A very busy weekend coming up in Greenwood and Phinney Ridge. Here are a few highlights. As always, you can check out our events calendar for more.

The Phinney Farmers Market runs from 3-7 p.m. Friday in the upper parking lot of the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N.

The Green Lake wading pool is scheduled to open on Saturday, weather permitting. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, through Monday, Sept. 5.

The Greenwood Car Show takes over Greenwood Avenue North for a mile-and-a-half on Saturday. The street will be closed to regular traffic so pedestrians can check out more than 700 cars – from classic hot rods to vintage fire engines and even hydroplanes.

Seattle Department of Transportation estimates 60,000 people will attend the Greenwood Car Show.

The Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St., is hosting a pancake breakfast with special guest chef Thomas Black on Saturday from 7-11 a.m. in conjunction with the car show. Cost is $5 per person or $15 for the whole family.

The Rock ‘n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon will close down a bunch of streets on Saturday, including the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Aurora Avenue North, starting at North 39th Street in Fremont, beginning at 5:45 a.m. Seattle Department of Transportation says the southbound lanes should re-open by 1:15 p.m. , and the northbound lanes will re-open by 4 p.m. The full list of road closures is here.

Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Café presents Jed Marum, through the Pacific NW Folklore Society, at 7:30 p.m. Friday; and Open Mic Cabaret at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (sign-up starts at 7 p.m.)

Naked City Brewering & Taphouse hosts its annual Beer Can Derby starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday. Participants must be 21 and over. Full details and race car specs here.

The Shop Agora, at 6417-A Phinney Ave. N., hosts a tasting of picnic foods from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, including wine, truffle almonds and bite-size salted chocolates.

The 7th Annual Green Lake Open Water Swim is Sunday morning. Register online for the half-mile race, the one-mile race, or both races. Swimmers can also register in person at Evans Pool, 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N.

The first game of the Women’s World Cup begins at 9 a.m. on Sunday. The Phinney Neighborhood Center has teamed up with the Pig ‘n Whistle to show every World Cup game through July 17. Soccer matches will be shown live on a giant 14-by-8-foot movie screen at the PNA, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., except Sunday matches, which will be shown on the big screen at the Pig n’ Whistle, 8412 Greenwood Ave. N. Sunday’s game is Germany vs. Canada. Doors at the Pig ‘n Whistle open at 8:30 a.m. The showings are all ages. Suggested donations are $3 for adults, $2 for children, or $10 for the whole family.

Just northeast of Greenwood is the second annual North Seattle Block Party from 2-6 p.m. Sunday in the Oak Tree Cinemas parking lot. The block party will have live music, inflatables for the kids, children’s games, food, and door prizes and gift bags from local businesses. They’ll also be collecting new children’s shoes for Shoes for Souls, which helps families who are victims of a disaster or emergency.

The second annual Spoke & Food event is coming up from 5-10 p.m. next Tuesday. If you ride your bike to any participating restaurant, they’ll donate 20 percent of your bill to the Children’s Garden Education program at Seattle Tilth.

In our neighborhood, Stumbling Goat Bistro and Barking Dog Alehouse are participating.

Billed as “an evening of dining and bikes”, the event will take place in 13+ different Seattle area neighborhoods. The event asks people to bicycle to (and from) one of the “host” restaurants on the night of the event. This community event was launched last year as a way to influence the culture of Seattle, to show how easy and fun bicycling to and from dinner is and to raise money for a well-deserving Seattle area non-profit. A new non-profit beneficiary is selected each year. This year’s event will benefit the Children’s Garden Education program at Seattle Tilth whereas last year’s event benefited the Lettuce Link program at Solid Ground.

More restaurants may be added before Tuesday. Check the Spoke & Food website for the most up-to-date list.

That low rumbling you’ll hear from Greenwood Avenue North early Saturday morning means the annual Greenwood Car Show is getting underway.

A 1913 Cadillac Phaeton from the 2010 Greenwood Car Show.

Officially running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., drivers of hot rods, old classics and other sweet rides will begin lining the street starting at 6 a.m. Greenwood Avenue North will be closed from North 68th to North 90th streets from about 5 a.m. to about 7 p.m.

More than 700 vehicles are expected to take part, including vintage fire engines and even a few hydroplanes, and tens of thousands of spectators will stroll the streets. There’s also music, food, a kids zone, and various vendors.

The Greenwood Car Show is produced by the Greenwood Knights car club and is a Seafair sanctioned community event. It’s also a fundraiser for Greenwood Food Bank. A portion of the car entry fees are donated to the food bank, and all attendees are encouraged to bring canned food donations to drop off at the booth or various bins located throughout the show.

The Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St., is hosting a pancake breakfast from 7-11 a.m. Saturday with guest chef Thomas Black. Cost is $5 per person, or $15 per family.

The number 5 Metro bus will be rerouted from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Greenwood Avenue North to 65th Street, to 3rd Avenue NW, to Holman Road. Metro has a pdf detailing the route changes here.

