West Seattle, Washington
27 Friday
Two nights after all those kids (and some accompanying grownups too) got together to design the future Delridge Community Center playground, Betsy Hoffmeister posted this pitch via Facebook, reminding they just need a bit more cash for the project:
Shameless plea for cash: NDNC must raise $670 more in earnest money for the Delridge Community Center Playground Project. Here’s how to send anything from $5 to $670: go here https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/DelridgeNeighborhoodsDevelop/OnlineDonationDNDA.html and make a donation. In the comment box write “FOR NDNC PLAYGROUND PROJECT.” Tell me how much you sent so I can keep track and send a TXU/tax letter.
Betsy’s at betsy (at) hoffmeisters (dot) com. NDNC is North Delridge Neighborhood Council, for which she serves as co-vice chair.
Another update from last night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting: Almost a month after the third and final “design workshop” for potential changes to 
California Place Park, ANA heard the latest from a leader of Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral, the group that obtained a city grant to develop design ideas for the small park next to Admiral Church. Ann Limbaugh said landscape architect Karen Kiest is still working on her “final report” but that’s expected by month’s end. Meantime, FANNA is continuing to meet to discuss “what the right next steps are … for moving the project forward.” (The $15,000 city grant only paid for design work; more fundraising would be needed for any work to actually be done to the park – even the cheapest change envisioned in what was shown at last month’s meeting – as reported here – could cost $80,000.) According to Limbaugh, the current consensus is to “take a bit of a break … and let things settle in the neighborhood a little bit” before resuming discussions “in a month or two.” Park-change opponent Dennis Ross, also at last night’s meeting, asked Limbaugh, “How do the 700 people opposed to (park changes) figure into your plans?” (That number refers to signatures on a petition circulated by park-change opponents – here’s our archived coverage of the controversy, newest to oldest.) She replied, “There are a lot of people who think it’s a great idea – and worth moving forward,” and he countered, “And we have 700 people who don’t,” before the discussion moved on. Limbaugh also mentioned that FANNA is continuing to plan a celebration, to be held in the next month or so, in honor of everyone who participated in the process so far.
By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The Delridge Community Center playground-planning meeting (earlier update here) just ended, with a firm idea of the types of toys that will be included in the final design and the preferred colors – purple for the plastic parts, spring green for the poles and sunny yellow for other metal parts like bars and railing.
The playground will be built with the help of KaBoom, with lots of community donations and sweat.
The fun part of the meeting was picking out the equipment; the wish list includes a loopy whoop, whirligig, all kinds of slides, a play house or village shop, a super satellite, e-z digger, and something called “crazy bones.”
Next, the equipment will be arranged into three designs that will be presented at another community meeting in about two weeks.
That was the fun part. There is also a lot of work. All the playground building will happen on Friday, July 17. There will be two days of prep work, before the big build.
Several people volunteered to be team captains, and they would love some more help from the community: Overseeing recruitment is Chris Southam (seattlesouthams@gmail.com); public relations, Holli Margell (holli.margell@gmail.com); safety and maintenance, Benjamin Pulanco (benjaminpulanco@gmail.com) and youth involvement, Lou Edwards (louannedwards@msn.com)
There is also a green committee to make sure the build is environmentally friendly, a food committee, and a logistics committee that is charged with figuring out where all the volunteers will park on the big day.
KaBoom has built about 1,600 of these playgrounds across the country and has the details down. The slides and swings and climbers are made by Playworld.
Right after posing for that photo moments ago at Delridge Community Center, those kids all got stickers certifying they are “Playground Designers” – the drawings they made in the preceding hour are proof of that, too. The kids’ portion of the meeting to design DCC’s future playground is over – a spaghetti dinner is about to start – but if you’re interested in the project, there’s still time to get here and join in the grownups’ meeting (with child care provided) starting around 5:30 pm. End result: A playground is to be built, with the help of KaBoom, to replace the unsafe, aged one that DCC has now, in a one-day session (followed by a week or so of curing) in mid-July; the project still needs volunteer help and some money donations too – betsy (at) hoffmeisters (dot) com is your contact if you can pitch in.
