Seattle Department of Transportation has put up four signs in our neighborhood, promoting the Summer Streets event on Aug. 13. Here’s one sign on the side of The Chocolate Shoebox at 7410 Greenwood Ave. N. The sign reads “It’s everybody’s street. Imagine the possibilities. Friday, August 13.”

Last year’s inaugural Summer Streets program in April closed down Greenwood Avenue so that people could stroll down the street, enjoying the BubbleMan, chalk art, a whiffleball game, and more, in conjunction with the monthly artwalk.

The signs were posted with the business owners’ permission, and are stuck on with wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive using vegetable starch and water. Someone apparently pulled off the poster outside Francine Seders Gallery, at 6701 Greenwood Ave. N.

Summer Streets is a joint project of the city and the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce. To see the other two signs, at Rosewood Guitar and Naked City, see SDOT’s blog post.

The city’s Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets program, designed to get people out of their cars and discovering their neighborhood and its businesses by walking or biking, will return to Greenwood-Phinney in August.

Co-hosted by the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce, the event will take place from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13, in conjunction with the monthly Art Up Art Walk. Phinney/Greenwood avenues will be closed from North 65th to North 87th streets.

Last year’s event in April saw the BubbleMan entertaining hordes of people in front of Metropolis, live painting in front of the Greenwood Collective, guerilla knitting in the middle of the street near Fire Station 21, and plenty of live musicians inside and outside businesses.

We took so many pictures during Friday evening’s Summer Streets/Art Up Greenwood-Phinney event, we thought we’d feature some of those photos in a separate post.

This whimsical and wistful photo, “Almost,” by Kelsey Scherler caught my eye at Urban Light Studios.

Liked this one too at the Greenwood Collective (thanks, Mark, for the pic!).

Here’s one of Mary McIntyre’s paintings from her Roller Derby series featured at Seattle Management Group.

And here are some really sexy paintings by Jenny Gini featured at SPACE: Design Center.

And here’s an “after” photo from the urban street art project happening outside the Greenwood Collective.

 See the “before” photo here.

In one of the more hands-on displays, people out for the evening could also learn how to crochet as part of a performance art “river of yarn” project.

There were plenty of musical opportunities to be had Friday evening during the Summer Streets and Art Up Greenwood-Phinney event for those who looked and listened hard enough.

Here’s neighborhood fixture Gary Paine strumming away outside Johnson & Johnson Antiques:

And here’s Jeff Rodriguez, left, and Kelly McShane of Masters Mates and Pilots doing an accoustic set.

Brian Hart sent us this great photo of a street performer outside La Botana in Greenwood.

We didn’t get this artist’s name, but she put on a great set at SPACE: Design Center.

I believe this is Kelli Shaeffer (please correct me if I’m wrong) playing at Greenwood Collective, which has a great space for music.

And a violinist provided background music at the former location of Twig Children’s Botique.

A ton of people turned out for the first Summer Streets event in Greenwood and Phinney Ridge, taking part in a wide range of on-the-street activities. For the kids, it was street chalk, the Bubble Man and a fire engine at Station 21:

Held in conjunction with the monthly Art Up Greenwood-Phinney Art Walk, more than 30 venues had artists on display, including this live painting exhibition outside the Greenwood Collective, by Matamuros (Seattle Urban Mural Crew). Thanks, Brian Hart for the photo!

Here’s a few more shots Brian gave us:

Brian’s shot of Prost! is reminiscent of a European scene where it’s common to find streets taken over by pedestrians.

Plenty of Seattle Police were on hand, with the Segway rider and the Harley-riding motorcycle cops being especially popular.

A mass of Greenwood and Phinney Ridge residents disobeyed their mothers’ orders and played in the street this evening during Seattle’s first Summer Streets event. We took a ton of photos, which we plan to post after getting a good night’s sleep. 

In the meantime, post your thoughts about the event – what you liked and what you’d like to see next time. We’ll do our best to make sure the folks involved in the program see them.

Greenwood Avenue will be closed from 65th to 87th streets next Friday, April 10, from 6-9 p.m. for the Seattle Summer Streets event, inviting pedestrians to take over the streets. Businesses will be having special sales and events, and neighbors are getting together to plan their own fun.

The Greater Greenwood Bi/Ped Safety Coalition is hoping to have a game of wiffleball:

What better way to celebrate the opening of this much urban space than by playing ball in the street?! To that end, we’ll be playing wiffle ball starting at 6:00 PM near the intersection of N 72nd St & Greenwood Ave N. If enough players show up, and I surely hope they will, we will split into two games, one for younger players and one for older players.

I fondly remember playing wiffleball with neighbors as a boy on the quiet residential streets of Flushing, Queens, NY, and I would love to see our community turn out for a street wiffleball event here. This street closure looks like an excellent opportunity to do just that.

I encourage you to arrive by walking or bicycling – a local school has agreed to lend a large bike rack for this event. I also encourage you to bring cloth shopping bags, as this event will be held adjacent to several locally owned businesses (including Ken’s Market and Greenwood Hardware) in case you want to get a little shopping done while the games are going on. See you there!