For those of you who weren’t able to attend our big community meeting last week, I’m going to give you a quick synopsis to get you up to speed on what’s happening in east ballard and encourage you to share your input.
On the evening of February 18th, Maureen Reid, the principal of St. Alphonsus school welcomed the ebca and over 35 neighbors and city staff from Parks, the Dept of Neighborhoods and Sally Bagshaw’s office to the ebca’s February Night Out community meeting on Parks and Planters. Many thanks go to Maureen for hosting our event, the Ballard Market for feeding us, Nervous Nellie’s for the caffeine and neighbor, Robert Matisse for the yummy homemade cake! A lastly, thanks to Derek for taking the pics!
Shannon got the ball rolling by introducing herself and the speakers for the evening, and jotting down questions from the audience on issues they wanted to have us discuss. Here’s the list, along with answers!
I was the first presenter. I started off by explaining what the east ballard community association is all about. For those of you new to the ebca, check out the “What is ebca?” Tab. I then provided a quick recap on the goals of the Planting Partnerships on 14th Ave NW Project. Mark Saturday April 17th on the calendar for the big planting day and Adopt A Street Cleanup. We will also have work parties beforehand to prepare the planter sites and will need to gather up trucks and vans to pick up the planters a week before hand. We got a lot of volunteers for trucks, thanks neighbors!
Peter Locke, the original visionary of the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard project, then presented the overarching vision for 14th Ave NW and some local history concerning how it got to be what it is today. Did you know there was a footbridge built in the 1880s crossing Salmon Bay along 14th? Did you know that in 1890, the first trolley bridge went in and tracks were laid along 14th? The parking medians we have today are where the trolley used to run and why this street has 100′ right of way.
I then jumped back in and talked money. Where can it come from? We’re hoping Acquisition funds from the Seattle Parks and Green Spaces Levy set aside for a park in the Ballard Urban Village. We’re also vying for opportunity funds from the same levy in competition with 149 other projects. Additional sources of funding we are seeking could come from Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Department of Transportation. If you are aware of any other funding we could seek out, please contact me!
Zack Thomas then shared with us ideas on how we could use Parks funding to implement 2 blocks of the Park Boulevard Vision between NW 59th and 61st. This includes 3 different possible road configurations to think about and possible elements and activities the park could provide.
After the presentation, everyone had a chance to provide input on what type of road configuration they prefer and put a dot on types of activities and elements they’d like to see in the park. We’ve posted the responses on our site and encourage YOU to add your 2 cents via the comments section of this post or email me at eastballard@gmail.com.
Oh, and don’t forget the celebration beers afterward!
