A friend of the blog wrote in to let us know the construction of the North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway project down 100th Ave N is set to begin as soon as tomorrow. The project aims to connect Crown Hill, Greenwood, and Licton Springs both to each other and to the upcoming pedestrian bridge that will provide direct access to the Northgate light rail station. While the entire project, which will stretch around 2 miles, is a welcome addition - of particular interest to those in the Licton Springs area are a new sidewalk from Linden Ave N to Aurora Ave N and sidewalk improvements being made between Aurora Ave N and Stone Ave N.

When the work is complete, the hope is that it will be possible to safely walk or ride a bicycle all the way from Crown Hill to the new light rail station, with sidewalk at a minimum from Linden Ave N eastward. You can find more information about the project on SDOT's overview page. The project should take around 6 months to complete with individual neighbors being directly contacted as construction work that impacts them is underway.

Meanwhile, the traffic circle on Wallingford Ave N and N 97th we wrote about earlier this year has now been completed and is just awaiting greenery.

We look forward to a safer and more walkable North Seattle!

A member of the community has come forth to formally appeal the development of the old Gold's Gym location, which helped compliment other nearby business such as Emerald City Smoothie, into a storage facility. The area in question has a moratorium on non-pedestrian oriented businesses, but the permit for the storage facility was placed right before it was put into effect. Beyond Aurora, the property is surrounded by homes and townhouses, and there is a strong desire by many within the area to increase housing and retail along Aurora, by lining it with apartment complexes that contain retail on the bottom. The thought being, that this would increase the safety of Aurora while helping to soften our current housing crises.

The appeal comes as "Greenlake" Self-storage continues its construction just a few blocks south.

The hearing for the appeal is set for 9 AM on Monday, Aug. 13, at the City of Seattle Hearing Examiner’s Office, Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Ave., 40th Floor.

Hearings are open to the public, but generally only those who are parties to the appeal and persons called by the parties as witnesses will have the opportunity to testify. A person who has not appealed, but who has a substantial interest in the outcome of the appeal, may request to be allowed to participate in an appeal as an “intervenor”. An intervenor, like the parties, would have the option of appealing the Hearing Examiner’s decision in this matter. Intervenor status should be requested as soon as possible prior to hearing and in accordance with the Hearing Examiner Rules. For information regarding appeals and intervenor status, contact or visit the Hearing Examiner. The Hearing Examiner’s office provides barrier-free access.

The reason for the appeal reflects the concerns shared by many:

My interest is to maintain some sense of residential and environmental neighborhood atmosphere. This project unfortunately has been grandfathered into the rezoning of past. The current rezoning would not support this project.

You can see the full reasoning behind the appeal as well as all supporting documents on Seattle's Hearing Examiner site.

For many years Northgate enjoyed the convenience of having both of the big name wine and beer outlets right next to each other. Being able to easily walk between BevMo! and Total Wine in the same trip was a magical thing for anyone who anxiously awaited limited availability beer, wine, or spirit releases. Of course, one-day several months ago, this duo came to an end, leaving only Total Wine - which sits at the bottom of an apartment complex, left in-tact.

A friend of the blog recently reached out to us, with an unsurprising explanation for that closure: BevMo!, which was nestled into an old-fashioned shopping strip, needed to close to make way for the expansion of Downtown Northgate. In the place of the old shopping plaza, plans are in place to build a 235 unit apartment building with retail at the bottom, continuing the trend happening around the old plaza:

If you would like to give your input into the design of this new apartment building, there is an upcoming opportunity to contribute to the early design guidance August 6, 2018 6:30 pm

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of the mall into the focal point of this new downtown area continues being planned, with the first two opportunities for community input coming tentatively next month:

• August 13, 2018 6:30 pm
• August 27, 2018 6:30 pm

The transit-oriented development, temporarily paused, has come back in full swing with a new RFP based on free land from King County and an upzone to allow up to 24 story buildings promised by the end of this month.

And finally, concerns over future of the Northgate Pedestrian bridge which will connect Licton Springs directly to both the developing Light Rail and Downtown Northgate, have been alleviated after the Seattle Colleges Board of Trustees conditionally agreed to give an easement to the new bridge. The latest plans for which, will have the new bridge/path only a ~5-10 minute walk away from Oak Tree Plaza.

No matter how you feel about the developments overall, hopefully, this all will lead to a North Seattle that feels more connected both to Downtown Seattle and to the neighborhoods contained within.

Do you want to get involved in the Licton Springs community? Over the next 2 weeks, there are plenty of opportunities to meet your neighbors while having fun and improving the Mineral Springs Park!

July 12th: Meeting to Improve Disc Golf Course

• Time: 6-7pm
• Location: Meridian Center for Health (10521 Meridian Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133)
• Sponsor: Randy Wiger, Seattle Parks & Recreation.

If you're a disc golfer make sure to put this meeting on your calendar! Here you can provide feedback to the city on what repairs or improvements should be made to the Mineral Springs Disc Golf course.

