Category Archives: Gemenskap park

Pics from August Night Out

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Click here to see the full album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmG3qYLb

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.

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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!

Join us Saturday July 27 for a Work Party at Gemenskap Park

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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!

Join us this Saturday for EBCA Spring Clean

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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

Gemenskap Park awarded editors choice for best urban street redesign of 2018

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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!

But wait! There’s more!

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!

Cast your vote by Jan 2 for Gemenskap Park as best urban street design of 2018

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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?

A grand community celebration in a park befitting of its name

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courtesy of Jay Dotson Photography

The morning started off a bit chilly and foggy with the smell of fall in the air. As the tents started to go up, the pumpkins were set up and the kids started arriving in their Halloween costumes, there was a flurry of activity in anticipation of the very first EBCA fall festival and the grand opening of Gemenskap park.

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Courtesy of Jay Dotson Photography

In the distance, you could hear a whistle and the sound of a drum beat. The crowd gathered around the center of the park looked to the south and were excited to see the Ballard Marching Band coming up the sidewalk with Lulu the Librarian Fairy in the lead. All the kids in costumes lined up behind the band and an impromptu parade around the park began.

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While the kids were painting pumpkins and getting their faces painted, neighbors gathered around the main stage to celebrate the new park. Thank-you to EBCA member from the start, Peter Locke, for being the ring master and emcee for the day and thank-you to Christopher Williams, interim Superintendent of Parks for your kind words. A huge thanks as well to our neighbors, friends and family who have supported our efforts to create this community park throughout the years and who joined together with us on this day to cut the ribbon and to those who were with us in spirit!

Thank-yous

  • Jay Dotson Photography for taking pictures of the event. You can view those pictures here.
  • Tripod Coffee for the caffeine kick!
  • Top Pot for donating yummy festive donuts
  • Ballard Market for donating pumpkins, apples, cocoa and cider
  • The Nordic Heritage Museum for teaching us how to pronounce Gemenskap (Yuh-MEN-Skawp).
  • Groundswell NW for being our greatest mentor and fiscal sponsor all these many years!
  • Karen O’Connor from Seattle Parks who secured the permits, made sure officials showed up, found us a face painter, got us extra volunteers and so much more to make this big event happen
  • The EBCA steering committee who helped organize the event, secured donations and volunteered throughout the day. Special thanks to Linda, Holly, Mary Pat, Monica, Steph, Zack, Rachel, Shelby and Andrew!

And one last special thank-you to our Ringmaster/emcee for the day, Peter Locke, who led the coordination for this great event and for having the original idea those many years ago to transform 14th Ave NW into a linear park.  We came together today as a community in a park so aptly name Gemenskap!