Join the EBCA as we clean up 14th Ave NW (now including Gemenskap park!) and tidy up the medians and planters. Bring your friends, bring the kids, we’ll bring the rest! This will be a rain or shine event, so come dressed for the weather and bring your sunscreen!
What: EBCA Spring Clean
Where: Blowing Sands Glass (5805 14th Ave NW)
When: Saturday May 18, 10AM-1:00PM
…the following is from from Groundswell NW’s May Newsletter
Greenways are a key component of the 2014 Seattle Bicycle Master Plan and provide people of all ages and abilities with safe, calm and attractive residential streets for bicycle and pedestrian travel priority. A group of Ballard neighbors supporting the 6th Avenue NW Greenway project have submitted this project to the Your Voice Your Choice program for public approval. It involves a section of 6th Ave NW that extends from NW 43rd Street to NW 50th Street, connecting to the Burke Gilman trail at NW 43rd Street. The first phase of the two part decision process involves public “scoring” which is available online (for people 13 years and older) through the YVYC website. Please consider voting for this project at this voting link. The voting link is available from May 1 through 31 for scoring. Scoring can also be done manually and for those 11 years and older, at the Ballard Branch Library, 5614 22nd Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107 on May 20 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
This past Sunday, the Friends of Gemenskap Park Steering Committee got together to fill eggs for this Saturday’s Inaugural East Ballard Spring Fling in Gemenskap Park. Let the party begin! If you’re interested in working with these fine neighbors to plan the next park event, please reach out to gemenskap.park@gmail.com or come by on Saturday and speak with one of our volunteers!
Join us from 10AM-1PM this Saturday April 20 at the south end of Gemenskap park for an old fashioned egg hunt for all ages. We’ll start off with the youngest kids around 10:15AM and then phase in the older kids after that. We’ll also have face painting, coffee and treats from the Ballard Market and games at the north end of the park. Bring your neighbors, friends and family, and enjoy a fun morning in the park. Bring the sun with you too while you’re at it!
WHO:: Families and friends of East Ballard & Gemenskap Park
WHAT:: East Ballard Spring Fling in Gemenskap Park with an egg hunt for all ages, refreshments, face painting, games, and community. Bring your kids and furry friends too!
WHEN: Saturday, April 20th, 2019 from 10:00am – 1:00pm
WHERE:: Gemenskap Park – 14th Ave NW (Between NW 59th St/ NW 61st St)
WHY:: It’s a beautiful park to enjoy and we want to play in it now that the weather is getting nicer.
Hope to see you there!
After we posted our reminder a few weeks ago, neighbors started reviewing the vast amounts of information provided on the Sound Transit Online Open House and came away with more questions than answers. Neighbor, Brian LeBlanc, helped us understand a bit more from his writeup after his visit to the open house at Ballard High School. Now, East Ballard neighbor, Kristin Doll, has posted an incredibly researched and in depth analysis of the Ballard Light Rail options under consideration. We encourage you once again to take a little time in the next couple of days to study the options, make your own decisions based on your own research and most importantly, participate in the process by providing your input by Tuesday April 2.
East Ballard neighbor, Brian LeBlanc attended the recent West Seattle/Ballard Light Rail options open house at the Ballard High school and put together a very helpful overview of the options under consideration, plus some insight into the possible impacts. In particular, the above street options could have a significant impact on East Ballard residents and businesses along 14th and/or 15th. Note that Brian’s blog post reflects his opinion and we are sharing in order to peak your interest and encourage you to carefully research the options yourself and provide your input by April 2 via the Sound Transit online open house.
Click here to view Brian’s post
Click here to download a PDF with visualizations of the options
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods is again engaging community members to democratically decide how to spend $2 million of the City’s budget on small-scale park and street improvements. This is the third year of Your Voice, Your Choice (YVYC): Parks & Streets.
Beginning January 28 to February 22, community members can submit an idea online at seattle.gov/yvyc or in-person at any Seattle Public Library branch. Projects could include park benches, trail improvements, flashing beacons, and curb ramps to name a few. The only criteria are the ideas be physical improvements for Seattle’s parks or streets, benefit the public, and cost $90,000 or less.
One of our neighbors, Damon May, submitted a project proposal to install a pedestrian-activated light at the intersection of 14th Ave NW and NW 53rd St. This east-west crossing would complement the signal installed at 15th Ave NW and NW 53rd to accommodate safe walking and bicycling between Central Ballard and the East Ballard neighborhood, plus provide a connection to the future north-south greenway on 6th Ave NW. You can provide your input on Damon’s proposal here:
https://nsf.consider.it/2019-218?results=true
What’s your great idea to improve streets and parks in East Ballard? If you submit an idea, please share with us and we’ll help spread the word!
Learn more about what types of projects are eligible: Idea Collection Examples.You can learn more about the YVYC process and how to get involved on the city’s webpage, and for questions, email amy.nguyen@seattle.gov.
As we mentioned at the end of last year, Gemenskap Park was honored with a nomination for best street redesign project of 2018 by Streetsblog USA.
We asked you to show your support by voting for our project and we greatly thank-you for casting 509 votes, which put us in 3rd place! We extend our warmest congratulations to the winner, Arlington VA’s Veitch Street with over 1,000 votes!
In what came as a pleasant surprise, The editors at Streetsblog weighed in and selected their own favorite from the pack and chose Gemenskap Park! In the article announcing the winners, Streetsblog stated, “Imagine the possibilities if more cities were willing to remove parking spaces to add green space”.
Thank-you Streetsblog for giving us some national recognition and thank-you to Dongho Chang, SDOT Chief Transportation Engineer, whom we learned, nominated us in the first place!
What a happy way to start the new year! So, get out there now and enjoy your award-winning park!
At the end of each year Streetsblog USA recognizes the cities pushing forward street design that makes cities healthier, cleaner and more beautiful. They have selected five projects worthy of recognition for 2018 and Gemenskap Park has been selected as one of them!
This is huge international recognition for Seattle and the East Ballard community. Please show your support and…
Click here to vote for ‘Seattle’ by Jan 2 at Streetsblog USA
We’re currently in 3rd place behind Memphis and Atlanta. We can’t let that happen can we?