At tonight’s meeting of the city Skatepark Advisory Committee, a big step was taken toward cobbling together the money needed to build the Delridge Skatepark, even though its original funding was pulled from the city budget: With Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher and two managers in attendance, 
as well as what one committee member called “the largest number of people we’ve ever had in this room over the age of 12,” the SPAC voted to recommend moving a quarter-million dollars in Parks Levy money to Delridge. The $250,000 was originally earmarked for a “skate spot” at the future Myrtle Reservoir park, but as committee member Matthew Lee Johnston of West Seattle (center, in photo at left) noted, multiple community meetings last year turned thumbs down on the idea of a skate feature at Myrtle. It’s still in the citywide Skatepark Plan and could resurface someday if money appeared from elsewhere, but for now, if the necessary approvals ensue, it’s going into the Delridge pot. First, the Parks Levy Oversight Committee will have to give its blessing; then, City Council approval, which also would be needed to seed the Delridge Skatepark funding with $500,000 saved from other Parks projects (first revealed at a Parks Board meeting last month). However, with the community support reiterated tonight — Pete Spalding spoke on behalf of the Delridge District Council and the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council (he’s on the Levy Oversight Committee too), while Nancy Folsom spoke on behalf of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council – department leadership didn’t think that would be much of a problem. “Everybody’s blown away by how amazing the process has been,” Johnston noted. However, he called for one additional demonstration of community support: Fundraising. The site apparently can support a skatepark of up to 14,000 square feet; it’s being designed right now to 10,000 square feet because that’s what the original budget would have paid for, but Gallagher says $750,000 would buy 12,000 square feet. Perhaps the community could chip in enough to cover the rest of the way to 14K, Johnston suggested. West Seattleite Mike Shaughnessy – a former SPAC member – said he supports the maximum possible size for the skatepark, as he could imagine it becoming overcrowded quite quickly. Meantime, the design process continues – two meetings already have been held, and project manager 
Kelly Davidson said she hopes to schedule the third meeting soon. First, the money matters have to be worked out; Parks executive Kevin Stoops said the Levy Oversight Committee likely will be asked May 26 to consider the Myrtle-to-Delridge transfer. Also ahead in late May, Folsom said a Request for Proposals will be published for the art project that’s proposed to be built by the skatepark site at the northeast corner of the Delridge Community Center playfield/park. Though it’s not technically part of the skatepark, designers are working with art-project planners, Folsom said.
SPACE: Countdown continues (clock here) for the scheduled launch (11 am our time) of Atlantis, piloted by West Seattle High School Class of ’72 alum Gregory Johnson. It’ll be live online at nasa.gov (and via Twitter, you can see updates at twitter.com/nasa; plus there’s a “launch blog” here).
STAMPS: Up 2 cents for first-class postage, to 44 cents, as of today.
SKATEPARK: Tonight, the status of funding for the future Delridge Skatepark will be up for discussion at the citywide Skatepark Advisory Committee meeting, 7 pm, Parks HQ downtown (location) – as noted here, seattleskateparks.org has the newest developments, including an exhortation for Delridge Skatepark supporters to be there in person.
When we hiked part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt last year with Nancy Whitlock of the Youngstown Arts Center-based Nature Consortium, we recorded that video as she explained what she jokingly called a “native street-pole” along the way, telling the story of how part of the greenbelt almost became a highway. It’s still technically city right of way, but a “street vacation petition” detailed in today’s Land Use Information Bulletin seeks to transfer it to the Parks Department to recognize the fact that it will never be used for that purpose. As the online notice explains:
The City purchased the Soundway property in the 1950s and 1960s for a bridge and roadway project linking Seattle to Vashon Island. The property was “laid off” for street purposes but the project was cancelled. Since then a number of options were considered for the use of the property and the City Council decided it should be converted to protected open space under the jurisdiction of Parks. Parks is seeking the vacation in order to manage the property as a part of the adjacent West Duwamish Greenbelt. The vacation will allow the department to provide management of the property consistent with Park policies and allow Parks to seek State grants from the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development for open space preservation. There is no development project associated with this petition. The property will remain in a natural and undeveloped state and the land will be incorporated into the existing West Duwamish Greenbelt.
The city says you’re encouraged to comment on the “street vacation” petition; the online notice explains how.
