Join the EBCA as we clean up 14th Ave NW and tidy up the rain gardens in Gemenskap Park. Bring your friends, bring the kids, we’ll bring the rest! This will be a rain or shine event, so dress for the weather.
What: EBCA Fall Clean Sweep When: Saturday October 26 10AM-1PM Where: Blowing Sands Glass (5805 14th Ave NW)
Then join us again in November for a Fall Festival in Gemenskap Park. There will be fun for all, including a pets and people costume parade, a pumpkin patch, story telling, treats, lawn games and more!
What: EBCA Fall Festival When: Saturday November 2 10:30AM-12:30PM Where: Gemenskap Park (6000 14th Ave NW)
You have an opportunity to VOTE YES for a neighborhood greenway along 6th Ave NW. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, then check out this video put together by the 6th Ave NW Greenway group or travel along NW 58th or 17th Ave NW to experience one yourself. Vote via Your Voice, Your Choice under District 6, Project 19-312 by Sept 30. Take a look at the other projects while you’re in there (you can vote for up to 3 per district). For additional East Ballard projects check out the crossing improvement at 15th Ave NW and NW 62nd and another one at 14th Ave NW and NW 56th as well.
If you’d like to learn more about the 6th Ave NW Greenway and/or get involved with their very active community group, check our their Facebook Page.
During our daily walks along 14th Ave NW, we’ve become curious about the white painted lines that have appeared in the intersection along 14th Ave NW north and south of Market. Our curiosity led us to contacting SDOT to find out what’s going on. We received a very prompt and helpful response from SDOT civil engineer, Oli Frenchowicz. Here’s what he had to say.
The project to install markings along 14th Ave NW in Ballard is scheduled for September (weather permitting). Our crews have quite a big backlog of street marking work due to the slow summer season start and large number of projects.
A contractor is scheduled in September to start the yellow line markings, and our SDOT crews will complete other marking work soon after.
The goal of the 14th Ave NW project was to better organize the vehicles at the intersections for improved operations, formalize the pedestrian crossing spaces, and improve visibility for pedestrians, vehicles, and cyclists operating along the corridor.
You may have noticed some sign work was already completed as part of this project. The parking restriction signs formalized existing parking restrictions per Seattle Municipal Code. Additionally, we designed to accommodate larger vehicle turning movements at the intersections. The parking restrictions will help larger vehicles (delivery trucks, fire trucks, garbage trucks, etc.) make the turns once the markings formalize the driving paths.
In addition, we asked Oli if they could paint a crosswalk going north/south across NW 59th on the west side of 14th at the south end of Gemenskap Park, which seems to have been left out of the original design. He advised that they would add this to their their project for consistency near the park.
Thanks to all the neighbors and pets who came out last Tuesday to spend a beautiful evening in Gemenskap park to socialize, play games and share lots of food and drink! By the way, if you’re missing a wooden spoon, we have it, just email us at eastballard@gmail.com. We hope you made some new friends, scheduled a play date or two and discovered what great things we can do together within a small patch of shared grass in the neighborhood.
We heard some great ideas around regular play afternoons in the park, walking dogs together, more events like last year’s Fall Festival and more. If you have an idea and want to run with it, reach out to us and we’ll help connect you with resources and spread the word!
It was a nice cool morning with a light rain overnight, so the soil was nice and soft for pulling weeds in the Gemenskap Park rain gardens this morning. Thank-you to Jody from Seattle Parks who provided us with tarps, tools and cones to get us started. Thanks to neighbors, Linda, Mary Pat, Veronica, Stevie, Casey, Erin, and John who volunteered a couple hours of their time this morning to make a difference in the park. By noon, we had successfully filled the bed of Jody’s truck! The park is looking great for our Aug 6 Potluck! check out more pics here.
Night Out is 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.
The park is looking lovely, but the weeds in the rain gardens are getting out of control. Join your neighbors at Gemenskap Park on Saturday, July 27, between 10AM and 12PM and help us get the gardens looking pretty again. We’re also seeking neighbors who’d like to organize the next work party. Reach out to us at eastballard@gmail.com or talk with us on Saturday if you’re interested!
