March 26, 2024

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Today’s Forecast

🎉 (Block) party it up

Invite your neighbors for a little midday fun. | Photo via Seattle Department of Transportation

In Seattle, we need only the tiniest excuse to go outside and enjoy the sweet summer air. But with Seattle’s block party permits, you can create a really solid reason to be outdoors for your whole neighborhood.

To help foster the city’s communities, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has created a free and relatively easy-to-use permit that allows Seattleites to block off traffic from neighborhood streets for anything like a cookout, outdoor rollerskating rink, live music performance, Pride events, or anything else you and your neighbors want to do together.

Here’s what you need to know.

What you’ll need to do

First, you’ll need to make sure your street qualifies. To avoid any traffic jams or major inconveniences to others, SDOT is keeping these permits open to just non-arterial streets. You can figure out what kind of street you live on using one of SDOT’s maps.

Then, of course, you’ll want to check in with your neighbors to make sure that they’re cool with the plan and get their feedback. SDOT also has special email templates and printable cards to send to your neighbors in case you feel a little shy about reaching out.

After that, make an SDOT account and fill out your permit.

A few more details

There’s a few things you’ll need to do and be aware of if your application is accepted — apart from all of the cool party planning, of course.

Make sure you have adults willing to hang out near the barricades in case neighbors, deliveries, or emergency vehicles need to get through.
You can invite food trucks, but make sure they fill out their own permit.
Make sure your event happens between 9 a.m. and dusk.
If you’re planning an event on a Healthy Street, the city has some extra resources they might be able to lend you.

Then it’s all just about prepping your signs and getting your party ready.

Events

Tuesday, March 26

Seattle Kraken vs. Anaheim Ducks | Tuesday, March 26, Thursday, March 28 | 7 p.m. | Climate Pledge Arena, 334 First Ave. N., Seattle | $20-$540 | The Kraken only have about a month of games left in the regular season — go cheer ‘em on.
Drag Queen Bingo | Tuesday, March 26 | 7:30-9:30 p.m. | Magnolia Village Pub, 3221 W. McGraw St., Seattle | Donations accepted | Try to win some prizes as a couple of local drag queens lead you through the night with their wit and incredible dancing skills.

Wednesday, March 27

BurlesKARAOKE | Wednesday, March 27 | 7 p.m. | Queer/Bar, 1518 11th Ave., Seattle | $15-$20 | Belt your heart out while a team of flirty dancers perform to your stellar ballads.

Thursday, March 28

Norwescon | Thursday, March 28-Sunday, March 31 | Times vary | DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport, 18740 International Blvd., Seattle | $40-$120 | This science fiction and fantasy conference features author Q+A’s, writing workshops, tabletop game sessions, and a masquerade ball.
Disney Princess: The Concert | Thursday, March 28 | 7 p.m. | McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle | $39.50-$74.50 | Let it go and sing along to classic Disney tunes performed by the Broadway actors and actresses who sing them.

Friday, March 29

Loud Luxury | Friday, March 29 | 8 p.m. | Showbox SoDo, 1700 First Ave. S., Seattle | $30-$50 | The Canadian-born band made the charts with their dancy hit song “Body” in 2020.

Events calendar here

Click here to have your event featured.

News Notes

Open

Play ball — Rainier Playfield has a brand new turf infield thanks to some renovations completed in partnership between Seattle Parks and Rec and the Seattle Mariners. The facility will serve high school varsity baseball + softball teams, youth leagues, and nearby youngsters who want to practice their skills.

Theater

Seattle Rep is getting ready to open the curtain on its 2024-25 season. On the docket are plays like “Blues for an Alabama Sky” about two jazz artists in 1930s New York City and “Dual Reality,” which follows two feuding families through a “Romeo and Juliet"-inspired story. Season subscriptions are now on sale.

Traffic

The westbound ramp onto state Route 520 from Montlake Boulevard is now open. The opening means that drivers passing through the area no longer need to complete an odd U-turn to merge onto the highway, which should help alleviate traffic pains on an intersection that sees more then 40,000 drivers a day. (KING 5)

Sports

The Washington Huskies Men’s Basketball team has a new coach — Utah State Coach Danny Sprinkle. Hear from the local experts on what this means for the team with Locked On’s daily, Huskies-focused podcasts.

Plan Ahead

Psst — Taxes are almost due. Use E-file for quick, online filing. Plus, file your federal taxes for free with their basic software plan.*

Drink

And the bracket winner is...

A graphic on the left side of the image announces Caffe Vita as the winner of our coffee bracket challenge, while the right side features an image of three Caffe Vita cups on the table at the company's KEXP location.

In addition to tasty roasted blends, Caffe Vita also has some exceptional specialty drinks like its campfire mocha or a sevilla coffee drink made with orange zest, chocolate, and espresso. | Graphic + Photo by SEAtoday Staff

Caffe Vita — voted best coffee shop in Seattle by our readers and social media followers in our SEAtoday coffee shop bracket.

Caffe Vita is one of Seattle’s most well-known brands with shops all over the city and special blends made with partners like KEXP, the Lambert House, and the Rain City Relief Fund.

We want to extend a major “thank you” to all of you for participating in our bracket challenge the past few weeks. We’ve had a blast seeing how the votes shook out, and we hope you did too. Looking for more coffee shops around town? Check out our guide.

The Buy

The Avryn & Co. wristlet sets. Bop around with all of your essentials and look stylish doing it.

Answered

Which one of these plants is NOT edible?

A collage shows images of Siberian Miners Lettuce, a magnolia flower, a Douglas Fir, a salmonberry flower, and a dandelion. — Each of these five plants can be found fairly readily in the Pacific Northwest.
|
Pictures by Leslie Sleaton, George Chernilevsky, U.S. Forest Service, Robert Flogaus-Faust, and Dominicus Johannes Bergsma

Last week after we talked a little about forage-able spring plants, we quizzed you all about what native plants were NOT edible and it looks like most of you all surived. About 46% of you all correctly guessed that lupine was toxic, but we get that another 30% would guess cattails. While we don’t recommend chewing on the browned cattail heads, the green ones can be grilled like a corncob.

Learn more about edible plants

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The Wrap

Today’s edition by:
Alina

From the editor

I hope you enjoyed our little coffee shop bracket this month. This is the third year we’ve run one of these (we did pizza in 2023 and pho in 2022) and they’re always so much fun on our end. The friendly competition is fun to watch and we always get really cool recs for places we should try next. Look for a full list of nominees soon.

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