West Seattle, Washington
22 Saturday
As that shiny new sign says, work on West Seattle’s newest park is complete. Dakota Place Park is on the grounds of the city-landmark former substation at California/Dakota, north of The Junction. While you may have noticed building-renovation work if you simply drove by, walk up now, and the full park will be in view:
Jennifer Cargal from Friends of Dakota Place Park has sent us the official announcement of its completion, and what’s next:
If you live near the Alaska Junction, you should take a stroll up to the corner of California and Dakota. Though the opening celebration won¹t happen until the fall after the art installation, neighbors are finding some new open space in the recently completed Dakota Place Park. Nestled behind the old City Light Substation, this pearl of a park offers a little shade, a little room to stretch, and some much needed open space for those traveling just north of the Alaska Junction.
Tremendous thanks goes to the Friends of Dakota Place Park, Kelly Gould of Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and the Neighborhood Matching Fund, King County Wild Place Grant, Mark Sindell and the staff of GGLO, the West Seattle Garden Tour, First Mutual Bank, King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, and the many community donors, and the sixty plus volunteers who planted the park in June.
Note: The substation is a separate project. For information about the status of building renovation or about the park, please contact Kelly Goold at 206-684-0586 or Kelly.Goold@Seattle.Gov.
We visited Dakota Place Park today to take photos, and noted the nicely gardened patches around the park’s periphery, as well as the bench:
Jennifer shared photos from the planting parties — here’s one with a young volunteer:
According to the city project page, Dakota Place Park’s budget was $587,000+. If you’re not familiar with the site, here’s a map.
(photo by Brenda Peterson)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Digging for shellfish at most – if not all – West Seattle beaches is unsafe and unlawful.
Not everyone knows that. It seemed to be news to three men confronted this morning while digging along Beach Drive, before they agreed to put the clams – a cooler full of them, as you see in the photo above — back.
This all began when Brenda Peterson, a West Seattle author and wildlife advocate, was out walking on the beach this morning, as she does most mornings as the founder of Seal Sitters, the local group that watches for baby seals this time of year, and, when one is found, assigns volunteers to guard it from human/animal disturbance till its mom comes back for it.
Peterson spotted three men going back and forth along a sizable stretch of Beach Drive shore, where the tide was somewhat out this morning, digging big holes, and filling a blue and white cooler.
She tried calling wildlife agents and got only voice mail. She also called WSB.
We have before-and-after photos of that bench, but it’s so thoroughly tagged in the “before” photo that a even if we blur the tags, it isn’t very usable. So just imagine what it would look like with crude scrawls in black paint. How did the tags get removed? The anonymous West Seattle parent who shared the photo tells the story:
My daughter and I love to walk through Schmitz Park and have picnic lunches in the middle of the park on one of the two wooden benches. My seven year old daughter, looking at the bench we were sitting on, asked me yesterday why people put graffiti on beautiful things. I was stumped for an answer and decided then we would both do something about it. Today we hiked into Schmitz park with an arsenal of hand tools (no electricity) and scrapped and sanded off all of the graffiti on the two beautiful wooden benches in the middle of Schmitz Park. It made us both feel great!
If you see graffiti vandalism in a Seattle park and it’s not something you can handle this way – the Parks Department has a special hotline you can call: 206-684-7587.
Via Facebook, we were asked yesterday about “red signs” at Alki. Went looking for them – didn’t see them – then checked with the Parks Department; spokesperson Joelle Ligon tells us signs are posted for a temporary ban on non-cooking fires, while “small gas-powered equipment” is off-limits too:
We have imposed a temporary burn restriction at Golden Gardens and Alki beaches. Signs have been posted on site at Golden Gardens Park and at Alki Beach. We have notified the Seattle Police Department of the temporary beach fire restriction so that they may help us enforce it. The gas-powered equipment means Grounds Maintenance and Natural Resources Unit crews will cease using gas powered blowers,weed trimmers, hedgers, hand pushed mowers, etc. until Monday August 3, when the ban is lifted.
On a weather-related note: What little wind there is, is now coming from a different direction, possibly the signal that the worst truly is over. Temperatures are about 10 degrees cooler than this time yesterday, so that’s a good sign too.
