We’ve been floating around the idea for a few weeks now about having a walking tour of East Ballard for our June Day Out Event on Saturday June 13th. We thought it would be fun to get a group of neighbors together on foot and bike to meander through our unique neighborhood and share some of the places that make East Ballard special.
At first, we were thinking about doing an historical walking tour, but with just a few weeks to go, the planning was a little daunting, but I’m sure we have some folks in our neighborhood who could share some great historical knowledge on our tour!
Then I thought it’d be cool to highlight some of the great projects that have been created by our community, like the P-patches, parks and public art. Then there are the really interesting remodeled homes and the homes with innovative water catchment systems and solar panels on the roof, and then there’s unusual public art and murals, and then there are fun businesses that sell crazy socks and cafes with amazing pastries and coffee, and then, and then….. Well my list started getting really big and our tour would have ended up lasting for several days.
In the end, I realized that there are probably a lot of really interesting places in East Ballard that I’ve never discovered, but that you know about it. I’d love to hear from you. What’s your favorite discovery in East Ballard? I’ll collect all of these recommendations and see if we can fit them into our tour. Contact me if you’d like to help us organize this walk, but most of all, please tell your neighbors and friends!
Please take a moment to include your favorite discovery in East Ballard in the comments section below or email me at dawn_hemminger@yahoo.com.
If you don’t know where the heck East Ballard is, then you can check here first.
Hi Dawn,
Feet First is launching the first Walking Ambassador program this summer. We are having a meeting on Wed. 5/20 from 6pm-8pm. We have a few Ballard Maps for you to use on your walks. Also, I am happy to post your walk on our website. Let me know how we can help you if possible. Keep up the great work!!
Lisa
Hey Buddy,
What a fantastic job you are doing with this. Christian must be even more pleased than I am to see you pick up the ball and run with it. You’re amazing!
Shannon
this is neat, east ballard is v. unique with a lot of pretty homes, lots traffic, pickups and cars and industrial, it has a split or multiple personalities. EB borders phinney to the east, fremont and water south, and west are friends in central and west ballard – it’s a convergence of influences. living in east ballard has been fun. do you have a theme for the walk? it’s alot of ground to potentially cover. i’ve found lower ballard to be interesting, with very profitable decades long industrial businesses catering, feeding marine activities. 14th ave is super interesting, problems abound, in transition, generates lots of talk and vision and ideas on myballard.com. trolleys once ran from the canal up to 65th, maybe further. This would be interesting to explore. many grocery stores located in east ballard, and a park i’ve never been to on the canal, giant outlined images on a tallish pink? bldg east of 8th, near Freddies., and start-up Amsterdam bikes, sculptures on the ballard bridge installed then removed and re-installed. course it depends on the audience and what you’d like to show participants!
I always thought this area was called “Freelard.”