The EBCA invites you to our bi-annual Adopt-A-Street Cleanup along 14th Ave NW and Rain Garden Restoration event on Saturday May 20. We will also be celebrating the 1 year anniversary of East Ballard GreenStreet.

What: Adopt-A-Street Cleanup & Rain Garden Restoration Event
Where: NE corner of 14th Ave NW and NW 58th
When: Saturday May 20, 10AM-1:30PM

What: East Ballard Greenstreet celebration
Where: SW corner of 11th Ave NW and NW 58th
When: Saturday May 20, 1:30PM

Come join us, rain or shine, and bring your favorite gardening tools. We’ll provide gloves and vests. This will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors, learn how rain gardens contribute to environmental health, and help cleanup 14th Ave NW from Ballard High School down to Salmon Bay.

Thanks to the Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods matching grant program, the EBCA is bringing in the talents of Cari Simson from Urban Systems Design and DirtCorps, who we partnered with on the East Ballard Greenstreet. Cari will be leading a team of volunteers, including you, in restoring the rain gardens at 14th and 58th.

Coffee and treats will be on hand to keep you well-fueled!

We’re pleased to announce that Gemenskap Park just went out for construction bid last week. Bid opening will begin May 17 with plans to start construction this summer. This is a huge milestone for this park which was first conceived by the community over 12 years ago! We’ll continue to keep you posted as we learn more. Check out the final engineering drawings here.

Gemenskap, pronounced Yuh-MEN-skawp, means community in Swedish and truly reflects the perseverance of the East Ballard Community these many years to stick with our dreams, push Seattle Parks and SDOT to work outside of their comfort zone, and demonstrate that with patience and tenacity, our dream of creating a safe, beautiful, and innovative linear park along a former trolley line can come true!

Ballard Corners Park is having a work party Saturday, April 8 from 9AM-2PM, rain or shine. There will be fun work to do for all ages and abilities to keep this gem of a park beautiful and an admiration of the community!

You’ll be spreading wood chips and getting the park ready for spring. Some tools and refreshments will be provided. If you have your own gloves and tools please bring them.  Any questions, please contact Gabriella: gabriella@seanet.com or (206) 782-3238. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

What: Ballard Corners Park Work Party
When: Saturday April 8, 9AM-2PM
Where: 1702 NW 62nd St

Groundswell NW has a long and rich history with Ballard Corners Park and continues to support the activities of the Friends of Ballard Corners Park through fiscal sponsorship and mentorship. Click here to learn more about this park and how you can get involved.

We recently received an update from Seattle Parks that they are still on schedule to begin work on Gemenskap Park this Spring. Final corrections to the bid documents are in process. When complete, these documents will be sent to City Contracting. It then typically takes 2-4 weeks for review before they can advertise the bid. They are planning for a 4-week advertisement period with plans to hire a contractor and start construction in April. The time between bid opening and actual contracting will fluctuate based on contractor response time and the time it takes for them to prepare bonding and insurance requirements. We’ll continue to provide updates as we learn more. 

The 6th Ave NW safety corridor that had been prioritized for safety improvements next year is now on hold for the foreseeable future — unless you act now!

Who: Anyone who lives, works, or travels near 6th Ave NW and wants their street to be safer
What: Send email to Mike.Obrien@Seattle.gov and/or make a public comment at a meeting of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB)
Where: Seattle Municipal Tower 5th & Cherry Room 3832
When: Wednesday, Feb 1 at 6PM

Talking Points:

• Families and elders already use 6th Ave NW as a quiet, convenient street to walk through the West Woodland neighborhood
• There is lots of fast cut-through traffic on and across 6th Ave NW. With just a small investment, an important neighborhood street will be safe for all ages
• SDOT needs put 6th Ave NW back on the schedule to make it safer for our children and elders
• 6th Ave NW is an important safe routes to school connector for Pacific Crest Elementary, West Woodland Elementary, Greenwood Elementary and St. John’s Elementary

Our community worked hard to get a safer crossing of NW 65th and 6th Ave NW funded through a neighborhood grant. 

Several community walks affirmed that 6th Ave NW was a slow street that families already use now to walk and bike to Pacific Crest Elementary, West Woodland Elementary, Greenwood Elementary and St. John’s Elementary schools.

This Wednesday, February 1 at 6PM is one of your few chances to get this project back on track and scheduled for safety improvements.

The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB) meets on Wednesday from 6 to 8PM in Seattle Municipal Tower 5th & Cherry Room 3832. Public comment is first on the agenda and you could leave by 6:30 if you didn’t want to stay for the whole meeting. SBAB will discuss the SDOT work plan this month and also next month March 1st, same location.

