Next month brings the return of a popular northeast Seattle event - NEST’s community dinner with Nancy Pearl and friends.

The dinner is a fund-raiser for NEST - North East Seattle Together. It will be held Sunday, March 30, from 5-8 p.m.

Pearl - an international literary star - is being joined by a radio host who often interviews her, Steve Scher of KUOW public radio. Both live in northeast Seattle.

They will be talking about books - their current favorites and the ones that played a significant role in their lives.

Last year’s event, also featuring Pearl, filled the hall. More than 130 people, 24 volunteers and 18 businesses contributed, raising over $20,000 to support NEST, a local non-profit organization offering neighborhood support, enriching programs and trusted resources that enable aging northeast Seattle residents to remain in their homes and to engage meaningfully in our community.

This year’s community event, titled “NE Seattle Treasures,” is at Faith Lutheran Church, 8208 18th Ave. N.E.

Individual tickets to the dinner and program are $75, a portion of which will be tax deductible. To register online, go to the NEST website and click on the event image in the middle of page. To pay by check, please send a check to NEST, PO Box 51009, Seattle, WA 98115 and include a note with (1) the name of each ticket holder, (2) your address and phone number.

For more information about NEST or this event, contact Judy Kinney, NEST executive director, at [email protected], 206.525.6378, or visit www.nestseattle.org.

Disclosure: Mike, the author of this post, is also the current NEST board president.

Update 1 p.m.: Crews removing fence panels tell us they should all be gone at day’s end.

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This message came in earlier this morning:

Hey there! Looks like most of the barriers to the lower park are down! Cupcake (ed. note: four legs) and I checked it out! - Jan (ed. note: two legs).

They are right. The fence from the upper Reservoir Park blocking access to the lower play fields is gone.

And most of the lower fence, blocking access from the south, is gone as well.

City parks said the play fields should open this Spring as soon as the grass was healthy enough. Apparently the snow play earlier this month didn’t intervene.

Picnic tables, too.

Congratulations, Maple Leaf.

We - and our neighbors Victory Heights, Pinehurst and Northgate - won a $50,000 community project for being really good about recycling.

The CleanScapes “Thursday North” collection area won the 2013 Neighborhood Waste Reduction Rewards competition and will receive a $50,000 community improvement project.

Between now and April 15, 2014, Seattle residents have the opportunity to submit project proposals for construction in the “Thursday North” collection area. Representatives from the neighborhood community councils in the “Thursday North” area will recommend the winning project(s) to CleanScapes using the criteria below.

For background, see our previous post: “No way are we more trashy than Ravenna.” (more…)

Elise emails:

Hi.I recently completed a new Little Free Library for you all

It’s got several shelves of books - come check it out!

9820 17th Ave N.E.

One note about lending - if you want to borrow (or keep) a book from a series, please grab the entire series at once so we don’t end up with incomplete sets that nobody wants.

Thanks!

Tuesday Feb. 25: The Seattle Times has an update here.

We’re reprinting this from PhinnyWood at the suggestion of one of our readers, who says:

My family and I occasionally shop here, and across the street at Top Ten Toys. Definitely makes you think twice about where to shop, if it truly is a random robbery.

Update 2:10 p.m.: Seattle Police say they are looking for three suspects in last night’s shooting death of a man in a parking lot near the Greenwood Fred Meyer and Bartell Drugs, just north of North 85th Street and First Avenue Northwest.

According SPD, the suspects may have been committing robberies in the area before the shooting.

Here’s the updated SPD Blotter post:

A man was found shot to death in a North Seattle parking lot last night. On 2/23/14, just shortly before 9:00 p.m., 9-1-1 received calls of shots fired in the area of N. 85th and 1st NW.

When officers arrived on scene they found an adult male victim seated in his car in a parking lot, with a single gunshot wound to his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Seattle Fire. The suspects were seen running away from the area. Detectives believe robbery was the motive in this shooting.

The suspects are described as (1) black male, 20-30 years old, 5-foot-10 tall, thin build, wearing a North Face jacket. (2) Black male, short. (3) White female.

Detectives would like to talk to anyone who may come in contact with these suspects. Investigators believe the suspects may have been committing robberies in the area prior to the shooting incident.

Anyone with information about this incident or the suspects’ whereabouts, is asked to call the Seattle Police tip line at 233-5000. Anonymous tips are welcome.

Also, The Seattle Times has identified the victim as 54-year-old David L. Peterson. (more…)

A mix of snow and thick rain is falling in Maple Leaf’s higher hills at 9:30 a..m.

It’s 35 degrees, and calm, at Maple Leaf Life South.

The snow is forecast to turn to rain soon, but tomorrow might be different.

Cliff Mass has an updated post on lowland snow Sunday.

A controversial proposal to pick up Seattle garbage only every other week - like recycling - has been nixed by new Mayor Ed Murray.

Our news partner The Seattle Times has the story here.

Murray said the switch would create a hardship for some families and the estimated savings of 8 percent on bills wasn’t enough to justify cutting services by half. He said the city will look for other strategies to reduce the amount of recyclables and food waste going into landfills, one goal of the biweekly collection plan.

Our original post on this drew some 44 comments - from both sides.

It’s a good Friday at the Maple Leaf Playground.

The zip line returns after a mid-winter break.

Is any of this stuff yours?

