Tag Archives: jose rizal park

Uncategorized, Volunteering and Giving

Park and P-Patch volunteers needed Saturday

Beacon Bluff P-Patch. Photo by Melissa Jonas in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
Your volunteer labor is needed to help at a couple of work parties at Dr. Jose Rizal Park and the Beacon Bluff P-Patch on Saturday, June 12.

Craig Thompson writes to tell us that The Filipino-American Association of CPAs will have a work party in Rizal Park on Saturday at 9:00 am. They will be working in the upper area of the park. Neighbors are welcome to pitch in.

Neighbors are also welcome to help at 10:00 am or so on the same day, when volunteers will create a new planting bed at the nearby Beacon Bluff P-Patch. The P-Patch is located at South Massachusetts between 14th and 15th Avenues South.

Neighborhood Pride, Volunteering and Giving

Barricade built in Rizal Park off-leash area

Last Saturday, a Seattle Works volunteer team came to the Dr. Jose Rizal Park off-leash area to build a barricade around the wet patch in the park and make it more dog-friendly. Craig Thompson sent us some photos and a report on the project.

This is the structure that we built on Saturday down at Jose Rizal Park. At its center is the pond, then a ring of concrete blocks, then a band of salmon berries, then the corral of wood. It stands 4-5 feet high, and measures about 25 feet across and 3 feet thick. It incorporates only objects from the site.

When I do work like this, I have Andy Goldsworthy in mind. This is a multigenerational piece. The corral will be taken by the elements. The band will fill in quickly, protecting the pool from those of the canine persuasion while providing berries for birds and neighborhood pies. The ring will stabilize the pool, and should the pool become a sustainable pond, it can be stocked with the lowland Pacific tree frog. The drainage should work to prevent mosquitoes and other blood suckers, though a woman did comment today that it made her wonder if it would be used for sacrifices. People will play with it—repairs should be easy. It will be interactive—might make a nice bonfire, too.

There’s a shortage of mid-level brush to host songbirds in Seattle Parks and woodlands generally, so this installation will likely draw them. Dogs can’t get all muddy there anymore.

Besides building the corral, we also repaired the fence just east of it. Most of the wood came from a pile that was near the view area of the lower meadow, so that area now looks more open, too. We also improved the drainage in the meadow – that is a much bigger task. We had over 40 Seattle Works volunteers, plus five neighbors. I divided them into three teams—one of the pix shows about a third of the group.

All in all, a darn fun project. Check it out if you have a moment—looks medieval!

(All photos courtesy of Craig Thompson.)

Volunteering and Giving

Volunteers needed Saturday for Rizal Park project

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Volunteers are needed on Saturday afternoon to help improve the Dr. Jose Rizal Park off-leash area. Craig Thompson writes with the details:

Saturday, May 22, a Seattle Works team will help construct a barricade around the wet spot downhill from the spigot in the Dr. Jose Rizal Park off-leash area. This is the fourth year in a row that a team has celebrated Seattle Works Day at the park.

We chose this project as we learned from several people that they don’t bring dogs to the OLA because of the wet spot—dogs roll in the mud, have to be washed, etc.

The event Saturday starts at noon and lasts till 4:00 pm, with setup beginning around 11:00 am. We have all tools we need, but we could use more people, as we’ll be moving a brush pile from the bench/view area to the wet spot. We’ll also be planting salmon berries within the barrier, as they’ll provide a natural barrier to the site once the brush decomposes in a few years, plus salmon berries are heavenly. There’s a huge party after the event—details and location are at the Seattle Works website.

Dr. Jose Rizal Park is located at 1008 12th Avenue South.

Photos

A view from Beacon Hill, past and (almost) present

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A view of downtown and what is now the stadium area from North Beacon Hill, 1959. The most visible buildings are King Street Station and the Smith Tower, though other recognizable buildings still exist today. No freeway yet! Photo courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives.
A relatively close match to the 1950 view, taken in October 2008 by Bridget Christian, and found in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. The camera is pointed slightly more to the left than in the old picture. You can still see the King Street Station tower here (partially hidden by another building) and the Smith Tower is still here as well, but blends a bit into the building behind it. Neither building dominates the modern view like it did in the 1959 view.
Local Events, Meetings

Upcoming events: Camp, music, Duwamish, art, etc.

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Saturday, February 20th, 2 to 4pm: Camp Long at Jose Rizal Park

Monday, February 22nd, 7pm: Beacon Hill Music organizational meeting. From Paul Ray:

Jessie at ROCKiT space has again generously offered to host this meeting about organizing a Beacon Hill music series at ROCKiT Space (3315 Beacon Ave S., Seattle), on Monday Feb. 22nd at 7pm.

