Does anyone know what all the police activity was about last night? There were a bunch of cop cars on Pike/Pine/25th/26th Ave blocks. It appears they were looking for someone and had the police dogs out. One of the neighbors went outside and the police told him to go back into his house.

UPDATE 11:35 am from the editor: Commenter Janelle posted the following tale below:

This is what I know as we called 911 and spoke to the police multiple times last night. The police pulled over a car and three men fled, for reasons which we are unaware. Apparently they were in people’s back yards (between 25th and 26th, from Union traveling towards Madison) and we could hear them yelling and running. (They may have been trying to rid of a weapon while fleeing.) When 911 was called we could give a discription of one man and later he was arrested close to Madison. Police talked to us for a description, looked in our backyard and confirmed that the decription fit the man caught. After it quieted down and we went back to bed, another man jumped our fence from our back yard and so 911 was called again. It was believed that he was hiding under our truck the entire time. (Next time we have the police search our yard we will have to give direction such as look in the tool shed and under the truck!) As of 1:00am Monday there were still two men in question. Scary night overall. Thank you Seattle police for assisting and hopefully next time we can work better together. It would have been good initially to know that three men had fled the police stop and not just the one that we initially called about. Also it would have been better if police would have searched the grounds better, not just ours but our ajoining neighbors. I understand the difficulty of trying to catch people in the middle of a dark night and I hope that is was helpful that we had close contact with 911 and were able to provide some descriptions and/or locations.

Umojafest 2011 brought a huge lineup of acts and events to the neighborhood over the weekend, including the annual parade down 23rd Ave. From music to food to poetry to basketball, the festival planned three days, mostly at Judkins Park.

Did you take any photos at the festival or parade? Email them to [email protected] or add them in the comments.

Photo by wyking (see more here)

Photo by wyking (see more here)

Is anyone else concerned about the risk of t-boning throughout the side streets between Union and Cherry particularly on cross streets like 25th?

I have been in the area for about 2 months now and have nearly been t-boned by a car coming down the hill from 23rd 3 times. This area is up and coming with more and more families and children moving to the area, and for there to not be any sort of intersection control mechanism seems negligent.

I have written our councilman and got the reply that accidents do not occur there and their reports do not show that any sort of control mechanism is really needed. Hard to accept. Anyone else have thoughts?

Don’t forget the first Teahouse Concert of 2011.  Sonando – Afro-Cuban Jazz!  Bring a blanket, or a lawn chair if you think you can sit through this hot, hot, muy caliente musica.  Bring a picnic basket, bring the family.  From 5 – 7 pm., for the reasonable price of $15.

Hosted by Reggie Bardach and Richard Wells, 939 25th Avenue South, Seattle, 98144.  

Reservations:  [email protected], or (206) 920-0286

And, on August 14th – everybody’s favorite:  Pearl Django!

As part of King County Metro’s Squire Park In Motion program, Carla Saulter (AKA Bus Chick) will give a free workshop August 6 at the Central Area Motivation Program building near 18th and Columbia. On her blog, Saulter writes about her adventures as a transit-taking parent, and her workshop promises lots of advice for the transit-curious and transit-inept.

From the SDOT Blog:

This Saturday Bus Chick teams up with Metro Transit to provide a free workshop on how to make riding the bus a great travel option for families. This is part of Metro’s In Motion program for the Squire Park neighborhood, but the workshop is open to anyone.

Parents and kids can learn about how to know where the bus is going, when it will arrive, how to keep kids entertained, what to carry with you and other helpful things to know when riding the bus.

And yes, wise guys, the event is kid-friendly. In fact, there will healthy snacks, free family transit guides for all and door prizes (zoo passes) for the first 10 families to arrive. And yes, of course you can get there by bus.

Event details:
When: Saturday, August 6, 10 – 11:30 AM
Where: Central Area Motivation Program, 722 18th Ave (served by routes 2, 3, or 4)

After parting ways with the Queen Team, based out of Cappy’s Boxing Gym, the Queen of the Ring is getting settled into her new training headquarters at Tacoma Boxing Club. Queen Underwood, on a mission to win women’s boxing gold at the 2012 Olympics, has launched a new website and started her own Twitter account.

Though she is spending more time training in Tacoma and around the country, you can meet Underwood at the Last Supper Club down in Pioneer Square August 5. The Garfield alumna will be raising money for the new Queen Underwood Foundation.