Followup to our first report yesterday about the proposal to convert the Highland Park wading pool into a “spray park” with Parks and Green Spaces Levy dollars: As expected, we have more information – including budget concerns – after covering last night’s meeting of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee (which has three West Seattle members), and two other West Seattle headlines emerged from the meeting too – including an update on the Camp Long project (for which a public meeting has just been set August 19) — along with information on how the levy’s Opportunity Fund will work – read on for details:Read More
When the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee meets tonight at the city Parks Department’s HQ at Denny Park downtown (7 pm), their agenda will include a briefing on potential “spray parks” to be built at some of the city’s wading pool sites, to be built with money from that levy, passed by voters last fall. We’ve taken an advance look at the documents: A West Seattle site, the Highland Park wading pool, is near the top of the spray-park list – ranked #2 priority, after Northacres. The recommendation is for the city to build those two next year – here’s an excerpt from the briefing document:
Next Steps after a Decision
• Design Programs and Public Involvement Plans for each site will be developed.
• Northacres Park Play Area project is scheduled to start construction in July 2010.
• Highland Park would be scheduled to start construction in May 2010
We hope to find out tonight how long construction would take, what the spray park might look like, and whether the Highland Park spray park would be done – if that timetable is maintained – in time for use next summer. This summer, the HP wading pool is closed because it hasn’t undergone federally mandated drain-safety improvements, and that in fact factored into this decision – when evaluating where to build “spray parks” first, the Parks Department used criteria (see the full briefing document here) including ruling out those close to existing spray features (there are none in West Seattle) and those where the drain work had already been done (HP is one of 11 citywide where it hasn’t been). More later tonight.
“Isn’t this terrific?” No answer needed when we heard that about half an hour ago from Lisa Keith, one of the Delridge volunteers who helped make the brand-new playground at Delridge Community Center a reality – not just by joining the one-day construction operation last Friday, but also through months of work that preceded it, even when she and others from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council were working to add toddler play equipment to Cottage Grove, an effort that had hit some roadblocks before the DCC opportunity arose thanks to KaBOOM! and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. If you’re in the area, go enjoy the early evening sunshine, plus refreshments and DJ-spun music, and the chance to chat with neighbors, continuing for another hour or so.
Before last week’s one-day build of the new Delridge Community Center playground, we brought you photos and information courtesy of the ARC Digital Darkroom Teen Interns from DCC. We didn’t get a chance to fully explain the program or introduce them. But before tonight’s grand opening of the playground (coming up at 6:30 pm), we wanted to share their reflections, with photos, from construction day last Friday, and share the introductory information. Go here to read what the program’s about, how it’s funded, and how a few community donations are needed. Above, you see a photo we took of the team when they stopped by to say hi at West Seattle Summer Fest, followed by their self-intro, and their latest work:
We are ten individual teens (working) at the Delridge Community Center for a seven weeks photography and Digital Darkroom internship. When we complete this program, we will receive a stipend of $599.00 and 15 hours of community service hours. We started out with a job interview at the Delridge Community Center RecTech Computer Lab with Leslie, our Program Director. One of the questions we were asked at the interview was “why do you want to be part of this internship?” and “What do you want to get out of this internship?” After the interview, we all waited with anticipation for a week. We finally got a call and were told we could start at 1:30 on July 6. We were glad to be selected out of the 25 to 30 applicants who applied. We found out that we work from 1:30 to 5:30 Monday through Thursday and in addition, we may occasionally work a few hours on a weekend if there is an event we’d like to cover.
We were all nervous on the first day with so many new faces, but we started off right away taking photos and that helped us begin to relax. Our first photo warm-up was shooting a moving object, and our subject was one of our instructor’s dogs, a little poodle named Luke. We tried to get a good photo of him while he was both running and sitting out in the field. After our photography warm-up, we were introduced to Photoshop and figure out ways to make one of the photos we took look better or add effects. We all created individual blogs and posted our favorite photos. We then wrote and told a story about our photograph.
…
As all of us are new to photojournalism … we are all excited that the West Seattle community will be watching our progress as we learn to become better photographers and journalists.
