Category Archives: Neighborhood Pride

Neighborhood Pride, Recreation

Many options for family fun on the Hill

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Beacon Hill is a great place for people of all ages and features many opportunities for entire families to have a great time. Here are a few ideas to get you started—please share your favorite places/activities in the comments!

ROCKiT Space is thriving after the relaunch in January. Headquarters are now in the Garden House at 2336 15th Ave. S. (directly behind Baja Bistro; parking in the alley, on street or just walk there) and events are happening there and all over Beacon Hill.

High Chair Happy Hour happens every third Tuesday (the next ones are on April 19 and May 16) from 3:30-6:30 p.m. BYOB (baby/bigger kid). It’s good, cheap fun on Beacon Hill: $5, or free for ROCKiT members. No alcohol sold, but you’re welcome to bring your own (as well as other food/drink) to share.  Must be accompanied by a minor to attend.

Tots Jam, a ROCKiT Space favorite, is held at El Centro every Wednesday at 9 a.m. Bring your toddler and $5 (free for members) and rock with Suzanne.

The Beacon Hill library has story times for toddlers, preschoolers, and the whole family. Toddler story time, Spanish story time, and Bilingual Kaleidoscope are only a few of the choices.

Thanks to our neighbors’ successful efforts to improve the parks on Beacon Hill, we have three (3!) awesome new playgrounds on Beacon Hill.

The play area at Jefferson Park has been open for several months. Don’t let the fences surrounding the future Beacon Mountain deter you—head over and check out the many ways your kids (and you) can climb, swing, hang and rock. Several refreshment options are available in the south end of our business district, including the Jefferson Park Field House, Victrola 3 and El Quetzal (now serving beer; just sayin’).

Jefferson Park also boasts a fantastic indoor playground on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Inflatables, riding toys, push toys, balls, and tons of other ways for toddlers to tire themselves are available for only $2!

Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park at El Centro de La Raza is now open to the public (closed during posted hours to protect the safety of the children enrolled in programs on site) and features new playground equipment for a variety of ages. Amenities such as benches for parents and a permanent chess board are in the works. I highly recommend a visit to The Station (directly across the street) before or after your park visit.

Beacon Hill Playground has new play structures, too! Swings, slides, a secure tunnel, and other fun await at our northernmost playground.

I’m sure I”m missing something—please share your ideas/events in the comments!

A few of the ways to keep busy in the playground at Jefferson Park. Photo by Joel Lee.
Local Events, Neighborhood Pride

Show your stuff at Beacon Rocks! auditions

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Octothorpe performed at last summer's Beacon Rocks!. Photo by Melissa Jonas in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
Do you rock? You can prove it at this year’s Beacon Rocks! auditions for musicians and performers. The live auditions for individuals or groups will be at Kusina Filipina, 3201 Beacon Avenue South, on the following Saturdays: March 19, April 2, and April 16, from 8-11 p.m. Alternatively, you can audition virtually by submitting samples of your work to beaconrocks@gmail.com.

Beacon Rocks! is a free all-volunteer outdoor music series held at the Beacon Hill Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station. All styles of music and performance are welcome at these family-friendly, “Beacon Hill-centric” community events—you may rock, but you don’t have to play rock! There will be three shows this summer, on the last Sunday of June, July, and August.

The series is presented by Beacon Hill Music, “a community group formed to promote music, musicians and fans of music in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”

Neighborhood Pride, Opinion

Opinion: Viva Community!

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Neighbors enjoyed a Beacon Rocks performance on Festival Street last summer. The El Centro building and the proposed parking lot site are in the background. Photo by Wendi.
Beacon Hill is (and historically always has been) a community of mixed incomes, cultures, ages and lifestyles. I am sometimes teased by friends from other ’hoods for what seems like excessive neighborhood pride, but there’s a lot to be proud of! Our Neighborhood Council is an active and effective voice for the community, and meetings are almost always respectful and productive. Even comments on our neighborhood blog manage to stay civil most of the time.

I hope we can maintain the positive and productive tone as the process moves forward to plan the next stages of development activity at El Centro de la Raza. El Centro staff, volunteers, patrons and tenants are part of our Beacon Hill community. I don’t understand the “us versus them” tone that creeps into conversations and comment threads about El Centro—especially when we’re all in the same room. We share the same goals and priorities: making Beacon Hill safe, vibrant and successful for everyone who lives, works, plays, studies and shops here.

El Centro de la Raza is working towards a goal to develop affordable housing, commercial space, and a public plaza. They are trying to build the “beloved community.” The need is real and the goals are attainable. While the process of changing zoning around the light rail station moves forward, El Centro is trying to activate their now-vacant south lot. They want to encourage vendors and food trucks, and to improve security and pedestrian access.  They also need revenue and are proposing a gravel parking lot with 80 spaces for commuters and sports fans.

In 1972, the “Four Amigos” inspired countless volunteers to pressure elected officials for access to a space that would become a community meeting place. The original Beacon Hill Elementary building was vacant and seemed an ideal location. Their passion and dedication still inspire 38 years later.