Things are starting to move along in our efforts to try and organize a series of 4 music events over the summer of 2010, performed at the Festival Street next to the Beacon Hill Link Rail station. This series would feature musicians who live, work or attend school on Beacon Hill or groups that contain members that fit that criteria.

Our permits were approved for 4 events, spread out over 4 Sunday afternoons, June 13th, July 11th, August 8th, August 29th, YEAH!

With the dates approved we are at the stage to start taking the steps to make this happen. The next hurdles are paying for the permits and the event insurance (and determining exactly how much the insurance will cost) and getting electricity to the site. But with the dates approved we are ready to start organizing the production of the events, including musician selection, communications and publicity, community outreach, and making plans for the staging on event days, etc. One of our goals at this meeting is to assign some actual tasks to some actual volunteers.

Anyone interested in this project is encouraged to attend.

Wednesday, February 24th, 10am to 4pm: Hanford Steps clean-up. From Jorji Knickrehm:

It’s been a long time since we worked together on the Hanford Steps! Let’s put a little work in, to make sure it looks good and is safe this spring. The weather is lovely and we’ve scheduled a work party. It’s during the week because the Larson Casteel Landscape company has graciously agreed to help us dig out blackberry, and they need to set the schedule (they owed us a little more time from our last grant). We’d love all of you to join in if you’re home from work and have an extra shovel.

The plants we put in last year are doing well for the most part, but blackberry and morning glory are trying to take over again. We need to dig out these invasive weeds while they’re young and weak. The more we dig them out, the weaker they will return. Weeding will be the main task of the work party.

Clean-up is weather-permitting. Jorji is bringing treats! You bring a shovel and/or pick, gloves, a treat for sharing if you can.

Wednesday, February 24th, 5pm: Airplane noise workshop, from Marco Milanese, Community Relations Manager at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, (206) 787-7734:

Part 150 Noise Study Public Workshop Set for February 24th in Des Moines

The first in a series of public workshops for Sea-Tac Airport’s Part 150 Noise Study is scheduled for February 24th at Mount Rainier High School (22450 19th Ave. S.) in Des Moines. Doors open at 5 PM, with the program beginning at 5:15 PM. The Part 150 Study will look at ways to reduce aircraft noise impacts on communities. Throughout the study, the public is invited to participate in the solution and recommendation process through active engagement in a series of topical workshops.

The February 24th workshop will include a brief presentation followed by facilitator-led, small-group working sessions designed to gather the public’s input on refining the scope for the Part 150 Study. So, please review the meeting agenda and come prepared with ideas.

February 24th, 6:30 to 8pm: Via Steve Louie, the Greater Duwamish council meeting at Georgetown City Hall. Agenda:

6:30 to 6:40pm — Introductions, Judith Edwards, GDDC -Chair
6:40 to 6:50pm — Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
6:50 pm-7:00 pm — Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Parks, Seattle Center, and Waterfront Planning, Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods
7 to 7:30pm — Q&A
7:30 to 7:45pm — Neighborhood Projects Fund, Judith/Steve
7:45 to 8pm — Announcements Park Safety/Rangers, Brock Milliern
Open

Updated 2/23 with revised agenda from Steve Louie.

Saturday, February 27th, 9am to 4pm: Credit Smart and First-Time Home Buyers seminar at El Centro

Saturday, February 27th, 6 to 10pm: Nepo (A humorous approach to the serious art of living)

Volunteering and Giving

EarthCorps opportunities abound this weekend

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Via Craig Thompson on the BAN list:

Saturday, January 16, EarthCorps, Seattle Parks & Recreation, and the Seattle Green Partnership will kickoff the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday / King County United Way Day of Caring volunteer events at Dr. Jose Rizal Park. The event runs from 10 AM to 2 PM, with set up beginning around 9. Around 50 volunteers are expected, who’ll work on planting 300+ native plants and doing maintenance work on previously cleared areas, and continue reclaiming the southwestern slope of the area for restoration. If a few neighbors come, we can move some logs and improve the trail into the area, too.

And on Sunday, January 17, in case you can make it, at Dearborn Park off Othello Orcas, there will be another event, from 10 AM to 2 PM.

A second Beacon Hill event will take place on Monday, January 18, with 300 volunteers (!) coming to the Cheasty Greenspace on the east side of the hill. Sponsors include EarthCorps, the Green Seattle Partnership, Service for Peace, City Year, YMCA Earth Service Corps, University of Washington, and Seattle Parks and Recreation. This is the “signature” event for the MLK Day of Caring volunteer events in Seattle’s south end. Following the event will be a service appreciation reception at Jefferson Community Center, which is a great opportunity to network with volunteer agencies doing on the ground work on Beacon Hill.

The Beacon Hill events are on our event calendar, as well.

Thanks Craig! And thanks for the correction, Deborah!