July 17th: Learn To Disc Golf

• Time: 6:30pm to 8pm
• Location: Mineral Springs Park (1500 N 105th St, Seattle, WA 98133)
• Event URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/618053928556827
• Sponsor: LoveLicton

Do you want to learn to disc golf? Come join us for a beginner's disc golf game at Mineral Springs Park with help from members of the local disc golf community. At this event, you will not only learn how to play alongside other beginners but will also be able to receive valuable tips from some more veteran disc golf players. All are welcome to this free event!

July 19th: Mineral Springs Park Clean Up

• Time: 5-7pm
• Location: Mineral Springs Park (1500 N 105th St, Seattle, WA 98133)
• Sponsor: Randy Wiger, Seattle Parks & Recreation

Come join your neighbors at a Parks department-supported clean up event. Refreshments and tools will be provided.

July 21st: Mineral Springs Park Community BBQ

• Time: 11am -1pm
• Location: Mineral Springs Park (1500 N 105th St, Seattle, WA 98133)
• Event URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/250408269069372/
• Sponsor: Seattle Parks & Recreation

Come meet your neighbors for a free BBQ at Mineral Springs Park! More details to be provided closer to the event but a little birdie told us that there will be music, hot dogs, and lawn games.

In Seattle, we all LOVE good Teriyaki. Licton Springs is no exception, and we are lucky to have at least 4 Teriyaki places within our < 1 square mile neighborhood. With so many to choose from it can be difficult to know which one to try out. So, we decided to make the only logical decision and try all 4!

The methodology

For this taste test we decided to go with the plain Teriyaki Chicken dish from all 4 locations. We took turns with a blindfold on while the other randomly gave us a taste of one of the Teriyaki dishes and asked for a score from 1-5. We didn't include cost in our calculation since all 4 Teriyaki places had their Teriyaki priced within a few dimes of each other in the $8 range. NOTE: Many of them also have lunch specials for around $7.

The contenders

1. Manna Deli Teriyaki

   Conveniently located on Aurora and with very friendly service, this Teriyaki place currently enjoys the highest rating of the 3 Teriyaki only restaurants on Yelp, but unfortunately had the lowest health rating at the time we went.

   • Address: 9831 Aurora Ave N Seattle, WA 98103
   • Hours: 11AM-9PM Monday-Saturday, Closed Sunday
   • Current Health Rating: Okay

2. Oak Tree Teriyaki

   Located in the Oak Tree Plaza, right near the recently remodeled AMC (easily one of the comfiest theaters in Seattle now), this has long been my favorite Teriyaki place. The owner is super friendly, they have these excellent house fries, and they have hours that work pretty well for eating before or after movies. However, I always get the Spicy Teriyaki here, so I'm curious to see how the regular Teriyaki fares.

   • Address: 10002 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133
   • Hours: 11AM-9PM Monday-Saturday, Closed Sunday
   • Current Health Rating: Good

3. Teriyaki Plus

   The only Teriyaki place of the 4 that neither of us had been to before, so we are both stoked to try it out for the first time.

   • Address: 2100 N Northgate Way b, Seattle, WA 98133
   • Hours: 11AM-9PM Monday-Saturday, Closed Sunday
   • Current Health Rating: Excellent

4. Cafe Banh Mi

   Tucked away in a business complex on Meridian Ave, Cafe Banh Mi is the only place we tried that isn't marketed as a Teriyaki restaurant. It does, however, happen to have Teriyaki permanently on the menu. We discovered this when traveling back to Seattle on an early morning flight. We missed Seattle Teriyaki so much on our vacation - that we craved it upon returning. Cafe Banh Mi was the only place that served Teriyaki we could find that was also open at 8 AM. However, their matching early close time and non-existent weekend hours mean we don't get to enjoy this place nearly as often as we'd like to.

   • Address: 10700 Meridian Ave N #106, Seattle, WA 98133
   • Hours: 7AM-5PM Monday-Friday, Closed Saturday & Sunday
   • Current Health Rating: Excellent

The ratings

1. Cafe Banh Mi

   With a generous coating of Teriyaki glaze covering perfectly moist chicken, Cafe Banh Mi easily took the #1 spot.

   • Amanda: 4.5 - "Delicious. I want more."
   • Tim: 4.5 - "By far the best."

2. Oak Tree Teriyaki Oak Tree's distinctive crunch helped pull it into #2 place. And then there are those glorious house fries...

   • Amanda: 3.75
   • Tim 4.0 - "Has a really nice crunch to it."

   Bonus (House Fries):

   • Amanda: 5.0 - "This isn't what we are taste testing, but these are delicious."
   • Tim: 10 - "That's right, these are off the scale. It's a good thing these aren't included in the actual rating."

3. Manna Deli Teriyaki

   • Amanda: 3.5 - "Has a nice flavor to it, but I want a bit more."
   • Tim 3.25

4. Teriyaki Plus Some more teriyaki sauce may have made all the difference for this one.

   • Amanda: 3.25 - "Too Dry."
   • Tim 3.0 - "Too Dry!"

Disagree with our ratings? Let us know why in the comments! Either way, go eat some delicious Teriyaki in Licton Springs!