This 31 year old festival should be even better than usual this year, now that South Lake Union Park is open. There will be ship models of every size and type–maybe some in bottles!–and demonstrations for how to make a ship model. (I’m hoping to learn how to take my ship in a bottle making to the next level, a level I hope involves stabbing myself in the hands less.) The kid’s play area will have a couple of kid-sized cargo ship models with a working crane. On top of that, there are free public boat rides, a treasure hunt, and a Quick and Daring boat building-and-then-racing party. And! You can visit the ailing Wawona, which still sits softly disintegrating in the water until it can be made into part of the park.

On Saturday night at 9:45, they’ll be showing The African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

The festival is going on from 10 - 6 Friday through Sunday, with a $5 suggested donation or $10 per family. It’s one of the friendliest festivals we have.

When my mother was in town from Florida a few weeks ago, she mentioned that there were $50 gas caps at the pumps, and above that you’d have to go inside to pay. I wasn’t sure if that was happening here, since I don’t drive and therefore have little cause to go to gas stations, but Jeanine Anderson dropped this into our photo pool, so I guess that it is.

Are you noticing this at your local gas stations, Metroblogging readers? Is it everywhere? Does it take more than $75 to fill up your car these days?

Last night I was talking to an old Crocodile employee who mentioned that the Croc’s building is back up for sale for $100,000 more than what it was originally up for, which seems a little insane, and I’m not sure how well Neumos is recovering from their capacity changes. Maybe everything will turn out fine and I’m just clutching my pearls prematurely, but then, maybe not.

This means that prices will be back to 1988 prices–a slice of cheese pizza will run you $1.10, and a soda will be 75 cents. It also means that they’ll be playing 1988 tunes and wearing 1988 side ponytails and neon clothes.

Pagliacci’s delivery service was introduced at Queen Anne and proved to be popular enough that they built two separate locations just for delivery.

Regardless of where you come down on the whole development issue–and I still maintain that the character of development in Seattle is constantly leaning away from the sort of density that we claim to want–the bottom line is that Macefield was a lady with a rich an interesting life, and stories that have probably still never been told. Richard Andrews of Ballard Bullshit has been working on a documentary about her for the last three years, hopefully scheduled for completion in the fall.

She has no known family, so what happens next to her land and house should be interesting.

It looks like I wasn’t the only one who never warmed up to the place, because The Southlake is pointing out that the joint is for sale. From the listing:

“BUSINESS CLOSED, SELLER MOTIVATED!!!! Rare opportunity to aquire a first class restaurant and billiards club facility, located on the shore of South Lake Union near downtown Seattle. Built out brand new just 2 years ago, this facility is located next to the south end station of the new South Lake Union Trolly line, and across from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center….The facility includes a full kitchen, multiple pool tables, a private room with deck, and a very large and contemperary bar. A new owner can easily convert to a full service restaurant, club, catering facility, or ??????.”

So I guess if you’re in the market for a pool hall with a view, this is your chance. I wish someone would come in and make it something that doesn’t match Joey’s and Chandler’s and all of those. Bonus points to the buyer if they sell piroshkis or turn it into a Chik-Fil-A franchise filled with pool tables. If you do that I will visit you all of the time.

Yeah, I remember all of that too. But as of…well, technically, right now, but not officially until Friday, the Bad Juju is back again. It’s nestled in the space between Shorty’s and the Lava Lounge, at 2224 2nd Ave. The new space is smaller than the old one, just a few tables, with exposed brick and some of the old artwork, including the flames. (The snake might come back, too, possibly as part of the bar.) It’s a nice room, although the trip to the bathroom is a bit of a labyrinth, and I can see lots of drunk Belltowners propelling themselves into the sharp corners of the walls that surround the booths. Out back is a nicely sized patio with a lovely view of the dog park/former crack park on the corner of 3rd, for outdoor drinking if the weather ever stops being stupid.

On Friday things were still under construction, but the very nice staff assured us that it’ll all be complete by this weekend’s grand opening, and it seems like it’ll be a decent spot. Hopefully, the 3rd location will be a charm.

Apparently, for unknown reasons, more and more salmon are getting caught and killed in the system. Chinook salmon are just one type of the fish that pass through the locks on their way to spawn, and Chinook are a threatened species.

The locks will be closed for 12 hours, starting at 7 a.m.

The success is starting to go to my head, and I’ve been eying the large shaded dirt patch in front of my apartment building a lot recently. But it looks like I’m not the only one–people all over town are trying to reclaim nooks and crannies of dirt to grow food. People with backyards and no time to mow are handing the space off to neighbors who want to grow produce. It all seems like a good way to foster community relations, and relieve a tiny bit of anxiety about food shortages. Maybe we should all start farming in the city while it’s still fun, not a necessity.

A few city officials are looking to inventory public land to find spots in parks and other places that could be taken over to grow food. Some architects are looking at planning buildings with gardens on top, buildings that collect and recycle rainwater, and possible all of the above for buildings made of recycled shipping containers. The City Council passed a local-food resolution, to research incentives for developers that include space for food gardens. It all seems like the right direction, at any rate, although the housing situation in this town still gives me the vapors.

Would you do it, Metroblogging readers? Is farming with your neighbors a worthwhile proposition? What would you grow?

Mercer itself gets crazily backed up during rush hour, and if there’s something happening at Key Arena it’s nearly impossible to get down Valley at all. The worst part about that whole intersection is the fact that everything clogs up where Fairview splits off into Valley, because it’s impossible to get across there and go down Fairview.

So, sure, on the one hand the proposal is playing right into Vulcan’s development plans, to turn SLU into a little live/work island in the middle of the city. But on the other hand that whole area is a gigantic mess, and people have been arguing about what to do with it for more years that you can shake a very long stick at. Which is just so Seattle–arguing about something until the best possible option is also the worst. Still, it’s about time something was done, and it’s possible that moving some of the traffic off of Valley will make the stupid streetcar a little faster and therefore perhaps useful.

But then, I don’t drive–I only know how much this intersection sucks because of how often the bus gets mired in the traffic. Do any of you with cars have an opinion about this fix?