My Ballard

We heard sirens and smelled smoke at 11 p.m. last night, so I grabbed the camera and ran over to the 6700 block of Dibble Ave.

It was one of those nasty basement fires that was kicking out a ton of smoke, and it took firefighters a good half hour to knock it down. It doesn’t appear that anyone was injured, and it looked to me like nobody was home at the time.

Update: The Seattle Fire Department says a dog and a bunny perished in the fire, and five people are without a home. The Red Cross has been called to offer assistance to the family. They didn’t mention a cause of the fire, other to say it was “accidental” and started in the basement.

Quite a few of the scheduled shows at the now-closed Crocodile are moving to the High Dive in Fremont. Details here. It’ll be interesting to see if this is just temporary or if we’ll start seeing more shows in our neck of the woods.

Starting in March and stretching to October, the city of Seattle plans to repave 15th Avenue from the Ballard bridge to the Magnolia bridge. “This will be a minimally disruptive project,” said Connie Zimmerman, the project manager with the Department of Transportation. “Basically we’re grinding two inches of asphalt off and putting two inches of asphalt back on.” Let’s hope it’s minimally disruptive, because that could really throw a wrench into Ballard traffic.

The undefeated Ballard High School girls basketball team keeps rolling. They won all three of their games at the Surf ‘N Slam tournament in San Diego, beating St. Mary’s from Berkeley in the title game, 47-44. Senior guard Evangeline Spracklin (pictured) had a game-high 24 points against Eastlake of Chula Vista, California. You can check the scores here.

The Seattle Times profiled “Saturday House,” a cool weekly get-together in Sodo where people hang out and share ideas. The goal is to “recreate the feeling of kindergarten, where everyone has a project and stays for the day, learning in a free-form kind of way.” (Interestingly, most of the talk is about programming and design.) The Times says that some folks here in Ballard like the idea so much, they plan on replicating it “next year, with a focus on sustainability.” No word on who’s organizing it, but we’ll let you know when we find out.

The bar-restaurant Tigertail has been open for a few weeks now (on 65th just east of 8th), so we decided to stop on in. Really, it’s not a restaurant, but a bar that serves small plates. We tasted many of them, from the braised beef short rib potstickers to the green tea and citrus satay. Good stuff, but not enough to fill us up (and as Scott adds in comments, a little pricey). From a bar perspective, the atmosphere is upscale, and they have a rather extensive sake list. And we dig the music. (Turns out, the people behind Tigertail are the former owners of Fallout Records and Box Pop.) So we’ll be back… after dinner.

The sign just went up at Il Giardino, a new Italian restaurant that will soon open in a remodeled home on 65th St. and 8th Ave. In fact, it’s just two doors down from Tiger Tail, that new Asian fusion bar/restaurant that opened a couple months ago. This part of 65th is becoming quite the happening spot.

If you subscribe to curbside yard and food waste collection, the city will pick up and recycle your tree for free. Just leave it out on your regular collection day between now and January 13th. There are a few restrictions, ranging from the size of the tree to how well you clean off the decorations, explained in this advisory from Seattle Public Utilities. (Thanks to the West Seattle Blog for the link.)

The forecast is calling for one to four inches of snow in Seattle today. It’s supposed to begin falling around sunrise, even at sea level. This one sounds a lot more significant than the Christmas Day dusting. If it happens, we’ll drive around the neighborhood, shoot some photos and post them right here.

Update at 9 a.m.: It’s not snowing yet here in Ballard. Although the forecast is still calling for one to two inches by midday or so.

Update at noon: Still no snow, but the TV meteorologists say it could still happen later this afternoon. Hmph.

Update at 8 p.m.: Not a flake. Fooled again!

The Northwest Design Review Board got its first look at Market Street Landing, an eight-story condo planned for the spot where the boarded-up Denny’s now stands. And they didn’t like it. The board criticized the design for lacking a Ballard character, especially since it would be located on the “gateway corner” to Ballard, on 15th and Market. It looks like a “sprawling octopus,” said the board’s chair. “I don’t see Ballard in there at all,” said another board member.

The board has asked for the developers to make some changes and come back for another review. Meanwhile, the battle still rages over whether the old Denny’s should be given a landmark status, which could threaten the project. Seattle’s Landmark Preservation Board meets on January 2nd to consider it.

The undefeated Ballard Beavers girls basketball team is headed to San Diego for the Surf ‘n Slam tournament, with games starting tomorrow through the 29th. You can see the brackets here (girls “surf” division).

By the way, the Seattle Times has ranked Ballard 8th in the 4A class.

It started around noon as a rain-snow mix. Then at 1 p.m., it changed to snow. And a half-hour later, it began to stick around our Ballard home. So we jumped in the SUV with the camera and ran up to Phinney Ridge.

The snow is sticking on the roadways.

Woodland Park Zoo looks like a winter wonderland.

Near 8th Ave. on the Ballard side (can’t remember exactly where).

Then as soon as we drove west of 15th Ave., the snow stopped. Barely a flake on the ground at Market and Ballard. Meanwhile, in “Upper Ballard” and Phinney Ridge, the snow is still falling (as of 2:45 p.m.) But the forecast says it should be turning to rain by later this afternoon.

Update at 3:15: It looks like the snow has stopped falling.