King County’s Aging and Disability Services (ADS) wants community input for its new Area Plan on Aging, which will guide its work from 2012-2015.

ADS is a division of the Seattle Human Services Department, and works with King County and United Way to improve the health and quality of life for seniors and adults with disabilities, connect them with resources, and provide support to caregivers.

ADS wants residents of any age to complete an online questionnaire.

We especially encourage people who are age 60 or older, adults with disabilities, and family caregivers to respond.

Responses from this questionnaire will inform development of strategies to promote quality of life, independence and choice for older people and adults with disabilities, which will be carried out over the next four years.

Everybody is aging, so everybody should care.

For more information about the Area Plan on Aging, contact ADS planner Karen Winston at 206-684-0706.

The Northwest EcoBuilding Guild is hosting the Seattle Green Home Tour on April 16-17, including five Phinney Ridge homes. Homes on the tour highlight various green building, remodeling and retrofitting techniques, such as Net Zero Energy use, Passive House standards of super energy-efficient construction, and where to purchase eco-friendly products.

Phinney homes include:

• Dayton Ave Project
• Centennial House
• Phinney Retreat
• Urban Sustainability: On the Road to Net Zero
• McTrax Cottage

The Mini-B Passive House, currently on display at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, is also on the tour.

The free Seattle Green Home Tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 16-17.

(The Green Home Tour is a PhinneyWood sponsor.)

A group of Ballard/Phinney moms decided to host an informal fun run through Ballard and Discovery Park last weekend, and donated entry fees to a Seattle-based charity called One by One. Twenty runners and six volunteers showed up for the five-mile and 13-mile routes, raising more than $1,200 (including employer matching.)

Fun run participants cross the Ballard Locks bridge.

“We think that’s terrific, and hope that other casual, community groups will be encouraged to try similar types of giving events,” Lexy Relph told us in an email.

Relph said the running group – SeattleTriMoms – represents most of the elementary schools in Ballard and Phinney, including Loyal Heights, West Woodland, Adams, Bagley, Salmon Bay, Whittier and Greenwood.

From the group’s event website:

The average per-runner donation was $37.50, which is approximately half the registration fee for a typical, privately organized half-marathon. 100% of the event’s collections are earmarked for One by One. In addition to participant contributions, friends and supporters have been pledging support to this deserving cause, runners’ employers are matching donations, and funds are still coming in.

This Ballard moms’ running group hopes to host another successful fun run for charity next year. Until then, individuals may contribute directly to One by One on their website (http://www.fightfistula.org/).

One By One contributes to the elimination of obstetric fistula worldwide by engaging the public and supporting those who work to treat and prevent fistula in the developing world.

Taproot Theatre actor Mark Chamberlin, a Phinney Ridge resident who just finished a run as the lead Odysseus in “The Odyssey,” died after a weekend bicycle accident, The Seattle Times reports. 

This was posted on the Taproot Facebook page:

We’re sorry to share this news with our Taproot Theatre patrons and friends. Mark just finished a masterful run as Odysseus in our season opener The Odyssey. Our prayers go out to his family and friends.  

Chamberlin was also slated to perform April 4 on the opening night of ACT Theatre’s Pinter Fortnightly series.

Our condolences go to Mark’s family and friends.

The NW District Council is meeting Wednesday night at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85^th St., to discuss Seattle’s Transit Master Plan and to go over proposals to the Neighborhood Projects Fund (NPF).

Each of the city’s 13 District Councils is charged with considering proposals submitted by organizations or individuals in their district. The proposals are for small-scale transportation or parks improvements.

Each district submits its three priority projects, then the appropriate city department analyzes its costs and feasibility, sending it back to each council for a final decision on which projects to fund. Each district receives about $90,000 from the city.

 Nine proposals have been submitted to the NW District Council:

• Adding a crosswalk at 50th and Midvale near the tennis courts in Upper Woodland Park.
• Paving the path at the southwest edge of Woodland Park Zoo and adding curb cuts to the zoo parking lot exit to make it safer to runners and walkers.
• Making the intersection of North 66th Street at Linden Avenue North/Woodland Place North safer by adding a curb bulb, four ADA ramps, and landscaping improvement to turn the five-way intersection into two separate intersections.
• Pedestrian safety improvements on 115th Street NE, 5th Avenue NE and 15th Ave NE in the Haller Lake neighborhood.
• Painting the Green Lake loop with a stencil that makes it clearer which side is for wheels and which for feet.
• Installing a sidewalk and street trees on North 90th Street between Phinney and Fremont avenues.
• Improve safety at the crosswalk on Greenwood Avenue North and North 80^th Street by the Greenwood Library by adding curb bulbs, a raised median and bicycle oasis at the library.
• Adding speed bumps and “local access only” signs to the eight blocks bounded by Greenwood Avenue North, Fremont Avenue North, North 125th Street and North 130th Street, and the block bounded by Fremont Avenue North, Northpark Avenue North, North 125th Street and North  127^th Street.
• Traffic calming measures on NW 8^th Avenue between North 85^th Street and North 105^th Street, including a one-way climbing bike lane to reduce road size to help slow traffic, and the purchase of two radar speed signs for both ends of the 20-block segment.