Alexander Phaiboon
Mariah Whitman
Rachel Jimenez
They got more practice at West Seattle Summer Fest. And now, here are their reflections on the playground project – read on:Read More
Thanks to Jim Biava for sharing that photo. We’re not sure if it’s either grown-up Wollet or one of her/his parents (see previous coverage of the Lincoln Park owl family here), but it’s a great photo no matter what. (If you missed earlier discussions – these are barred owls – more info here, from Seattle Audubon.)
(WSB photo from last Friday afternoon)
A quick update from Holli Margell on behalf of the volunteers who built the new Delridge Community Center playground (WSB coverage here), which is one day away from its grand opening:
Tomorrow from 6:30-8:30 pm – Join us for live music, light refreshments and a new playground to play on! The playground just got a new ADA ramp poured today. Please DO NOT play on it until someone from the Parks Department removes the orange fencing and yellow construction tape. We know this is difficult, and appreciate everyone’s understanding.
That’s just part of the exhausted yet exhilarated crowd of volunteers that gathered for photos last Friday afternoon after building Delridge Community Center‘s new playground. Among them, North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-vice-chair Betsy Hoffmeister, who wanted to share a bit more news today:
As we approach the Grand Opening Ceremony for the new Delridge Community Center playground on July 23rd at 6:30 pm, the North Delridge Neighborhood Council is taking stock. We are immensely grateful to the community at large for supporting this amazing project. We have a few announcements to make.
· Only 14 Delridge tshirts are left. Made in White Center! Folks can buy one of the last 14 silk screened shirts left, Adult sizes: $15, Kids sizes: $10. Email your order to delridgetshirt@gmail.com .
· We have a donation of cupcakes for the grand opening, but, in order to make this a stylin’ event, we are looking for more food and drink donations. (We spent more than we anticipated on food for the build because we had nearly 270 people show up!)
· Every person or business who donated funds, goods, or services to the project is recognized on the 1X1 foot tiles attached to the fence around the playground (although the volunteers missed one). There are about ten more spaces for dedications. If you would like to add your message to the playground wall, please contact betsy@hoffmeisters.com with your contribution and message by Thursday. Minimum suggested donation is $25.
(“teaser trailer” for “Star Trek: Phoenix”)
One caller told us they thought it was something related to “Star Wars” … then today it morphed into “Star Trek” … thanks to DL Byron from Bike Hugger for sharing a note that circulated to area residents: The “movie crew” in Schmitz Park over the weekend was working on “Star Trek: Phoenix,” an online-only, all-volunteer production described on its website (stphoenix.com) as “boldly stepping into the final frontier of ‘Star Trek’ Internet fan films.” Its “pilot” is being shot in HD and will be distributed free online when it’s done; the website also says this is the largest film production under way in the Northwest right now, with an all-volunteer cast and crew of more than 125 people.
After less than five hours of work, involving more than 200 volunteers, after months of preparation, Delridge Community Center‘s brand-new playground is done! The closing ceremony for the day is moments away. More to come; our earlier coverage is here. (But remember, the playground isn’t immediately usable – its official opening will be next Thursday night, but we’ll be asking whether it’ll be put into unofficial use sooner.) ADDED 3:10 PM: Answer to that is “no,” so far. Meantime, the best shot at day’s end:
We asked the folks from North Delridge – the ones who’d been pursuing a better playground in other ways before this opportunity presented itself, the ones who keep working to improve their neighborhood bit by bit – to stop for a second and pose for a group photo. (After which, we hope they have all gone home for a big glass of ice water, or something.) Here, meantime, is a different angle on the brand-new playground they and other West Seattle families will be enjoying in a few days:
Yet more visuals from the day to be added later, including the big group shot of all the volunteers, and video of the ribbon-cutting, which actually involved some of the kids tearing up a paper chain! 3:43 PM: But first – the DJ, who kept high-energy music going and got a big shout-out at the end (and the loudest applause):
And the guy who led Team Elmo – couldn’t resist a closer look.
We were curious about exactly how KaBOOM! works, so we looked online for a third-party analysis. Found this, just in case you were curious too.
