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All the wackyness from the streets of Seattle's East Precinct on February 8th, 2010(!):

Our friends at the Seattle Times are reporting that the space on 34th that was formerly occupied by Cremant has been leased by a new restauranteur:

As I mentioned last week,...

Two tax levies for Seattle schools are up for renewal, and time is running out to get your ballot marked, signed, stamped, and in the mail. All ballots must be postmarked by midnight tomorrow (Tuesday), and note that there is no longer a free ballot drop-box at 23rd & Jackson due to county...

Here's a few photos from our two hour hike around the neighborhood this weekend, where no jacket was needed even though it's still early February:

Quite a few fruit trees are already blooming:

...

A big apartment fire at 21st & James

Update 1:04pm: Firefighter appear to have things under control now - there's very little smoke left. The 4-unit apartment building is going to heavily damaged though. A
resident said it started upstairs, and there was a bit of a panic as people tried to find a safe way out. But it appears that there aren't
any injuries.

We also learned that it was an East Precinct police officer in the area that made the first report about the fire.

(more)

Our news partners at the Seattle Times had an interesting story on home prices yesterday, with data that showed the first year over year rise in sales prices since the peak of the market back in February 2008:

...

Another week of scanner drama is almost behind us. Here's what's shakin' on the streets of Seattle's East Precinct:

Who needs a firefighter calendar when you can see the real thing up close and personal?

Tomorrow's your chance to take the whole family to visit Fire Station 6, it's dedicated...

Thirty years ago Craig ‘Spike’ Decker and Mike Gribble began hosting animated film tours that gave people a way to see weird, artsy, and international short films that would otherwise have stayed hidden.

While walking the CDNews Hound we passed by Spruce Street Mini Park on 21st and saw that someone had torn up the turf by turning donuts in a vehicle.

We placed a call to the parks department, but a spokesperson there couldn't say when the damage might be repaired.

All the hijinks from Seattle's East Precinct on a sunny February Thursday:

We're about to lose a movie rental store in the neighborhood, with a corporate bankruptcy forcing the closure of Hollywood Video at 23rd & Jackson.

We spoke to a soon-...

I am doing grandchild care of kids ages 3 and 5 two afternoons/week. I am delighted that we can easily walk to any one of three parks/playgrounds from our home and do regularly.

I was discussing with the kids' dad our interesting experiences at these parks. His comment was, 'yeah, you live in the City.' I might add here that he grew up mainly on the Eastside. I mentioned how almost all the parents and grandparents at the park interact, compare notes, discuss child development, ensure that all the kids are introduced...

It's a little ironic that on the night we were hearing about the success of the Drug Market Initiative, police were conducting another undercover buy/bust operation at 23rd & Union. Our friend Jonah at SeattleCrime.com says five more were taken off the street throughout the East Precinct:

We're told that police arrested five men and women during undercover buy/bust operations—purchasing narcotics from dealers and then arresting them, just like it sounds—at 23rd and Union, 12th and Jefferson, and...

The rain returns to the streets of Seattle's East Precinct:

One of our many shortcomings is a lack of interest in sports, even when it's neighborhood news worthy. Luckily our friends at The SunBreak have an awesome story about last night's Garfield basketball win and the forbidden storming of the court that followed:...

Our friends at the Seattle Times mentioned that Cafe Char would be opening in March and will include monthly Ethiopian coffee ceremonies.

We were initially confused about...

We received a notice today that tent city is moving into the field behind the Mount Baker Baptist Church on Friday and will stay there for up to 90 days. Even though this is across from our home, this is the first we've heard of it. ...

Be prepared for more sewer-related construction work to visit Madison Valley this month. But this one project is unrelated to the stormwater detention pond (which is now largely complete) or the big stormwater pipeline (which doesn't start construction until summer)....

Oh, groundhog day:

We often report weather news when it's unusually bad. How about when it's unusually good? 

It's a super-nice spring-like day out there. Go enjoy it!

The city reduced the library system budget by $1,700,000 this year, and those cuts will show up tomorrow in the form of fewer hours for both libraries in the neighborhood.

We've got some new details about the lengthy SWAT stand-off that blocked off multiple streets around 24th & Denny last night.

SPD spokesperson Sean Whitcomb told us...

The first month of 2010(!) is now behind us. We can hardly imagine what awaits us on the streets of Seattle's East Precinct:

I was initially suspicious when our story on a new Mexican restaurant on Broadway drew so many positive reviews. Even good restaurants take a while to get things nailed down after they open. But an investigation showed that they were all legit, and the news was confirmed when friends ate there...