Create an equitable transportation system for all by providing more affordable travel choices
Focus on the places where people want to be and add qualities that make them want to stay
Prioritize right-of-way space to emphasize walking, biking and riding
The initiative emphasizes the transportation choices we make each day and encourages us to walk, bike, take public transit more often to: 1) save money; 2) improve our health; 3) improve the health of our communities.
The city wants your input and has scheduled a series of meetings:
City Fruit works neighborhood by neighborhood to help residential tree owners grow healthy fruit, harvest and use what they can, and share what they don’t use with others.  www.cityfruit.org
Donate fruit . . . If you have more healthy fruit than you need and would like to donate some of your harvest, contact Jen Mullen, Harvest Coordinator, at crownhill@cityfruit.org or (206) 352-9580.
Help harvest fruit . . . If you would like to help pick fruit and deliver it to food banks and community centers, contact City Fruit at crownhill@cityfruit.org.
Need fruit . . . If you or your organization need fruit and can’t afford to buy it at the market, contact City Fruit.
Support us .. . Join us in building community and strengthening our local food system by becoming a member of City Fruit. See www.cityfruit.org/membership/htm.
This project is funded in part by a Neighborhood Matching Fund award from the City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods.
We’ve just received this from Lynn Wirta about the Crown Hill Center Playground version 2.0. You can view the plans presented at the April 28th meeting here. This is a great opportunity to meet neighbors and community members interested in helping out with this community resource.
The Committee is looking for large landscape rocks-2 yard size to expand the existing rockery on the playground. If you have any or know of someone who is getting rid of large rocks, please let Johnny know at johnny@smallfaces.org. We are also looking for large driftwood to create a beach environment in the sand area.
Tentative date for the playscape install is the weekend of July 10 and 11. We’ll need at least 25 volunteers that weekend so please mark your calendar for helping out. The $17,000 grant we received from the City is a matching system. All volunteer hours will contribute to making the $17K match. Lunch and childcare will be provided.
The new space is getting closer and closer to reality! We are delighted to have Tom Grover, President of Kompan Play Equipment living in our neighborhood. He plans to attend our next meeting on June 10th to lend his expertize along with his local consultant and child development specialist.
On the crisp, clear afternoon of December 7, 1924, ships passing through Puget Sound on their way to Elliott Bay were treated to a surprise: On a ridge high above the Sound, just north of Seattle, a new 600-square-foot American flag had been hoisted. The impressive symbol, meant to be the “first sight of Seattle†for ships bound for Elliott Bay, marked the official opening of the new Olympic Golf and County Club.
Golfers at Olympic Golf Course circa 1925 (click to enlarge) -- PEMCO Webster & Stevens Collection, MOHAI
Golf Club Manager Douglas McLeod McMillin and Club President William M. Bolcom had the honor of hoisting the flag for the first time to the top of its 118-foot pole next to the new club house located at about 20th Ave. NW and NW 89th Street. The flag’s inauguration took place in front of about a hundred spectators, many of whom were visiting the new golf course for the first time.
Work on the new course began in May of 1924 on the picturesque site. Architect Francis James actively oversaw the work, and while Bolcom was publicly dedicated to opening the course to golfers in late fall, James was less convinced that the deadline could be met. But in late October of 1924, the new course was unofficially opened to the public – ahead of schedule.
The 18-hole course, at the time just north of the Seattle city limits, was an L-shaped property that stretched east to west from 15th Ave. NW to 24th Ave. NW. Its longest north-to-south line was on its west side, where it stretched from NW 95th Street to NW 85th Street.
Olympic Golf Course circa 1936 (click to enlarge)
Bing’s Favorite Swing
The course was designed to challenge seasoned golfers, and it attracted many legends and pioneers of the sport: Tommy Armour, aka “The Silver Scot,†winner of the 1927 U.S. Open and the 1931 British Open; Macdonald “Mac†Smith, whose full-swing technique Bing Crosby admired; Johnny Farrell, winner of the 1928 U.S. Open; and Horton Smith, who in 1934 was the first winner of the new Augusta National Invitation Tournament, later named The Masters Tournament.
Perhaps the club’s most notable visitor was the charismatic and impeccably dressed Walter “The Haig†Hagen, five-time PGA Championship winner who, in 1922, was the first native-born American to win the British open. But more important to some local fans, in 1929 Hagen broke the Olympic Golf Club mark by scoring a 68 while paired with Horton Smith in an exhibition match against the club professional and an ace amateur.
In the last round of project submissions for the Bridging the Gap Levy funds, the Ballard District Council recommended three Crown Hill Projects for funding. The three projects are: 1) Walkway along 13th Ave NW from NW 90th to Holman Road, plus walkway along 90th from 13th Ave NW to 14th Ave NW; 2) Walkway along 13th Ave NW from NW 95th to NW 100th; and 3) Walkway on 18th Ave NW from NW 85th to NW 89th. It is estimated there will be approximately $340,000 to spend within the entire Crown Hill/Ballard area.
On Wednesday, May 19th, 2010, the Seattle Department of Transportation released their preliminary cost estimates for the three projects. The first two projects (originally submitted in 2007) come in at $994,000 and $480,000 respectively, and the third project (submitted in 2009) comes in at $480,000. You can see all the projects costed out by SDOT on their website.
Clearly any of the three projects, as estimated by SDOT, exceed the Ballard District’s fair share of the pot city-wide. The estimates are for traditional sidewalks, rather than less expensive walkways or paved paths, and there is the possibility that some of the cost of the walkway on 18th could be offset by funds available for Combined Sewer Overflow abatement (that project location is in the North Beach CSO area).
What’s next? The Ballard District Council will reconvene its committee to look at the projects, and possibly change the scope so that one or more can be built within the allotted funds. Then a final recommendation will go forward in June. The recommendation will go forward to the city-wide Bridging the Gap oversight committee to assess which projects will be built over the entire city. The oversight committee’s recommendations will then be forwarded on for approval by the Mayor and City Council.