For more information on District Council projects and issues, contact Northwest District Council staff Rob Mattson at 206-684-4051 or rob.mattson@seattle.gov, or NWDC Chair Steve Deters at 206-437-4940 or sldeters@qwest.net.

As school assignments start arriving in the mail, Seattle Public Schools has released its transportation zone plan for bus and walk zones for the 2011-12 school year.

From the SPS website:

In the new transportation plan, transportation eligibility for attendance area elementary and K-8 students will be based on transportation zones.

Students within the transportation zone and outside the walk zone for a school will be eligible for District-provided transportation.

Students outside their immediate transportation zone, but within their extended intermediary boundary, can walk to an attendance area school for bus pick-up if they live within a safe walk zone (up to one mile). Otherwise, they walk up to a 1/2 mile to a regular neighborhood stop. This is a temporary option to extend transportation for two (2) years (2011-12 & 2012-13).

• Transportation Zones will include the entire attendance area of a school
• Transportation Zones will extend to areas within a 1.25 mile radius from the school and within the middle school service area
• Walk zones to schools will still apply.

Here are transportation maps for schools with boundaries in the Greenwood-Phinney area.

Greenwood

Whittier

West Woodland

Daniel Bagley

Viewlands

North Beach

Picnic, 6801 Greenwood Ave. N., is hosting another benefit to raise money for ShelterBox USA, which is providing emergency housing and other essentials to victims of the recent Japan earthquake.

Picnic’s weekly Thursday night wine tasting this week features five wines from Bunnel Family Cellars. Your suggested donation of $20 goes straight to ShelterBox, and so does 10 percent of Picnic’s sales that day. The wine taste is from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Picnic’s ShelterBox fundraiser last week was a huge success, Co-Owner Anson Klock tells us, raising $2,000, so they decided to do it again. Each ShelterBox – which costs $1,000 – provides a tent, cooking equipment and other essentials for 10 people.

You can read more on Picnic’s Facebook event page.

By Tyler Steele, PhinneyWood intern

From the outside, the old Craftsman house at 6300 Phinney Ave. N. looks like any other on the block. But on the inside, multi-instrumentalist and owner Michael Connolly runs Empty Sea Studios — concert venue, recording studio, teaching space and platform for his LearningMusician website.

“May of 2009 was the first show,” Connolly said at his studio while setting up chairs before a January weekend acoustic performance by ThorNton Creek, “and I haven’t had to close the doors yet. A lot of people still don’t know this place exists…but word of mouth has kept me alive.”

In order to better promote his business, Connolly has just hired someone to work primarily on marketing, something that will help him focus on what he loves doing — playing, writing, recording and teaching music.

Connolly started playing the mandolin at age 6, picking up more instruments, writing songs and helping other artists develop their talents ever since. Today, he teaches, records, promotes and markets music full-time.

Empty Sea Studios owner Michael Connolly looks over the soundboard before a recent concert by ThorNton Creek.

Although music was always his passion, Connolly wasn’t always involved in it as an occupation. After college he started a career in computer engineering, and in 2004 he came to Seattle when he landed a job at Amazon.

Connolly eventually grew tired of “working long hours” to make a rich company richer, so he turned the only direction that made sense — straight for the music.

He renovated the upstairs of the house to be a “multi-purpose space for recording and teaching,” and kept downstairs for personal living quarters.

By the time he had finished, he had also created a “single-purpose listening room for concerts,” soon becoming the most visible aspect of the business. The stage allows groups such as ThorNton Creek and artists like Korby Lenker to perform only feet away from the audience, which creates an “intimate acoustic experience” Empty Sea has become known for.

Musician Thornton Bowman, of ThorNton Creek, practicing on stage at Empty Sea Studios before a January concert.

For Connolly, “anything acoustic” means folk, early jazz, blues and Americana –“anything that sounds like it came from real instruments,” he explained.

