Update: According to City Light’s outage map, power has been restored to all customers.

Earlier: Power is out to about 400 Seattle City Light customers in Greenwood, roughly between North/NW 85th Street up to 92nd Street, and between Phinney Avenue North and 3rd Avenue North.

Fred Meyer is one of the businesses affected. James was there at 5:30 p.m. and tells me workers were covering the food displays but the cash registers still worked.

According to City Light’s outage map, the outage was caused by a tree at about 4:45 p.m. Power is expected to be restored by 7:48 p.m.

Update 7:15 p.m.: A Fred Meyer employee just told me by phone the store has a backup generator that is powering the registers and about half the lights in the store. But there’s no power to the deli, dairy or frozen grocery areas.

Update 7:35 p.m.: A Safeway employee just told me by phone that the store is still open and cash registers are working, however, the store can’t sell hot or cold items.

Puget Sound Energy representatives will be in our neighborhood tomorrow providing safety information to residents and business — on the anniversary of the natural gas explosion that demolished three businesses and damaged another 50 in the heart of Greenwood.

Dom Amor, PSE local government affairs and public policy manager, and Wendy Weiker, PSE outreach manager for King County, attended the Phinney Neighborhood Association Business Group’s quarterly lunch today. Amor said PSE will be stepping up its partnership with the PNA, and plans to join the PNA Business Group to become more involved in the community.

PSE representatives will set up an information table in the Fred Meyer parking lot beginning around 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday), and will visit neighborhood businesses to discuss safety issues. Later in the afternoon, somewhere around 2-6 p.m., representatives will be walking neighborhood streets, checking in with homeowners about natural gas safety.

“We take this anniversary very seriously,” Weiker said. “This is kind of an all-hands-on-deck event. Safety is the bottom line.”

Amor said after the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s department of Pipeline Safety released its September report saying the explosion was the result of an improperly decommissioned gas line that was later damaged, PSE checked all other decommissioned lines in the neighborhood to make sure they had been properly decommissioned.

The UTC investigation is ongoing, with a settlement meeting scheduled for July 6.

Greenwood’s School of Rock and Fred Meyer are teaming up for the GreenwoodBlastsOff Community Summer Concert from 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, at Fred Meyer.

It’s a free, all-ages event featuring The Not-Its!; School of Rock Seattle’s House Band of teen musicians; Amos Miller with Coyote Central youth; EMP Sound Off! 2015 winners One Above Below None; Tom Nook; poetry readings by Seattle Civic Poet Claudia Castro Luna; hands-on youth art activities facilitated by Seattle ReCreative; and live art by Greenwood muralists.

The idea is empower youth artists and musicians to help contribute toward relief and rebuilding efforts as our neighborhood continues to recover from the March 9 natural gas explosion that destroyed three businesses and damaged another 50.

Information booths will provide help with household and neighborhood preparedness and safety, relief and rebuilding efforts, and local resources. Vendors include Puget Sound Energy and the Phinney Neighborhood Association (which administered the Greenwood Relief Fund after the explosion).

North Seattle Boys & Girls Club in Greenwood will be showing off air rockets designed by K-12th graders, in partnership with Starfish Education and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Pacific Northwest. SIXR will let youth explore virtual reality technology by capturing and sharing 360 images/videos, interviewing performing artists and musicians, and hosting a photo booth.

Susan tells us she was approached as part of a scam in Greenwood Fred Meyer’s parking lot on Saturday.

This afternoon, I was approached in the parking lot at the Greenwood Fred Meyer by two young Hispanic men who offered to repair the dents in my old Toyota for $500. Their white pick-up truck had magnetic signs reading “Mobile Auto Body.” I’d already received an estimate of $1,000 for the same work from a reputable body shop on Greenwood Ave. The men insisted that I let them do the work on the spot. Alternatively, they offered to follow me to my home where they could do the work.

I realized it was a scam and asked them for a card and for references. They said the price they offered me was good only for today. One of the men flashed his WA drivers’ license and cited his car’s magnetic signs as proof that he was legitimate. After I decline and got into my car, another young man knocked on my window. He claimed they had done satisfactory work for him and urged me to accept the offer. I declined again and drove away.

When I got home I Googled “mobile auto body repair scam” and learned that con artists like these guys target elderly people, vandalize their cars and demand payment. http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-angeles/1647022-have-you-been-approached-one-these.html, http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=120739&showcomments=T, http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2141459/dent-repair-removal-scam

Did anyone else experience this?

Neighbors of the remodeled Greenwood Fred Meyer complained after an extra-wide truck turn lane was painted on 3rd Avenue NW before the store’s grand reopening in February. The wide lane meant street parking  in that stretch was prohibited, and cars heading northbound drove dangerously close to the curb and driveways of neighboring houses.

But, a neighbor tells us that after repeated complaints to Seattle Department of Transportation, the turn lane has been repainted and is much smaller, allowing more room for drivers going straight.

Here’s a roundup of various neighborhood news, in no particular order.

Snoose Junction, 10406 Holman Rd. NW, closed its doors on March 9.

