Category Archives: Recreation

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.
Health and Safety, Recreation

Fitness activities for all ages at Van Asselt CC

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Van Asselt Community Center wants you to know about some of their upcoming programs this spring through the Healthy Parks, Healthy You Initiative. The programs will focus on physical activity and wellness, with opportunities to get a healthy 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily.

Toddler programs include a Mom and Me Creative Dance class, Busy Bees Creative Dance, and Toddler Gym Play Time. Youth will be served by the Hip Hop 101 class for kids 8-14. Adult programs include an aerobics class, and a new fitness room available for drop-in use every weekday until 8:45.

Other classes are available too. For more information, see the Spring catalog. You can register online if you like, using the SPARC system.

Van Asselt Community Center is located at 2820 S. Myrtle St.

BH in the News, Clean and Green, Recreation

City Council approves grants for Beacon Hill parks

Earlier this week the City Council approved Opportunity Fund grants for two Beacon Hill parks, Lewis Park and the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park (El Centro de la Raza Play Area). The grants were awarded for the amounts recommended earlier by the Levy Citizens Oversight Committee: Lewis Park was awarded $260,000 for reforestation, and Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park was awarded $350,000 for improvements to revitalize the park and increase public awareness and access to the park space.

Previous BHB posts about this round of Opportunity Fund applications are here.

Recreation

Jefferson Park expansion finally opens

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It’s official—we just received this press release from the city:

The new 43-acre Jefferson Park Expansion Project over the Beacon Reservoir complex is open to the public with all construction fencing being removed by the end of Friday, October 29, 2010. Parks opened the new play area and tennis courts to the public in August 2010.

The Pro Parks Levy funded park offers unparalleled view of the Duwamish and city with Olmsted inspired path system flanked with trees that offer a wonderful respite from city life. The extensive hierarchy of pathways through the site offer connections to the neighborhood and surrounding amenities.

Additionally, the park offers a grand lawn flanked by a gathering plaza, large open spaces with skillfully placed groves of trees, rainwater feature designed by The Berger Partnership Landscape Architects in collaboration with artist Elizabeth Conner, a large traditional play area, new tennis court with lights, terraced seating areas with vistas over the park, a comfort station designed by Parks Senior Architect Mohan Khandekar and a natural turf sports meadow over the lid.

Fencing will remain around the sports meadow on the Beacon Reservoir lid to allow the turf to fully develop. Fencing will be removed in summer 2011.

The future Beacon Mountain play area, funded in part by the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, will also remain fenced off. Construction on this Phase Two project begins in spring 2011. (emphasis ours—BHB)

Seattle Parks and Recreation worked with the Beacon Hill community, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), and other stakeholders to identify the best park features and priorities for Jefferson Park. A Master Plan for the site was developed in 2002 as a guide. Parks awarded the construction contract to Mid-Mountain Construction, and gave them notice to proceed in June 2009.

For more information please visit: http://seattle.gov/parks/ProParks/projects/JeffersonPark.htm or contact Andy Sheffer, Project Manager at (206) 684-7041 or andy.sheffer@seattle.gov.

We got some emails and tweets yesterday indicating that the fences were coming down, so it’s good to hear the official word that yes, the park is open. Please comment and tell us what you think about the new park.

Recreation

Jefferson Park opening delayed by a month

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It will all be worthwhile when the fences come down. Photo of Jefferson Park last year by Joel Lee in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
Andy Sheffer from Seattle Parks and Recreation sent out a letter yesterday with some disappointing news:

Dear Jefferson Park Community,

We are all excited about the opening of Jefferson Park and the construction crews are on the home stretch. We were hopeful that we would be able to open the park early because the general contractor was ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, we need to change the proposed park opening date from Saturday, September 18, 2010 to October 23, 2010 (or thereabouts) for the following reasons:

  • Despite commitments, the landscape installation is not progressing at the rate needed for completion by September.
  • If we hurry the contractor to complete the final work I know that a lot of important “finessing” will be omitted. Our commitment is to ensuring that the final product is as optimal as possible.
  • Several areas on site contain unsuitable soils for paving. These areas have to be over-excavated and filled with suitable material. We waited until now in the hope that the areas would dry out but that has proven not to be the case.

I was made optimistic by the progress of general contractor at the onset of the project. Unfortunately, the detailed finish work has been painstakingly slow. The contractor was given a specific number of days to finish the project and it’s their prerogative to utilize as many contract days as necessary to finish.

