Bring a dish and/or beverage to share and enjoy a lovely evening in Gemenskap Park with your neighbors!
WHEN: Tuesday August 6, 2024 6pm-10pm
WHERE: Gemenskap Park – 14th Ave NW (meet in the plaza at NW 60th St)
Night Outis a national event promoted in Seattle by Seattle Police Department Crime Prevention. It is designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities. Night Out is traditionally held on the first Tuesday night in August.
A heartfelt thank you to the more than 15 incredible neighbors who came out on a scorching hot and sunny day to clear out the morning glory, raspberries, thistle, grass, and wildly overgrown ground cover in the Gemenskap Park south rain gardens last Sunday. Your hard work and dedication have transformed the area! These pictures vividly capture the astonishing impact you’ve made. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Huge shoutout to our neighbor, Erin, who organized the work party and Tyler from Seattle Parks for providing the tools and scheduling his crew to pick up the debris the very next day!
Become a Park Steward! Do you have a passion for keeping 14th Ave NW looking beautiful on a regular basis? This includes caring for the Gemenskap Rain Gardens, the rain gardens and median plantings at NW 58th, and simply picking up trash in our neighborhood. We have an arsenal of tools, vests, tarps, and yard waste bags ready for action at any time. If you’d like to help organize a work party like this or feel inspired to do something solo or with a small group, we’d love to hear from you! Together, let’s make our neighborhood shine!
Seattle Parks Department will be joining us Sunday July 14 to help us weed and mulch the rain gardens in Gemenskap Park. Can we count on you to pitch in?
Please sign up if you can make it, and invite your friends and neighbors. Seattle Parks Department will be there to help with the green waste removal. This is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and earn community service hours.
Gemenskap Park Summer Work Party 5910 14th Ave NW Sunday July 14 10:00AM – 1:00PM
EBCA volunteers watering the newly installed planters on 14th Ave NW in 2010
It seems just like yesterday when neighbors in East Ballard applied for a grant from the Dept of Neighborhoods to install planters along 14th NW to help make the street more beautiful and create a safe buffer for intersection crossings.
13 years later, these planters have served us well, and are ready to serve a new purpose along 14th Ave NW south of Market St, thanks to our partnership with the Ballard-Fremont Greenways.
The Ballard-Fremont Greenways is a group of neighbors who are working to make our streets safer, more accessible, and more comfortable for everybody. This community group works on safe street projects and advocates for people-oriented places in the greater Ballard-Fremont area. They have a very similar mission to the EBCA, which is why we’re so excited to partner with them.
The Move The Ballard Fremont Greenways received a permit from SDOT and is coordinating a volunteer effort to move our planters to two intersections in the Ballard Brewery District along 14th Ave NW at NW 51st and 53rd. These planters will be placed in the no-parking areas at the intersection ends to keep them free of parked cars and help keep a clear line of sight for freight and other drivers who are turning in those intersections.
Opportunities to Volunteer If you are interested in any of the following volunteer opportunities, please email Jessi Lucas at jlklucas@gmail.com to get on her communication list.
Sunday, September 10th, 11 am until we are done Work party to clean out the planters. Some have dirt and shrubs in them. We will need shovels and tarps to remove the dirt, plus pruners and saws to break down the vegetation.
Monday, September 18th, 10 am until we are done Work party to move the empty planters to their new locations south of Market. We’re seeking neighbors with vehicles to help with the move. Each planter weighs about 60 lbs. Please reach out to Jessi Lucas at jlklucas@gmail.com if you can provide transportation to help with the move.
3rd Date, TBD Fill the planters with dirt and plants. We’ll be looking for donations to purchase the dirt and plants and how quickly that happens will decide the final date.
Thank you Jessi for volunteering to coordinate these work parties! Let’s make sure she’s not doing this all by herself! Please contact Jessi a jklucas@gmail.com today to sign up!
If you’re curious about the origin story of these planters, check out these previous posts:
Andrew Natzel – Senior Signal Operations Engineer at SDOT and long-time EBCA organizer – wearing an orange safety vest, standing next to the new bicycle push button signal at the NW corner of 11th Ave NW and Market St.
