I apologize in advance for breaking my recent string of rather depressing articles about happenings in the neighborhood, but the Law of Averages (which may be up for repeal by the Supreme Court next year) says that every now and then, Wallyhood will post a nice, happy article.  Rest assured, we will soon be back to our normal steady fare of gloom—so don’t chuck those antidepressants, boxed wines, and other mood-altering crutches just yet.

I had seen a recent Seattle Times/Greg Gilbert photo essay on artist Norma Baum, showing her working on the restoration of Patrick Gabriel’s 1996 mural that …

We are a little short-staffed at Wallyhood during the month of August.  But it’s supposed to be a slow neighborhood news month, with summertime street fairs finished and many people out of town on end-of-the-season vacations.  With fewer off-leash dogs desecrating our parks, and fewer readers to complain or care about it, what is there to write about?  August is usually when the Mariners are completely and mathematically eliminated from the post-season (but NOT THIS YEAR) and people have shifted to football prognostications about the Huskies and Seahawks. So we sort of figured the blog would be coasting into…

Our preference here at Wallyhood would be to permanently close down the crime desk.  But unfortunately, the reality is what it is.  The Seattle Times reports that a woman was murdered at a motel in Wallingford on Aurora Avenue early on Friday morning.  From the SPD report:

At 12:46 a.m., police responded to a motel in the 4400 block of Aurora Avenue North for reports that a woman had been shot. Officers arrived and found a 33-year-old woman with a gunshot wound. Officers and Seattle Fire Department medics attempted life-saving measures, but medics declared the woman deceased at the scene.…

After years of decline, speculation, and tagging; and weeks of neighborhood wondering what’s next with that big backhoe out in front, demolition of the old Guild 45^th theaters has begun.  I went up to have a look this morning in the hope that I might catch the work crew in action to see if they would provide any clues as to what comes next for the site, but no one was around.  We at Wallyhood have long been curious about what comes next at the site.  I reached out to the contracting company with their banner on the front…

Here at Wallyhood, we (especially the relative newbies) have learned that there are certain topics that elicit visceral community reaction.  Bike lanes, for example.  Homeless encampments.  Local implementation of the urban village concept.  Outdoor cats, songbirds, and coyotes.  The recent and upcoming changes to the Green Lake outer loop seem to fall into this category.  For those of you who do not receive updates from the city directly, here is a summary with links.  Please feel free to vent in the comments, but be nice and remember, don’t shoot the messenger (replacements are hard to find).  Substantive insights and suggestions…

Continuing on with our Dog Days of Summer Series (a title I just made up)…today we reminisce about the storied old Food Giant that operated where the Wallingford QFC is currently located.  Someone posted a couple of old black and white pics of the previous incarnation over on Facebook, which led me to think back on the dingy but beloved Food Giant grocery store that served most of the neighborhood (and I say “most”, because remember?  We used to have a dingy old Safeway store in lower Wallingford on Stone Way across from the 7-11).

In 1996, the Seattle Times …

We are in the proverbial dog days of summer.  All of the other editors are away. They left me with the keys to the shop, thinking that it will be slow, and what harm could he possibly do?  Well, it is slow here in the post-Seafair void.  And it’s feeling like many of you are away on vacation too, maybe with the rest of the Wallyhood editors. So now I’m wondering: Gee, why didn’t I get invited?

But there does seem to be some simmering controversy related to the old Kids on 45^th location, which we recently noted was …