Update July 13: From the club’s Facebook page: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Pandora’s is OPEN FOR BUSINESS! Club hours are 1pm to 230am, cover charge is $10 and $5 for a drink. Hope to see you all here!”

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On its Facebook page the new strip club on Lake City Way indicates it will open this afternoon at 1 p.m., and stay open until 2:30 a.m.

In a post from around midnight, the club said “we’ll be open tomorrow.”

Pandora’s Adult Cabaret, 8914 Lake City Way N.E., was originally set to open July 6, but but was still awaiting an inspection, the club has said. That location is right on the line that splits the Maple Leaf and Wedgwood neighborhoods, and the community councils of both have written the city to say they believe the club’s permit was improperly issued. But the city refused to step in.

The sign outside the club, which used to be the Seven Seas Restaurant, is now covered in black. At 8 a.m. workers were visible inside the open door.

The club has posted several photos on its Facebook page, including one of a stage, at right.

The club has generated considerable discussion, with around 200 comments on the Maple Leaf Life and Wedgwood View neighborhood blogs and their Facebook pages.

Construction doesn’t start for another three years, but later this month several local agencies will hold a meeting to ask what you think a community around the Northgate Light Rail Station should look like. More information is available here.

We are exploring opportunities related to:

• Pedestrian and bicycle connections to the station, including a bridge crossing of Interstate 5.

• Public spaces in the vicinity – parks, sidewalks.

• How to create an active neighborhood near the light rail station.

• Connecting bus and rail service.

• Creating a healthy and sustainable community.

Possibilities include zoning changes and “exploring a variety of options for future development at the Transit Center property that is west of Thornton Place and south of the Northgate Mall.”

The meeting is set for 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26, at Aljoya Thornton Place, 450 N.E. 100th St. There will be brief presentation at 6:30 p.m. (Aljoya is a senior living community that also invites the public to dine at its restaurant, Lily’s, and to attend many of its programs. Enter at Aljoya’s front door at the corner of 5th Avenue Northeast and 100th Street. Off-street parking is available at Group Health just south of 100th St.)

The meeting is being set up by the city, King County (buses) and Sound Transit (light rail).

The opportunities for transit-oriented community development are tremendous, and they will help continue the transformation of Northgate into a vital urban center that has already begun with library, community center, park and Thornton Place development in recent years.

The Seattle Public Library system will be closing down for the week before Labor Day weekend, from Monday, August 29 through Sunday, September 4 due to citywide budget cuts. All libraries will be closed for the Labor Day holiday Monday, September 5. Regular Library operations will resume Tuesday, September 6.

Most Library services will be unavailable during the one-week closure and will have the following impacts:

No materials will be due and no fines will be charged.

The last day to check out Library items before the closure is Sunday, August 28. The Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., will be open until 6 p.m. that day and another 11 branches will be open until 5 p.m. Visit www.spl.org or call 206-386-4636 for more information on Library locations and hours.

No book drops will be open. The Central Library book drops will close at 8 p.m. Sunday, August 28 and will reopen at 6 a.m. Tuesday, September 6.

If you’re desperate for library access, the Lake City Neighborhood Service Center and parking garage will remain open. It is co-located with the Lake City Branch, but has a separate entrance. The Ballard Neighborhood Service Center, which is co-located with the Ballard Branch, will stay open as well.

August 29 through September 4 was the week selected for the closure because general Library use at that time is not as high as other times during the year, school is not in session and there are fewer Library programs scheduled.

For more info, visit the Seattle Library site.

On its Facebook page, Pandora’s Adult Cabaret is announcing “OPENING NEXT WEEK!!!!!!”

And a little lower down, “Pandora’s Adult Cabaret Working on monday.”

Seattle Police held its “Picnic at the Precinct” on College Way this Saturday, an annual event when residents can meet the officers who patrol the North Seattle region. And perhaps best of all, kids get an inside-look at police work.

The mounted patrol is always a crowd favorite.

And so are the police robots, which are used to sniff out suspicious devices.

