36th District Rep Reuven Carlyle has announced he will be hosting four coffee hours around the district on Saturday, January 9 in order to meet with community members before the start of the upcoming legislative session on Monday, January 11.

“The Legislature convenes on January 11 and we’re again facing a massive deficit of nearly $3 billion,” Carlyle said in a press release today. “It’s critical that I hear from our community directly about your views, issues, concerns and thoughts on the budget, taxes, education and other important issues.  I’m asking people to reach out and share your views so I can better represent you in Olympia during these difficult times.”

The Magnolia meeting with Carlyle will be at Serendipity from 1p.m. to 2p.m.   You can also catch him from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Caffé Fioré (224 W Galer St.) on Queen Anne.

If you are looking for a night out for New Year’s Eve but want to stay close to home, two Magnolia Village restaurants will be open for dinner with some special additions to their menus.

Lauren and Corino at Mondello Ristorante wrote to let us know that they are planning specials in addition to their regular menu.  The New Year’s menu includes duck salad with am arena cherries & goat cheese over mixed greens, seafood cannelloni with Dungeness crab, bay shrimp, bay scallops, spinach and bechamel, Dijon-crusted rack of lamb, served with mushroom risotto  and festive cheesecake. 

Julie tells us that Chef Ludger has created a Celebration Dinner at  Szmania’s for those who want to bid adieu to 2009 in elegant style or quiet romance.  The menu includes Beef Wellington, grilled Colossal Prawns, Rack of Lamb, roasted Pheasant, in a la carte style with Bananas Foster and Chocolate Molten Lava Cake for desert.  Reservations start at 5:30p.m.

If you want a more casual party, Szmania’s is also having a Fondue &  Bubbles Party with a split of Champagne, two appetizer choices and a  selection of special Fondues for $50 per couple.  Reservations starting at 7 p.m.

If other restaurants in Magnolia have special events planned for New Year’s Eve, be sure to let everyone know in comments.

We don’t want to put an end to your holiday celebrations but if your tree is ready to move on, there is an easy way to say goodbye. If you subscribe to curbside yard waste collection, you can put your trees and greens out on their regular collection day at no extra charge starting tomorrow and running through January 10.  Trees should be cut into sections of six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet. Sections should be bundled with string or twine.

You can also drop off trees and greens for free at Seattle Public Utilities Station.  The closest to Magnolia is at  34th Street and Carr Place North and its open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.   More info here.

A Magnolia resident has gotten US Bank to approve adding a mailbox to its ATM drive through at 3124 W. McGraw St.  Melanie Smith has been working to obtain the new mailbox after construction forced the boxes behind the Post Office to be removed.

Pending approval by the Post Office, US Bank has agreed to put the mailbox in the bank drive through area.  There are still a few hurdles before the mailbox can be installed, including the fact that a normal size mailbox will be too tall for the concrete island at the bank.  The legs may have to be cut off to make it work.

The other snag is that once a new mailbox is in place, another one in the area must come down.  There are eight locations considered for removal: 3054 28th Ave. W., 3655 34th Ave. W., 2809 Thorndyke Ave. W., 4223 26th Ave. W., 1897 Magnolia Blvd., 4001 Gilman Ave. W., 4019 21st Ave. W., and 3211 W. McGraw St.  Smith has been petitioning the neighborhood to get an additional box in The Village for a year now.  She supports removing the box in front of the Post Office on McGraw.

This mailbox was installed in the parking lot of Magnolia Park last year.

We want to wish all of our Magnolia Voice readers a very happy holiday.  We hope you enjoy some time with family and friends over the next few days as we plan to do the same.

We know that we have shown you lots of coyote pictures recently but this one from reader Ginni is the best we have seen so far of the coyote who is calling Magnolia home.

It appears the coyote has no plans to visit out of town relatives this holiday season as we continue to receive daily sightings from readers.

Thanks to Ginni for the photo and Jeff and others for the latest info on the coyote.

