All posts by dennis

Announcements, Crown Hill Neighbors, Special Events

Crown Hill Neighbors Annual General Meeting, May 15th 2010

Crown Hill Neighbors will be holding its annual general meeting this year on Saturday, May 15th. A dynamic program is planned. We’ll start with about 30 minutes of updates on neighborhood topics such as:

  • Crown Hill Park
  • Holman Road Median
  • Landmark Tree Survey
  • Crown Hill Center (former school) facility improvements and changes planned
  • Public safety

Then the well-known neighborhood activist, Jim Diers, will fire us up with his energy and ideas. Many people recall that Jim Diers was instrumental in the Neighborhood Small and Simple Grants program, developing the neighborhood plans for Seattle, and putting Seattle in the forefront of empowering neighborhoods to create local color and local amenities.

9250 14th Ave NW
10 a.m. to Noon for essential neighborhood updates and presentation

Noon – 2:30 PM for “neighbor power” workshop

Here’s the publicity flyer for the event! Take a look because it gives you a little more information and context for what’s going to happen on Saturday. (click on the image to make it large  enough to read).

annual meeting flyer

Government, Parks & Greenspace

Campaign to Save Ballard and Loyal Heights Community Centers

We received an appeal from Mindy Terence of the Loyal Heights Block Watch. The appeal concerns the impending possible closure of one of the two Ballard Community Centers due to the looming Seattle Parks and Recreation budget crisis.  Mindy has created an online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/bcclhcc/petition.html Please read, and if you agree, consider signing the petition. More extensive coverage of the budget crisis and links to other articles is available on the Crown Hill Neighbors website at http://crownhillneighbors.org/wp/2010/04/seattle-parks-recreation-budget-crisis/

Government, Parks & Greenspace

Seattle Parks & Recreation Budget Crisis

Seattle Parks and Recreation Dept is facing a budget crisis. There is a $2.5 million shortfall this year, and this may force a closure of one or both of Ballard’s Neighborhood Community Centers (Loyal Heights Community Center at 2101 NW 77th, or Ballard Community Center at 6020 28th Ave NW).

In part this may be due to the opportunities for new and improved parks afforded by the two Parks Levy funds approved by voters. Establishing new parks adds to the base of parks the department must maintain, but adds no funds to maintain them once built.  The current city budget situation aggravates the situation by cutting the budget to service and maintain all parks city-wide.

The City is holding budget hearings to solicit public input on the whole city budget:

2011 Budget Public Hearings
Wednesday, April 28, 2010  AND  Tuesday May 4, 2010:

Wednesday, April 28 at New Holly Gathering Hall
7504 32 Ave South, Seattle, 98108
5  PM Sign-in
5:30 PM Public Hearing

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 North Seattle Community College Cafeteria
9600 College Way North, Seattle, 98103
5 PM Sign-in
5:30 PM Public Hearing

In Tim Gallagher’s resignation letter as the Director of Parks and Recreation,  he states:

Voter approval of several recent levys shows  the tremendous public support for parks and recreation, unfortunately operation and maintenance resources have not been provided to the department to match the public’s request.  The result is a park and recreation system that is now unsustainable and in jeopardy of collapse.

NPR’s Gary Davis interviewed Tim Gallagher this morning (April 28) and you can hear or read a transcript of  the interview here.

More information on the community centers is available in the MyBallard article, and the King 5 article The Seattle Times article covers Gallagher’s resignation and the budget crisis.

Continue reading Seattle Parks & Recreation Budget Crisis →

Crown Hill Center, Parks & Greenspace

Our New Crown Hill Park Needs a Name….

We received the following press release from Seattle Parks and Recreation about naming 3 new parks in Seattle. One of the parks is our new Crown Hill Park.  They are actively seeking submissions of names from the community now until June 2nd, 2010. Please submit suggestions for park names in writing by June 2, 2010, and include an explanation of how your suggestion matches the naming criteria. Send suggestions to Seattle Parks and Recreation, Park Naming Committee, 100 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, or by e-mail to paula.hoff@seattle.gov.

Guidelines for park names:

  • Park names can be based on geographic locations, historic or cultural significance, and natural or geological features.
  • A park may be named after a person deceased for a minimum of three years who made a significant contribution to parks and/or recreation.

SEATTLE PARKS SEEKS NAMES FOR THREE PARKS

Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the public to submit potential names for parks in the Ballard and West Seattle neighborhoods. Suggestions for names are due to the Park Naming Committee by Wednesday, June 2.

Continue reading Our New Crown Hill Park Needs a Name…. →