I can’t believe it’s already been a week since August Night Out! My block had a great turn out this year. It was exciting to see all of the kids and the new arrivals celebrating their very first of hopefully many block parties in our neighborhood. At about 8:30, a friend and I started walking through the neighborhood to check out some of the other block parties. We were amazed to see almost every other block closed off for a party. It really warmed my heart to see our streets alive with so much activity!

I recently found out that the city allows you to get a free permit to block off your street for a party any time of the year. So, if your block missed out on August Night Out, I encourage you to take advantage of the free permits. For those who did have a party, I hope you were inspired to get together with your neighbors more than once a year. I know I was!

Oh, and what about the raffle? I’m waiting to receive the rest of the entries from participating sites. If you have your names to add to the hat, then get them to me by end of day tomorrow (Wednesday) either by email or drop them off with David at Blowing Sands Glass at 5805 14th Ave NW. We’ll be drawing names at the……

East Ballard Community Association Monthly meeting
Thursday August 13th, 6:30pm
Ballard High School picnic benches on the south lawn

Our meetings are open to the public and held on the 2nd Thursday of each month.
We’d love to see you there!

Some of you may know that I’ve been involved with Ballard neighborhood planning this past year or so. It’s been a very interesting process. I’ve had a chance to learn a lot about the history of Ballard and Crown Hill and get a greater understanding and appreciation for the many changes (good and bad) that I’ve seen take place in Ballard over the past 13 years I’ve lived in this neighborhood.

Through this process, I’ve become very intimate with the Crown Hill/Ballard Neighborhood Plan, which was written by the community, in collaboration with the city over 10 years ago. That’s right, our plan is over 10 years old now! That’s actually the state of all of the neighborhood plans in Seattle today, so the city decided  it was time for an update. A lot of things have physically changed in our neighborhoods in the past 10 years,  so have our general philosophies and priorities. Our neighborhood plans are living documents and need to be updated with our changing times and that’s where you come in.

So, you ask, why is this important? Why should I care about these plans? Well, the reason I care, is  simple, because I live in this neighborhood, I’m affected by the neighborhood plan, and I have an opportunity to make a difference. I’m hoping many of you share these same sentiments and take advantage of the several opportunities you’ll have in the coming year to get involved with the Neighborhood Plan Updates. Your first chance will be to attend the first Neighborhood Status Report Meeting next Thursday, July 23rd. The following is information I took from the City’s website, detailing this event. I’ll try to continue keeping you all up to date on how these events go and provide you with opportunities to give your input if you cannot participate in these events.

Neighborhood Status Report Meeting
Thursday July 23rd
Greenwood/Phinney, Crown Hill & Ballard,
Fremont, Wallingford, Green Lake
Phinney Neighborhood Center
6532 Phinney Ave. N
6-8 p.m.

Details from the City of Seattle:

“Please join members of the Seattle Planning Commission and the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee in the first of two important community meetings.  The meetings will help inform the City’s decision about the need to update neighborhood plans that communities completed in 1998 and 1999.

This first meeting is an opportunity to learn about your neighborhood plan, work to implement it and the growth and change that has occurred.  The City will also seek your input about issues neighborhood is facing, and about how well the neighborhood plan addresses these issues.

The second meeting, tentatively scheduled for October, will be an opportunity to review reports that include your comments and document information about the status of neighborhoods.

Status Reports
Citywide Status Overview

Crown Hill-Ballard

• Neighborhood Status Overview
• Specific Neighborhood Data
• Neighborhood Plan Implementation Matrix
• Decennial Census Data

Shannon, Dawn and Erin admiring the beauty of East Ballard

During our walking tour a couple weeks back during our stop at the intersection improvement at 14th Ave NW and NW 58th, Shannon talked a little bit about the East Ballard Branding and Beautification Project. This concept is in its infancy right now, but the gist of this project is to come up with a way to identify East Ballard and to provide a way for  businesses and neighbors to show their pride in the neighborhood and that they’re active participants in the East Ballard neighborhood. We’ve found that one of the easiest and most noticeable ways of achieving this goal is through plants. When it came time to do some planting on 14th, Shannon ran with this great idea and came up with a plant list that includes drought tolerant, and mostly native plants, that provide complementary color and movement. Since these plants were going into a planting strip near an intersection, we also made sure they don’t grow too tall. This planting strip is now our demonstration garden for our beautification and branding project. We’re also working right now to obtain some planters from the city to install in the medians on 14th. Once we get them installed, we’ll be putting them up for adoption to neighbors interested in planting and maintaining them.