This lucky guy is getting a tour of a SWAT vehicle.

The event has been running since 2004, sponsored by the Seattle Police Foundation and local businesses. “Picnic at the Precinct events provide an opportunity for the business and residential communities in the precinct geographical boundaries to come together and enjoy a day to meet and interact with their local officers in a fun environment,” explains Detective Jeff Kappel.

“Why is there a helicopter flying low over my neighborhood?”

That’s the headline in a state Department of Health FAQ letting folks know that, starting Monday, a helicopter will buzz overheard.

But not far overhead. Only about 300 feet. That’s about the height of a 30-story building.

The chopper is measuring background radiation levels for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measurement System. (Whew.)

The FAQ answers the obvious question:

This project isn’t related to the disaster in Japan. It began in September 2009, well before the earthquake in Fukushima. The helicopter flyover is part of a multi-phase project to improve our state readiness to respond to radiation emergencies.

This project is looking for radioactive material that exists in our environment. The survey isn’t focused on radioactive material from Japan. The amount of material from Japan was extremely low and will not be detected by equipment on the helicopter.

The helicopter’s equipment can detect the presence of radioactive materials that emit gamma radiation such as cesium and radioactive iodine. The baseline would be used in the event of a radiation emergency to compare radioactive contamination to the normal levels found during this study.

More information is available here. The flights start July 11 in the Seattle-Bellevue area and continue through July 28 in other areas of King and Pierce counties, according to Seattle/Local Heath Guide.

Two readers this week told us about cars stolen or broken into.

The scenario is often much like Katie’s:

FYI just wanted to let you know we got our car stolen Tuesday night. It was parked at 17th Ave. N.E. and 80th Street, on 17th. It was your obvious choice of stolen car — the 1990 Honda Civic. Still, we’ve never had a problem before. The police found it in West Seattle the next day with its speakers, glove compartment and stereo ripped out.

And MissVixxen tweets “multiple car break-ins in Maple Leaf. Lock your doors and leave nothing in your car.”

Auto theft and auto prowls (where the thief breaks into the car but doesn’t steal the whole thing) for years were the most common crimes in Seattle.

After a dip about five years ago, auto thefts here have skyrocketed by nearly 19 percent in 2010 as opposed to 2009, our news partners The Seattle Times reported last month.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area jumped from 37th to 13th, with 16,192 vehicles reported stolen in 2010. The region leads the state with more than 55 percent of all auto thefts.

The Times reports a possible reason for the increase: “Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors believe the increase last year could be attributed to the release of a number of thieves who had been sent to prison in recent years. ‘We think they were getting out,’ said Donohoe.”

We called up the police crime map for stolen or prowled cars from June 1 through today. That’s it, above. The solid cars are the ones that were stolen, the ones with a white dot were prowled.

We count right at 22 car crimes in Maple Leaf during that period. (Some of the icons represent up to three crimes in the same location.) That’s more than one every other day.

Seventeen days ago workers banged and dug and put out signs and destroyed the curbs outside Maple Leaf Ace Hardware and the Perkins School.

Looks like they’re finishing up this afternoon.

Next week we’ll try asking the city Department of Transportation just how much it cost to install these curb cuts on Roosevelt Way Northeast to make the new crosswalk more accessible.

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge closes tonight at 11 and doesn’t reopen until 5 a.m. Monday. And there will be more closures later this summer.

Included are both directions of State Route 520 and all ramps between Montlake Boulevard and Interstate 405. SR-520 will remain open between Montlake Boulevard and Interstate 5.

Crews will be building a new fish-passable culvert and performing annual inspections and maintenance on the floating bridge.

From the state Department of Transportation:

With approximately 166,000 vehicles traveling this route on a typical summer weekend, we need drivers to take alternate routes, avoid the area if possible and plan for added travel time and delays. We also suggest using carpools and transit.

If you want more information please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/WeekendClosures.

If you’d like to see photos of the work crews accomplished during the June weekend closure please visit WSDOT’s flickr site.