Just after the car show, starting at 6 p.m., the Randy Hicks band will live at Two Birds Tattoo, 7408 Greenwood Ave. N. The all ages show is free.

Eleven young female photographers calling themselves PhotogenX have backpacked through 36 countries, documenting their journeys through pictures and stories which have been compiled into a new book, “Act Here. Love Now.” PhotogenX will discuss their book at 7:30 p.m. today at Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Café, at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N.

The purpose of photogenX is to use cameras to expose & fight areas of injustice around the world. We have been backpacking through 36 countries around the world for the last year with the vision to change things for the better. As we traveled & documented the lives of those we met [through photos and stories] we were overwhelmed and disheartened at the need we saw along the way.

Yet from a photography school in a dusty South African township, to meeting trafficked women in brothels in Eastern Europe, to finding ourselves in the middle of the Kashmiri Indian conflict, we’ve had a year of adventure, laughter, heartache and Hope. We found that it was the small, simple gestures of Justice that started to change things around us. We believe that whether we are in our hometowns or across the continents, if we impact our neighborhoods, we will transform our cities. And if we transform our cities, we *will* change the world.

This book is a culmination of our stories, photos, and practical ways to impact your own community, city, and world. The message we’re sharing is that you don’t have to take an epic trip to make an epic difference in the life of one person.

Update: Police just released eight images from a surveillance camera inside a Shoreline convenience store. Detectives believe the man dressed in black is one of the suspects.

Earlier: Seattle Police have released a sketch of one of the suspects in Tuesday morning’s abduction and assault of one woman, and attempted abduction of another.

Sketch courtesy of Seattle Police Department.

If you have any information on this crime, contact the Seattle Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit at 206-684-5575.

City Fruit is gathering volunteers to take part in harvesting extra fruit from neighborhood trees this summer. The next Harvest Volunteer Info Meeting is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. next Tuesday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.

Photo courtesy of City Fruit.

From City Fruit’s press release:

Have you ever seen this picture, in August or September around the city? Does it make you feel uncomfortable to see good, healthy fruit rotting on the ground? City Fruit works to prevent this problem by harvesting fruit from residential trees in Phinney-Greenwood to donate to local organizations serving people in need. City-grown fruit is an important resource that needs to be stewarded and used to feed people our community.

City Fruit is now gearing up for the 2011 harvests, and there are three ways you can help:

1) Volunteer to help harvest. This is a fun, social, volunteer opportunity—great for families and everyone else! The time commitment is flexible, since harvests happen daytime, evenings, and weekends, and you can sign up the week before a harvest. Both new and returning volunteers should attend our Harvest Volunteer Info Meeting on Tuesday, June 28, 6:30-7:30 at the Greenwood Library. If you can’t make it or have more questions, please contact us.

2) Donate your fruit. If you have a fruit tree that you can’t harvest or use all of the fruit, we can harvest and donate the fruit. We typically leave a small box of fruit for the residents, and you can help harvest if you’d like. You can also harvest your own tree and donate the extras yourself—find a list of donation sites on our website.

3) Become a member. It costs us about $1 to harvest one pound of fruit, so the support of our members is critical. Members receive one free class and $5 off additional classes. You can join online using Paypal.
Volunteers and fruit tree owners can contact us at phinney@cityfruit.org. Our “boundaries” are N 50th St to N 105th St, and Aurora to 8th Ave NW.

Our partner organizations harvest in other parts of Seattle. If you live in another part of Seattle, contact the Garden Hotline at (206) 633-0224 or help@gardenhotline.org to have your tree harvested.

The Seattle Foundation is hosting Give Big, a one-day push to bring in donations to nonprofits in King County. The Seattle Foundation and local businesses will match a share of every contribution made online between 7 a.m. and midnight Thursday.

Phinney-Greenwood organizations that you can donate to include the Woodland Park Zoo, Taproot Theatre, the Phinney Neighborhood Association, kids tutoring and writing center 826 Seattle, and performance group Manifold Motion. (If you know of other neighborhood organizations involved in Give Big, please list them below in Comments.)

You’ll also have an opportunity to be chosen at random to win a “Golden Ticket,” which gets your charity of choice an extra $1,000 from the event’s sponsors.

The Northwest District Council meets  tonight at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood Senior Center. A last-minute change to the agenda is an appearance by City Councilmember Tim Burgess, who is chair of the Council’s Public Safety & Education Committee, vice-chair of the Committee on the Built Environment, and a member of the Transportation Committee.

Following the chat with Councilmember Burgess, Northwest District staff Rob Mattson will provide updates on:

• Annual Night Out (set for Tuesday, Aug. 2) and on crime prevention resources
• Matching Fund applications and grant awards in the NW district
• City policy regarding murals on city-owned property, including proposed city action on vandalized murals on North 57th Street and North 63rd Street.
• Implementation of the Seattle Scofflaw Ordinance
• The available balance of the 2011 District Council Enhancement Fund

The Council also will discuss prioritizing projects that were submitted thorough the 2011 Neighborhood Projects Fund.

