons. Players in this club will have the opportunity to play through a brand new adventure and explore the genre of horror in a safe setting.“

If you know a young person who would be interested in Dungeons & Dragons or other role-playing adventure games, check out the ECGMG fall program here.