My Ballard

A little after 2 a.m., a house pulled out of its parking spot on Palatine Ave. in Fremont and headed to its new home ten blocks away. Literally.

As you might imagine, it was a slow, painstaking process. The truck moved only a couple miles per hour, and it stopped every few feet as crews checked the house, surrounding trees and overhanging wires from every angle.

It moved down 36th St. and up Phinney Ave. to its new home at 4020 Evanston.

While it was scheduled to arrive at 7 a.m., crews began backing the house into the lot at 11 a.m. Lots more coverage and photos on Fremont Universe.

Some folks in Ballard had a nasty wake-up call as firefighters responded to the apartment building at 6316 24th Ave. NW just after 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

The small fire was quickly extinguished, and there was no obvious damage — although it sounded like the sprinklers may have gone off.

If you’re still venting from Saturday’s controversial game at Husky Stadium, you can head down to Anthony’s on Shilshole this Monday at 4:30 p.m. to participate in a live radio show with UW head coach Tyrone Willingham. So what happened? A ref called a bogus penalty on quarterback Jake Locker, which led to the Huskies loss, 28-27 against BYU. It didn’t take long for the controversial call to hit the national airwaves. “That was a sham,” said ESPN commentator Lou Holtz. Added ESPN’s Mark May, “This could be a job loser game for Ty Willingham,” referring to Tyrone’s need to pull out a winning season or likely lose his job. KJR will broadcasting the show, and they’ll be taking questions from the audience.

John Bowers’ first game as head coach of the Ballard Beavers ended in a stinging defeat this Friday night. Renton’s Liberty High beat the Beavers decisively in the season opener at Memorial Stadium, 43-7.

Now, I’m not a sports writer, but I’m a football fan, and the game was painful to watch. Turnover after turnover plagued the Beavers on offense.

Here, a Liberty player returns an interception for a touchdown. “It looked like we weren’t coached well, and we weren’t,” Bowers told reporters after the game. “I’ll take total responsibility for this one.”

But it’s not all about winning, right? (And it was a non-league game.) The cheerleaders kept the crowd in the game, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Here’s a video clip of a few highlights, and click below for more photos…

Read more...

- Tonight (Friday) at 6:30 p.m. is the “Crayfish Celebration and Auction” at the Swedish Cultural Center, 1920 Dexter Ave N. Then on Sunday, the monthly Swedish Pancake breakfasts resume at 8 a.m.
- Saturday morning at the Majestic Bay Theater is a fundraiser for Morningsong Early Learning Center. There will be a screening of The Jungle Book at 9 a.m.
- Washington’s first Poet Laureate, Sam Green will be reading at the Fremont branch of the Seattle Library at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
- Get a self-guided tour of eight neighborhood gardens in the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Garden Tour, Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- For live music, check out the concert calendars for the Tractor Tavern, Sunset Tavern, The Bit Saloon, High Dive, Conor Byrne and Nectar.

As always, check out our events calendar. And if you have an event to add, just email us at tips@myballard.com and we’ll post it in the calendar.

There are certainly plenty of Obama supporters in Ballard, and Epilogue Books on Market St. has distributed lots of Obama gear over the last few months. But now the bookstore has a new addition:

The T-shirts cost $14.95, and Nathan (modeling the shirt) at Epilogue tells us they’re even getting international buyers, from Norway, China and Australia, to name a few. And in true Ballard fashion, the bumper stickers are coming soon. Of course, if someone knows of a “Ballard for McCain” T-shirt somewhere, we’ll be happy to post it for equal time. (Story idea from Mohini, who posted a photo in the Ballard Flickr pool. Check out her very cool food blog right here.)

Ballard’s pizza scene keeps growing. Zaw Pizza, which bills itself as “artisan pizza in the raw,” will open soon at the north end of Canal Station on Leary, according to a posted liquor license. Zaw is also opening restaurants in Capitol Hill and South Lake Union. (Thanks Nina for the tip!)

We’re still awaiting the opening of two other new pizza places in town: Pizza Picolinos on Sunset Hill and Veraci Pizza on Market and 6th.

By the way, Ballard Mandarin has finally applied to sell alcohol after being open for a few months. And just across the street on 8th and Market, Cyberspace Coffee has applied for a liquor license, too.

This Saturday morning you can jump out of bed and head straight to Majestic Bay in your pajamas for “Movies for Morningsong,” a special screening of The Jungle Book to benefit homeless children. The Morningsong Early Learning Center is the only child care center in Seattle serving homeless toddlers and pre-schoolers. A great cause. Tickets are $15 each and include popcorn and a drink — and you can only buy tickets in advance right here. The movie starts at 9 a.m.

The notorious “missing link” in the Burke-Gilman trail may be connected by 2010. Mayor Nickels has proposed $8.6 million for the trail in his upcoming two-year budget. The “missing link” is a confusing and often dangerous stretch of roadway from 11th Ave. to the Locks — a source of much frustration from bicyclists over the years. Work could start as early as April of next year.

Earlier: Bike road rage along the “missing link”

We’ve received many emails over the last few months from our Fremont readers about expanding to their neighborhood. So we’ve launched FremontUniverse.com for the Center of the Universe. We’ll continue to post the occasional Fremont story on My Ballard, but everything else will go on Fremont Universe. And if you see something happening in Fremont, please drop us a line at tips@fremontuniverse.com. If you’re curious, by the way, this is our last new blog for the immediate future.

By the way, we’ll be on a City Club panel this Thursday evening with a few other neighborhood bloggers. More info here.

That didn’t take long. A resident at the brand new Landmark Senior Center along Leary and Ballard Avenues has filed a noise complaint with the city.

“Now she wants to switch rooms, which is going to be a problem,” the facility’s executive director told the Ballard News Tribune. Of course, Ballard Ave. can get a little loud, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The bar manager at Hattie’s Hat, just across from the Landmark, says that’s par for the course along Ballard Ave. “I’m hoping they aren’t the golf-course retirees,” Aimee Shepard said. “I’m hoping they’re more the Manhattan martini-type people.” Somehow, we doubt that’s the case. By the way, the Landmark’s website describes it as “vibrant urban living with the character of a small town.” Stay tuned for this debate to heat up as more residents move into the 146-unit facility.

When construction starts next year on the seismically vulnerable viaduct, traffic may not be as bad as some fear. Under a $32 million plan, the state DOT is proposing a plan that would ease congestion and put more buses on the road running more frequently. “This investment by Washington State will mean more convenient service during construction and will help us be ready for more than 4,000 new riders expected to ride Metro and leave their cars at home,” King Count Executive Ron Sims said. Ballard, Aurora Ave and West Seattle are the three areas most affected by the construction and would benefit the most.

(File photo of a metro bus along Market St.)