Night Out Tuesday

Reminder: Tuesday is Seattle Night Out: all over Wallingford (and the city), folks will be barricading off their streets to traffic, hauling lawn chairs and tables from the back yard out to the street and sharing an evening with their neighbors. According to the City of Seattle’s official map, there’s only one registered block in Wallingford (40th and Midvale, give it up for Shannon O’Leary for registering!), but we don’t believe that for a moment. We pedaled around the neighborhood last year and hit at least 7, and didn’t even get a chance to drop below 40th.

If you and your neighbors didn’t get it together to officially apply, we have a recommendation for you: just do it anyway: go out front, bring some eats and drinks to share, rings some bells and hang out. At a minimum, you’ll finally find out who that lady who always walks her dog by your place is, and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll find out what the story is with that place that nobody seems to live in, but somehow the lawn always gets mowed.

Failing that, start walking or biking. When you arrive at a block that DID have their stuff together enough to get some barricades and a group meal together, stop and introduce yourself. Explain that you live a few blocks away, but you think they’re cooler than your immediate neighbors, and you wonder whether they’ll take you in. We’ll bet you’ll have yourself a plastic cup of wine and a hot dog inside of a five minutes.