If you feel strongly that you’d like to see safety improvements to slow vehicles to 20 MPH on 6th Ave NW and cannot attend either meeting, you can write to your City Councilmember Mike O’Brien — he also chairs the Transportation subcommittee. Mike.OBrien@seattle.gov

NE rain garden at 14th Ave NW and NW 58th, 2009 and today

Because so many of our potential volunteers are planning to attend the Seattle Womxn’s March on Jan 21st, we will be moving this restoration event to April in order to coincide with EBCA’s bi-annual Adopt A Street Cleanup on 14th Ave NW. Stay tuned for the date, but it will most likely be on April 29 from 10AM-2PM.

In 2009, the EBCA wanted to make the crossing at NW 58th and 14th Ave NW safer, more beautiful and better for the environment. The rain gardens on the NE and NW sides of the intersection have been taking stormwater runoff from the street, filtering out the toxins from the water through the plantings, absorbing the water into the ground and sending the excess water into the storm drain. Through the years, the NW rain garden has been thriving, but the NE garden has not. Fast forward almost 8 years and the EBCA is bringing in the talents of Cari Simson fromUrban Systems Design who we partnered with on the 11th Ave NW East Ballard Greenstreet roadside rain gardens in 2015. Cari will be leading a team of volunteers, including you, in fixing up the rain garden. Come join us, rain or shine, and bring your favorite gardening tools. We’ll provide gloves and vests. This will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and learn how rain gardens contribute to environmental and habitat health.

What: Rain garden restoration and planting event
Where: NE corner of 14th Ave NW and NW 58th
When: Sunday January 21, 12PM-4PM

Thank-you neighbors for your patience as we took a bit of a sabbatical these past few months from posting on the blog. Lots of fun stuff has been happening in the ‘hood, we’ve just been out having too much fun to post!

At long last, we have come out of hibernation to share some great news about Gemenskap Park (formerly the 14th Ave NW Park). We have been in touch with our Parks Manager who has advised that the Street Improvement Permitting (SIP) for Gemenskap Park has been pre-approved by SDOT! Streescape plans have been approved, but the permit has not been issued yet. Permitting will occur once Seattle Parks gets a Contractor under contract and conducts a preconstruction meeting with SDOT. Public works bidding will occur this winter and if all goes well, ground breaking for the park could begin in the Spring of 2017 with completion Fall 2017! We realize this schedule has kept changing over the past few years, however, it was mostly due to SDOT and Parks hashing out the permitting process. Now that this hurdle has been overcome, we’re encouraged that the latest plans will stay on schedule.

If you’re new to this neighborhood and would like to catch up on the 11 year history of this community-inspired park-in-the-making, check out the Gemenskap Park page on our site. If you’d like to get involved with the park or have East Ballard community project ideas, please contact us at eastballard@gmail.com.

Ballard Corners Park is having a work party this coming Sunday, Aug 21. There will be fun work to do for all ages and abilities to keep this gem of a park beautiful and an admiration of the community!

Please join us for a work party at Ballard Corners Park (17th Ave NW & NW 63rd Street) on Sunday, August 21th from 9am-1pm, rain or shine. 

We’ll be weeding (lots of weeding!) and getting the park in shape for the Seattle Summer Parkways event which takes place the following weekend.  Some tools and refreshments will be provided.  If you have your own gloves and tools please bring them.  Any questions, please contact Gabriella: gabriella@seanet.com.  We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

A new play street along 11th Ave NW between NW 60th and 61st Streets opened up a few Sundays ago to great success. The street will be closed every Sunday from 4PM-8PM through September for kids to play in the street car free and neighbors to come out and get to know each other better, play games and eat good food.

Tonight, we invite you to a potluck along the play street. In addition to meeting your neighbors, also come learn about the latest plans for Gemenskap Park (formerly the 14th Ave NW Park) and learn about how you can get prepared for an earthquake.

Have your heard about Gemenskap Park yet? Grab a pint at Reuben’s Brews Thursday night to learn more!

Groundswell NW invites you to Reuben’s Brews this Thursday July 28 from 3pm-8pm. For each pint you purchase, Reuben’s will donate $1 to support Groundswell NW’s mission to empower NW Seattle to create, activate and care for parks, open space and habitat.

Learn about the latest neighborhood parks and open space projects, including Gemenskap park (formerly 14th Ave NW Park). Pitch your green space idea for a $500 micro grant, and learn how you can support local wildlife by creating your own backyard habitat.

All are welcome, including kids and well-behaved dogs on leashes. The first 25 people who pledge to create a backyard habitat will get a FREE BUTTERFLY HEROES KIT!

What:  Raise a pint for Groundswell NW
When: Thursday, July 28 3PM-8PM
Where: Reuben’s Brews 5010 14th Ave NW