This week’s Seattle Weekly is all about booze and considering Fremont is home to quite a few places that serve, make or serve & make booze, you had to assume we’d be involved.

In the section titled Where to Drink With Your Kids, Hale’s Brewery shows up as the best spot in town.

There’s good and bad news regarding Hale’s Brewery’s kid-friendly policy. First, the good: There’s a spacious room separate from the bar where you don’t have to feel guilty being that person who brought their kid to a brewery, and where you can stuff your little one full of jo-jos and cheese pizza while you get your drink on with one of Hale’s custom brews. Bad news: Seemingly every lush of a parent knows this, so the “family room” is frequently packed with sleeping babes in car seats and ankle-biting toddlers.

In the section, What Seattle Drinks, prominent and well-known Seattlites share their favorite drinks and place to have them. Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin gives a very even-handed, pro-Fremont answer:

“I would go to the Madrona Ale House and choose from among their wide selection, which includes Fremont products. How’s that for a tactful answer?” [Sara Nelson, Conlin's legislative assistant, is married to the owner of Fremont Brewing Company.]

On Thursday, February 16th at 10 a.m. at History House. Ashley DeForest of King County Metro will present the proposed September 2012 changes for Metro services, focusing on changes in the Fremont area.

Metro is asking for your feedback to help shape the recommendation that gets sent to County Council for consideration this spring. The meeting is free, open to all and everyone is encouraged to attend, listen and give feedback.

Also on hand at the meeting will be Andres Mantilla from the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, presenting the findings from their 2011 Transportation survey.

Each presentations will be about 20 minutes, with time for Q & A after. You can register for the event here.

Six choreographers. Fifteen dancers. One conversation.

That’s the basis for ‘A Moving Conversation’, an annual dance event centered on nurturing community through dance by connecting established and emerging choreographers with each other before performances at the Fremont Abbey. The audience, choreographers and dancers come together for a Q&A and conversation after the performances in a unique environment.

The event takes place over two days, Saturday, February 24th and Sunday, February 25th and features the works of choreographers Marlo Martin, Kenaniah Bystrom, Elana Jacobs, Christin Lusk, Elizabeth Mendana Shaw and Napthali Beyleveld.

Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets and range between $12-$15. They can also be purchased for $17 at the door.

Snacks, wine and beer will be available via the Abbey Cafe. Doors open at 7 p.m., the event begins at 8 p.m. For more information, check out the event page.

Original: You’ve almost made it through another yearly Paseopocalypse. Your reward for surviving almost six weeks without a Paseo sandwich is…the re-opening of Paseo this Friday, February 10th.

A sign heralding the re-opening is up on the store and it looks like they’re giving the old girl a little spruce-up with some paint.

To answer your first question, no, you shouldn’t start camping out on the sidewalk now. That’s probably illegal.

To answer your second question, yes, you should line up early on Friday when they open at 11 a.m. And remember, cash only.

By KRISTA STAUDINGER
UW News Lab

When purchasing special Valentine’s Day undergarments, the shopper typically has a significant other in mind. But Seattleites should plan on donning this intimate attire for a significant number of others this upcoming holiday weekend.

On Saturday, Feb 11, hundreds will hit the streets of Fremont wearing nothing but their underwear, all for a worthy cause. Seattle will host its first ever Cupid’s Undie Run that benefits the Children’s Tumor Foundation, which raises funds for the Neurofibromatosis (NF) family of diseases. Although many people are unfamiliar with NF, it affects one in 3,000 births in the U.S.

Childhood friends from Atlanta, Brendan Hanrahan and Chad Leathers are two of the co-founders of Cupid’s Undie Run. Leathers’ younger brother Drew has Schwannomatosis, a painful and debilitating disease where tumors grow throughout his nervous system.

Their community rallied behind the Leathers family and began an organization called Tumornators. When Hanrahan moved to Washington, D.C., he wanted to continue to spread awareness and raise money for the Children’s Tumor Foundation, which funds Schwanno research.

“Knowing that a 5k or happy hour would be low-return, cookie-cutter events, I decided to do something different and have people run in their underwear for Valentine’s Day,” Hanrahan said.

Therefore the event began in Washington, D.C., two years ago. This year the run has expanded to five other cities around the nation, including Seattle. So why was Seattle selected?

Rebecca Zeller, Seattle race director and “queen of the Pacific Northwest Undie Run” (she responds to either title), said the answer is in the image of your average undie runner: “active, late 20s to early 30s, fun, and just shy of crazy. Doesn’t that sound like a Seattleite?”

Zeller also noted that Seattle has a strong history of philanthropy, community involvement and a love for slightly wacky events, making it an ideal location to expand Cupid’s Undie Run.

