David Gackenbach forwards this appeal from Glenn Herlihy:
Dear Friends of the Playground,
This is a crucial moment for funding the Beacon Mountain Playground.
As you might have heard the levy money is now (this week) being allocated to different parks projects and Jefferson Park will receive a portion but where it will go is still up in the air. There is a good chance we might be able to fund the entire new Playground design if we can convince Parks Department Head Timothy Gallagher, and Parks Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen to allocate the levy funds to build Beacon Mountain Playground.
If we get them to fund and build the entire new design we will have a magnificent playground completed by next year. If they don’t allocate the funds toward the the new design it would be phased construction for the next few years.
It been a long road to get our design approved by parks and ready to build so with one last push maybe we could see this dream through to completion. Those of us on the Beacon Mountain Playground Team believe play infrastructure is a healthy and sustainable investment for the future of our community.
Please take a moment and write a letter stating you wish to see levy funding to build the entire Beacon Mountain Playground at Jefferson Park. Include your name and address. Thanks
timothy.gallagher@seattle.gov
tom.rasmussen@seattle.govLong live play
Glenn Herlihy
18th Ave S
You can read more about the Beacon Mountain Playground here.
Unless funding will be in place to provide security patrols for the park this could possibly be a huge waste of taxpayer money. There is already too much gang graffiti and drug dealing not only in this area but also further north at the Beacon Pub and the park and mini-mart/gas-station at Beacon Ave. & S. Stevens St. A good chance that gangbangers will trash this park right after it opens.
Gil,
You are correct that we have some graffiti problems in this neighborhood and I’m sure that there will be some problems in the new park once it opens also. HOWEVER I think the best way to protect our neighborhood and our public areas is to have lots of citizen involvement and a playground is just the type of area that will attract lots of families who will in turn keep an eye on our neighborhood. The new park is going to be the jewel of Beacon Hill and I for one am very happy to see the city spending energy on this. This money will be spent one way or another and I would much rather see it improving our neighborhood rather than going to improve areas of the city that already have well developed playgrounds. This is our chance and it would be a shame to blow it because of a fear of ‘gangbangers’.
I just wrote my letter. I added a line about this park helping to stabilize home values in the area. Before the economic downturn that wouldn’t have been an issue but now it is a HUGE issue.
Gil, I believe there is currently security patrols around the driving range but I don’t know if that’s a temporary patrol because of the construction or not. The community center addition and basketball courts were not trashed, so I would hope that the playground won’t be either.
Also, if we used your logic only the uber-rich neighborhoods would have nice playgrounds and public facilities.
BTW, I saw some kids scratching graffiti on the bus one night and I got up and ratted them out to the driver. They stayed really calm and denied it all and I felt like a complete spaz, but I’m so sick of people trashing the things our taxes pay for.
If you see somebody trashing YOUR facilities or YOUR city please do something about.
Actually there was some huge bright pink grafitti on top of the community center (south side) for weeks last year. We all just have to keep our eyes open and report it. Luckily any public facility gets taken care of pretty quick once its reported.