The vacant lot on the corner of Greenwood Ave. N.  and N. 68th St. has passed environmental review and gets the green light to be the site of the temporary Fire Station 21, while the old station on Greenwood and N. 73rd St. gets demolished and rebuilt.

During construction, the Defenders of Greenwood and their equipment will be housed in industrial tents and trailers. I contacted the city today to get an updated timeline, and here’s what they told me.

Currently, parts of the future Fire Station 21 temporary station are being used to house crews while construction takes place at other fire station projects in the city. When the tents and trailers become available, they will be moved to the temporary Fire Station 21 site.

At this point, we anticipate construction will begin around April 2010. As progress is made on other stations, we will be able to pinpoint a more specific date.

Here’s the scale model of the new Fire Station 21, which will be two stories tall.

Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Cafe had its soft opening at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N. last week, but now plans its grand opening celebration for Jan. 9.

Well, the New Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Cafe had a week exceeding our expectations! A special thanks to all our old and new friends who came by.

And, our Grand Opening Party is Saturday, January 9th all day. Food, Fun Entertainment. Come on by and check out our new digs. Let me know if you can help, or if you want to do a little performing.

Theo, Penny and Gerry

Ed Medeiros has been executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association since it was founded in 1981. Now that he’s retiring in January, his colleagues want to give him an appropriate sendoff – a good-natured “roast” with a Dr. Seuss theme.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?”

Director Ed’s time now has come

So gather ye Phinney ‘hood alum.

With dinner, jokes, and many a chum,

We’ll guarantee no one leaves glum.

(With apologies to Dr. Seuss)

 Tickets for the roast are $150 ($50 of that is for the dinner, drinks and goodbye gift for Ed; $100 is a tax-deductible donation to the PNA’s Capital Campaign, to name the PNA’s upstairs art gallery in Ed’s honor.)

We describe the admission price as “at least $150” because, quite frankly, we’re hoping some have the means to donate more. We’re using the roast to try to raise $50,000 for the Capital Campaign to dedicate the Phinney Center Gallery in Ed’s honor. In fact, we’ve already sold 20 event tickets at $1,000 each to donors who think that “Ed’s House of Velvet Paintings” has a nice ring to it.

You can reserve your spot at the roast online, by mail (6532 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103) or call the Phinney Center at 206-783-2244 (the PNA will be closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s, so the only option to reserve during that time is online or by mail.)

Here’s what the folks at the Phinney Center had to say about the PNA and Ed:

What would the neighborhood be like without the PNA and the Phinney Center? No beer tastes, no preschool, no farmers market, no meeting space, no tool library, no kids movement classes, no Winter Festival, no Garage Sale Day…. If you love this neighborhood and the connections you’ve made here, you owe a debt of gratitude to Ed, who developed, nurtured and sustained the PNA for the past 30 years. Show your gratitude by attending the roast or making a donation in his honor.

Santa Claus dropped by Yanni’s Greek Restaurant at 7419 Greenwood Ave. N. on Sunday for a quick visit.

Peter tells us there weren’t too many kids, but the adults sure seemed happy to see him!

We just got this note from Mary, about someone stealing their outgoing mail.

Thought I’d drop a line about outgoing mail stolen from our mailbox last night–principally *all* our addressed and stamped Christmas cards, complete with personal notes to my loved ones. My husband put them out for the letter carrier last night before bed (we live at 68th and Phinney) and they were gone by the time we got up in the morning. Someone is clearly going through looking for money inside (they won’t find any). Aaargh! I’m trying to maintain a sense of humor about this, but there is something deeply disturbing about picturing our holiday newsletter, card w/picture of my children, etc, being pawed through by some lowlife.

Note to neighbors: do not put outgoing mail out for the letter carriers! Like everything else around our homes, it is being watched.

Geoff tells us his car was stolen from his driveway on Dayton Avenue, between 68th and 70th streets, sometime this morning.

My Subaru was stolen from my drive this am. It’s a ’96 Maroon legacy with license plate #112-YWT. Police said there have been bunch of Subaru thefts in the area recently as the thieves have some sort of master key.

If you have any information, you can put it in comments, or email us and we’ll pass it along to Geoff.

We got a note (and picture) from Marty this morning about carolers on the corner of 80th and 3rd Sunday night.

Last night around 8:30, my wife and I were watching a movie. The scene we were watching had Christmas carolers in it. About that time I thought I heard something so I asked my wife to pause the movie. Sure enough, there was a group of carolers on the corner near our apartment. My wife took them out some Christmas cupcakes and found out that they had been at a party and decided to go caroling.

We had a great time at Friday night’s auction to raise money for the Greenwood Fire Relief Fund. Organizers tell us about 125 people attended and they raised about $3,500. Thanks to all the fine folks who volunteered their time to set this up, and to all the local businesses who donated items.

With the holiday season upon us, what gift would you give our neighborhoods of Phinney Ridge and/or Greenwood? Here are some things that people might see as gifts already received: A mayor from our neighborhood, the arrest of an arson suspect and a great community center in the form of the PNA.

If you had your way, what gift would you want for our community?

Santa is putting in an appearance at Yanni’s today at 5 p.m. He’ll be handing out “Santa surprises” and Greek Christmas cookies during the hour or so he can take off from his North Pole pre-Christmas preparations.

Kids and cameras are welcome at the restaurant, 7419 Greenwood Ave. N.

Did you make it out to the luminaria display between 81st and 84th streets tonight? We checked it out tonight and enjoyed the ambiance. The PhinneyWood Kid just wanted to blow out the lights. Fortunately, he failed. Here’s a low-light pic of a stretch of 81st just west of Greenwood Avenue.

We even ran into a group of carolers spreading holiday cheer. Thanks, luminaria folks and carolers, for spreading holiday spirit in the neighborhood! Goodness knows we could use it.

A decent crowd turned out at Upper Crust Catering for the silent auction benefiting the Greenwood Fire Relief Fund that helps businesses affected by the Greenwood arsons.

Over the course of a couple hours, people put down bids on dozens of items donated by local businesses.

Singer-songwriter Ali Marcus performed a soulful set. A recent transplant to the neighborhood, she donated her performance, as well as all of the proceeds from sales of her CDs last night.

We’ll report the totals when we get them.

In related news, our media partner, The Seattle Times, has a story and video (which you can see below) about the street artist mural going in on 85th just west of Greenwood Avenue.