Public safety on Beacon Hill is the focus of next week’s North Beacon Hill Council meeting, Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m.
Here is the planned agenda as forwarded by Judith Edwards:
7:00 Hellos and Agenda
7:05 Public Safety on Beacon Hill
(10 minutes each)
Sgt. Ann Martin, South Precinct, Seattle Police Department
Lt. Fowler, new South Precinct Lieutenant
Craig Thompson, Community Leaders for Public Safety Committee Member
7:35 Q and A
8:00 Other Community Reports and Announcements
Food Forest at Jefferson Park
Community Planting on Beacon and Forest, March 20
Advisory vote from Council on supporting parking at El Centro for 80 vehicles, and acting on discussion at our last meeting there will be no fencing around the parking lot.
Announcements and upcoming events
8:15 Executive Board Meeting – Vote on parking at El Centro, approval of meeting minutes from previous months.
Photo courtesy of Jefferson Park Food Forest Steering Committee.On Wednesday, December 8, the Jefferson Park Food Forest Steering Committee is hosting a free slide show about home and community permaculture. The event invitation says, “This show will highlight many ways to make our urban homesteads more efficient and provide methods for our community to be more resilient in tough eco times.” Permaculturist Dave Boehnlein will present the slide show, which will showcase home food production, energy efficiency, food forestry and community activation.
The event is Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm, in the Beacon Hill Library meeting room, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. Food and drinks will be provided. All are welcome.
The Jefferson Park Food Forest project group is having a planning meeting this Thursday, October 14, at 6:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. Everyone is welcome.
Here is an announcement and status report sent to us by project organizer Glenn Herlihy:
The good news:
Recently we were awarded a grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to hire a designer and begin the design process. In the near future everyone will be invited to participate in several design workshops. These will offer great opportunity for community members to learn about urban agriculture and permaculture methods in particular. We plan on designing a garden lush with fruit and nut trees, abundant with native edible perennials and patches of vegetables, gathering places and play areas all intertwined with walking and biking paths. A garden that will add to the beauty of Jefferson Park and honor the intelligence of our community.
We believe community gardening provides not only an inexpensive access to organic produce but great exercise for the whole family. Its a full mind and body workout with fruits to eat in the end. Not only that it builds community and creates a foundation for food security among all living things. We are working very hard to see that our neighbors and others have access to healthy nutritious food. This is not easy but our elected officials are catching on and have made great efforts to support projects like The Jefferson Park Food Forest. We thank and congratulate them, and will work to encourage their continued support of urban agriculture.
The Bartell Drug Store at Rainier Avenue South and South College Street has applied for a new “Grocery Store – Beer/Wine” liquor license. If you wish to comment on the application, you can email your comments about license number 406481 to customerservice@liq.wa.gov.
Maple Elementary School is working on a mural project. Students, parents, and community members of all races will work together to create a mural for the school gym exterior that reflects the significance of The Maple Creed: “I know that our country was built by people of all races and I know that people of all races keep our country great.”
Community tile creation and tile glazing sessions will be held on the following Mondays from 3:30 – 8:30 pm: May 3, 10, 17, 24; June 7, 14. There will also be sessions on the following Saturdays from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm: May 1, 22.
RSVPs are requested. To find out more about the project and RSVP, contact Terry Virdell at 206-898-5679, or email terryvirdell@gmail.com.
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L to R: Representatives Bob Hasegawa and Zack Hudgins.Local state Representatives Zack Hudgins and Bob Hasegawa invite residents of the 11th Legislative District to join them for a telephone town hall tonight, April 27, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Hudgins and Hasegawa will discuss the 2010 legislative session, creating jobs, their priorities for the 2010 state budget, and the budget’s impact on local communities. Residents will be invited to stay on the line and join in on the conversation. You can also phone in directly between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. by dialing (toll-free) 877-229-8493, code 15512.
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Last week, Cienna Madrid at the Stranger wrote about the new Streets for All Seattle Coalition, a group fighting to fund projects for bicycle, transit, and pedestrian improvements. In the article, SASC spokesman David Hiller specifically discusses how a transportation crisis in South Seattle has drawn organizations such as El Centro de la Raza into the coalition.
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Gardeners take note — @VictrolaCoffee posted on Twitter: “Free bags of coffee grounds everyday at Victrola Beacon Hill – 3215 Beacon Ave So. – make your gardens grow!”