First of our reports from last night’s meeting of the Southwest District Council (WSB sponsor) — more progress in the final stage of transforming the grassy site on the northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska into Junction Plaza Park. Erica Karlovits of the Junction Neighborhood Association and Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association had updates for the SWDC: First, Friends of Junction Plaza Park has applied for $98,000 in city matching-funds money, and has submitted commitments of $98,000 in donated money and time as the potential match, with more than 155 organizations and individuals represented among the pledges. The long-in-the-works park project needs $350,000 total for completion. It is one of two “large projects” submitted from the Southwest District for city grant consideration – the other is the Duwamish Longhouse Ecological Arts Project, seeking $100,000. If all the funding is secured, park construction could start this fall and be done by year’s end. There’s talk of a potential park-fundraiser beer garden in the park area during West Seattle Summer Fest, which is coming up July 10-12. If you want to help with the Junction Plaza Park effort, contact info is on the official website at friendsofjunctionplazapark.org. (Previous coverage of the park-development effort is archived here, newest to oldest.)
By Jonathan Stumpf
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
About thirty people attended the Parks Levy open house at West Seattle Golf Course tonight. This function was the second of four events the city Parks and Recreation Department is hosting to explain what’s planned for the voter-approved levy money, and listen to concerns and ideas.
Tonight’s 20-minute presentation was followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer session, during which residents voiced concerns about myriad issues within the $146 million, 53-project, six-year levy, from maintenance issues to environmental concerns.
Though the meeting was held at Delridge Library as usual, much of the attention at tonight’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting was focused north, on future projects at the Delridge Community Center playground and park grounds. First, the plan we’ve been telling you about to build a new playground there, with the help of KaBoom; the times are now set for the park-designing session that Betsy Hoffmeister announced Monday — 4 till 8:30 pm next Tuesday (May 12) at DCC. Child-care provided; the schedule is: Kids’ meeting 4-5 pm; spaghetti dinner 5-5:30 pm; adults’ meeting 5:30-8:30 pm. Betsy said at tonight’s meeting that she’s looking for volunteers to work on the playground July 17th; it would open the following week, after the cement cures. As also mentioned in our Monday report, $4,000 is needed to match money that KaBoom has put up, and some brainstorming went on tonight, including the idea of a plant sale at Delridge Day on May 30th. Also discussed tonight, the future Delridge Skatepark (planned for the northeast side of the park grounds), which as reported here two weeks ago, now may be in line for funding after all, since other city projects are coming in under budget. As a result of tonight’s discussion, Nancy Folsom is getting a letter of support from NDNC to take to next Monday night’s Skatepark Advisory Committee meeting, showing the city that the neighborhood supports the skatepark. It seems there’s some potential dissonance right now between what’s possible size-wise and maybe even big-picture-money-wise and what the city is looking at, according to this report by West Seattle skating advocate Matthew Lee Johnston at seattleskateparks.org.; he’s also planning to advocate for Delridge at Monday’s meeting, which is at 7 pm at Parks Department HQ downtown (map), public welcome.
Here’s hoping you feel more like the osprey in Alkimac‘s photo today than the crow – unless you prefer to be the scrappy outsider! Anyway, once your great Wednesday is in the books, here are tonight’s highlights for how to make a difference in your neighborhood (and beyond):
NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: 6:30 pm, Delridge Library. Discussion is certain to include the big Delridge Community Center playground breakthrough reported here earlier this week.
SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: 7 pm, South Seattle Community College board room. Agenda includes a presentation on the changes ahead (reported here three weeks ago) in the Restricted Parking Zone program (here’s the city’s official page).
PARK LEVY $ AND HOW YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE SPENT: 7 pm, West Seattle Golf Course. Not all of the money in last fall’s Parks and Green Spaces Levy was earmarked for certain projects, so the city’s going into neighborhoods to talk about the possibilities (as well as the already-set projects).
We broke the news a week and a half ago that the city Parks Department had recommended naming the new Morgan Junction park “Morgan Junction Park,” pending Superintendent Tim Gallagher‘s approval, and today the department announced that’s been finalized as its official name. The park, which opened last month after construction concluded, is to be dedicated June 13 during the Morgan Community Festival. The official announcement explains, “The Parks Naming Committee considered some 17 nominations, and after applying the criteria in the Park Naming Policy, unanimously recommended the name Morgan Junction Park because it acknowledges the history and location of the park.” (Among the other nominations was, of course, Tim St. Clair Park, in honor of the longtime West Seattle journalist who died last year; department naming policy says it can’t be done till someone’s been gone three years.) The park is on California SW, just north of the newly revitalized business block with Zeeks Pizza (opened May 1st), Feedback Lounge (opened April 25th) and Beveridge Place Pub (moved a year ago), near the Morgan/Fauntleroy/California “junction” intersection, and was the former site of an auto-repair shop, once purchased with the intent of development as a future monorail station before that transit project was killed. West Seattle still has three more new parks in the works — Junction Plaza Park, the newly covered Myrtle Reservoir site, and new parkland where West Seattle Reservoir in Westcrest Park is being covered. P.S. Got ideas for where money from last year’s Parks Levy should be spent? Wednesday night is your chance to offer comments at a meeting at West Seattle Golf Course, 7 pm.