In the meantime, I’ve received several requests from neighbors and businesses who want to get started on showing their East Ballard pride by adding some or all of these plants to their garden or installing planters outside of their businesses. These plants would also work wonderfully in a traffic circle!  Note, many of these plants were readily available in early Spring when we planted on 14th, but may not be as readily available today. If you choose to do an East Ballard planting, make sure to send me pics so I can post them to our site!

East Ballard Branding and Beautification Plant List
Sedum spurium “Blaze of Fulda” – evergreen – sun – 4″ tall  12″-18″ wide
Heuchera “Coral Bells” – perennial – sun/part shade – 18″-24″ tall 12″-15″ wide
Elk’s Blue Rush – evergreen – sun/part shade – 18″-24″ tall 24″-36″ wide
Phormium “Flamingo” – evergreen – sun – 1′-2′ tall 1′-2′ wide
Carex morrowii “Japanese Sedge” – evergreen – sun/part shade
Iris – I don’t exactly what type. The blooms are  small and white
Fragaria chiloensis “Native beach strawberry” – drought tolerant groundcover

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.

Allison Espiritu of the Ballard News Tribune wrote a very nice article about EBCA today.

Beautification project creates unity for East Ballard

block watch sign

During the EBCA steering committee meeting last night, the question came up about how to get Neighborhood Block Watch Signs put up in our neighborhood. I emailed Neil Hansen, our north precinct representative, and he  sent me the following guidelines and contacts.

“Block Watch” Sign Installation Guidelines

The following are guidelines that have been established by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for neighborhoods for installation of their “Block Watch” Signs from the Seattle Police Department

Before You Install Your Signs, know what is already in the Ground.
Please call 1-800-424-5555 to request the location of all underground utilities before you dig.  They will mark your planting strip for the location of water, electric and gas lines.  Knowing these locations in advance may save your life and save you time and money by preventing an accident from occurring when you dig to install your sign posts.

Checklist to Follow:
Consult with adjacent property owners concerning placement of signs to be installed to have their concurrence on the location.

Call “One-Call” at 1-800-424-5555 for location of possible underground utilities before digging.  (See below)

Guidelines
Signs are to be installed on 4″x 4″ wood posts.  The wood posts must not exceed a height of 9′ from the ground to the top of the sign or a minimum of 3′ below the ground surface.

Signs are to be installed in the planting strip, the signs need to be installed “behind the sidewalk”.

Signs need to be installed a minimum of three feet off the edge of the roadway.

Signs need to be a minimum of twenty feet from any official traffic control signs.

Signs need to be a minimum of fifteen feet from an intersection.

Don’ts
Signs are not to be installed on wood utility poles or City Light metal poles.

Signs are not to be installed in the sidewalk.

Signs are not to be installed with traffic control signs of any type.

If SDOT finds that the signs were installed incorrectly they will be removed by SDOT crews.  The signs will be stored at our Traffic Shop where they can be claimed.  SDOT Traffic Shop is located at 4200 Airport Way S.  Phone (206) 386-1206

Maintenance of the signs will be the responsibility of the Neighborhood Block Watch Group.

Here’s a list of authorized sign makers. I’d say, we should definitely buy local at O’Mega Graphics:

O’MEGA GRAPHICS & SIGNS (Ballard)
4321 Leary Way NW
Phone: (206) 789-5480
Contact Person: Dan Kehoe

THE SIGN CENTER, Inc.
P.O. BOX 4097San Diego, California  92164-9961
(800) 654-5373