Asian Express, Dim Sum House, and Jefferson Community Center all received recent inspection visits from the Health Department. (Click each establishment’s name to see the results.) Congratulations to Jefferson Community Center for a perfect score of zero!
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The Seattle City Council and Mayor will host a joint public meeting about the City’s budget here on Beacon Hill at the New Holly Gathering Hall, tomorrow, April 28, at 5:00 pm. The New Holly Gathering Hall is located at 7054 32nd Avenue South.
Victrola Coffee received a perfect score in their recent inspection by the Health Department. This drink was photographed at Victrola by Christie Aesquivel, in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.There is a planning meeting for the Beacon Hill Food Forest at Jefferson Park, at 7:00 pm tonight at the Lawn Bowling Clubhouse (4103 Beacon Avenue South).
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The Columbian Way paving project meeting is tomorrow, April 7, at the Mercer Middle School Library (1600 South Columbian Way) from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Here’s a flyer about the project.
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Beacon Hill International School was the subject of a feature in the Seattle Times (BHB news partners) this week, including a great video about the language immersion program at the school.
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If you like to dance and you’d also like to help raise some funds for Beacon Rocks!, swing by their website, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and sign up for their mailing list.
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Beacon Hill is quite the hot spot for gardening activity this spring. Seattle Good Food Network‘s April meeting is next Thursday, April 15, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library. Learn a bit more about SGFN.
Several of our local establishments have been visited by health inspectors recently. Congratulations to Golden Daisy and Victrola for achieving perfect scores of zero violations. Here are links to all the inspection reports:
The Friends of Cheasty Greenspace at Mountain View invite you to their upcoming planning meetings, where you’re invited to share your ideas for a trail plan and entry with “safe trails, way-finding, environmental learning, gathering spaces, welcoming trail heads.” The first meeting was April 1 and hosted a discussion of current conditions, ideas, and priorities.
Upcoming meetings: 7:00 to 8:30 pm, May 13—Review ideas, priorities, and options at the home of Amit Ranade and Jennifer Faubion-Ranade, 2615 South Edmunds Street.
7:00 to 8:30 pm, June 17—Open House to present trail plan; guided walks through Cheasty Greenspace/Mountain View at the end of South Alaska Place.
If you want to know more about the Friends of Cheasty Greenspace at Mountain View and get involved, email mdejong@spu.edu or adostrovsky@gmail.com or contact Pamela Kliment of Seattle Parks and Recreation, at Pamela.Kliment@seattle.gov or 206-684-7356.
View Parks Opportunity Fund application sites in a larger mapClick on each marker to identify the siteThe North Beacon Hill Council Board is submitting a letter of support for eight groups submitting applications to build new parks or improve existing parks in Beacon Hill. The 40+ people attending last night’s NBHC meeting unanimously supported this motion. Presenters were succinct and provided an impressive amount of information about their respective projects.
The eight groups presented information about applications they are submitting to the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund for parks in Beacon Hill. Â You can find out more about the Opportunity Fund in their FAQ.
The Opportunity Fund is community-driven. A key aspect of the application is how much community support a project has.  If you would like to share comments, concerns, or enthusiastic support about a proposal, contact Seattle Parks and let them know what you think. Use the comments page or contact Kellee Jones at 206-684-7052  or kellee.jones@seattle.gov, or Susanne Friedman at 206-684-0902 or susanne.friedman@seattle.gov.
Briefly, the eight proposals are:
Volunteers and community members seeking funding to continue efforts to improve Lewis Park, such as clearing invasive species, planting natives, and restoring the natural areas in the park’s ravines
Acquisition of land around the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station to develop a North Beacon Central Park
Walker Street Park and Orchard proposal to acquire 10 lots on the boundary of the North Beacon Hill and North Rainier Urban Villages
Beacon Hill Youth Soccer Association efforts to improve the youth soccer field adjacent to Beacon International School so that it can be used year-round, by replacing grass with artificial turf
El Centro de La Raza seeking to improve their playground and increase access to the public by upgrading play structure; adding landscaping, outdoor meeting space, green features, and cultural aspects; adding ADA accessibility; and improving the basketball court
Click on this image to see a larger version of the Jefferson Park Food Forest plan.
