Laurette Chase’s “Femme Covert”
EBCA Jane’s Walk, “Greenspace to Growlers”
Sunday May 4
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Start: Honore Artisan Bakery at 1413 NW 70th St.
Finish: 14th NW and NW 53rd at Reuben’s Brews taproom
Join the EBCA and Feet First for a lively neighborhood walk through Ballard that explores urban greenspaces of all shapes and sizes, through a mix of residential blocks, commercial pockets, and the historic industrial core. This two-hour walk will start at 14th Ave NW and NW 70th Street (come early for coffee at Honore Bakery!), where we’ll look at the location of a future ‘Parklet’. Speaker stops along the way include the present and future greenway, micro-housing and urban density, raingardens, transit, a SNAP emergency HUB, and the Ballard Open Space plan. The tour will end at the Reuben’s Brews taproom in industrial Ballard. Metro Rapid-Ride a block away provides a bus link back to the start.
It started out as a beautiful morning and our 17 volunteers got off to a quick start, splitting off duties between picking up trash and cleaning out the memorial median and adjoining rain gardens. Thanks to the Ballard Market, we were fueled well with fresh coffee, bagels, cream cheese and lunch meats. Sam, one of our volunteers even brought us a fresh plate of snickerdoodles and brownies (Yum!). Thanks to our many years now of keeping 14th clean, our volunteers reported a very light load this year (even south of Market St). Thanks to all the rain, the weed count made up for the lack of trash! Dave failed to get his weed eater to work, so we had to leave the medians for a later date. If anyone out there has a gas powered weed eater and some time on their hands, please feel free to attack those median weeds between NW 59th and 63rd! Thanks for a great time and even after the rain started coming down hard, folks stuck around to finish up their jobs and we all huddled under the tent to chat and eat cookies! What a great bunch of neighbors! Thank-you and mark your calendar for Oct 18 when we plan to do it all over again.
Check out our Flickr page for the rest of the pics from the day.
We at the EBCA, recently met with fellow East Ballard resident, David Knaut, who is working on his thesis through German University FU Berlin (Free University of Berlin). German you may wonder? Yes, David and his wife moved from Germany to East Ballard about a year ago and David is working on his Diploma thesis at the Department of Geography. David is currently researching the history of Ballard and is particularly interested in the social changes that have occurred in the Ballard neighborhood. He would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to complete his online questionnaire at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Ballard-Change
This short 7-10 minute anonymous questionnaire will help David show who the people of Ballard are. The results of this anonymous survey will be aggregated and individual responses will not be used or revealed in this research. The information provided will be strictly confidential and will not be used in any commercial matter.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact David via email at daknaut@gmail.com.
David thanks you for your help.
Join your neighbors next Saturday for EBCA’s biannual Adopt A Street Cleanup. We’ve been cleaning up 14th Ave NW since the Fall of 2005 thanks to your help and our incredible volunteers who organize this event. Picking up trash is a lot more fun than it sounds and is something the whole family can do together. This is a great opportunity to make our neighborhood a nicer place to live. Plus you get to wear a bright colored vest!
Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th Ave NW
Sat April 19 10am-1pm
Meet over coffee & breakfast snack at Blowing Sands Glass
5805 14th Ave NW
Tidy up 14th Ave NW & care for the planters.
Come dressed for the weather.
Stay and have lunch donated by Ballard Market
contact eastballard@gmail.com for more information
News has been slow these past few months about the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard. We have a small update to share today, with hopes to have much more information to share, including proposed drawings and a schedule within the next few weeks. The good news is that although progress was stalled early this year due to the changes in the Mayor’s office, our Parks Dept. Project Manager, Patrick Donohue, was given the thumbs up last week to move the Park project forward again. Some decisions have changed since our September update, but most are the same. The following are some quick points of interest:
20 mi/hr speed limit:
This is still a go, with plans to set the 20 mi/hr speed limit between Market St and NW 65th.
No bicycle facility:
This is new since September when we advised that there would be a 3 block long cycle track connecting the Greenway on NW 58th and running up along the park. Further analysis revealed that a dedicated cycle track would take away much of the available green space for the park and wouldn’t make sense to have for just 3 blocks. If, in the future, SDOT agrees to fund a dedicated bicycle facility from at least Market to NW 65th, then accommodations could be made to include it within the park.
New sidewalks along the 2 blocks of the park:
The existing sidewalks on the east side of 14th Ave NW between NW 59th and NW 61st are planned to be replaced with new sidewalks incorporated into the park design.
What’s next?
The folks at Mithun and Mayfly are on board again and will be preparing designs for the next SDOT review. In the meantime, mark your calendar for the April 19 Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th!
Groundswell NW invites Ballard residents to their 2014 Annual Meeting next Tuesday, April 8 from 6:30 –8:30 p.m. in the library of the Ballard Landmark (5433 Leary Ave NW).
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray will be the featured speaker at the free, public event that is set to discuss future funding of Seattle’s parks system, including the proposal for a Metropolitan Parks District. The meeting will also feature other hot topics including the Missing Link and Neighborhood Greenways.
At the meeting Groundswell NW will also present its “Local Heroes” awards, which recognize individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to parks and open space in Ballard. Groundswell NW’s major 2014 initiative to update the Ballard Open Space Plan will also be discussed.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for an open house and Mayor Murray will begin speaking shortly after 7 p.m.
Click here to find out more about the event.
Damage caused by a 6.8 earthquake to the building which now houses Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. photo from nps.gov.
The EBCA has been posting announcements over the last few years with information on how to be prepared for an emergency, either an earthquake, an extended power outage or even a zombie apocalypse, because you just never know, right?
It’s been pretty quiet in Seattle since the big 6.8 Nisqually quake in 2001 and perhaps you’ve become a bit complacent or just see preparing as a lot of work for something you may never need. I’ve been somewhat in that camp, and so has my family in Southern California who are now feeling the after-effects of last night’s 5.1 La Habra quake. Luckily everyone’s fine, the power wasn’t off for too long, and property damage was not too great, but it’s a reminder that the quake could have been worse and that there were opportunities to be better prepared.
So, what better time than right now, to start getting prepared? Here are some resources to help get you started:
We, in East Ballard, are lucky to have Linda Frank in our neighborhood, who is a tireless advocate for our community to get prepared and is a valuable resource to help you organize your block, find classes for you to take and get you involved with the Ballard Neighborhood HUB at Gilman Playground.
If you’re interested in organizing your block taking a class or participating in the May 17th drill at Gilman Playground, please contact Linda at 206-778-3350 or lindabfrank@gmail.com. She’d loved to hear from you!
The Friends of Ballard Corner’s Park (17th Ave NW & NW 63rd St) invite you to a work party this Saturday, March 29th from 9am-2pm, rain or shine.
They’ll be preparing plants for spring, weeding, spreading wood chip mulch, and cleaning up debris. Many hands make light (and lighthearted!) work! Some tools and refreshments will be provided. If you have your own gloves and tools please bring them.
Any questions, please contact Gabriella: gabriella@seanet.com or (206) 782-3238. Looking forward to seeing you there!
The Ballard Greenways folks are seeking your input at tomorrow night’s meeting to evaluate a potential north-south route through Ballard along NW 16th, 17th or 18th Avenues NW from Salmon Bay to Soundview Playfield. Come learn more and provide your input. Check out the City’s site here, for more details. If you can’t attend, but still want to provide input, you can contact these folks:
Emily Ehlers, Project Manager at Emily.Ehlers@Seattle.gov or (206) 684-8264
Dawn Schellenberg, Community Engagement Liaison at Dawn.Schellenberg@Seattle.gov or (206) 684-5189