Twitterer @jesswhyte asked: “what’s the BBQ truck in the Key Bank parking lot? New food addition to 23rd & Union or temp location?”

An excellent question!  We wandered over and found out that it’s The General’s BBQ mobile truck, and they’ll be set up in the Key Bank parking lot on Wednesdays and Fridays each week for lunch.

The menu is attached at left, and features lunch specials with ribs, chicken, brisket, hotlinks, and includes sides for $7.95. Sadly we already had lunch and didn’t have room for a taste test, but it smelled good.

Back in January we included a report of a kid who lost cash and a mp3 player in a robbery outside the Garfield Teen Life Center. Now our news partners at the Seattle Times are reporting that a suspect has been charged in that case, and it’s a kid who has already served time for the murder of Tuba Man:

According to charging papers filed last week, the teen approached another youth at the Garfield Teen Life Center in Central Seattle on Jan. 22 and asked him for $5.

The youth said he did not have $5 and walked into the center to have his picture taken for the center’s identification card, charging papers say.

While waiting to have his picture taken, the youth was again approached by the teen, along with a group of four other juveniles, prosecutors allege.

The teen and the other juveniles asked the youth for $5 and when he said he didn’t have it, the group checked his pockets and one said, “It feels like you have an iPod or something in your pocket,” according to the charging papers. The group then walked away.

After a few minutes, the victim went outside the teen center and was approached by the teen and the group, who surrounded him, the charging papers say.

One of them searched the youth’s pocket and took his mp3 player, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors told the times that the suspect “would face another 15 to 36 weeks of detention” if convicted, but that whey will be seeking an exception sentence beyond that range.

After long anticipation the Sleeping Bulldog B&B is now open for business. We are the only Bed and Breakfast currently in the Central District. The Sleeping Bulldog B&B is located at 816 19th Ave. South. We are a modern B&B and offer three rooms for you to choose from. Our rooms all have flat screen TV’s, DVD players, i-home radios and Keurig coffee makers. The New Orleans room is our suite. It boasts of a sitting area with a fireplace, small balcony, King size bed and two person jacuzzi tub. The most coveted feature of this room is the unobstructed view of Downtown, Puget Sound, Quest Field and the Amazon Building. The Western room and Santa Fe room each both have Queen size beds. Each room is tastefully decorated. These two rooms share a bath. Our rates are from $78-206 per night depending on the season. A full breakfast is included with each stay. We look forward to providing you or guests a clean, friendly place to stay while in Seattle. For more information please check our website out at www. sleepingbulldog.com. Or you can call us at (206)325-0202

All the excitement as it happens under the cloudy skys of Seattle’s East Precinct:

The new artificial turf is laid down on the infield of the baseball diamond at the Garfield playfield, and crews were out there this morning putting on the finishing touches.

Parks Department spokesperson Karen O’Connor tells us that the recent weather has slowed things down a bit, but they’re trying to get the site cleaned up and inspected, and hope to take down the construction fences by the end of this week. That would be just in time for the T-ball season that kicks off next week.

The $110,000 project was partially funded by a $45,000 grant from the King County Youth Sports Facility program, and included contributions of labor and materials from Ohno Construction and the Field Turf company.

A year ago the stormwater detention pond at 30th & Denny was just a hole in the ground. But that hole needed to be bigger to prevent flooding, and the city worked with neighbors to make the project have a useful form in addition to its preventative function.

New walking paths have been added and substantial new landscaping has been taking root since the project was finished last fall. The paths follow a stream bed at the bottom of the hole that will help transport runoff from the south end to the drain at the north part of the property.

But the fences are still up around the perimeter of the site as the city waits for the rainy season to end and to make sure that users of the new park don’t damage the still-fragile plants.

Elaine Yeung from Seattle Public Utilities tells me that contractors will be back out at the site next week to do some touch-up work and re-seed the grass. If the schedule and weather cooperates, that should set it up for an opening to the public by the end of May.

That will leave one more bit of work when a public art installation will be added sometime in the fall.