“We chose Fremont, aka ‘Center of the Universe,’ as it only makes sense that an event of this magnitude be held here,” Zeller added.

The event will start at noon at The Ballroom in Fremont, where runners can mingle and gain liquid courage to strip down to their race outfits. For those who wish to remain more modest in their attire, Valentine’s Day costumes or pajamas are also an option.

The 1.5-mile run will begin at 2 p.m. and end back at The Ballroom where everyone can warm up and prizes will be awarded to the top fundraisers.

Fundraising incentives are also offered to participants, such as custom undies for $25 worth of fundraising, a VIP open bar for $150 (Zeller said this seems to be people’s favorite), a custom robe for $500, an iPod Nano for $1,000 and so on.

One top fundraising team is “Pretty Pageant Panties,” with Mrs. Pacific Northwest Larissa Long as the top fundraiser. Long found out about the event through Twitter and has since used forms of social media to promote her fundraising.

Long has a personal connection to the event: “My cousin has been affected by tumors all her life and as a child she was told she would not live past 18; now she is 40,” she said.

Long credits organizations like the Children’s Tumor Foundation for helping extend life and hope for people living with tumors.

The fundraising goal for Seattle’s event is $50,000. Zeller explained. “Realistically, the first year for an undie run is to build a loyal base and the following year people really sink their teeth into it.”

This is what occurred with the first Cupid’s Undie Run in Washington, D.C. In the race’s first year $8,000 was raised, while over $50,000 was raised the second year. Seattle has already raised over $4,000, with two weeks left to fund-raise.

It’s not too late to register and help Cupid’s Undie Run become a success in Seattle; you can either start or join a team, or participate individually. Registration fee is $35 through Feb. 6. Space is limited, so register early to ensure your spot. If you are unable to run but still want to get involved, you can sponsor a runner or volunteer at the event. Visit www.cupidsundierun.com to get involved.

————————————————————————-
KRISTA STAUDINGER is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.

It’s that time again. Friday, February 3rd is the first Friday on the month and so the Fremont First Friday Art Walk will go down between 6-9 pm.

Some of the displays and presentations include:

Pel’Meni Dumpling Tzar is celebrating it’s one-year anniversary and they’re hosting a (belated) “Thank You Melanie” party for Melanie Masson, who was the previous director of the Fremont Walk. Swing by between 6pm-7:30 pm to say hi. (3516 Fremont Pl N)

Nate Watters captures the dynamic colors, machinery and ingredients in Theo’s chocolate factory as well as the artisan confections handmade by Theo chocolatiers. (Theo Chocolate, 3400 Phinney Avenue).

Michael Angelo Caci digital technology and chemistry to manipulate photographic and scanned material. The result is an astounding, and visually captivating body of work. (Frame Up Studios, 3515 Fremont Ave. N)

Get info on more artists, venues and festivities here.

A suspect has been arrested after what police are calling a drive-by shooting early yesterday morning.

At approximately 4:30 a.m., the 911 call center received multiple reports of hearing six to eight gunshots in the 4300 block of 5th Ave NW. A witness gave police the description of the vehicle and driver, which he had also seen and taken note of in the area a few days earlier.

A vehicle parked in front of a witness’s house had multiple bullet holes and police recovered shell casings and slugs, police say. There were no injuries and no apparent damage to the home.

From the SPD Blotter:

Officers responded to the suspect vehicle’s registered address and observed the vehicle parked/unoccupied outside, with one shell casing visible on the rear seat floorboards.  While watching the residence, another vehicle left the house.  Officers stopped this vehicle and detained the male matching the suspect description.  He was positively identified by the witness to the earlier shooting. The suspect was subsequently booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Drive-by shooting.  The suspect’s vehicle was impounded to the processing room.

Waste Management and the city of Seattle are in the homestretch of the Think Green recycling challenge and Fremont is in a good position to get a makeover because of it.

The challenge encourages Seattle communities to reduce their overall waste by decreasing garbage and increasing their efforts to recycle and compost. The one that reduces the most waste will win a $50,000 grant to give their community a “Main Street Makeover.”

Every Seattle community in Waste Management’s collection area has been participating in this competition, which runs through March 2012. The collection area that reduces the most waste during this time period, year over year, will be rewarded with the Main Street Makeover grant. Grant money will be spent on improvement projects within the winning community.

With two months left, the Fremont/Phinney Ridge area is in fifth place (see chart above). The winning neighborhood will be determined by the highest diversion rate, which increases as recycling and composting increase and garbage decreases.

The good news is that our neighborhood led the way in percent change between 2010 and 2011.

We’ve got to up the ante in the last two months so check out this list of ways to reduce waste and increase recycling.

