West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Less than an hour ago, Mayor Nickels and various other city dignitaries joined neighbors of Ercolini Park – and Jim Ercolini (with the mayor in that photo) from the family whose homestead was on the park site west of The Junction — for the official dedication, just a few weeks after it opened to a joyful reception.
Others on hand from the city included West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen (chair of the council’s Parks Committee) and Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher:
Also, Parks Board Commissioner Jackie Ramels of Alki. But the real stars of the show all along have been the community members who banded together to push for this park, and then to give the time and money it took to make it reality — including Friends of Ercolini Park chair Katie Hjorten, who acknowledged that during the ceremony:
The next big gathering at Ercolini Park will be the community gathering for Night Out on August 5th (you can still sign up your neighborhood for an event that night – go here to get that done).
Two weeks ago, we reported on a proposal to build a playground at California Place, the mini-park shown above (California/Hill, next to Admiral UCC Church). Now we have word from Manuela Slye, who outlined the idea at the Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting last month, that a new group is forming and has just filed an application with the city Department of Neighborhoods to seek funding for the first phase of the project, including design work. As part of the process, you are now invited to the first community meeting planned by the new group, FANNA (Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral), to “discuss the status of the project, proposed timeline, and (seek) input and help from the community,” says Slye (who operates Cometa Playschool preschool). The meeting is set for 6:30 pm July 23rd at the West Seattle (Admiral) branch of Seattle Public Library; FANNA expects to hear from the city about its grant application by mid-August.
That backhoe has just moved into place as the Parks Department gets ready to start construction of the plaza to be built around the Alki Statue of Liberty, which –as reported here yesterday — is scheduled to be taken away this morning and put in storage for the two-month duration of the construction. Right now, Parks is loosening the statue off its soon-to-be-replaced base to prepare for the move. (Archived coverage here; more updates later.)
Thanks to David Hutchinson for those photos from Alki, where construction work is about to begin on the Statue of Liberty Plaza, as planned (here’s our report from last week). David says the Parks Department plans to start breaking up the asphalt tomorrow, and that’s also when Parks will take the statue away for temporary storage during construction, scheduled to last two months, with the dedication celebration planned for September 6. (See the latest site plan here; all archived WSB coverage of the Alki Statue of Liberty is here.)
What’s missing in that picture? Kids enjoying a city wading pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon — according to people who live near that pool, which is in the park next to Delridge Community Center. It’s always closed on Sundays – as are the two other wading pools in eastern West Seattle (Hughes and Highland Park), as well as not-too-distant South Park wading pool, while the two wading pools in western West Seattle (Lincoln Park and Hiawatha) are open seven days a week. In correspondence with the concerned neighbors, as well as in a response to a WSB inquiry, the Parks Department says the wading-pool schedule is carefully considered by geography. More on that ahead – but first, we took a look at the online citywide schedule and made this map, with blue markers showing the 7-day-a-week pools/spray features and red markers showing the ones closed Sundays (most of those are closed both weekend days, with a few exceptions; Delridge is open Saturdays):
The schedules aren’t new but the Sunday closures became particularly glaring for neighbors in the 90-degree heat a week ago, when the pool had a “rogue opening” as one neighbor described it, after somebody figured out how to turn on the water – and now they are trying to get the Parks Department to make a change – read on:Read More
Just out of the inbox from an e-mail list kept by local naturalist Stewart Wechsler, who leads independent activities as well as some like this in collaboration with the Parks Department. (We once joined in an Owl Hoot at Seward Park but are betting Camp Long is even more splendid!):
There are currently still 12 spaces for my Owl Hoot tonight (Sat. 7-5-08) at Camp Long in West Seattle this evening 8:30 – 10:30 pm with the Seattle Parks Department. Barred Owls are resident at Camp Long and there is a good chance of seeing and hearing them.
I haven’t seen juveniles, but we may discover some vocal hissing juveniles begging for food if, as might be expected there is whole family there again. We will also dissect some owl pellets. The program is appropriate for whole families with all ages and individuals.
Pre-registration is recommended. The fee is $8 per person. Either call 206-684-7434 before 6 pm or pre-register on line:
class.seattle.gov/parks/Activities/ActivitiesCourseDetails.asp?aid=97&cid=30803
A party’s under way celebrating the official opening of High Point’s Commons Park; we went up the knoll on its southwest side for these views that show how sweeping the park is:
The mini-amphitheater on the south side of the knoll had live entertainment – we were there for the end of a jazz combo and the start of these young performers:
Commons Park is most easily reached from Graham, at 31st (map).