“Fortunately, there are enough people interested in the music that I have plenty of work here in the Northwest,” he added, moving into the recording studio to make a few adjustments before the show.

Yet, only 20 percent of Connolly’s revenue actually comes from weekly concerts. The rest is generated through teaching, recording and from his LearningMusician website.

“The concerts are how I meet the people that might be recording clients,” he explained, adding that musicians who come to hear the concerts often become recording clients or students.

“The acoustic audience has a high percentage of musicians,” he said while helping his engineering intern, Jordan Cunningham, 20, finish setting up as a few audience members started to trickle in for the show. “They are a very narrow niche, but a very deep investment if you can tap into it and provide a product and venue that meets their needs.”

Cunningham said he helps Connolly during shows and on recording sessions, including setting up microphones and the sound booth, patching up gear and even “giving input to musicians,” Cunningham explained.

Connolly said it’s great to have someone around to help, and the payoff for Cunningham is that he has access to the facilities and can transition from an academic setting into the real word of freelance audio engineering.

Empty Sea Studios owner Michael Connolly with engineering intern Jordan Cunningham.

The other part of Connolly’s business, his website, www.LearningMusician.com, probably takes the least amount of effort to maintain but generates the most income.

“It’s like a dating website for music teachers and those looking for instruction,” he explained. “Teachers pay $10 per month as a subscription fee and potential students have free access to the site.”

Connolly admits he probably works more hours now that he owns a small business, but said the lifestyle change was more than worth it.

“I spend most of my time running around like a chicken with my head cut off — answering email and stacking chairs. You think you’re going to do the thing you’re good at, and that ends up being 20 percent of what you actually do during the day,” he said. “Although I achieve my living by busting my ass week after week, I do it by playing my music and doing what I love.”

Tyler Steele is PhinneyWood’s intern. He is a journalism student at the University of Washington.

The Seattle Public Library is hosting staged readings of “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave as part of the 2011 Seattle Reads program. The staged readings are adapted and directed by Annie Lareau and performed by Book-It Repertory Theatre at four library branches, including the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave N.

In 1998, The Seattle Public Library launched a program to get Seattleites reading and discussing the same book. “Seattle Reads” is now an annual event and has been widely emulated in cities, states and countries around the world. In this 13th year of the series, The Seattle Public Library has selected “Little Bee,” a novel by author Chris Cleave. The book tells the story of a young Nigerian refugee in the UK and a British magazine editor whose lives are forever changed and linked after meeting on a Nigerian beach.

The readings are free and no tickets or reservations are required. The Greenwood Library reading is from 7-8 p.m. Monday, May 2. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Staged readings also will be held from 2-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 17, at the Douglass-Truth Branch, 2300 E. Yesler Way; from 7-8 p.m., Monday, April 25, at the West Seattle Branch, 2306 42nd Ave. S.W.; and from 1-2 p.m., Friday, May 13 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium.

The Phinney Neighborhood Association is designing a new program for people age 50 and older and they need your input.

The PNA Village…will empower people to remain in their homes and neighborhoods while staying active and engaged as they age. The PNA Village will organize programs, services and information for people in the neighborhood, including home services, a network of helpers and social activities. Once the PNA Village is up and running, PNA Village members will be able to call one number to get help or referrals for the support they need.

If you are 50 or older we would like to hear your thoughts about this new concept and explore the issues, programs and services that could be addressed by the PNA Village. Survey results will inform program development by ensuring that we will meet the needs of the community.

The PNA Village will serve people living between North 50th Street and North 105th Street, and from Aurora Avenue North to 15th Avenue NW.

You can take the survey here, and click here for more information on the PNA Village, including the services available and estimated annual fees.

The Greenwood Community Council will meet from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.

On the agenda are updates on ongoing projects, including the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Acquisition project; Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund project; Greenwood Fred Meyer store remodel; and the Greenwood Town Center Rezone.

The Board also will discuss emergency preparedness. From the press release:

Due to recent concerns about the potential for disasters in our region and the timely discussion of disaster preparedness brought forward at the last GCC meeting, it seems appropriate to use this renewed awareness to provide preparedness resources and discuss thoughts on how we as a community can be more prepared when a disaster occurs.

The next GCC meeting will be on Thursday, April 28. All subsequent meetings will be on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Two PhinneyWood readers sent us pictures of Saturday night’s “Supermoon.” Here’s one by Paul M, taken from 92nd Street and 2nd Avenue NW.

And here’s one by LS, taken from Green Lake.

Thanks Paul M & LS!