A big thank you goes out to our vigilant neighbor and resident Master Gardener, Peggy Cooper, who identified poison hemlock (a noxious weed) growing in the rain gardens at Gemenskap Park. She posted the information on NextDoor and it was picked up by KIRO-TV. They came out to interview her and brought along folks from the King County noxious weed control program as an opportunity to spread the word on a recently launched noxious weed mobile app, called “King County Connect“, that allows users to report potentially noxious weeds. See the full KIRO interview here.
King County successfully removed the the poison hemlock plants, but we have not confirmed how they found their way into the rain gardens. Peggy believes that seeds may have been introduced in the potting soil of some of the shrubs planted in the rain gardens. We have informed Seattle parks, and they will be contacting the contractor who installed the landscaping.
According to the King County website, “poison hemlock is a Class B noxious weed, is a widespread toxic biennial plant in the Carrot Family often found in open sunny areas, fields, vacant lots, and on roadsides. Eating even a small amount of any part of this plant can kill people, livestock, and wildlife.“
Although all of the poison hemlock plants have been removed, we ask that you be vigilant, like Peggy, and use the “King County Connect” app to report any new growth (or email us at eastballard@gmail.com and we’ll report for you).
Upon reviewing the Board’s motion, the following options, plus a new alternative are going to be included in the Environmental Impact Statement:
Movable bridge with 15th elevated station – From elevated Interbay station, continues along 15th Avenue W and crosses Salmon Bay via a movable bridge west of the existing Ballard Bridge. Continues in an elevated guideway along 15th Avenue NW. Terminates at an elevated Ballard Station on 15th Avenue NW near NW Market Street.
High fixed bridge with 14th elevated station – From elevated Interbay station, continues over 15th Avenue W, crosses Salmon Bay via a fixed bridge east of the existing Ballard Bridge and continues in an elevated guideway on 14th Avenue NW. Terminates at an elevated station on 14th Avenue NW at NW Market Street.
Tunnel with 14th or 15th tunnel station – From Interbay station, descends into a tunnel beneath Salmon Bay. Terminates at a tunnel Ballard station with station options beneath 14th Avenue NW or east of 15th Avenue NW at NW Market Street.
New Alternative from public feedback:
Tunnel with 20th tunnel station – Scoping comments suggested interest in a station farther west in Ballard with a tunnel crossing under Salmon Bay and tunnel station at 20th Avenue NW.
In the coming months, you can expect additional maps and information to be posted on the project website. If you’d like to stay informed on this project, we encourage you to subscribe to updates on the Sound Transit site.
Thank-you Scarlet, Giulian, Nola, & Estelle for making 14th look so nice and helping us eat the yummy donuts donated by Top Pot!
Although it had rained throughout the week, the sun shone this Saturday as we set out to clean up 14th Ave NW! We had over 25 volunteers who picked up trash and weeded the medians and rain gardens along 14th. Coffee, donated by Woodland Coffee and donuts donated by Top Pot, kept us fueled as we picked up trash from NW 65th all the way to Leary Ave.
Big thank-yous go out to the following volunteers who went the extra mile to support this great event. If you want to be on the volunteer call-out list for next time, reach out to eastballard@gmail.com
Peter for organizing the crew
Peter for posting flyers and Linda for taking them down after the event
Linda and Peter who helped load up the car, set up the event, work the event and then break it down. Whew!
David and Cynthia at Blowing Sands Glass for letting us set up in front of their business
Loryn and Shelby for coordinating the refreshments
Linda for washing the work gloves afterward
…and thank-you to Rachel, Giulian, Scarlet, Nola, Estelle, Pam, Roxanne, Susan, Felix, Mary, Erin, John, Casey, Indu, Banu, Ellen, Leon and more who showed up and made a difference by helping us keep the neighborhood looking so nice!
Thank-you Roxanne, Susan and Felix!
Check out more pics in our Flickr album to see all the fun we had! Thank-you neighbors and we’re looking forward to seeing you again in the fall for our Clean Sweep event!