That’s video of participants gathering for the start of the informal “parade around the park” this morning at brand-new Ercolini Park west of The Junction (map). The neighborhood volunteers who worked so hard to make the park a reality (here’s our coverage of the playground installation in April) are understandably busting with pride today, plus they have another big celebration ahead – the official dedication ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 am July 12th, one week from tomorrow. Here are some other Ercolini parade pix, courtesy of Scott Cronk:
(Meantime, our West Seattle 4th of July coverage continues — Admiral Kids’ Parade video coming up next; tons of helpful holiday info can be found on our 4th of July page.)
Before we shift into Total 4th of July Coverage Mode, a quick note about two meetings just announced regarding projects you might be following: DELRIDGE SKATEPARK – Word from city Parks Board vice chair Jackie Ramels of Alki is that the first meeting about the proposed Delridge skatepark (reported here when seattleskateparks.org broke the news last month) is 7:30 pm July 30th, Delridge Community Center. SPRING HILL (the mixed-use building, not the restaurant) – The next Southwest Design Review Board meeting for this project at 5020 California is now on the “Design Review Upcoming” website for August 28, time/place TBA. (WSB coverage of its last SWDRB meeting is here.) UPDATE: The Spring Hill Design Review meeting has been moved to September 11th.
(fall 2007 photo by Mark Bourne)
Today’s weather gives us one more chance to use that photo (as we did in rainy early June). If you are near the Alki Statue of Liberty today while tidewalking (very low tide @ 11:40 am), tomorrow for the fireworks, or Saturday for the Seafair Pirates Landing, take a last look because this section of Alki is about to change (as we first reported in this project update 2 weeks ago). Paul and Libby Carr of the Statue of Liberty Plaza Committee have just updated their sealady.org website but also included a few more details on the impending work in the following information e-mailed to WSB last night, including impending groundbreaking:Read More
WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham has filed several updates in the past two-plus months about homeless encampments he has been finding, and investigating, while exploring West Seattle parks. Tonight, he writes about two encounters with people linked to them:Read More
In our story last month about the renovation work that’s closing Southwest Pool till fall, we mentioned adjoining Southwest Community Center would have to close for a week here and a week there because of the project. SWCC just told us the next closure is next week: July 7-12, possibly a little longer. EARLY THURSDAY UPDATE: Junior Kitiona from SWCC sent more details – the closure is likely to stretch into the week of July 14th; how far, they won’t know till they get there – it’s because of the electrical-vault changeover mentioned in the pool-renovations article linked earlier in this post. We’ll keep you up to date on when the center is ready to reopen.
If you’ve noticed activity at the Junction Plaza Park site (42nd/Alaska), here’s what’s up – plus a question you might be able to answer:Read More
As we wrap up at the Viaduct briefing downtown (check out our live-blog notes in previous post; full summary later), here are two West Seattle items just in from the city Parks Department – more money for Morgan Junction’s park, which had been described at the last public meeting as in need of more $ for the favored design, plus a delay in construction of the Hiawatha Playfield improvements:Read More
Bernicki sends two updates from Ercolini Park west of The Junction – first one explains the two photos above:
We spent the afternoon at Ercolini Park. The kids were spinning around on the merry-go-round while three parks dept. guys stood by. Once the kids all got off, the parks guys moved in to adjust the “governor†(the big doohickey that regulates the speed) around the merry-go-round’s base. The kids were sidelined for about ten minutes, and then whirling resumed, at (presumably) a safer speed, as the parks guys admired their work. I was impressed at just how thoughtful these guys were: instead of throwing everyone off the toy, they waited for the kids to finish.
Bernicki also reports there’s a “Parade around the Park” at Ercolini at 11 am on the 4th of July, with neighbors invited to decorate strollers, bikes, trikes, whatever, and join the fun. We’ve added it to our West Seattle 4th of July page, where you will also find links to info about the Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade that morning and lots of other holiday happenings (as well as the practical stuff like bus, ferry, and Water Taxi schedules).
The popularity of new Ercolini Park is a reminder of just what a playground, and park, can mean to a neighborhood. Neighbors in two areas of West Seattle are working now to make similar dreams come true, and we have updates on both: The first one’s a dream for this Admiral park that you might not even recognize as a park:
Just beyond the tree in the foreground, that triangle of land at California/Hill (map), immediately southeast of Admiral Congregational UCC Church, is indeed a park, called California Place (official city page here). Manuela Slye, who also happens to be opening the new Spanish-language preschool Cometa (as mentioned here), spoke to the Admiral Neighborhood Association at its last meeting about her dream of creating a playground there. She is in the very early stages of trying to figure out what that would involve, but already has a touching presentation (as read to the ANA) with children’s art and words about what it would mean to have “a place to play” there.