El Centro de la Raza is the Center for all Peoples. The name is Spanish; the roots and mission multicultural. Roberto Maestas is the man best known for the occupation that led to El Centro’s foundation, but a photo of those involved in the occupation would make a classic Benetton t-shirt.

Today, the people who seek services (and those who provide them) are astonishingly diverse. Blonde acupuncture clients share the halls with East African mothers picking up children who learned Spanish with their Filipino classmates. Ukrainian seniors wait in line at the food bank staffed by Latino volunteers coordinated by an Asian AmeriCorps leader.

El Centro’s clients and staff are more than culturally diverse. They also represent the economic diversity of Beacon Hill. The food bank and meal programs help our hungry neighbors.  All services are supported by donors and volunteers who have extra time, money, or other resources to share. Several small businesses and independent nonprofit organizations thrive as tenants in the building.. Public art and cultural events are offered throughout the year. El Centro is also the new home for Tots Jam, the toddler music class that started at ROCKiT space.

In addition to the work that goes on inside the building, El Centro advocates for and represents those in our community who might not otherwise participate in the political process. Through translation services, advocacy training, public meetings hosted at accessible times, and other means, El Centro staff and volunteers engage and inspire the community.

I’m not thrilled about parking lots on Beacon Hill. I don’t like any part of the idea. However, I’m willing to support El Centro’s efforts to build a temporary lot while the slow zoning process moves forward. A safe, accessible area with vibrant small businesses is a better short term use of this area than an empty lot. Some small income to help support programs is better than nothing.

El Centro is a vital part of the incredible community I’m proud to call home. They need our help so they can help us.

Oh, by the way… a group of diverse community activists are working to secure public meeting space on Beacon Hill. The North Beacon Hill Council is working with the Beacon Hill Merchants’ Association and other groups to request free access to office space in the library. We need a place to share community information and provide storage and meeting space. Please contact the Mayor’s Office and City Council members to support our efforts. We’re not asking people to occupy the space—an email or tweet should suffice.

Viva Beacon Hill!

(Do you have an opinion? We welcome opinion articles on topics related to Beacon Hill. Please email us your ideas.)

Neighborhood Pride

Contest: The sights of Route 36 — Prize added!

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(This is a repost, edited to mention the new prize: a $50 gift card!)

Remember the NAMSAYIN limited edition t-shirts featuring the #36 bus? (The design is pictured on the right.) Only 56 of the shirts were printed, but we have t-shirts to give away—if you can demonstrate your Beacon Hill knowledge!

Here’s how the contest works. Below in this post, you’ll see 16 detail pictures of Beacon Hill locations that are on the #36 route. You need to identify all 16 as precisely as possible, then email your list of 16 guesses to us at blog@beaconhill.seattle.wa.us.

The first person to get all 16 right wins one of the NAMSAYIN t-shirts and a $50 gift card from The Station coffee house! The second person wins one of the NAMSAYIN shirts too! Unfortunately, sizes are limited — winners will probably get an XL. In the event of a tie, the person whose answers are most precisely located will win. If there’s still a tie, we’ll flip a coin.

Hints:

  • All locations are on Beacon Hill and within view of the #36 bus route. Some of the images may match something that is in another neighborhood. You need to find the location that is on the Hill. We’re defining the Hill’s east boundary as Martin Luther King Jr. Way South for the purpose of this contest. The north boundary is the south end of the Jose Rizal Bridge.
  • You could probably see most of them from the bus itself if you look hard enough.
  • Remember, be as precise as you can possibly be—it’s a tiebreaker. If two people are tied, and one guesses that an item is “at the Red Apple” and another guesses that it is “on the east side of Red Apple, above the doorway”, the latter guesser will win. (I can tell you that none of the photos are of the Red Apple.)

Questions? Let us know. Good luck! Now, on to the pictures:

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History of the Hill, Neighborhood Pride

Jefferson Park, the missing jewel

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by Joel Lee

Workers busy last week putting some of the new features in the park. Photo by kashgroves in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
On April 30, 1903, Seattle leaders hired the prominent Olmsted Brothers, one of the first and most important landscape architecture firms in the country, to design a park and boulevard system for Seattle. On October 19, 1903, Charles Olmsted wrote of the Seattle park system that the “primary aim should be to secure and preserve for the use of the people as much as possible of these advantages of water and mountain views and of woodlands, well distributed and conveniently located.” Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Park was one of a handful of parks that the Olmsteds considered vital to the success of their plan and the health of the city, and joined a short list of important parks including Seward Park, Green Lake, the Arboretum, and Volunteer Park as key links in an “emerald necklace” of parks and boulevards connecting the city.

