Some neighborhood event highlights for the second half of the week:

Wednesday

Summer Movie Night

$5 admission, $2 popcorn

by Meghan Walker

On Saturday, July 21, Seattle’s Parkour Visions will host an invitational obstacle course at Gas Works Park. The course will feature some top parkour athletes from the U.S. and Canada, including some who were featured on TV shows American Ninja Warrior and Jump City: Seattle, according to Parkour Visions. The event is part of the three-day Seattle Parkour Summit.

The competition is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a hands-on parkour class for beginners, intermediates, and advanced parkour athletes from 3 to 5:30 p.m. There will be an open training session following the class, and a barbecue at 8 p.m.

According to Parkour Visions, “parkour is the art of overcoming obstacles effectively and swiftly using only our bodies. Fundamentals include running, jumping, crawling, and climbing, in order to pass over, under, around and through obstacles in the everyday world.”

A Fremont Universe tipster writes:

Just walked by yesterday and the place is up for rent AGAIN! That location is having a hard time…Any idea what happened?

Thanks for your email! We looked into it- here’s the note on their Facebook page:

We are sad to announce the closing of NAOS. We put our ~all~ into the manifestation of NAOS but just couldn’t ride out the storm…Thanks for all your support!

This is the second business to close at this location after lasting less than a year.

Sick of Fremont’s graffiti? For the second year in a row, Seattleites are reclaiming the beauty of our neighborhoods with the help of the anti-graffiti program ”Summer Paint Out.” With Summer Paint Out, the City of Seattle supplies volunteers with free paint (white-brown-gray), rollers, brushes, scrapers, and gloves, so they can paint over graffiti that mars their community. Click here for details and to register, then pick up your paint and supplies on one of the following Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.:

July 21

August 4

August 18

The Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle City Light have joined forces to upgrade the light poles and lights on the north and south end of the Ballard Bridge to meet current lighting standards. Work begins tomorrow, Thursday, July 19, on the southeast end of the bridge, and should be done at the end of the month. Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays, the crew will close the right northbound lane and the eastern sidewalk of the bridge, because the work involves the use of a crane for removal of the old light poles and installation of new ones. Pedestrians and bicyclists should plan to use the western sidewalk during this project. After this section is done, they will start work on the north end of the bridge.

By Doree

Nearby Woodland Park Zoo raised $1.47 million from nearly 1,000 attendees at its 36th annual Jungle Party last Friday. And an anonymous donor gave the zoo another $250,000 for its new Asian Tropical Forest exhibit, which will revamp the current 60-year-old exhibit into a more natural home for endangered Malayan tigers, sloth bears and small-clawed otters.

A portion of the funds raised this year will support Jungle Party’s Fund-Our-Future Kids and Care: Share the Wonder initiative. This support will help expand the zoo’s early childhood learning programs through Zoomazium enrichment programs, immersive naturalistic exhibits, new animal additions and community activities that bring young explorers closer to nature. By providing these experiences, the zoo hopes to inspire a desire among youth to protect wildlife and its habitats through future generations.

A note from Cafe Racer’s owner:

“No one needs to be reminded of what happened at Café Racer on May 30, 2012.

Each day the grief of losing our loved ones lessens, but not our love for them or the love they brought into our lives. Drew, Joe, Kim, Don and Gloria were people who gave more of themselves than they ever received. This is why the community was so devastated by their loss. This is also why that community of which they were a part of will carry on.

The outpouring of love and support from this community was astounding to me. Not only for the loss of our loved ones, but for the love and concern for Café Racer itself. It became clear to me that the café is more than just a place to pick up a coffee, food or have a drink, but it is a part of the community. The love didn’t just come from the ones we lost, it comes from everyone.

This is the main reason that I’ve decided to keep the cafe open, to forge ahead with the vision that is Café Racer by providing a place for diverse people and groups to come together and have a loving, safe place to gather. There may be some physical changes to the cafe, the main ingredient which makes Café Racer unique will remain the same, Love.

There is no way I can express my thanks to the hundreds of people who gave me, and everyone who is involved with the café, their love and support.

YOU make Cafe Racer what it is.” – Kurt Geissel Owner, Café Racer

Friday July 20^{th -}Seattle: Café Racer will be re-opening its doors to the public

Seattle Department of Transportation wants you to walk, bike and ride transit more this summer through their Walk Bike Ride Challenge. A friendly contest between neighborhoods (Ballard won last year), SDOT says the plan is to encourage Seattleites to compete to see which neighborhood can change the most car trips to walking, biking and riding:

Enter the Walk Bike Ride (WBR) Challenge, switch at least two car trips per week to walking, biking or transit, and earn chances to win these prizes:

• An electric bike from Electric Bikes Northwest
• An overnight stay at Pan Pacific Hotel in South Lake Union
• A Zipcar 1-year membership & 5+ hours of driving credit
• $100 Nordstrom gift card (courtesy of Commute Seattle)
• $100 REI gift card
• $100 farmers’ market gift card (accepted at seven farmers’ markets)

Once you sign up for the WBR Challenge, you become part of a community making Seattle a more active and better place to live. You receive weekly emails with tips on walking, biking and riding and can track your individual progress and the program’s collective impact online. The more trips you report, the higher the chance you have of winning. The WBR Challenge is part of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Way to Go, Seattle! Program. It encourages people to walk, bike, ride transit and carpool more by offering incentives, tools and information and runs on a two month cycle. The current round is for July and August.

Click here for more information and to sign up for the Walk Bike Ride Challenge.

The changes will allow heavy vehicle traffic to disperse following the holiday fireworks display on Lake Union.The fireworks show will start at 10 p.m. and end at roughly 11 p.m. The Fremont Bridge will be closed to vessels from 9 p.m. on July 4 until 12:30 a.m. July 5. The University and Ballard bridges will not open for marine traffic between 10 p.m. on July 4 and 1 a.m. on July 5.

July 11 – August 8