The City just made it super easy to have a block party

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This week Sally Bagshaw shared some great news from  Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).  They have made it easier for neighborhoods to close streets for a fun event including block parties, sporting days, school fun runs and more.  SDOT has created a no-fee street permit process that can be readily attained to close neighborhood streets so long as the street is not an arterial nor a bus route.   

So there’s nothing stopping you now!  Go online today and get started on planning your next neighborhood event! Don’t forget to share your event with the EBCA and we’ll post it on our site.

Details on how to register your event are here.

Practice Drill May 17 for Seattle Emergency Communications Hubs

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For we East Ballard folks, our Emergency Communications Hub will be at Gilman Park, 923 NW 54th St. Neighbors are getting together May 17 from 9 to noon for a practice drill. You get to play a citizen in need and give our new hub volunteers on-the-job training! Check out the flyer below for more details. Contact Cindi Barker at cbarker@qwest.net for more details. What’s an emergency hub? Check here for more info.

 

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A new schedule for the 14th Ave NW Park

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A new schedule from the Seattle Parks Department for the 14th Ave NW Park is hot off the presses.

Here are some of the schedule highlights…

Early June 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 60% Street Improvement Process (SIP)
Mid September 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 90% SIP
Early December 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 100% SIP
Late December 2014 – Put out bid for contractors
Early April 2015 – Begin construction
Late September 30, 2015 – Construction complete!

If all goes as planned, we’ll be having a big celebration in our new Park by next Fall!

Paul Dorpat on Wednesday, May 14 for Measuring Ballard and Beyond

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Reposting from :

Paul Dorpat Speaks at BHS Event

It’s less than a week away! Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard join us for a talk on how a myriad of roads lead to (and from) Ballard on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. We know you’ll enjoy their pictorial lecture of Chittenden Locks, the Ship Canal, bridges and trollies, the former Ballard-Port Ludlow ferry and beyond.

So please make plans to join this community event, co-sponsored by Sunset Hill Community Association. Help us spread the word: https://www.facebook.com/BallardHistory

What: Lecture and Q&A session with book sale following. Refreshments too!
Who: Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard of Seattle Now and Then
When: Wednesday, May 14, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Where: 3006 NW 66th Street, Seattle, WA 98117
Suggested donation: $5-$20

About Paul Dorpat: Beginning in 1982, Seattle historian and photographer Paul Dorpat published the “Now & Then” column in The Seattle Times: Pacific Magazine. The column originally compared two photographs, “repeating” a view of downtown Seattle taken in 1919 at Pike Street and 4th Avenue with a view of the identically located but very different Pike Street and 4th Avenue taken in 1981. Dorpoat continued this series of Seattle photographs — her streets, lakes, docks, buildings, bridges, hills, regrades, visitations, and occasions.

Jean Sherrard: Jean Sherrard has worked as an actor, writer, director, photographer, teacher, carpenter and private detective. Co-founder of the Globe Radio Repertory, he wrote and directed scores of radio plays for National Public Radio. His photos and articles have been featured in numerous publications.

Visit Sunset Hill Community Association Web site for accessibility information, or call SHCA at 206-784-2927.

Check out our pics on HistoryPin, featuring BHS archives:http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/53721/#!photos/list/

Join us for “Greenspace to Growlers” walk next Sunday

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EBCA Jane’s Walk, “Greenspace to Growlers”
Sunday May 4
Time: 10:00-12:00pm 
Start: Honore Artisan Bakery at 1413 NW 70th St.
Finish: 14th NW and NW 53rd at Reuben’s Brews taproom

Join the EBCA and Feet First for a lively neighborhood walk through Ballard that explores urban greenspaces of all shapes and sizes, through a mix of residential blocks, commercial pockets, and the historic industrial core. This two-hour walk will start at 14th Ave NW and NW 70th Street (come early for coffee at Honore Bakery!), where we’ll look at the location of a future ‘Parklet’.  Speaker stops along the way include the present and future greenway, micro-housing and urban density, raingardens, transit, a SNAP emergency HUB, and the Ballard Open Space plan.  The tour will end at the Reuben’s Brews taproom in industrial Ballard.  Metro Rapid-Ride a block away provides a bus link back to the start.