ADDED 5:22 PM: Couldn’t resist asking Dewey Potter at Parks what the other name suggestions were. The reply:
Morgan Park
Deputy Steve Cox Park
Eddie Alvarez Park
Charlie Chong Park
Beveridge Place Park
Bicycle Park
The Whistle Stop Plaza
Walter R. Hundley Park
Quincy Jones Parkor after:
Ken Griffey Jr.
Tina Turner
Dorothy Dandridge
Lena Horne
Jesse Owens
Another big development this morning in the Delridge Playground saga. As reported here last week, Delridge Community Center has a chance to get a new, safer playground for a dramatically reduced cost. Community volunteers jumped in — and this morning Betsy Hoffmeister reports, a date is set and a sponsor has come forward for the project involving an organization called KaBoom that, with volunteer and sponsor help, builds new playgrounds in a day. Here’s what we just received from her, including more on the help that’s still needed from the community right now:
I am thrilled to be the one to report that Delridge Community Center will be getting a new playground on JULY 17. The project sponsor is Bank of America! Thank you, Bank of America. Volunteers from BOA will be there on July 17 to help our whole community build our new playground.
Important dates:
On May 6 or so, we will be getting many more details on the scope of the project.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, MAY 12, a playground designer will be at the Community Center to meet with children and their parents to choose design elements for the playground. The kids who will get the most priority in participating in the design will be kids from the community, especially kids from the Community Center’s own preschool and after school care, as well as any kids from the SWY&FS preschool. I am not sure how many people there will be physical room for. The parents will have time to give input, as well. There will be translators.
After one week, KaBoom will send us three playground designs to choose from. After the Parks Department swiftly confirms that all three designs are safe and appropriate for our space, there will be significant public process to do that selection and make sure everyone is on board with the design.
What we need to accomplish in the next few weeks is raising $4000 extra to cover some extra bits. If you have volunteered to help with the playground, now is the time to contact me to get serious!
Very excited!
Betsy Hoffmeister
North Delridge Neighborhood Council
You can reach Betsy at betsy (at) hoffmeisters (dot) com.
As reported here in March, that city-owned parcel at Manning and Admiral just north of The Bridge, known for its big sequoia, is no longer proposed to be sold off as surplus property – City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen helped facilitate a deal for the Parks Department to take it over. As he mentioned when first announcing that, a public meeting will provide your big chance to have a say in what happens to it and what you’d like to see done with it – and that meeting is set for next Tuesday, 7 pm, Hiawatha Community Center. The city originally bought the 14,400-square-foot site as bridge right-of-way in 1961.
With Earth Month in its final hours, we have two stories to share with you tonight, starting with this one: Hundreds of volunteers swarmed Lincoln Park today in a huge EarthCorps-led event. Ron Richardson covered it for WSB:
By Ron Richardson
Special to West Seattle Blog
In a project coordinated by Liz White of EarthCorps and teacher Jenny Farrell of Burien’s John F. Kennedy High School (from right in photo above), the entire JFK sophomore class set out today to work on ridding Lincoln Park of invasive plants such as ivy and blackberry bushes.
(A sampling of young leaders of the Lincoln Park cleanup. They represent EarthCorps, AmeriCorps, Kennedy High leaders and volunteers from around the world)
White explained that the mission of the organization is to “create healthy habitats, empower young leaders, and build communities around local environmental services.”
This is not the first time the EarthCorps program has worked at Lincoln Park.