At the center of that photo, joining a quick pre-construction stretch with 200+ other volunteers, is Betsy Hoffmeister, co-vice-chair of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council. About 15 minutes earlier, when we first saw her here at Delridge Community Center (where we’ll be on site much of the day), she shouted, “It’s really happening!” Before the playground-in-a-day volunteer project that has just kicked off here, she spent many months working through the difficult process of trying to get playground improvements at another Delridge park not far from here. Then came the KaBOOM’s offer to redo the community center’s dilapidated playground, and Betsy and other members of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council threw themselves into organizing what it took to make this work.
What it’s taking for one is volunteers – Mayor Nickels, seen here between two of those volunteers, told the crowd during the kickoff ceremony that he’ll announce later this month that his stated goal of 10,000 new Seattle volunteers this year has been met. (Also at the kickoff ceremony, city Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher, as we noted with photo links and short updates via Twitter.) And it’s taking donated materials – which are coming from a variety of sponsors, particularly the Bank of America Charitable Foundation (this is the 5th of KaBOOM’s 1,651 playground projects that it’s funded) – we passed the shovel/rake station as we arrived at the site:
Right now, the volunteers have broken into small groups, each with a KaBOOM leader and a mascot/symbol, from Hello Kitty to Elmo to, in this group’s case, the American flag:
Theyre engaging in all sorts of assembly and carpentry tasks, spread all over the parkland around the community center, before, sometime in the next six hours or so, everything moves to the site itself:
More photos shortly – we’ll post several updates during the day, and we’ll add a few video clips from the opening ceremony, too. 10:12 AM UPDATE: The small group work continues – with an energizing soundtrack :
The work zone is for ages 18 and up only, but there’s child care on the nearby tennis courts – and all the kids there have been issued their own little hard hats:
The groups will be taking lunch breaks in staggered shifts starting around 11:30. Part of the playground site itself is already starting to take shape! 11:07 AM UPDATE: Some more pix. First, the playground!
Second, pieces of the playground as they were moved into place:
Third, we haven’t mentioned that some other work is being done here today for the community center – like new cubbies:
They’ve also just put a call out around the site for people who write “languages other than Spanish, French and English” to go write messages of peace on a section that’s under construction. Anyway, we’re leaving the site for a while to go cover the Hi-Yu Junior Court Coronation and Hiawatha Fun Festival (it’s almost lunchtime for the volunteers, anyway) but will be back here in early afternoon for a new round of progress reports on Delridge’s new playground (which will officially open with a ceremony next Thursday night).
Chas Redmond shared that photo from Camp Long, where it was a beautiful night to sit in the forest and enjoy the Mater Matrix Mother and Medium performance. We also received this photo from Sharonn Meeks, who estimated about 200 were on hand and shows us a closer look:
Tonight’s performance is over, but artist Mandy Greer‘s crocheted river, part of the Water Calling “temporary public art” series, is scheduled to remain in the forest through the end of this month.
This afternoon, it was just piles of wood chips and a cleared, fenced site – by early tomorrow morning, it will be abuzz with hundreds of volunteers building the new playground for Delridge Community Center, and Holli Margell has sent an update with some things you might want/need to know:
Traffic Alert – With Build Day happening this Friday, we are expecting over 250 people to arrive at the Delridge Community Center by 8am. As a result, we have strongly encouraged all volunteers to arrive by bus, bicycle, skate board, foot or through carpooling. However, we realize not everyone can do so resulting in additional traffic during the morning commute along SW Genesee Street and Delridge Way S.W.
Once the playground is built, it needs to sit untouched while the cement dries. Please don’t be disappointed if you go to the Delridge Community Center and can’t play on the playground this weekend. This is for your safety.
Everyone is invited to help us celebrate this momentous community project!
What: Delridge Playground Grand Opening
When: July 23, 6:30 pm
Where: The Delridge Community Center Playground, of course!
4501 Delridge Way S.W.
We will enjoy light refreshments and live music while the children play!
And in a comment on an earlier report, Betsy Hoffmeister adds:
It’s not too late to have your name or business recognized on the playground wall! Cash donations are still being accepted and will be on the day of; also, donations of food and beverages for the grand opening are enthusiastically welcomed — we will have a grand opening at 6:30 pm on July 23 where we will be serving, at very least, 200 cupcakes donated by Coffee to a Tea With Sugar. If you want your name up on the playground wall, contact us to donate! helpdelridgeplay@gmail.com Thanks neighbors!!