Thanks for helping us clean up 14th!

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2014-04-19 10.12.06

It started out as a beautiful morning and our 17 volunteers got off to a quick start, splitting off duties between picking up trash and cleaning out the memorial median and adjoining rain gardens. Thanks to the Ballard Market, we were fueled well with fresh coffee, bagels, cream cheese and lunch meats. Sam, one of our volunteers even brought us a fresh plate of snickerdoodles and brownies (Yum!). Thanks to our many years now of keeping 14th clean, our volunteers reported a very light load this year (even south of Market St). Thanks to all the rain, the weed count made up for the lack of  trash! Dave failed to get his weed eater to work, so we had to leave the medians for a later date. If anyone out there has a gas powered weed eater and some time on their hands, please feel free to attack those median weeds between NW 59th and 63rd! Thanks for a great time and even after the rain started coming down hard, folks stuck around to finish up their jobs and we all huddled under the tent to chat and eat cookies! What a great bunch of neighbors! Thank-you and mark your calendar for Oct 18 when we plan to do it all over again.

Check out our Flickr page for the rest of the pics from the day.

 

Help an East Ballard resident with his thesis

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We at the EBCA, recently met with fellow East Ballard resident, David Knaut, who is working on his thesis through German University FU Berlin (Free University of Berlin). German you may wonder? Yes, David and his wife moved from Germany to East Ballard about a year ago and David is working on his Diploma thesis at the Department of Geography. David is currently researching the history of Ballard and is particularly interested in the social changes that have occurred in the Ballard neighborhood. He would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to complete his online questionnaire at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Ballard-Change

This short 7-10 minute anonymous questionnaire will help David  show who the people of Ballard are. The results of this anonymous survey will be aggregated and individual responses will not be used or revealed in this research. The information provided will be strictly confidential and will not be used in any commercial matter.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact David via email at daknaut@gmail.com.

David thanks you for your help.

Adopt A Street along 14th Ave NW Next Saturday

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Join your neighbors next Saturday for EBCA’s biannual Adopt A Street Cleanup. We’ve been cleaning up 14th Ave NW since the Fall of 2005 thanks to your help and our incredible volunteers who organize this event. Picking up trash is a lot more fun than it sounds and is something the whole family can do together. This is a great opportunity to make our neighborhood a nicer place to live. Plus you get to wear a bright colored vest!

Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th Ave NW
Sat April 19 10am-1pm
Meet over coffee & breakfast snack at Blowing Sands Glass
5805 14th Ave NW
Tidy up 14th Ave NW & care for the planters.
Come dressed for the weather.
Stay and have lunch donated by Ballard Market
contact eastballard@gmail.com for more information

 

Update on the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard

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News has been slow these past few months about the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard. We have a small update to share today, with hopes to have much more information to share, including proposed drawings and a schedule within the next few weeks. The good news is that although progress was stalled early this year due to the changes in the Mayor’s office, our Parks Dept. Project Manager, Patrick Donohue, was given the thumbs up  last week to move the Park project forward again. Some decisions have changed since our September update, but most are the same. The following are some quick points of interest:

20 mi/hr speed limit:
This is still a go, with plans to set the 20 mi/hr speed limit between Market St and NW 65th.

No bicycle facility:
This is new since September when we advised that there would be a 3 block long cycle track connecting the Greenway on NW 58th and running up along the park. Further analysis revealed that a dedicated cycle track would take away much of the available green space for the park and wouldn’t make sense to have for just 3 blocks. If, in the future, SDOT agrees to fund a dedicated bicycle facility from at least Market to NW 65th, then accommodations could be made to include it within the park.

New sidewalks along the 2 blocks of the park:
The existing sidewalks on the east side of 14th Ave NW between NW 59th and NW 61st are planned to be replaced with new sidewalks incorporated into the park design.

What’s next?
The folks at Mithun and Mayfly are on board again and will be preparing designs for the next SDOT review. In the meantime,  mark your calendar for the April 19 Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th!