Update 2: From Terrie Johnston at SPD:

Could you add that I feel adamant we should not be giving out any information on the names nor ages of our children.

Years ago, a registered sex offender went around door-to-door using the guise he was the Block Watch co-captain and he wanted the names of kids and their ages to add to the Block Watch map. The inclusion of children’s name on Block Maps, or distribution lists has not been a part of our recommendations. I think we can all agree that adults need to ask other adults if they have a question or are seeking information.

Teach kids that if an unknown adult asks them a question they can simply tell the stranger to ask another adult.

Updates: From our Facebook page:

Julianna wrote: “This guy calling himself ‘Martin’ came our house on 94th and 8th NE a couple of weeks ago. He asked if I was the mom. He said he was a student at Berkley and that he was talking to all the moms in the neighborhood. He was really really odd. He rode off on a bike when I shooed him off…..”

Annie wrote: “There is also a young white man with a hat and goatee who came by an apartment complex at 85th and 5th Ave NE, stating he has an appointment with someone in the building wanting to be let in….to sell you a set of knives. I have seen him twice in the neighborhood.”

Amy wrote: “that guy came to our house TWICE in one day…once speaking to my FIL and then later to my husband. he was an awkward, young Asian man making odd gestures and REALLY wanting to get invited in our house to sell us “supplemental educational material”. he dropped our neighbors first names several times throughout the pitch!!! I wish NOW that I had called 911…several neighbors of ours on 85th and 4th Ave NE have encountered him too in the last two weeks. ”

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Summer weather obviously hasn’t put a stop to door-to-door scammers here and nearby.

Nicole emails:

We wanted to let you and the neighborhood know about a very suspicious house call we had this afternoon. We live on 88th and 17th, and around 2:30pm today (Monday 7/4) a man rang our door and asked my husband, who answered, “Are you the Dad?” He introduced himself as “Martin” and proceeded to mumble and ramble about how he is going round visiting “all the Seattle parents” about ‘the new education for kids’, or something similarly vague. He carried no insignia, and seemed surprised when my husband said he had never heard of him. (It was a very weird interaction.)

She described the man as Asian, about 5-foot-9 and slightly built. We asked Terrie Johnston, of the Seattle Police Department, about this. She replied:

Have not heard about this particular spiel, but am getting emails about all sorts of pitches, from magazine sales, locksmith scam, opportunity to improve speaking skills, etc. Please encourage folks to post No Soliciting Signs and to call 9-1-1 if they are approached by anyone suspicious like that. Nothing dramatic is going to happen to any of the “solicitors”, either way. Remind folks too that there is a huge difference between opening the door and answering it! Always want to answer the door, by talking through the door, etc. Thanks.

Meanwhile, our sister site My Green Lake reported at the end of June about a neighbor who was “‘creeped out’ by two men who came to her door, and she wants to warn other Green Lake residents, particularly mothers, to be on the lookout for them. (You can read the full post here.)

Randi says that two Asian-American men in their 20s knocked on the door of her Green Lake home yesterday (Wednesday, June 29, 2011). They said they were “from Southwestern University” and that they wanted to talk to moms with babies in the neighborhood.

She says that several other moms reported similar encounters with men matching the description she gave. In some reports, the men said that they were selling children’s magazines and then aggressively tried to talk their way inside the women’s homes. One mom says that the men asked who else in the neighborhood has children.

If you’re a frequent bus rider of the routes that travel through Maple Leaf, King County Metro Transit is urging you to act now to prevent a 17 percent cut in services that could eliminate such routes as the 73 and 67, as well as a reduction in services of the 41.

According to the Metro PDF “What will happen if the congestion reduction charge is not approved,” those routes and more are on the chopping block if the King County County Council fails to impose a $20 annual vehicle licensing fee for two years, called a “congestion reduction charge.”

The state Legislature already has approved this temporary charge, but Transportation for Washington says the bill still needs the support of two more County Council members to pass.