Since we’ve had a few comments about crime recently, we’re letting people know that the King County Sheriff’s Office has recovered dozens (and dozens) of items stolen in burglaries over 18 months.

The items were stolen between January 2012 and July 2013, according to a news story by our partners The Seattle Times.

Two people were arrested in connection with the burglaries, which stretched from Mill Creek to Tigard, Ore.

You can see photos (13 pages worth) of the recovered items here. The password is SammamishPD and is case sensitive.

If you think some of these items are yours, call the sheriff’s office at 804-885-5276.

The sun is out at 10 a.m, but the forecast is for heavy rain this afternoon. There is a wind advisory in effect from noon until midnight, which could cause power outages.

Cliff Mass says “the heavens are about to open up over the Northwest as a persistent moist southwesterly flow will bring a series of very wet systems into the region.”

The state Department of Transportation posts on our Facebook page:

You have the power to avoid the heartache of a traffic jam on I-5 in Seattle this weekend. We’re reducing southbound I-5 to one open lane between Spring Street and I-90.

It then refers you, in the usual social media way, to: @WSDOT_Traffic afternoon gal’s blog.

What Traffic Afternoon Gal has to say, basically, is that two of three lanes of southbound Interstate 5 will be closed “anytime from 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14 through 5 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18.

Her tips:

Avoid southbound I-5 into the city if possible. SR 99 is the best alternative.

All on- and off-ramps in downtown Seattle will remain open.

We’re keeping the I-5 express lanes open southbound until 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. This helps provide more access to the downtown Seattle on- and off-ramps, especially useful for carpoolers (hint, hint). However, and I stress however, they will not help you avoid the big closure because where they end, the construction begins. The I-5 express lanes will operate southbound on Monday from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Can you carpool? Take public transit? Take rail? Maybe work from home if you don’t get Presidents Day off?

Local streets are also good alternates.

If you plan to travel south of downtown, consider using southbound I-405.

Alison emails overnight:

Just wanted to let the neighborhood know that my window was smashed in and things stolen while eating dinner at the Roosevelt Ale House tonight. I let the restaurant know and they weren’t surprised. Was parked close to the entrance and in for less than an hour. Had a nice bag on the font seat with clothing in it which was stolen, along with the contents of my center console.

Was definitely just a smash and grab as I had things in the back which were overlooked. It’s trivia night and the place is packed so whoever did it is especially bold.

Would love to remind people not to leave anything in view!

The map shows stolen or prowled cars here beginning New Year’s day. Our last reports are here and here.

Car crimes are by far the most common crimes in Maple Leaf and in Seattle generally.

Update: Officers believe the “Cyborg Bandit” is also the “Elephant Man Bandit” - responsible for 30 bank robberies in the area.

The Cyborg Bandit is believed to have robbed the Sterling Northgate branch in December.

Our previous post states he is suspected in at least a half-dozen robberies.

In a statement issued this afternoon by a joint task force including the FBI, officials said they believe he is responsible for 30 robberies during 2013 and 2014 in King and Snohomish counties.

On February 11, 2014, shortly after 4:30 p.m., the Seattle Safe Streets Task Force (SSSTF) arrested a 44-year-old man who resides in Everett, WA, immediately after he exited a Key Bank in the University District of Seattle.

SSSTF investigators nicknamed the bank robber who wore a metallic-like, textured fabric over his face the “Cyborg Bandit” because of the material’s similar appearance to cyborgs and cylons in science fiction productions. SSTF investigators nicknamed the bank robber who covered his head with a shirt or other material bearing two small eye holes the “Elephant Man Bandit” because of the similarity to a character in a movie of the same name. Combining bank robberies attributed to each nicknamed robber, the SSTF believes the subject in custody may be responsible for 30 bank robberies throughout King and Snohomish Counties.

Through the lengthy, joint investigation with partners across the two counties, SSSTF investigators identified a van they believed was associated with the “Cyborg Bandit.” Around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, the van with a lone, white, male driver began to drive around the Key Bank on 25th Avenue NE in the University District of Seattle. After two hours of apparent surveillance of the bank by the individual, he was observed putting on a mask and entering the bank. Key Bank reported a robbery by a masked man around 4:30 p.m.. When the previously observed individual exited the bank, SSSTF agents arrested the man on probable cause.

The complete list of robberies: (more…)

Photo Washington State Patrol

Update 3 p.m. All lanes now open, traffic backed up for five miles starts to clear.

Southbound Interstate 5 is backed up for four miles after a crash at Northgate that state troopers say could have involved a suicide attempt.

It blocks the left three lanes of southbound I-5. Traffic is currently backed up for over an hour from Northeast 175th Street in Shoreline.

Look familiar?

It’s not Big Bertha, the monster tunneling machine that’s still stuck with sand in its seals.

We’re not sure this one has a name (maybe we could name it!) but it is in our neighborhood, off First Avenue Northeast at the Maple Leaf Portal.

Sound Transit earlier today told the Ravenna Blog: “That’s not the cutter head, but pieces are coming together for the tunnel boring machine(s) that will mine Northgate tunnels!”

Two light rail tunnels will be drilled from this location, roughly across First from SAS Shoes and Silver Platters, to Sound Transit’s Roosevelt Station, on 12th Avenue Northeast near Northeast 65th Street.

Tunnel machine names, anyone?