Second, in North Delridge, the “tot lot” project (previous WSB coverage here) for Cottage Grove Park is now seeking an architect. They are hoping to find a landscape architect that can donate her/his services for this small playground project, but there’s a possibility their grant-seeking could include some money for fees, so they want to hear from anyone interested. Read on for a full description of the work and who to contact:Read More
While reporting on the Parks Department‘s latest Myrtle Reservoir park-plan presentation before the city Design Commission last Thursday (WSB coverage here), we mentioned we would check with project manager Virginia Hassinger for electronic copies of what she and architect Jim Nakano showed, so we could share them with you. She has sent them, so we’re sharing. What you see above is the latest “schematic” (click the image to see a PDF of the full-screen version) that won the commission’s approval on Thursday, with a few comments as noted in our report. Here are two other new visuals from the presentation: the play structure, and a cross-section of the park. Seattle Public Utilities continues its work on the reservoir site (which has recently been grass-seeded); actual park construction is scheduled for next year – the city’s project page doesn’t have these new images as of this writing but probably will soon.
As you can see from that photo Scott sent last week – the day grass seed was applied – the Myrtle Reservoir site is not only on a hill, it has hills of its own. And they seem to have provided a new wrinkle in the park plan, according to what the Parks Department’s project manager and architect told the city Design Commission downtown today:Read More
Thanks to Parks Department project manager Patrick Donohue for that drawing of the just-finalized city-approved site map for the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, as they prepare to put out bids for construction. (We recently reported the newest developments in both the plaza-construction plan and the Plaza Project committee’s vision for the September celebration – read that report here.) Click the image to see the full-size version; as you’ll see in the legend on that version, the darker area will be brick, the dotted area will be concrete – the top of the drawing is the existing asphalt promenade (north). Just thought those who have been following the project closely would be interested to see this; note that no new color “pictures” are available from the city, according to Donohue — we’ve featured some of them over the months in our Alki Statue of Liberty coverage archive, and the Plaza Project’s site also has some of the original design art).
That photo shows a little sliver of West Duwamish Greenbelt (from our Nature Consortium-led hike last month) … one of only two West Seattle areas that were spoken up for during tonight’s public hearing before the City Council-appointed Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizens’ Advisory Committee. There are other West Seattle projects on the list so far; we published this West Seattle-specific breakout over the weekend (apparently the list hit the Web relatively unheralded on Friday – several of tonight’s speakers from other areas of the city complained they hadn’t heard it was posted and so came to the hearing without having had the chance to read it; they urged the committee to have one more public hearing). Here are a few notes about the West Seattle mentions, plus toplines on what the rest of the city’s interested in, and what’s scheduled to happen next:Read More
A month and a half after his first report here of a homeless encampment at Camp Long (cleared by the city days later), WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham sent the above group of photos and this new report:
West Seattle can’t wish away the plight of those affected by homelessness and mental illness by looking the other way. Public parks are becoming uninhabitable as safe play areas for our youth, and natural habitat is being destroyed.
(L-R) 1. Signage warning squatters to vacate at a small encampment at Lincoln Park Annex remains after much of the belongings were removed.
2. Prior to the posting a considerable amount of debris and property became part of the park’s view looking at the Olympics.
3. After the encampment removal porn mags and refuse remains at the encampment.
4. The Alaska Junction is not immune from homelessness and mental illness. This shows a pedestrian recently passing by a person sleeping in Jefferson Square’s landscaping.
Lincoln Park Annex is now formally known as Solstice Park; it includes the upslope east of the tennis courts that are along Fauntleroy northeast of the rest of Lincoln Park. Side note; the city hasn’t called attention to this West Seattle cleanup (nor the one last month, though we were provided information when we pursued it) the same way as, for example, a recent Queen Anne cleanup (which even got this official news release on the city website).
Michael from M3 Bodyworks (WSB sponsor) e-mailed to say he was walking his dog at Jack Block Park this morning when he happened onto a Port of Seattle employee putting up a notice about West Nile Virus. We just called the port to check whether there’s something specific to be concerned about – short answer, no; long answer, West Nile virus was first detected in King County in 2006 and health authorities suspected that would mean many cases the following year – it didn’t happen but they don’t want you to let your guard down, so local agencies are warning people to continue taking anti-mosquito precautions, reduce “mosquito-breeding habitat” (water left standing a long time – so for example, keep your bird bath changed out), and report dead birds (they’re not testing every bird, the port says, just tracking where the reports come in). The Port says King County’s website is the best info resource for West Nile (here’s the page on reporting dead birds; here’s the WNV main page).
With the City Council-appointed Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizens Advisory Committee — which includes three West Seattle members (and had a recent hearing in Alki; WSB coverage here) — two days away from its final public hearing, more details are out about the projects that a levy would fund. According to the documents linked to the council’s home page, the committee is looking at two options for structuring the levy – but the difference between them isn’t what they would pay for, so much as what percentage of the money would go to the proposed projects. The committee wants to hear from you at the Tuesday night hearing — 5:30 pm at Seattle Center — and/or by e-mail, so here’s our West Seattle breakout of what’s on the list:Read More
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