This July 4 brought back the Seafair celebration and fireworks at Gas Works for the first time since 2019. If you couldn’t attend, here is what you missed!…

After a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus, the Seafair Summer Fourth celebration on Lake Union and at Gas Works park will take place once again this Independence Day! This year’s celebration is sponsored by Amazon. You’ve probably heard of them.

While festivities culminate with the fireworks display after dark, events and entertainment begin mid-afternoon and stretch through day. Two beer gardens will be available to slake your thirst, and of course, there will be food. Live music will be performed throughout the day on a stage immediately north of the gas works. And there is also a “Kids Zone.” Not sure what …

Lumen Bioscience has expanded into the space formerly occupied by the Essential Bakery on the northeast corner of 34^th and Woodlawn just east of the transfer station. Lumen’s main office is just kitty corner across the street at 1441 N 34^th St. The Essential Baking Company closed down their Wallingford cafe back in 2020, and the space has sat empty ever since.

I tried repeatedly to contact them to find out what they intend to use the new space for, but I got no replies. The old Essential Baking space seems considerably smaller than the space Lumen currently …

Kids on 45^th, which stopped doing business in March of 2020, has now vanished from 45^th Street entirely. During a recent drive-by, I noted that the interior of the store had been entirely demolished and all traces of the former signage on the exterior of the building had been removed.

The space is part of a single parcel which extends from Bottleworks to the west at 1710 N 45^th to the east end of the block opposite the QFC. The businesses along this block, and the apartment dwellers above, rent from Frank J. Walters, the long-time …

For those not in the know, Northlake Commons is the name that has been adopted for the new development going in on Dunn Lumber property alongside the Burke Gilman Trail here in our neighborhood. The project, created jointly by the Dunn family and the architectural firms Weber Thompson, Hess Callahan Grey and Spear Street Capitol, was designed with extensive input from area neighbors which we have reported on here, and it has been in the works for several years.

Early plans called for a single building with three stories to the north, increasing to four stories as the structure stretched …

While not technically in our neighborhood, the Freeway Estates Community Orchard (FECO) at 6030 6th Ave NE is not far away – just east of Green Lake, alongside the west edge of I-5 and just south of Ravenna Boulevard. I’ve never noticed it, in part because, if you’re getting on I-5 south from, say, the Park and Ride, your view of the orchard is blocked by a cement sound barrier, and if you’re getting off I-5 north onto Ravenna, then you’re on the opposite side of the freeway.

FECO was started in 2010 by a group of determined area volunteers …

I happened past the intersection of Stone Way and 39th just now in time to see the fire department wrapping up after putting out a fire at 3837 Stone Way. This building was the former home of Aqua Serene, a plant nursery and seller of hydroponic and other gardening supplies. Across the street from All the Best Pet Care, the building has sat unused for many years, and you may know it better as a place to buy a Christmas tree. Trees are sold, seasonally of course, in the former parking lot of the store.

A police officer was taking …