While I understand that this is disappointing news, I hope that you will understand a delay of one month will pay great dividends in terms of delivering a park project that is as nearly perfect as we are able to achieve. And, the news is not all bad. We anticipate that the play area will open by the end of August. (Emphasis ours — BHB.) I look forward to celebrating the grand opening of this wonderful park with you in October.

Please feel free to contact me anytime to further discuss the project.

Respectfully,

Andy Sheffer

If you have questions, you can reach Andy Sheffer at andy.sheffer@seattle.gov.

Recreation, Urban Planning

Jefferson Park skatepark schematic to be presented at 7/14 meeting

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One of the skatepark designs proposed at the May community meeting.
The final design meeting for the Jefferson Park Skatepark is next Wednesday, July 14, at the Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South. Beacon Mountain Play Area and Jefferson Park Playfield will be discussed from 6:00 to 6:40 pm, then from 6:45 to 8:00 the final schematic design for the skatepark will be presented. Here is a flyer with more information. Meeting notes and concepts from the April and May community meetings may be downloaded here. The project is currently planned to be advertised for bid in early 2011 and completed in late summer of the same year.

Recreation, Urban Planning

Walker Street Park prospects promising


View Parks Opportunity Fund application sites in a larger map
Click on each marker to identify the site
Two projects in North Beacon Hill, the Walker Street Park and Orchard and the North Beacon Hill Central Park, have scored in the top ten citywide among applications submitted for 2010 Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund grants, with the Walker Street Park achieving the status of “Staff recommended.” Eight North Beacon Hill projects were submitted in April to be considered for the grants. They were among 95 applications submitted city-wide, competing for $7 million in this funding cycle.

This week, Parks and Recreation released the results of the initial staff evaluations of the projects. You can read the criteria they used for scoring the projects here.

The Walker Street proposal is one of only 12 applications chosen as “staff recommended,” with the comment “Staff preference for funding in this neighborhood.” This does not guarantee that the proposal will be funded, but it is a good sign. All the other North Beacon projects, including the North Beacon Hill Central Park, are listed as “Lowest staff-ranked projects.” The Central Park is the highest-scoring project to be ranked as “lowest staff-ranked,” but the comments about it indicate some reasons for this: “Possible conflicts with Neighborhood Plan and City Council desire for increased density here.” Additionally, this would be a high-cost project, as would the Walker Street Park, and both are located in the same sector.

On Monday, June 28, the applicants have the opportunity to present their projects at the Levy Oversight Committee meeting. In September, there will be a public hearing on project prioritization and funding recommendations, and in January 2011, project funding recommendations will be given to the Mayor and City Council. The Council is expected to approve the recommendations in March, and the projects can begin implementation shortly afterward.

Thanks to Andrew Abian for the tip!

Recreation

Try your hand at lawn bowling this Saturday

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Lawn bowling or “bowls” is a game originating in the 13th century, distantly related to bocce, providing competition and a test of skill for everyone from teens to seniors.

This Saturday, the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club and numerous other clubs across the country are having open houses and inviting people to come learn more about the game. An introductory lesson is free — bring friends! (And to keep the playing surface in good repair, please remember to wear flat-soled shoes.)

Stop in and give it a shot this Saturday, May 8, from noon to 4:00 pm at the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club, 4103 Beacon Ave S, just west of the driving range.

Thanks to Nita Chambers from the club for the photos and notice.

Recreation

Van Asselt Community Center closed today, perhaps tomorrow

Joelle Hammerstad with Seattle Parks and Recreation wrote in to share that Van Asselt Community Center is closed this afternoon:

They had a sewage back up from one of the toilets, which caused a pretty big mess. Our plumbers are there and working to resolve the problem. We expect to get cleaning folks in later today, and open the facility for normal operating hours tomorrow. All classes and programs have been cancelled today.

We advise folks to call tomorrow before going to the center just to be on the safe side. The number is: 206-386-1921.

Thanks, Joelle!

Recreation

Skatepark ideas needed

Karen O’Connor at Seattle Parks and Recreation writes:

Thank you to all who attended the Jefferson Park Skatepark and Community Update meeting!  Your participation in designing this skatepark is essential and we look forward to receiving further input.

How do you like to skate?  What do you want to see in this park?

Grindline needs your input by the end of the month.  They will use this input to create refined conceptual designs that will be presented at the next meeting on May 26, 2010.

To comment on the different park designs please visit:
http://forums.grindline.com Password: jefferson2010
Comments will be taken until April 28, 2010.

For a summary of the meeting please visit:
http://seattle.gov/parks/projects/jefferson/skatepark.htm.

Please let your friends know about the Grindline site and this opportunity to help design an exciting new skatepark at Jefferson Park.Â