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Antennas, art, and advice

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A Land Use Application has been filed by Clearwire to mount three panel antennas and a microwave dish antenna on the Seattle City Light transmission tower and install supporting communications equipment at grade within the foot print of the transmission tower at “4999 P BEACON AVE S”.

Comments may be submitted through January 20th.

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The bust of Dr. Jose Rizal on the north tip of Beacon Hill (in the park of the same name) is one of many around the world. The one in Washington, D.C. has gone missing.

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Art galleries on Beacon Hill have been few and far between, but Klara Glosova wants to change that. In November, she opened her house in North Beacon for one night as an experimental gallery space, the home_page.project. The current issue of City Arts has an article about Glosova and the home_page.project, and you can see a slide show here.

Glosova is putting together another open house; you can keep up with the plans at the home_page.project page.

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Free healthcare counseling sessions will be held from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm on the first Thursday of every month at the Beacon Hill Library branch, starting Thursday, February 4. The sessions are open to all, with no registration required. A volunteer counselor, who speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English, will provide one-on-one counseling on topics such as healthcare options, medical billing and Medicare.

The library is located at 2821 Beacon Avenue South, at the corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street. It is one block south of Beacon Hill Station, and right on the #36 bus line. There is free parking in the lot behind the building. For more information, call the branch at 206-684-4711.

Thanks to the Seattle Medium for this notice..

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Lastly, something I’m sorry we didn’t know about in time to see or promote — ’30s jazz and art inspired by classic cars? Sounds like a fun time. Here’s how the event went.

NAMSAYIN tweeted:

What happens when a guy from Beacon Hill combines art and classic cars together? You get this…

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Affordable housing, volunteerism, and our own dive bar

Customers visit the hot dog cart in front of Beacon Pub, summer 2009. Photo by Jason.
Customers visit the hot dog cart in front of Beacon Pub, summer 2009. Photo by Jason.
It may be a dive, but it’s our dive: The Beacon Pub was featured recently in the Seattle Weekly website’s Dive Bar Advent Calendar.

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Homestead Community Land Trust is a local nonprofit group, intended to create affordable housing by taking the cost of land out of the purchase price of a home by using a community land trust. The HCLT Advantage program provides funds for purchase assistance to help families buy homes in Seattle. Interested? Orientation classes for the HCLT Advantage program are held periodically at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South. The next two classes are Saturday, January 9, and Thursday, January 26. Further info is here.

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Jefferson Community Center is again offering the $2 Try It program, in which you can try a class or program once for only $2. Class dates are between January 4 and January 30, and classes include Zumba, Yoga, Pottery, Pilates, Pickleball, Badminton, Hapkido, Ballet, Hip Hop Dance, Cartoon Drawing, Instructional Basketball, Little Dribblers, Creative Dance, and Line Dancing. See the Winter class catalog here.

Thanks to Doreen Deaver for the info!

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Craig Thompson writes on the BAN list that many volunteers have been hard at work on Beacon Avenue and at Jose Rizal Park:

“Washington State Department of Corrections supervised a cleanup of street litter [Saturday] along Beacon Avenue and adjacent streets. Next week, WSDOC will continue cleanups of litter and trash in the East Duwamish Greenbelt, on the west side of Beacon Hill.
 
“At Jose Rizal Park, 20 volunteers, EarthCorps crew members, and community court service workers cut blackberries and moved 300+ potted native plants into the woods; these will be planted on Saturday, January 16, in a large volunteer event (100 people expected) that will kick off the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend of volunteer work in Seattle. On Saturday, January 9, the community court service workers will return for a general cleanup.”

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For those who want to do their civic duty in other ways, there are a couple of upcoming possibilities to help make your neighborhood more livable. The first round of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund is currently open for your nominations of potential park development and acquisition projects. The nomination process begins with the submittal of a proposal letter, due by February 1, 2010. Letters and Opportunity Fund criteria may be found at this link. There will be workshops in early January to help develop proposal letters and explain the process. For more information, visit the Opportunity Fund website.

If pedestrian issues are your interest, you still have a day to apply for the city’s Pedestrian Advisory Board. Three volunteers are wanted for the board, which advises the Mayor and City Council, as well as participating in planning and policy activities relevant to pedestrians. The board meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at City Hall. Board members serve for two years, and must be Seattle residents who are not city employees. Those interested in serving should submit a resume and cover letter by Wednesday December 16 to brian.dougherty@seattle.gov. For more information, email Brian Dougherty, or call him at (206) 684-5124, or e-mail him at the address above.