Here is information about the recent break ins in the Magnolia area from Terrie Johnston at the Seattle Police Department.  She says that extra patrols have been sent to the Magnolia area in hopes of finding these thieves.

There were two residential burglaries recently in Magnolia that are worth sharing with you and your neighbors. Both of the burglaries occurred through open and unlocked doors. The burglary on 29 Ave. W. occurred early in the day through the side door that had been left unlocked for the nanny. The house was ransacked and the suspects used a stolen gym bag and white garbage bags to carry away the stolen items which included a dozen Christmas gifts. A neighbor driving by saw the suspects carrying the sacks and gym bag, but did not call 911 to report anything suspicious.

The other burglary occurred on 32 Ave. W. during late night/early morning hours while the residents most likely were sleeping. The suspect(s) entered through an unlocked side door and took wallets, keys, phone, and Christmas gifts.

A review of the reported December residential burglaries showed nine in Magnolia.  All but three of the burglaries occurred during daytime hours (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) About half of the burglaries were forced entries and the other half were through open or unlocked doors, and no force was used. In several of the burglaries, the home had been ransacked by the intruders.  Side windows and basement windows were the most common points of entry, many smashed with a rock.

In a handful of the crimes, neighbors saw suspicious people or vehicles in neighbors’ driveways; back yards or alleyways nearby, but failed to call 9-1-1 to report suspicious activity. Please feel free to make a 9-1-1 call to report something suspicious. It is okay if you are wrong, simply trust your gut instincts. One of the purposes of Block Watch and knowing your neighbors is to gain a sense of what is normal for your street so you can be alerted when something out of the ordinary occurs.

The police department recommends that if your house is going to be empty during the day, keep your curtains or blinds closed in rooms where electronics or other valuables can be seen from the street. Many burglars report targeting homes where they’ve seen what they wanted from the street beforehand.   You can contact Johnston to schedule a Block Watch meeting, or to schedule a free home security survey.  Her office number at the West Precinct is 684-4741.

Just after 3 this morning, a man woke up after hearing voices inside his home in the 2900 Block of 25th Avenue West. As he began to look around, the suspects fled with several unwrapped Christmas gifts. When officers arrived, they scoured the area with a police dog up to West Dravus St., but they said they we’re unable to find the suspects. They did find, however, Christmas gifts dumped a few yards away. The homeowner was unable to get a good look at the suspects, but investigators say they were able to identify some evidence at the scene which they’ve provided to burglary detectives.

Fortunately, there were no injuries.

The kindergarten class from Our Lady of Fatima spent the last day before their holiday break spreading some holiday spirit in The Village.

The class of 21 walked from store to store, singing Christmas carols at Upper Crust Bakery, Magnolia Bookstore, Leroux, Serendipity, and Washington Federal Savings Bank.

Miss Fisher, the Kindergarten teacher, led the class in six holiday songs with the encore always being “We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”

UPDATE 12/22:  The thief struck again this morning at 4a.m. when the intercom was once again pried open.  It appears the vandals have keys to disable elevators and they ransacked the garage and stole  multiple bicycles that were U-bolted or cabled behind locked gates. One homeowner heard a pickup truck idling in the driveway but was unable to see anyone or the license plate.  No word on whether any of the neighboring condo communities were affected.

The folks at the Blue Heron condominiums want to let people know about a thief who has been prying open intercoms at condominiums and gaining access into the buildings and garages.  They say that someone is breaking into cars and storage lockers and stealing delivered packages.

The vandals may have a key to Aegis intercom systems.  However, they also have pried open the intercom units and cut a wire from within the system’s circuit board then used that wire as a wedge in between the keypad panel and box frame to close it up so that residents don’t realize the intercom unit has been open, making it easy for them to return again in the future.  This has happened twice to our building within a month, latest being early this morning at 4:15AM.  We noticed our neighbor condo community has also become victim of this same issue early this morning as well.

The Blue Heron condos are located on W. Government Way near the north entrance to Discovery Park.