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced today that The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (LHPAC) building is closed through early Spring 2011 to accommodate planned seismic and electrical renovations.  LHPAC Center staff will continue to carry out programs and performances at other locations during the closure. To confirm new locations for all programs and performances, call Center staff at 206-684-4758 or visit the LHPAC Film Festival Website.

Here is the full explanation for the closure:

A 2008 study identified the need for seismic upgrades and additional electric power to the building. Other interior upgrades will enhance the 95-year-old building’s public amenities by providing improved restroom facilities, upgrades to the lobby floor and main entrance, upgrades to the theater sound and lighting booth, improvements to rehearsal and dance floors and improvements to theatrical dressing rooms. The primary space in the building is the theater space, which has a fixed seating capacity of 285. The lower level of the original building includes several small classrooms and a large activity hall that accommodates almost 300 people.

The 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy provides $2.5 million for the project; $449,000 comes from a State Building for the Arts grant; and $365,000 from the City’s major maintenance fund. For more information on the project, please see.

“Our central and greater Seattle area friends, neighbors, partners, and visitors treasure the theatrical works at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. This stunning structure keeps us all connected and is a crucial component of Seattle’s high quality cultural landscape. The ethnic and aesthetic diversity pulsates and thrives at LHPAC,” said Royal Alley-Barnes, LHPAC Executive Director.

LHPAC provides a unique opportunity for everyone in Seattle’s diverse communities to experience and engage in the authentic African American performing arts and cultural legacies. LHPAC was established in 1969 and is dedicated to the preservation of Seattle’s African American theatrical performance heritage for future generations by preserving, nurturing and presenting African American performing arts.

This historic building in Seattle’s Central Area at 104 17^th Ave. S was formerly the Jewish Synagogue of Chevra Bikur Cholim. This commanding polygonal structure of tan brick with white terra cotta detailing, was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, a well known Seattle architect. It was dedicated in August 1915 and opened in 1916. The building is designated as a historic landmark subject to protection by city ordinance. The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center was established in the building in 1969, and has worked closely with Seattle Parks and Recreation since 1972 to offer unique programs to the public.

Another unseasonably cold day on the streets of Seattle’s East Precinct:

A man was suffered a stab wound in a robbery this morning just before 2am in the 300 block of 28th Avenue South. A nearby resident called 911 when the 53 year old male victim knocked on their door to ask for help.

Medics were called to the scene, but the wound was not life-threatening, described as a slight stab wound to the wrist.

The robbery occurred on the north side of a building in that block, which is also where the victim lives. That same building was the scene of a domestic violence murder last year.

The suspect was described as a black male, 6’3″, 200lbs, stocky build, wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. Police set up a perimeter several blocks around the crime scene and K9 units were brought in to establish a track on the suspect, but they came up empty.

It’s true. Dozens of bands, hundreds of musicians will be playing for free all over the Central Area for HONK! Fest West on Saturday, April 10. High energy HONK! bands from throughout the US and Canada will be joining Seattle groups such as the Seattle Fandango Project, the UW Steel Drum Band, The Seahawks Blue Thunder and the Sounders Sound Wave band. (See http://honkfestwest.com for details of this and other HONK! events 4/9-11. Central Area schedule for 4/10 is below.)

We are honored to have Bakra Batá kick things off at 9:45 AM at CAMP Firehouse for the Squire Park Community Council membership meeting. Elsewhere we will help launch Central Area Little League at Garfield Community Center, we’ll entertain the staff and clients at St Mary’s Food Bank, warm up Casa Latina for the Immigrants’ Rights rally, play on the roof of the old Wonder Bread factory (now the Legacy at Pratt Park Appartments), parade through Yesler Terrace Community Center and party with the residents at LIHI’s Norman Mitchell Manor.

From 1-4PM everyone is invited to join us at 13th & Yesler where all the bands will strut there stuff on 4 different stages. You can also get a sneak preview of the reopening of historic Washington Hall at 153 14th Avenue http://www.historicseattle.org/projects/wa_hall.aspx.

Why are all these musicians coming to the Central Area for HONK? Because they love to play and they want you to participate. For one view of the HONK philosophy (and some great video!) see http://honkfest.org/about/ 

Complete Central Area Schedule HONK! Fest West, April 10, 2010