Last spring, Woodland Park Community Preschool relocated to Fremont. Now, Woodland Park is happy to announce its new 5’s program, the latest addition to its cooperative community of schools. Classes will meet Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 1-4 p.m.

They are currently enrolling students who will be five years old on or before December 31, 2012.

This program is ideal for students who are:

- taking a transitional year before starting kindergarten
- enrolled in half-day morning kindergarten
- turning five by December 31 and ready to start Pre-K

The Woodland Park 5’s program is best described as a progressive, play-based curriculum, one that starts from the premise that children learn best when given the opportunity to freely engage with the world around them, pursuing their own passions and curiosities in a community setting.

“Teacher Tom” Hobson has been Woodland Park’s teacher since 2002. He thinks of the school as a community in which families choose to raise their children together. Just as earlier generations learned everything they needed to know from their neighbors and neighborhood, Teacher Tom strives to create a classroom in which children are stimulated to explore the world beyond their own homes in partnership with the adults who love them.

It’s a cooperative school, which means it is owned and operated by the families of its students. These parents take on essential roles both inside and outside the classroom, serving both as assistant teachers as well as fulfilling every role in the school from executive to janitorial, with the teachers being the sole paid employees. The powerful dynamic of parents working shoulder-to-shoulder with the teacher helps insure a unique and vibrant learning experience for each child.

For more details and enrollment information, visit their website.

The Pre-3’s and 3-5’s classes, which are part of a network of independent cooperative preschools run through North Seattle Community College, are also enrolling new students for the 2012-13 school year. Visit here for registration information.

Earlier this month, we reported that the school district proposed boundary changes to alleviate crowding at John Stanford International School. Seattle Public Schools has released a new tool for residents to determine their school boundary. The adjustments apply to John Stanford Elementary School and B.F. Day and McDonald elementary schools for the 2012-13 school year.

The boundary change is part of a short-term capacity management plan that addresses Seattle Public Schools’ enrollment growth. According to Seattle Schools, “the plan, which outlines how the School District will accommodate the projected increasing enrollment, was developed following input from the Facilities and Capital Management Advisory Committee (FACMAC). Input was considered from about 300 attendees at six community meetings held between September and December 2010, and also included 550 written comments.”  It was approved 7-0 by the Seattle School Board on Jan. 25. To read the full plan, see the Board action report.

You can’t walk through Fremont these days without peeking at the giant crane that’s part of the construction site that will become the Saturn Building at 3417 Evanston Ave. It’s going to be a while yet before the project is completed but the website for the building gives us a good idea of what to expect once it’s ready.

Much like it’s sister, Fremont Space, it will be a mix of residential, office and commercial spaces. You can see how that will shake out in the plans below:

There could be up to five new retailers or restaurants in Fremont thanks to the building, though four of those retail spaces can be combined based on needs.

The office spaces will be loaded with amenities and offer all the Internet options one would need. Based on this chart, rents will range from $400 to $1,400.

The project as been in the works since 2007.

Transworld Business has named Fremont-based evo Shop of the Year and Hardgoods Retailer of the Year. The results came from feedback from brands and reps in the outdoors goods industry.

They also spoke with President Atsuko Tamura to hear about the strategies and business philosophies that earned them these prestigious awards.

What’s really exciting to us is this national recognition.  Wow. Our whole team had a similar reaction: a humble but stoked “wow!”   This recognition means a ton to us – we’ve worked really hard to build our brand in a way that could have the broadest reach to action sports enthusiasts – everywhere.

Read the rest of the interview here.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory until 4 a.m. Friday, calling for an ongoing mix of more sleet, freezing rain. Friday morning’s commute will be affected by the weather.

Took a stroll around Fremont today and grabbed a few photos for those who might not have been around town since the snow started falling…

Looking south from 41st & Fremont Ave:

Looking up 38th St. from Fremont Ave.

Go on, brush your shoulders off, Vlad.

You’ve got something on your face, bro. No not there, there.

[Read more →]

It looks like the snowfall is just about over. Forecasts call for slight snow overnight followed by freezing rain, which will lead into a very icy Thursday.

As such, SDOT is advising commuters to continue taking it easy. Consider public transportation or consider staggering your commute time. Also make sure you’re aware of any closed streets. (SDOT) crews will continue plowing and salting major arterials and transit routes in preparation for the morning commute.

King County Metro Transit will keep its buses chained up and on snow routing for a fifth straight day. Riders should sign up for Transit Alerts to receive notification of route cancellations, but also check the service status before traveling at  www.kingcounty.gov/metro/snow.

All Seattle schools and after-school activities have already been cancelled for Thursday.

Photos: Mark Ashmun

Someone is going to have to have a very awkward conversation with this snowgentleman standing on the corner of 42nd and Fremont very soon.