Magnolia is now competing with four other neighborhoods south of the Ship Canal for a $50,000 project, such as a new playground or park benches, offered by a garbage-collection company.

The contest, announced today by Cleanscapes, is part of its effort to reduce the amount of things stuffed into garbage, recycling and yard-waste bins in the city.

Ray Hoffman, head of Seattle Public Utilities, said that every week Seattle loads 5,100 tons of garbage onto a mile-long double-stacked train heading to a dump in Oregon 300 miles away.  Cleanscapes  chose South Seattle for the contest because it has a poorer record in garbage reduction than north Seattle neighborhoods. He said homes north of the ship canal produce about 18 pounds of garbage a week; those south of the canal 22 pounds.

SPU officials say households should replace their disposable paper bags, cups, water bottles, paper plates and shopping bags, in favor of durable, reusable items.

The five neighborhoods eligible for the contest are divided by day of pickup and include Magnolia, Queen Anne, downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill and south Seattle. In all, it includes about 28,000 households.

The winner — the neighborhood with the biggest weight-reduction of what goes into its trash, recycling and yard-waste bins — will be announced in May. It will be up to winning neighborhood residents to decide how best to spend the prize money.

The Seattle Times interviewed Magnolia resident Pam Lewis who said she is excited about the contest and stood at the transfer station jotting down ideas. She said community education is key, and it’s critical to reach children who will not only help their parents reduce but will learn a habit they’ll carry on with their own families.

Other eligible neighborhoods include Queen Anne, Madison Park, Madrona and Leschi.

We get lots of interesting emails at Magnolia Voice but we wanted to share the first letter we have ever received from a dog.   Its timely given all the concern lately about the coyote who is roaming the neighborhood.

Hello Magnolians,
With the ongoing coyote activity, I thought I should let everyone know that my name is Mazama, and I am not a coyote.  A fair number of folks in our neighborhood (22nd and Ruffner) as well as concerned citizens at Discovery Park have asked my owner if I am a coyote.

I’m a rescued Siberian Husky.  A bit skinny.  Very friendly (watch out for face licks).  Like the coyote, I probably shouldn’t be left alone with your chickens but other than that you have no need to worry.
I can be frequently encountered at Discovery Park.  Feel free to pet me or give me treats but please don’t scream if you see me.  I’m always on my leash and I’m really not scary at all.

With the recent coyote sightings, good to know that Mazama is just a friendly neighborhood pet. 

The first ever Mobile Chowdown gathered the city’s best “curbside cuisine” and hundreds of hungry Seattle-ites in a vacant Interbay parking lot last October to eat, eat and eat some more. The event got lots of attention and ended up being so busy, lines were long and many vendors ran out of food before everyone’s appetites were satiated. Bathrooms and seats were also scarce.

On Saturday, January 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mobile Chowdown is coming back to 1616 W Bertona.  Organizers tell us this time things will be better.  “At this round the trucks will placed more strategically so that the lines will be more distinguishable between trucks. There will also be event staff that will keep things a bit more organized.  Because the last event was the first time any of the vendors took part in an event like this, it was a learning experience for all. This time they will be more prepared with food, etc.,” says Jamie Hintz, Suzuki + Chou Communimedia.

Round two brings back Marination Mobile, Dante’s Inferno Dogs, Gert’s BBQ and El Camion with new attendees Veraci Pizza, Anita’s Crepes and Kaosamai Thai. There will be live music and a dining area.  Read more about the event here. 

Peet’s Coffee & Tea in the Whole Foods complex on 15th Ave West is collecting donations for the Greenwood Fire Victims Relief Fund.  The company will match donations from customers.  Each of the company’s stores picks a charity group each year. The fundraiser starts on Thursday (12/17) and runs through Christmas Eve.  The company will donate up to $1,000 per store.  On December 24 they will also offer complimentary drip coffee and tea in all of its retail locations to celebrate.

This annual fundraiser has been going on at Peet’s stores since 1985.  Last year the stores raised more than $234,000 to benefit local non-profit organizations.