In April, the NWDC (through email balloting) selected three projects from a list of nine proposed which were forwarded to SDOT and Parks Department for cost and feasibility analysis. That evaluation on the three NW district projects is now available. NWDC must now make its final recommendation on the priority order to fund these projects taking into consideration the estimated cost against the approx $90K of funds available.

The three projects competing in this process are:

• Intersection improvements – N 66th & Linden Ave N
• Walkway improvements – south side of woodland Park Zoo (N 50th), between Fremont N and Phinney N
• Green Lake path centerline delineating ‘heels’ vs ‘wheels’

For more information or to share your ideas about NW District Council projects, contact Northwest District Council staff Rob Mattson at 206-684-4051, or rob.mattson@seattle.gov; or NWDC Chair Steve Deters, at 437-4940, or sldeters@qwest.net.

The NWDC meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month, at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood Senior Center.

Hazel Salon at 5817 Phinney Ave. N. raised $350 from a raffle during its recent anniversary celebration, then matched that to donate a total of $700 for the Women for Women program in Afghanistan.

Women for Women International helps female survivors of war move from crisis to stability.

Greenwood’s free kids tutoring and writing center, 826 Seattle, is hosting its second annual fundraiser this Sunday at Nectar Lounge in Fremont. Dance Your Cash Off is from 6-11 p.m. and is hosted by comedienne Lauren Weedman.

There’s still time to form your own dance team, or you can pay $10 to watch the dancing.

The judges are art and media journalist Nancy Guppy; her husband and improv guy Joe Guppy; movie critic Robert Horton; and members of The Derby Liberation Front (Rat City Roller Girls).

Your Good Cause: The amazing (and free!) programs of 826 Seattle, which anyone would happily dance five solid hours to support. 826 Seattle is a nonprofit writing center located in Greenwood that helps students, ages six to 18, develop their creative and expository writing skills. We are dedicated to helping students learn the essential skill of writing–all free of charge. Our doors are open to all young people, but our focus is on those that need our help the most.

Two women tell Seattle Police they were attacked by two men while they were walking near 97th and Dayton at about 1 a.m. One woman was taken by the men, but later found elsewhere in North Seattle and taken to the hospital, according to police.

From the Seattle Police Blotter:

On 6/21/11, just shortly before 1:00 a.m., officers responded to the 9700 block of Dayton Ave N. to investigate an abduction. Officers contacted a 19-year-old female and she stated the following: She and a friend, a 20-year-old female were walking in the 9700 block of Dayton Av N just shortly before 1 a.m. The pair was walking when 2 hispanic males appeared from a darkened corner of the street.

Suspect 1, grabbed the 20-yr-old victim and proceeded to pull her into the darkened area. Suspect 2 grabbed the 19-yr-old victim/witness and also attempted to pull her into the darkened area however, she fought him away.

Both suspects then focused their efforts on the 20-year-old victim and pulled her approximately 30 feet to a parked vehicle. They fled the scene S/B on Dayton.

The vehicle is described as a light colored, newer sedan with Washington plates. The license plate may contain the letters/number L,R and the number 4.

The suspects are described as 2 hispanic males in their 20′s. Suspect 1 was armed with a handgun and wore a mask or face covering.

CSI and Homicide responded and processed the scene.

Update* Victim has been located. She was found at a location in North Seattle and was taken to an area hospital as a precaution.

And if anyone was wondering, that’s why at least one news helicopter was over the area at about 6 a.m.

Update Tuesday, June 21: SPD reports the suspect was taken into custody early this morning in Woodland, in southwest Washington. KING5.com reports the suspect was found in a park.

Earlier: Seattle Police are searching for a man suspected of murdering a woman early Sunday morning in the 900 block of North 95th Street. From the SPD Blotter:

On June 19th, just after 6:00 AM, North Precinct officers responded to a disturbance call in the 900 Block of North 95th Street. According to the complainant, the victim, a 25 year old female, her daughter, the suspect, and two other adults were all together in the residence at approximately 12:30 AM on the 19th. The victim and suspect and child all went in one bedroom, while the other two adults slept in the living room.

In the morning, at about 6:00 AM, the adults in the living room woke up and discovered that the suspect, a 43 year old male, was gone from the residence. They found the 25 year old female unresponsive and not breathing. 911 was called and police and Seattle Fire Department medics responded. The victim was declared deceased at the scene. It was determined that the suspect took a car belonging to one of the adults.

The suspect has been identified as Mussie E. Weldeyohannes 43. He is a black male, 5-10, 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. It is believed he is driving a green, 1997 Toyota Camry 4 door, with Washington license plate ACX6374.

Homicide and CSI detectives responded to the scene. An autopsy performed today by the Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the victim died of homicidal means. This is now a homicide investigation. Anyone with information on this crime or the whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call 911 or contact the Seattle Police Department Homicide Unit at (206) 684-5550.