More info, from the Facebook event:

Queen is back in Seattle after training with Freddie Roach, professional boxing’s most respected trainer (27 world titles) and will be speaking at a WOMEN OF INSPIRATION NIGHT WITH THE SEATTLE STORM along with Maj Margaret Witt, Jeanne Higgins, founder of girls on the Run Puget Sound, and other special guest.
DATE: Friday, August 5, 5:00pm-9:00pm
LOCATION: Key Arena, Champions Room,

If you are not fortunate enough to have a ticket to mix and mingle with Queen Underwood at this event, Champion + NRG will be throwing a meet and greet and fundraiser for the newly forming Queen Underwood Foundation “Living Out the Dream” at Last Supper Club. Come get your picture taken with the Queen, and get to know this truly amazing and captivating athlete and philanthropist.

Guest will have private entry, free cover (donations for entry will be accepted and will go to the Queen Underwood Foundation) dedicated bar in which a portion of proceeds will go to benefit Queen Underwood’s newly forming foundation, A silent auction and raffle with gifts donated by Last Supper Club and other area businesses. (more information coming soon). I will update more as soon as we have more information, but SEATTLE let’s support excellence on so many levels!

Anybody else notice loud buzzing at the back of the old HSDC building at 18th and Madison? We’ve been kept awake for the past few nights but an extremely loud, irritating and intermittent buzzing noise – like an institutional alarm, or an overloaded circuit, or the halftime buzzer at a basketball game.

We hear it all the way from 22nd and Union. Can’t imagine what it’s like for folks living in the surrounding houses and condos…

Attention folks who like lunch, beer and children: Starting this weekend, children will be allowed into Twilight Exit (with supervision) Saturdays and Sundays until 5 p.m. From Twilight Exit’s Facebook page:

Ok, breeders. Starting this weekend you can bring your rug-rats in with you until 5pm (Sat & Sun only). Just a few rules…all children must be accompanied by an adult, no children in lounge, no Justin Bieber shirts, and for the safety of staff and other patrons all kids must muzzled and leashed at all times. Also before you start complaining about this, remember, you were a kid once too.

When we talked to Steve Mollmann, owner of Twilight Exit (a CDN advertiser), in December, he mentioned that they were working to allow children during weekend lunch. However, the Washington Liquor Control Board required some changes that needed to be ironed out.

A recent addition, closing off part of the entrance to the bar.

In order to allow children, there can only be 10 feet of entrance between the bar and the seating area, said Mollmann. So they installed a new barrier blocking part of the space.

“I don’t know why we didn’t do that before,” said Mollmann. “It adds more seating. They also will need to set up a rope line to separate the seating area from the shuffleboard table because, for some reason, that’s a rule.

Mollmann said allowing kids, at least for lunch, has been a common request at the Twilight. But the big push for the changes came from his home. He has a four-month-old child now, and he wants to be able to bring his kid with him without breaking the law.

Blocks around the neighborhood closed their streets to traffic yesterday evening for to throw block parties for National Night Out. Here are a few photos from around the neighborhood. If you took some, add your own photos in the comments below (and be sure to add them to the Central District Flickr pool, too).

The Pink Pajamas rocked the 900 block of 20th Ave (near CDN headquarters).

SFD was making the rounds, letting people climb around on a fire engine and check out an ambulance.

@burstdown shared the following photo from 18th and Weller via Twitter. That’s a lot of marimba:

Then there’s this unlucky guy at 21st and Jefferson, via b0ysk0ut:

After moving to 10th and Union less than a year ago, Summit Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is moving again. This time, the club is moving to historic Washington Hall at 14th and Fir.

From an email to members in July:

Unfortunately we were given notice to leave the current Jiu-Jitsu location by the end of the month. On the upside, we have negotiated a screaming deal with Washington Hall ( http://www.washingtonhall.org). The new spot is located only a short distance from the current club at 14th and Fir. Among the highlights of Washington Hall are ample space, cleaner interior and exterior facilities, and better parking to name a few.

Washington Hall has been undergoing renovations in recent years after being selected as a historic landmark by the city’s Landmarks and Preservation Board. The space is on its way back to life, hosting performance art pieces and other events in recent months. Hidmo will also be an anchor tenant of the building.

The mission of SBJJ is centered around personal empowerment, according to their website:

SBJJ’s mission is to create Brotherhood/Sisterhood dedicated to training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the grappling arts for the purposes of physical fitness, mental perseverance, self defense, and competition.  SBJJ is dedicated to helping each and every member attain their personal goals, whatever those may be.