The East Ballard community is celebrating a new milestone in our journey to improve safety and accessibility at the intersection of 11th Ave NW and NW Market St. After years of advocacy, planning, and persistence, the community has finally secured a new traffic signal and crosswalk that connects two neighborhoods that have been divided by busy Market Street for decades. The project has been a collaborative effort between the East Ballard Community, the Seattle Department of Transportation, and the Ballard-Fremont Neighborhood Greenways group.
Click on the image to view a time-Lapse video of the vertical pole getting pulled up into position by a crane and witness how deftly the folks from Prime Electric maneuvered around the tree
The East Ballard Community Association has been advocating for this project since 2013 when we first applied for funding from the Seattle Neighborhood Park and Street Project Fund. While we received some funds in 2015 to create curb bulbs, it wasn’t until Move Seattle funding was granted for the Route 44 Transit-plus multimodal corridor that the new traffic signal was finally made possible.
Earlier this year, Andrew Natzel, Senior Signal Operations Engineer at the Seattle Department of Transportation, and long-time East Ballard Community Association organizer notified the community that signals were going to be installed this spring.
Click on the image to watch a time-Lapse video of the traffic signal arm swinging into position and being attached to the vertical pole by Prime Electric
On April 15, 2023, we gathered in the rain to watch the installation of the long-awaited traffic signals and crosswalks, and were excited to be the first to cross the intersection with the push of a button!
(click on the image to watch Dawn and Chris Hemminger, EBCA organizers, pushed the crosswalk signal at the SE corner of 11th Ave NW and Market St and safely cross for the first time.
Click on the images above to watch the videos or click here to go directly to the photo album.
We need 10 volunteers this Saturday. Can we count on you?
We have an incredible (last minute) opportunity to work with the Seattle Parks Department this Saturday, Nov 19 at Gemenskap Park to prepare the park for winter. We’re looking for at least 10 volunteers to help us weed and mulch the rain gardens. Can we count on you? This is also a great opportunity to collect community service hours! We’ll be happy to sign your paperwork!
Gemenskap Park Fall Work Party 5910 14th Ave NW Saturday, November 19 10:30AM – 3:00PM
We had great fun this morning decorating pumpkins from our favorite local grocer, Top Banana, and noshing on yummy donuts from Top Pot. The pets got some treats from All the Best too! Thank you so much to our Ballard businesses for your donations!
We also had great costumes to show off, so we paraded through the park to the tunes of Monster Mash…
…and even survived a visit from a VERY HUNGRY BEAR!
Thank you neighbors for all the great fun this morning and to everyone who helped organize the event (Casey, Holly, Peter, Katie, Sylvia, Liz and Dawn).
We’re already starting to talk about a Holiday event in December. Reach out to us at eastballard@gmail.com if you’d like to help out!
Click on the pic above to see all pics and videos from today’s Festival or click here.
Fall Festival at Gemenskap Park and Salmon Bay Park Sunday October 30, 2022
10:30 AM-12:30 PM Gemenskap Park – 5910 14th Ave NW 1:00 PM-3:00 PM Salmon Bay Park – 2001 NW Canoe Pl
Join the East Ballard Community Association and Salmon Bay Park Stewards for a Fall Festival in two of our favorite Ballard Parks – Gemenskap Park and Salmon Bay Park. There will be fun for all, including a pets and people costume parade, a pumpkin patch, treats, and more!
Bring a dish and/or beverage to share and enjoy a lovely evening in Gemenskap Park with your neighbors!
WHEN: Tuesday August 2, 2022 6pm-9pm
WHERE: Gemenskap Park – 14th Ave NW (meet in the plaza at NW 60th St)
Night Outis a national event promoted in Seattle by Seattle Police Department Crime Prevention. It is designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities. Night Out is traditionally held on the first Tuesday night in August.
WHO: Families and friends of East Ballard & Gemenskap Park
WHAT: We’re slowly getting back to hosting events in the park again! We’re kicking things off this year with a super simple Spring Egg Hunt. Bring your own baskets. We will cancel if it’s raining!
WHEN: Saturday, April 16, 2022. The hunt for kids 1-4 years will start at 9:30 am sharp. We’ll then set up for a second hunt at 10am for kids 5 and older.
WHY: It’s a beautiful park to enjoy and we want to play in it now that the weather is getting nicer. Come join us to cheer on the kids and hang out to catch up with your neighbors! Bring your kids and furry friends too!