The Mater Matrix Mother website has been documenting artist Mandy Greer‘s creation of a crocheted art installation – she’s been visiting West Seattle libraries, too, and will be at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival this Sunday, as well as at Delridge Day coming up May 30th. Now there’s word her work her installation has found a future home, Camp Long’s Polliwog Pond – read the update just sent by Camp Long’s Sheila Brown:Read More
At this month’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting (WSB coverage here), NDNC co-vice chair Betsy Hoffmeister reported a new development in the campaign for playground improvements in the area – instead of focusing on Cottage Grove Park, the attention turned to a proposal targeting the Delridge Community Center‘s playground. We got this update from her late last night – it includes some concern about the process, an offer of help, and the potential need for more:
Amazing things keep happening in Delridge! Kaboom, a national nonprofit organization, works with communities to help them build safe places to play. Occasionally, a corporate sponsor approaches Kaboom!, offering to fund a playground in a specific area. The organization helps the community group plan the playground, and comes in on one specific day and builds the whole thing.
In late March, Kaboom asked the Delridge Community Center to make a proposal to overhaul their 15 year old playground which, by the way, no longer meets federal safety standards. A donor corporation targeted the Delridge area, and the Community Center specifically and asked them to put together a proposal – by April 11. When the North Delridge Neighborhood Council (playground committee) heard this amazing news, we dropped our Neighborhood Matching Grant Proposal about Cottage Grove Playground, asked all the donors to switch allegiance to the Community Center proposal, and asked all the volunteers if they’d be willing to help out one mile north. Every single donor and volunteer agreed.
The Delridge Community Center whipped together a proposal which Kaboom really liked. Their advisory council recommended they apply to the City’s Small and Simple matching fund for additional resources, knowing they would need City oversight as the project is part of the Parks Department. They had less than two days to get a Small and Simple proposal together but managed to get everything together and get their proposal in.
On April 18, Kaboom had a conference call with the Community Center, representatives of the Parks Department, the SSCC, NDNC, and their advisory council. Kaboom was thrilled what they heard and asked for a second round which took place today, April 28. They as much as said as this proposal is the top contender. Unfortunately, the funding from the Parks Department, to cover the Parks Department oversight and the preparation of the site is far from certain. There are 74 proposals to the Small and Simple round from all over the City, with much less money available to spread around. The Kaboom folks were extremely worried to hear that the City wouldn’t be able to make a decision until after the Kaboom deadline. They called the NDNC (and basically said look, you are our top contender, it would be really sad if you didn’t get the grant because the City’s deadline is after ours) to ask if there was anything the neighbors could do … any way to come up with the site preparation/excavation without the city.
Amazingly, a neighbor who happens to be a licensed and bonded excavator volunteered to do the site preparation for FREE! We do not yet know whether the City will allow this company to volunteer their services to prepare the site. We also don’t know how we can pay the Parks employees to usher the playground designs through all of the reviews it needs to go through, and to oversee site preparation and installation. We are waiting extremely anxiously to hear from the City whether they will permit such an unorthodox approach. They have so many rules!
If you’ve read this far, you are a diehard Delridge Groupie. And you can ask yourself, how can I be helping make this amazing thing come true? And you might be feeling a little frustrated – why does the City tend to make things harder – here’s a golden opportunity to leverage a really big grant and upgrade a really needy playground really fast. So, what can you do? Approach any business that is not suffering horribly right now and ask them for a pledge – just a pledge – of $250, $500, $1000, or more. We don’t need cash in hand, we need pledges that folks will follow through on. Think about your tax return and see if you have a spare $50 (or $100, or $1000) to pledge. Go to the Community Center and sign a form stating you will pledge volunteer hours. Think if you know a licensed and bonded contractor who might be willing to donate excavation services. Imagine your vision of the Delridge Community Center with a new, safe, up to date, accessible playground for children of all ages, and respond to this with enthusiasm so I can send your responses on to the City, Kaboom, and maybe even our Councilmembers to ask for their help. Write to me with suggestions. If you are an artist or musician, think about how you could help hold an instant fundraiser for the playground to help us raise a few hundred or thousand bucks. (before you ask, we have a huge donation already from Nucor and from BECU).
Best case scenario – the people who need to respond, respond very quickly in the morning, and we have our answer right away, and they say “yes, of course the volunteer can do the excavation,” and then Kaboom is happy, and we’re happy, and it’s all good. But if Delridge needs help – and needs it fast – we need to know who is on deck to help out.
So far today, she hasn’t heard from the city – but you can e-mail her with offers of help, ideas, etc., at betsy (at) hoffmeisters.com.