A new viewpoint shows the autumn foliage from Jefferson Park. Photo by Joel Lee.
Unfortunately Jefferson Park’s history has been more convoluted than these other parks, and the Park has gone through many changes over the years since the land was first purchased by the city in 1898. Named after President Thomas Jefferson, the area was used for everything from a “pesthouse” isolating smallpox patients, to military use, housing anti-aircraft guns and a G.I. recreation center when the land was requisitioned during World War II.

A large northwest section of the park was turned over to the water department where, until recently, it housed the two above-ground water reservoirs built a hundred years ago. This had the unfortunate side effect of taking what had been a key open green space and community gathering spot on Beacon Hill and converting it to a fenced-off barbed wire government compound which served as a physical barrier dividing the neighborhood.

Soon, however, the fences are coming down and once again Beacon Hill will be united. At 52.4 acres, Jefferson Park and its accompanying golf course are one of Seattle’s largest parks. Although some of the key components to the park such as the skate park and the Beacon Mountain Playground are not yet complete, it is already easily one of the nicest parks in the city. With its well-planned walkways and playfields taking advantage of the stunning views of downtown and Elliott Bay, it is easy to imagine how this area is going to become Beacon Hill’s new outdoor living room and one of the best green spaces in the Seattle park system. Perhaps more importantly, it will finally complete the plan that the Olmsted Brothers put into place over 100 years ago to unite Seattle with an “emerald necklace” of parks and boulevards, and bring Beacon Hill together with the rest of the city.

Joel Lee maintains the Beacon Hill Public Art website.

Got something to say? We welcome articles on topics related to Beacon Hill. Please email us your ideas.

A celebration in the Army Recreation Center, Jefferson Park, 1943. Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives via Joel Lee.
Neighborhood Pride

How “southend” are you?

Currently on Twitter there’s a hashtag meme going around: #imsosouthend. Some of the tweets people are posting with that hashtag might bring back some memories:

keepheaven79: Real Charlie Brown Christmas trees from Chubby&Tubby EVERY year. #imsosouthend

NAMSAYIN: #imsosouthend I rode my lowrider bike on beacon ave

Gfunkology: #imsosouthend that i remember when beacon hill wasnt really considered the southend unless you lived in the hollys

yeloson: #imsosouthend Family dinners- either South China or La Cabana.

yeloson: #imsosouthend digging out golfballs from the edges of the driving range to sell back for candy money.

yeloson: #imsosouthend “Hold up, plane overhead” punctuating your phone calls.

antron5000: #imsosouthend I know this number by heart 2067257000 hahahaha!

BBOYWORTHING: #imsosouthend all the homies took school buses to the northend in middle school and elementary school

BBOYWORTHING: #imsosouthend when it snowed we used to sled down McClellan hill and that was live and dangerous

TheRealBJOng: #imsosouthend we used to have our bday parties at Imperial Lanes- and still do.

Neighborhood Pride

Beacon Hill t-shirts feature a familiar sight

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We noticed the very cool graphic pictured on right while reading Twitter the other day, tweeted by NAMSAYIN, who posted that the design is by Waffle Designs, and it’s for anyone who “grew up, lived on or even spent time on Beacon Hill.”

Want one? NAMSAYIN tells us “Tune in namsayin.com or twitter for an undisclosed location, date and time” if you want to pick up a shirt. Demand is apparently already high.

Local Events, Neighborhood Pride

Block party tonight on South Hanford

Summer’s not quite over yet—it’s still August and it’s still block party season, despite this year’s weird weather! New neighbor Steve Pratt sent us this announcement for a block party happening tonight:

My wife and I just moved to this part of Beacon Hill. We are both teachers at Cleveland High School and love the opportunity to live and teach in the same neighborhood. To get to know our neighbors as well as to celebrate summer, we wanted to get the word out about a block party happening on Tuesday, August 31st from 6 – 8 PM. It will happen on Hanford St between 13th and 14th. Anyone in the nearby vicinity is invited. I’ve knocked on quite a few doors to invite folks, but some people weren’t home and others probably thought I was trying to sell them a vacuum cleaner. Anyway, bring a side or drink, and we’ll see everybody then.
Questions or RSVP: Steve Pratt, 206.293.0345

Neighborhood Pride, Volunteering and Giving

Are we going to let Rainier Valley beat us?

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It’s midway through KEXP’s summer membership drive and Fifth Annual Hood-to-Hood Challenge, in which Seattle neighborhoods are pitted against each other to see which neighborhood can win bragging rights by contributing the most support to the non-profit, independent radio station.

Currently, Capitol Hill/First Hill/Madison Park are in first place with $19,305 in pledges, while Beacon Hill/Georgetown/South Park/Sodo are in a weak 14th place with only $1,815. Rainier Valley/Mount Baker/Columbia City/Rainier Beach/Skyway have nearly twice the pledges, with $3,420 — but they had to combine five neighborhoods to do it. (We have four, but one of them is a neighborhood no one lives in!)

If you’re a KEXP listener and want to show some neighborhood pride while supporting independent radio, go here.

Thanks to Matthew McDonald for reminding us to mention this!

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.)