We mentioned during our West Seattle Summer Fest coverage that we are working with a group of youth doing multimedia internships through Delridge Community Center, and this morning we have a report. The group is Digital Darkroom – we’ll tell you a more about them later, as we are working fast to get out more stories this morning, but with the Delridge playground construction happening tomorrow, we didn’t want to wait on this – it’s great to have our DCC playground coverage enhanced by interns who are based right there! — TR, WSB editor
By Nick Wolf
Digital Darkroom Intern
This Friday, the Delridge Community Center is receiving a long-overdue remodel for its playground. The old playground was removed about two weeks ago when contractors came in to take out the old playground equipment.
This project started when Ryan Spencer (photo above) answered a surprise call from KaBOOM! Ryan, who works as the assistant coordinator for the community center, was excited that Delridge CC was selected to receive a new playground. KaBoom is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. It remodels and builds new playgrounds for organizations across the nation.
The volunteer work necessary to get the job done has been sponsored by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, a city Department of Neighborhoods grant, and the North Delridge Neighborhood Council.
When volunteers started the excavation they found concrete and some rubber still left in the old playground foundation, so it’s taken about eleven days to remove the remainder in order to start from a fresh foundation. An old and outdated manhole was also uncovered; it has been shortened and covered up with concrete and gravel.
Today, the Associated Recreation Council’s Digital Darkroom interns took photos of the volunteers beginning work on this project (like Nancy Folsom, above) and interviewed organizers and workers. We’ll be covering this story through to completion and will post again on Friday and Monday.
Thanks to Digital Darkroom! We are excited to work with them for the next month.
Just in from Betsy Hoffmeister, as North Delridge residents – with hundreds of volunteers helping – get ready to build their new playground at Delridge Community Center later this week – they’ve got most of what they need lined up for the build-a-thon but now need what she calls “a minor miracle”:
Life has gotten a little extra complicated for the Delridge Community Center playground. We have an amazing, thrilling number of volunteers lined up for Friday’s event, food is in place, and we’re good to go, except for one exciting detail. When the hole was excavated, more and more concrete was found. The hole is now much, much deeper than anticipated. We are getting 30 cubic yards of gravel delivered Wednesday afternoon, and we need to move it into the hole and spread it evenly. We do not currently have heavy equipment or a heavy equipment operator lined up to do this task for us. We know that if we had a skid steer, it could be done in a few hours. If humans need to do this, it is a monumental task. So, we are looking for a skid steer and skilled operator, or a contingent of Marines. Or neighbors with shovels and rakes. Please, neighbors, when we have asked for food, you’ve provided food. When we’ve asked for cash, you’ve given cash. When we’ve asked for time, you’ve given time. A mere skid steer and operator seems like a minor miracle to us – but you may have the answer sitting in your back yard. Please, friends, contact helpdelridgeplay@gmail.com or call Betsy at 206 353 9334. Thank you!!
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
West Seattle Blog has learned that Seattle Public Utilities has ordered waterproofing work 
dug up and redone at two newly covered city reservoirs — Myrtle Reservoir here in West Seattle (photo) and Beacon Hill Reservoir — because of hundreds of leaks discovered in the “membranes” applied to both projects.
To get to the membranes, the grass, dirt and “drain rock” over the reservoirs must all be removed, which is happening right now. SPU says it has not finished calculating the costs of the additional work but will front the money to the contractor until it is decided – potentially in court – who is to blame for the leaks, which SPU emphasizes do not pose any health risk.
In the case of Myrtle Reservoir, the transfer of part of the site to the Seattle Parks Department, for construction of a park on the newly created open space has been delayed a year already — we reported delays here and here — in June of last year, in fact, the site was seeded, the same month we were told “final acceptance testing” was planned.
Now, though, SPU says that because the waterproofing is being redone, the transfer to Parks may not happen before the end of November.
The waterproofing problems recently came to our attention because of questions from neighbors who live near Myrtle Reservoir. Several e-mailed WSB in the past week to ask why the Myrtle site was being “dug up again.” Today, SPU spokesperson Andy Ryan confirmed the problem to WSB and provided more information on what happened, how it was discovered, what’s being done and what happens next. (We also have spoken with another SPU manager and with the state Health Department.)