Tony’s Coffee Bar, 7001 3rd Ave. NW, is hosting the second in its literary series on Friday evening. “Three Washington Writers and One From Portland” is from 7-10 p.m. on Friday, March 22. Four authors will read from their works: Nicole Rosevear, Ellen Parker, Jennifer D. Munro and Erin Gilbert. The event is free; refreshments will be served. Tony’s also will be giving away free Italianos from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. that day to celebrate the literary event.

Greenwood nonprofit writing and tutoring center 826 Seattle is partnering with Couth Buzzard Books for a “Whipper Snapper’s Cabaret” Saturday night. Talented students from 826 Seattle will take the stage for poetry and singing. Joining them are jazz musician Kenny Mandell’s jazz workshop Students, spoken word artist/DJ William Higareda (MC Vajra), humor essayist Marianne Hale and “trickster/wordsmith” Holly Brown. Free; food and drinks available for purchase. The Cabaret starts at 7:30 p.m. at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N.

Phinney resident Howard Snyder, a fine art landscape photographer, has a solo photography exhibition called “Chasing Shadows, Chasing Light” at Seattle Creative Arts Center through the end of this month.

PhinneyWood reader Joey Pauley contacted us, seeking witnesses to a car accident at the intersection of North 80th Street and Linden Avenue North on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m.

This is a photo of Pauley’s red car…

And the other driver’s black car.

If you witnessed this accident, please call Joey at 206-651-5639.

A PhinneyWood reader contacted us because they were concerned about the new Greenwood Fred Meyer’s lack of recycling containers for customers to use. We contacted Fred Meyer and received this response:

Fred Meyer takes pride in the recycling program we have in each of our stores. It is part of our commitment towards a more sustainable business. We work hard to wrap up all loose ends with a new store opening as quickly as possible. Recycling stations for Customers are now available at your new Greenwood store. Thank you for shopping with us and for recycling!

Woodland Park Zoo’s new lion cubs now have full access to the entire lion exhibit from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, weather permitting. The waiting line to view the cubs in the lion shelter has been removed.

Photo by Dennis Dow, Woodland Park Zoo.

“The Cheap Bastard’s Guide to Seattle” author David Volk is looking for recommendations on freebies and deals in Greenwood and Phinney Ridge for his book’s second edition, due in May. (We profiled Volk in December 2010.)

If any of your readers know about great happy hours, places to go to hear live music for free, ways to see movies for free or cheap, amazingly cheap restaurants and places to see comedy for cheap, please have them drop me an e-mail. All people who make suggestions that he uses will be named in the book’s acknowledgements, the top five win a wonderfully kitschy prize and the best one wins a free copy of the new book when it comes out.

Just a reminder that the Greenwood Community Council’s bi-monthly meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. On the agenda is a report from the Legislature by 36th District State Rep. Gael Tarleton, and a panel discussion about Greenwood Town Center (the area encompassing Fred Meyer, Piper Village and a few other properties.

Panelists include Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin; Gary Brunt of Greenwood Shopping Center; Scott Nolte, Producing Artistic Director of Taproot Theatre; and Matt Anderson, Heartland LLC.

Eight years ago the Greenwood Community Council joined with the (former) Phinney-Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, representatives from city departments, the Greenwood Shopping Center and Fred Meyer to develop a plan for Greenwood’s Town Center. It was a pro-active approach by the Community Council to develop a vision for new development, and the focus was on things that would make the Town Center more active and pedestrian-friendly, uniting the pedestrian downtown with the more car-friendly shopping center. Consultants were hired to look at the mix of businesses that could be attracted to the area, the urban form and transportation system, and their work was discussed in large public forums. The plan called for new design guidelines (since adopted), mixed use development on the shopping center site, and a walkway or street connection between downtown and the shopping center among other things.

The new Fred Meyer is completed, the first stages of Piper Village are done, a new street connecting Greenwood and the shopping center is shaping up, and the Taproot is getting ready to construct their theatre expansion. So the questions for this meeting is: What still needs to be done to make the Town Center active, walkable and economically healthy? How can the Fred Meyer be an anchor for activity throughout the Town Center that results in a better downtown Greenwood?

If you’ve got young children, chances are they rode the mechanical pony that sat in front of the Greenwood Fred Meyer for years (my son was obsessed).

Now, after numerous requests to bring the pony back, Store Director Pete Laudadio had the horse refurbished and installed on Tuesday in front of the newly remodeled store. Get your quarters ready!

Fred Meyer reopened its Greenwood store on Friday to huge crowds, which continued through Saturday. The remodeled store added 55,000 square feet, for a total of 192,000 square feet on two levels.

Neighbors turned out for the grand opening ceremony, complete with hundreds of cupcakes, on Friday afternoon.

And Fred Meyer donated $5,000 each to the Greenwood Senior Center, Greenwood Food Bank, Greenwood Library, North Seattle Boys & Girls Club in Greenwood, and PAWS.

Store Director Pete Laudadio presents a $5,000 check to Greenwood Senior Center Director Cecily Kaplan (right) and PNA Board President Kris Cummings (left). (Photos courtesy of Phinney Neighborhood Association Business Membership Group.)