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The International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) is a non-profit organization that provides housing services and community building to the Chinatown/International District and greater Seattle’s low-income, Asian Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee communities, including many who live in Beacon Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. The IDHA is holding a Holiday Dinner on Wednesday, December 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 p,, and a Holiday Gift Drive until December 18. The dinner, at the Four Seas Restaurant in the International District, will help elderly neighbors celebrate the season with friends and family.  Activities will include live entertainment, a six course Chinese banquet, a raffle, and door prizes. In the gift drive, CID elderly residents, youth and family clients send in gift requests, and Sound Transit and the University of Washington Law School help distribute gift requests and collect presents for participants. Presents will be wrapped and delivered between December 18-23. If you would like to donate to the holiday dinner, or to volunteer to wrap and/or deliver gifts, or you need information, contact Alma Dea Michelena at almadea@apialliance.org, or call 206-623-5132, extension 322.

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An application has been made to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to install T-Mobile antennas on the rooftop of the Amanuel Ethiopian Orthodox Church at 2101 14th Avenue South.

A couple of DPD decisions have been handed down related to Clearwire utilities in our area. At 3114 South Warsaw Street, a decision was made to allow a Clearwire utility (antennas and a microwave dish) to be mounted on a City Light transmission tower. At 3802 South Othello Street, a Determination of Non-Significance with conditions was decided regarding the installation of a Clearwire utility (antennas and an equipment cabinet) on the rooftop of the existing five-story residential building.

The deadline to appeal these decisions is December 28.

Clean and Green

After the Day of Caring at Jose Rizal Park

Photo by Bridget Christian
Photo by Bridget Christian
A recap and note of thanks for the volunteers who participated in the Day of Caring at Jose Rizal Park from Craig Thompson:

Friday, 90 volunteers completed the access project through the woods of Dr. Jose Rizal Park. This opens the forest with a defined pathway to the south of the off-leash area fence, running for approximately 1/4 mile. It gives access to police, fire, and emergency personnel, and to restoration crews. The project — which was endorsed by the community in a large public meeting in 2005 — was made possible by a coalition of state and city agencies and community groups. It’s been six years from planning, four years from first boots on the ground.

Over 8,000 hours of volunteer time made the project happen, plus grants from King County and the City of Seattle. About 60,000 square feet of ivy and non-native blackberry bramble have been cleared from the ground; 1,000 trees now have ivy control measures protecting them, including trees south of the park for several city blocks. Over 1,000 native species have been planted. An apple orchard of some dozen trees has been reclaimed.

On Friday, besides the pathway, 145 native plants were planted in an area just uphill from the gateway to the off-leash area off the access road. Another 750 bulbs – tulips and daffodils – were planted on the slope beneath the parking lot overview; this brings the total to 1,600 bulbs planted as interim cover before native plants are brought in. Also, a dozen native rose bushes were planted in this area. At the entrance to the off-leash area, just inside, we cleared non-native grasses and then spread cardboard over previously bare soil and covered it with woodchips to create erosion control; we can plant native species later. A total of 15 cubic yards of woodchips were used along the pathway, the native planting area, and at the entrance to the OLA.

EarthCorps has been instrumental in providing a large base of support for the work, as has King County United Way.

This makes the third year in a row that large crews from Microsoft stepped up to make a difference. I’d like to thank Lynn Tucker, my wife Ariel, and four other Beacon Hillers who came out to help this year. I’d especially like to thank former Hillers Wayne Rennick, Dean Olson, and Kevin Kelley, too, plus my neighbors Dee, Paul, and Lynn for keeping so much going, and everyone who has spared a morning or afternoon.

Kind regards,
Craig Thompson

Thank you, Craig.

Photos

Public art abounds on Beacon Hill

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Our first annual “Top of the Hill” survey is still open for a while yet, and we’re not releasing results until it closes, but there has been one fairly frequent answer that I’ve noticed. One of the questions is “What is your favorite public art on Beacon Hill?” and while most people do have a favorite, there has been a surprisingly large number of people who say they don’t know of any public art up here. While we may not have as much obvious public art as some neighborhoods, we do have a fair amount. (The number probably doubled with this year’s addition of the Link station and its multiple artworks.) Here’s a collection of images of some of the art we all enjoy on Beacon Hill.

Many of these photos are from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. Have any photos you’d like to share? You are welcome to contribute them to the pool.

The mural on the side of Kusina Filipina. Photo by l0st2.
The mural on the side of Kusina Filipina. Photo by l0st2.
Mosaic in Dr. Jose Rizal Park. Photo by Seattle Daily Photo.
Mosaic in Dr. Jose Rizal Park. Photo by Seattle Daily Photo.
In front of the light rail station. Photo by l0st2.
In front of the light rail station. Photo by l0st2.
One of the creatures inside the Beacon Hill Link station. Photo by Wendi.
One of the "creatures" inside the Beacon Hill Link station. Photo by Wendi.
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