Thanks to Nancy Folsom for the photo and word that the Delridge wading pool is open after all – we got a note about that yesterday but hadn’t gotten time yet today to check – as we noted earlier in the week, the Parks Department website had pushed back the opening date to next Monday, but looks like they got it going in time for this warm, sunny weekend. Hours are scheduled to be noon-7 pm; it’s the second West Seattle wading pool to open this season – later than usual because of mandatory safety upgrades. So now Lincoln Park and Delridge are open; Hiawatha is scheduled to open July 27, but neighbors might check sooner, in case it happens earlier, as it has done in Delridge.
When we first reported in May about the city’s plan for wading pools this summer – with mandatory safety upgrades causing some pools to open late and a few (like Highland Park) to not open at all – Delridge WAS set to open today. Just doublechecked the city site, and it’s now scheduled to open next Monday (7/13). Not that wading pool weather is expected today anyway, but just in case you were planning for the weekend, now you know. Lincoln Park opened a couple weeks ago (but like all wading pools only operates on sunny, warm days); per the wading-pool website, Hiawatha is still scheduled to open July 20th, E.C. Hughes on July 27th. (Lincoln Park pool photo courtesy of Tamsen)
First update from tonight’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting (another to come): NDNC co-vice-chair Betsy Hoffmeister announced that they’ve secured commitments for all the volunteer help needed on Friday, July 17th, 
the day the new Delridge Community Center playground will be built – but other types of help are still needed: For one, they need more food to keep all those volunteers fed, and/or money to buy food. For two, they need tents – “awning-style tents,” Betsy explained, mostly to be used to shelter a child-care area that’ll be set up on the tennis courts, since they’re expecting some of the participants that day to bring their kids. “Everybody in the community needs to bring their tents, or else we’re going to be roasty-toasty,” she said cheerily tonight. And one last loose end: There will be a fundraising raffle, with tickets sold at the upcoming West Seattle Summer Fest, to raise a few hundred dollars needed to cover some remaining expenses. (The playground itself is costing very little thanks to donations including the umbrella organization KaBoom!, which builds playgrounds nationwide, and the Bank of America Foundation.) 
Betsy also shared an update on what’s happened to the old equipment (May photo at right) taken from the playground site (as reported last weekend, the site’s been cleared) – aside from the merry-go-round, which is in storage until it’s decided whether a grant might be pursued to get safety upgrades so it could be reinstalled, the other equipment was taken to the town of Cathlamet on the Columbia River (map), where Betsy says it was greeted with great enthusiasm. “I feel like we have a sister city there,” she said. If you can help with the food, tent and/or money needs for the July 17th playground installation, e-mail helpdelridgeplay@gmail.com – and in addition to that day, also mark July 23rd on your calendar, when the new playground will be officially celebrated.
One year ago this month, Ercolini Park celebrated its dedication, the culmination of a lot of hard work, volunteer hours, donations of money and material, and it’s now a popular place for so many residents west of The Junction who had no neighborhood park before. And now – the work of tagging vandals at the Ercolini Park playground is sparking neighborhood outrage. David Cagen sent us photos; we have blurred most of the tagging but felt it important to at least show the extent of what they did:
The white spray-paint pattern resembles that used in the obscene words/drawings with which homes within a mile were vandalized recently (WSB coverage here); we have a call out to police to ask if there’s any link or any progress in the case. Meantime, David, who was among the many who worked on the park, writes the three letters in the tags started with W (we’re not including the whole thing) and adds:
… has anyone seen this pattern? The neighbors are on the lookout and are going to shoot some pictures of the next repeat performance. My guess is, defacing little kids’ play areas isn’t worth getting into that much trouble. The park is nobody’s but the kids, so to see it look like crap is not fun. If anyone has leads, let us know.
We followed up by asking David if the neighborhood needs help cleaning this up; he believes they will:
My guess is the city doesn’t have budget nor the time to clean this up. The plastic parts are pretty easy, they can be scrubbed, and the kids sliding have already worn off a lot. The poles and the merry-go-round are tougher and I don’t know the proper way to remove the markings without mucking up the existing paints.
| 9 COMMENTS