By Glenn Herlihy
Pictured here is the first of several design options for the proposed Jefferson Park Food Forest. First and foremost, this would be a community garden where neighbors could interact and grow their own food. It would be a garden run and managed by community members and citywide supporters, to achieve a bit more food security by having a local food production facility. Second, it’s about creating a healthy park environment for all to enjoy. Third, it’s about promoting gardening as a sustainable recreation. Please remember this is a “design in process” as we look forward to more input from the community.
A food forest is a gardening technique or land management system modeled after a woodland ecosystem, but which substitutes trees, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables which have a higher yield for humans. It’s a polyculture method (as opposed to monoculture) of planting in guilds (combinations) that nurture each other through nutrient—soil fixing, attracting pollinators and self-mulching. The result is an edible woodland with meadows, pathways, and a grand source of fresh air.
The Jefferson Park Food Forest is located on the southern part of the western slope of Jefferson Park and covers about four acres. In the map pictured here, 15th Avenue South is shown on the left (west), South Dakota Street is near the bottom (south) and the reservoir playfield is up on the right (east). Seasonal water collection is shown in blue. The blue areas would be wet in the rainy season and dry in the summer. Paved areas are shown in orange with 16th Avenue South serving as a water collecting swale. Trees are shown in green with most of the forest on the hill to the east. The green areas are swaths of mixed plantings mostly consisting of berries and natives. Green colored P-Patches have curved paths (orange) through them. The yellow circle is a community shade structure with tool shed sub-grade.
The City-adopted North Beacon Hill Neighborhood Plan (2000) for this property calls for a forested, naturalized terrace with pedestrian pathways, educational facilities, and view accesses (Action PE2). This project builds on that adopted concept to create a food forest that is natural and educational, but more focused in producing food with recreational gardening. It also builds on the adopted recommendation in our neighborhood plan for distinctive park entry improvements in this area (Action PE4). The Jefferson Park Alliance did outreach to the larger community at the last Beacon Hill Festival (2009) on this concept and received significant positive interest from people who would like to garden and support urban agriculture in the park.
We will be presenting this design and answering questions on April 1 at the North Beacon Hill Council meeting and at the 2010 Beacon Hill Festival on June 5. We have a Food Forest meeting scheduled for April 6, 7:00 pm at the Lawn Bowling Clubhouse (4103 Beacon Avenue South) if you would like to hear more. Thank You.
Glenn Herlihy is part of a group that is guiding the Food Forest proposal through the application process for the city’s Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund.
Glenn Herlihy issued a call for all interested in attending a Jefferson Park Community Garden and Food Forest meeting (in the Gardening forum and via David Gackenbach):
Good news… is all we got now.
The Parks Department has sent us a letter to go ahead and apply for the second round of applications for the Levy Opportunity Fund.
The application is due April 2nd and we’re going to do it. This has potential to build a lot of our Garden and is a great exercise for all who want understand public fund raising.
The VA Hospital has contacted us and is interested in some P-Patch or garden space for garden therapy. We can help with that.
We now have interested people from the community, Parks Department, Asa Mercer school, VA hospital, Mara Farms, Permaculture groups in the Seattle area and few others I may have missed. On top of that I just learned one of my good friends is good friends with Mr. MacPherson of MacPherson’s Produce. Maybe they would like some local fruit in a few years.
This next meeting will focus on:
the Levy Fund application,
finding a name for the garden,
welcoming the VA Hospital,
what to do with the 16th Ave dirt road and other design elements.
outreach possibilities
review
Please spread the word. All are welcome to attend.
If you have anything interesting flowering in your garden and want to share it with us please bring it.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2nd at 7pm at the Lawn Bowling Club House (4103 Beacon Avenue South).
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Richard Kyper writes:
It’s springtime, and the garden is happening again. For those of you who know of, or have visited “The Garden,” and you know where I mean, this “e.” is for you.
Come and enjoy the beauty of the season as much as you like, but I do ask:
Please don’t pick the flowers or dig up plants. If you take them, no-one else can then enjoy them.
If you have a dog to walk, fine — but please keep your pet on the road, not in the garden, and pick up your messes.
Someone has been throwing their doggy doo doo bags into the woods. There is a trash can down at the overview park at 12th and McClellan.