The final word rests with Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher, but the Parks Department naming committee has announced its recommendation for what to call Morgan Junction’s new park (on the ex-Fauntleroy Auto, ex-planned-monorail-station site north of ex-Video Vault-turned-Beveridge Place Pub). The recommended name, disclosed at this week’s Parks Board meeting … Morgan Junction Park. As reported here in recent months, a community petition drive had been under way to get the park nameed in memory of Tim St. Clair, the longtime West Seattle Herald reporter who died in March of last year; he lived near Morgan Junction and spent years covering issues that led up to the creation of the park, including the monorail. Supporters, including major West Seattle-area community leaders and groups, asked Parks to make an exception in the department’s naming policy, which says a park can’t be named after someone until at least three years after their death. Again, the final park-naming decision is up to Superintendent Gallagher; if you are interested in contacting him with your comments on the proposed name, you’ll find his contact info here. Whatever name is finalized, the park will be officially dedicated during the Morgan Junction Community Festival on June 13th.
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
A variety of West Seattle-related issues came up — on and off the agenda — during tonight’s Parks Board meeting downtown, including new hope for construction of the Delridge Skatepark, plus other items from the golf-course plan vote to the stadium situation to Hiawatha bids and even a warning that swimmers will want to hear:
Warm weather got you in the mood for golf? A big decision about the West Seattle Golf Course‘s future is days away. Thursday, the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners is scheduled to make its final recommendations on the citywide Golf Course Master Plan. After previous hearings and discussions, what’s known as “Option 4B” (see a summary of costs and timetables here) is in the forefront; under that plan, the first two elements slated for construction in West Seattle would be a double-level driving range ($3.4 million) and cart paths ($155,000), both scheduled for planning/design next year and construction in 2011. As shown in the Parks schematic above, the driving range would be on the western side of the golf course, south of the stadium and parking lot. Four other improvements — clubhouse, cart barn, maintenance facilities and perimeter trails — would be scheduled, under that “option,” for planning/design in 2013, construction in 2014. The Parks Board meets at 7 pm Thursday, department HQ at Denny Park (map); full documentation for this agenda item, and other agenda topics including athletic-field scheduling and park operating hours citywide, is linked from the board’s webpage.
James sent photos with this explanation:
I was walking through Solstice Park with my baby and dog and noticed a bunch of skinny-tired donut (360 skid-out) tracks in the groomed gravel of the lookout. Following the tracks, they led to the culprits fixing their scooters up the trail.
He says the riders were 3 male teenagers/young men: “… the broken (scooter) was blue.” One of the other two, he says, had a license plate that starts with 78 and ends in 52; he says some of the ruts left behind in this small park, formerly known as Lincoln Park Annex — uphill east of the tennis courts across from Lincoln Park’s north end, and also home to a P-Patch — were almost half a foot deep.
James says he did call police to report this. Motorized vehicles, including scooters, are prohibited on Seattle Parks trails.
That’s the team we found in the kitchen at Arbor Heights Community Church for the ARK Park Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser tonight (the park-plan ringleaders we first introduced you to last summer were in the group – Jan Seidel with the salad, at left, Loretta Kimball with the spaghetti, second from right). We showed you the ceremonial groundbreaking last month; the church is raising money to turn a nearby parcel into a playground-centered park. Play figured into tonight’s event, too, with activities for kids in separate rooms after dinner:
By the time we arrived at the spaghetti dinner, 2 hours into the 3-hour event, they estimated they’d already fed more than 200 people! From there, we headed northeast to Delridge, where the Chief Sealth High School cafeteria was also full of good times and good food – plus good music, at the 7th annual Honor Choir and Mariachi Tamale Dinner. In addition to enjoying the talent of CSHS student musicians, diners also heard from guest groups such as Mariachi Quinto Sol, featuring University of Washington students and alumni – here’s one of the songs they performed:
While at Chief Sealth, we bumped into a former TV co-worker, Lowell Deo, who was there to work on a Seattle Channel TV feature about CSHS that will air in his ongoing CityStream series later this spring – he promised to let us know when it’s scheduled, so we can let you know to watch for it. (Lowell profiled us halfway through this CityStream episode six months ago [15 minutes into the program].)
From West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham, of mattdurhamphotography.com:
Clockwise from lower left: Spring foliage adorns the trails as hikers and naturalists tour Schmitz Park Friday. White Trillium flowers (Lily family) can be found by the keen observer. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) sprouts from soggy soils and their flowers are short-lived. Various other plants and flowers await visitors in West Seattle’s second-generation “old growth” forest.
Never been to Schmitz Park? Here’s a map.
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