Want to make your voice heard? Transportation for Washington also has a form letter you can fill out in support of the congestion reduction charge, while Metro is urging riders to attend the next public hearing at 6 p.m. July 12 at King County Council Chambers, 516 Third Ave. on the 10th floor, or submit written testimony.

And whether you’re for or against the proposal, you can always contact our own Councilman Bob Ferguson, who also happens to be a Maple Leaf resident, at [email protected] or 206-296-1001.

The final public meeting on designing the new Maple Leaf playground is set for next Wednesday evening.

The design firm will present ideas developed from earlier public meetings on the playground and park.

As we reported earlier, the Family Terrace slated to replace the current Maple Leaf Playground as part of the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park project, is on track to receive $100,000 from Seattle’s Neighborhood Matching Fund.

Next week’s meeting, on Wednesday, July 13, is from 6-8 p.m. at at Northgate Community Center, 10510 5^th Ave. N.E.

You’re invited to get to know your area police officers this weekend at the annual Picnic at the North Precinct at 10049 College Way N.

The free event from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, July 9, offers food, children’s activities and dancing, plus the opportunity to take a tour of the North Precinct (pdf), whose boundaries include Maple Leaf and all of Seattle north of the ship canal and Montlake Cut. For more information, read the precinct’s blog or subscribe to its RSS feed.

Update July 6: Pandora’s announced on its Facebook page that it won’t open its doors as planned today “because we’re still awaiting our final inspection for Pandora’s. This should take place any day and we’re not expecting any issues to further delay our Grand Opening! As soon as we get the all clear I’ll let you all know.”

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The city’s planning department has no reason to block Pandora’s Adult Cabaret from opening, according to a letter received today.

The club is set to open on Wednesday, July 6, at 8914 Lake City Way N.E. That location is right on the line that splits the Maple Leaf and Wedgwood neighborhoods, and the community councils of both have written the city to say they believe the club’s permit was improperly issued.

But today Diane Sugimura, director of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development, rejected the councils’ argument:

Adult cabarets are allowed in most downtown, industrial and commercial zones, subject to dispersion requirements. Since this use is permitted in the zone, it does not require public notice and does not allow for a discretionary review. A strict reading of the current code, coupled with the dispersion analysis provided by the applicant and verified by DPD did not give us reason to deny the adult cabaret permit.

The letter says the councils’ reasoning that the club is too close to a Maple Leaf day care business doesn’t apply because the business is not a city recognized “child care center.” “In this case, we do not believe an error has been made.”

It also rejects arguments the councils made that the site is improperly zoned. The full text of the letter is here.

“At this point, it is unclear what the ‘next steps’ will be although this topic will be a source of discussion amongst several groups over the coming days,” Per Johnson of the Wedgwood council writes on their website.

Construction at the club continued this morning, although the sign outside still carried the name of the previous business, the Seven Seas Restaurant.

Notice all those chickens around the neighborhood lately? You could meet a few this Saturday at Seattle Tilth’s annual tour of backyard chickens and urban farms.

Seattle Tilth has been organizing this community event for over a decade, originally to encourage people to raise chickens in the city. Since then, the event has expanded in both topic and turf to include urban and suburban sites, as well as a wide variety of animals and agricultural practices. Tour participants get face time with ducks, mini dairy goats, honey bees, geese and a couple sheep with (hopefully) new born lambs, even a cow and horse.

This year there are more than 50 sites (the map here only shows the ones in north Seattle). The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tickets are $12 each. A group or family up to seven can pay $35. There are discounts for Seattle Tilth members.

They can be purchased online here, or at City People’s Mercantile in Sand Point, 5440 Sand Point Way N.E.; City People’s Garden Store in Madrona, 2939 E. Madison St.; Portage Bay Grange in the U-District; 4110 Roosevelt Ave. N.E.; or Walt’s Organic Fertilizer in Ballard, 1528 N.W. Leary Way.

Or buy yours at the Seattle Tilth offices at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford, Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.; 4649 Sunnyside Ave N. #100.