MONDAY: Hiawatha closure, Lincoln Park play area, pickleball updates, more promised at Seattle Parks online meeting

Reminder – tomorrow night (Monday, November 27) brings what Seattle Parks is calling a “West Seattle Park Project Updates” meeting, online at 6 pm. They’re promising to discuss not only the plan for pickleball courts in Lincoln Park but also the long-running Hiawatha Community Center closure, the even-longer-running Lincoln Park South Play Area closure, the future off-leash area, the landbanked West Seattle Junction park project, and more. All this will supposedly be addressed in the span of an hour; whether any real-time questions will be answered isn’t clear, but Parks’ original announcement suggested that if you have questions “you’d like answered at the meeting,” email them in advance to pks_info@seattle.gov. To get the link for tomorrow’s meeting, register here.

LestWS Forget November 26, 2023 (7:04 pm)

What happened to Solstice? How from there to an old grove far from parking in a wooded city park, as if decades of learning abt conservation never happened? At whose behest?

Alki resident November 26, 2023 (7:55 pm)

Tennis players and pickle ball players want to be separate. It’s not that far to walk from the parking lot to the existing court at Lincoln Park.
- Kyle November 27, 2023 (9:04 am)
  
  Some tennis and pickleball players. But they’re more concerned about competition for the courts instead of dual striping like every football/soccer field of the past 15 years. Dual striping is a better use of our tax payer dollars. People have the minor inconvenience of looking at other lines and hearing someone play a different sport next to them.
  - Either AndOr November 27, 2023 (10:02 am)
    
    No quibble, Kyle. Pragmatism and egalitarianism at they bes’. Another very cost-effective equitable possibility might be to take the map of heretofore tennis courts– https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=3d43a2e9c0854f8995d126ab92690d40–  (quite the generous cluster) and, taking any pair in closest proximity, make one tennis and one p**b*. Or adjust that 1/1 ratio in light of number of games per sq ft, so, a 2ct frmr tennis facility becomes however many more p**b*, a 4ct retains the more elegant tradition. Our sporting ‘communities’ (tribes) need not suffer one another, and our theme parks of forest remain (for now) not even more molested. (And this shadowy high-stakes game to protect private property owners at the expense of the public, Nature and The Greater Good can be contained.) Just a thought.

Kersti Muul November 26, 2023 (7:10 pm)

To clarify, this is a curated presentation not an interactive public meeting – parks wil be answering pre-selected questions from what gets emailed in. There’s no telling what questions will be answered, but likely the ones that are easy to answer (Interesting that they have a 3 month backlog of questions that they never answered already)It won’t follow an agenda – you go into a break out room of the project you want to hear about. This is one of the things discussed in our meeting on the 15th.Parks continues to be disingenuous with the public – even going into this meeting. Please be aware that this project is on hold, at least til late March or April …and other things

pausetohold? November 26, 2023 (7:29 pm)

Kersti Muul states that the “project is on hold” until next spring!

Was there an announcement by Parks, that I missed or not reported?
Can WSB confirm?

WSB November 26, 2023 (7:39 pm)

No, they have not made an announcement, nor updated the project page (though if you follow some of the links above you’ll notice some of the pages for other projects involved in the “updates” were updated just before Thanksgiving). If that’s so, I would hope they’ll say it tomorrow night.
Kersti Muul November 26, 2023 (10:48 pm)

This information was told to me and a few others in our meeting with parks on the 15th. Letting the public know things isn’t a priority for them if you haven’t learned that yet?

Kyle November 26, 2023 (8:07 pm)

Parks is so comical. I hope the meeting is not overrun with pickleball talk. While important, Parks should answer for the YEARS of delays to playgrounds, community centers, etc. for the West Seattle community.

wsEthicist November 26, 2023 (10:34 pm)

The former tennis courts in Lincoln Park ought to be restored to natural green space.

The West Seattle Golf Course is relatively underutilized, install the pickle courts there.

Out Box November 26, 2023 (11:52 pm)

Fab fair foresight suggestions! Or, this once posturingly progressive community-minded megalopolis could look to the actually socially effective North, to Chilliwack, B.C.: “The city plans to build an indoor facility and is scheduled to close the outdoor courts… in November.” (‘An’! Ha!) Put the Din In! Forever!

Neighbor November 27, 2023 (12:21 am)

Is there a reason the pickleball nets at the Alki tennis courts are set up in a way that nobody can play tennis? Why are they in one side of two courts instead of both sides of one? Seems inconsiderate. Really puts me off wanting to play.

Sigh November 27, 2023 (7:48 am)

Dear pickleball people: your pet issue is not the only thing the Parks department is working on. It is not the only issue your neighbors care about (most of us don’t care about it at all). You are already hogging the floor in terms of the amount of time you expect them to devote to you, from already limited time and resources. To say they’re not engaging enough is pretty audacious, and galling to everyone else who is continuing to be put on the back burner while discussion of your issue is prioritized over discussions of projects that have been in the works much longer and have a much bigger impact on the community.

Quiz November 27, 2023 (9:18 am)

I have little doubt the anti-pickleball-bullies will show up to that meeting and cause a ruckus.

WSB November 27, 2023 (9:30 am)

UPDATE: I asked Parks first thing this morning about the meeting format (as “breakout rooms” would have meant we needed to assign multiple people to cover the meeting). That idea was scrapped, according to communications manager Rachel Schulkin: “The meeting will be all together, no breakout rooms. We were considering different formats and settled on just one meeting all together so people wouldn’t have to choose what to hear.”

KTL November 27, 2023 (7:18 pm)

The meeting tonight was very disappointing. They only addressed 3 questions. They have obviously made up their minds to go forward with this project. They discussed how LP is ideal because it’s away from homes so less noise impact for homeowners. They didn’t address noise impact to wildlife nor to those who want to walk or run peacefully through the park.They also said there was great interest in the community for pickleball courts at LP. No receipts though to back that up. Where did they get that data? Was there a survey? I really don’t think so.

CB November 27, 2023 (10:08 pm)

All good points. The meeting was not a meeting; it was closed to participants who were not allowed to be seen or heard, while Diaz pushed his agenda for the pb courts. It was truly infuriating, and only made me want to work harder against them.
WS Res November 28, 2023 (12:42 am)

People in favor of the project are just as capable of writing emails and making phone calls as anyone else.

Sorry, comment time is over.