GROUNDSWELL NW 2017 DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

2017 Fall East Ballard Community Association clean-up day @ Gemenskap Park

November brought some stormy weather along with beautiful autumn days this year.  Northwest Seattle friends and neighbors came out to perform maintenance on Ballard Corners,  14th Avenue (future Gemenskap Park), Carkeek, Golden Gardens and many other parks - thank you!  This is a perfect time of year to see local wildlife preparing for winter months while enjoying remaining color in the landscape.  Look for additional opportunities to get out in the coming winter months by visiting our event calendar or Facebook page. 

Also in the news, Seattle City Light held two public meetings in November to address the disposition of seven City Light substations in our area.   Extensive public comments were received at the meetings, including those in support of retaining these parcels as open space or parks. Groundswell NW continues to follow the progress of the substations, advocating on behalf of retaining these valuable spaces for public use, and responding to opportunities for public input.  Click here to view our recent comment and analysis letter.

Wishing you and all our neighbors have a wonderful holiday season!

Susanne Daniell
Groundswell NW Board Member

GROUNDSWELL NW NOVEMBER 2017 NEWSLETTER

Groundswell NW and the broader Ballard / Crown Hill community have identified unused City Light substations as opportunities for community use for over 20 years. Now Seattle City Light has begun the process to sell seven NW Seattle substation properties (more info at www.seattle.gov/light/surplus). 

Groundswell NW, the Seattle Green Spaces Coalition and Sunset Hill Community Association co-sponsored a community meeting on October 18 to hear from City Light about their plans and let them know about neighborhood concerns and goals (see video of the meeting here). Councilmember Mike O'Brien and representatives from Seattle Parks and Department of Neighborhoods also participated.

City Light will hold a community information meeting at 7pm on Monday November 6 and a public hearing at 7pm on Thursday November 16, both at the Ballard First Lutheran Church, 2006 NW 65th St. If you are interested in community use for any of these properties, please attend and spread the word! If you are unable to attend either of these events, then please consider providing your comments to SCL_RealProperty@seattle.gov before the Nov 17 deadline.

Dave Boyd
Groundswell NW Board Member

GROUNDSWELL NW JULY 2017 NEWSLETTER

Photo from My Ballard

The sunny weather we've all been waiting for is finally here! Whether you're heading to the spray park at Ballard Commons or taking in a late sunset at Golden Gardens, there is no shortage of opportunities to get outside. If you're looking to combine sunshine with a delicious pint of beer, we hope you will join us on July 27 at Reuben's Brews for what is becoming one of our favorite annual fundraisers.  For every pint/growler/set of three tasters you purchase between  11 a.m and 10 p.m., Reuben’s will donate $1 to Groundswell NW.  We're hoping to raise $500 this year, enough to fund a microgrant for a local project that supports neighborhood parks, open space and habitat. So come raise glass with us and support Groundswell NW!

Groundswell NW has been busy sprucing up for summer with a successful work party at the Sunset Hill - Shilshole Gateway and a clean up event with Seattle Clean Street Collective who was also a recent recipient of a Groundswell NW microgrant. Our microgrant program is a great opportunity for local groups who need a financial boost to tackle projects that will benefit neighborhood open space. If you have ideas for a local project that could be fully or partially funded with a microgrant, or if you just want to know more about the program, you can find information and an application by clicking HERE.  

Devon Shannon
GNW Board Member

Groundswell NW January 2017 Newsletter

On Dec 9, Groundswell NW was honored to participate in a focus group hosted by Seattle Parks to discuss the 2017 Development Plan and Gap Analysis Update. Current board members, Renee Dagseth, myself and former board member, Davidya Kasperzyk, participated, along with other Seattle Park advocates. The meeting focused primarily on the new story map format that uses GIS mapping technology to identify parks and open space opportunity through the lens of access, walkability, opportunities, equity and density. As a whole, Groundswell NW is very pleased to see that Parks is now taking into consideration opportunities for open space based on access to the entrance of an existing park and taking into consideration major obstacles for access, e.g. major arterials. This approach is getting Seattle Parks closer to Groundswell NW's vision of a park within every arterial quadrant. We are currently drafting a comment letter, which we'll share with our community shortly. We encourage you to review the plan yourself, provide comment to 2017DevPlan@seattle.gov and please share with us a groundswellnw@gmail.com so we can better represent you. 

Rain gardens at the NE corner of 14th Ave NW and NW 58th in 2009 (left) and today (right)

Looking forward to January, there's some new activity in the East Ballard neighborhood. The EBCA will be hosting a rain garden restoration and planting event on January 21, guided by Cari Simson, for the street side rain garden located at the NE corner of 14th Ave NW and NW 58th. The plantings in the NW rain garden have been thriving since 2008, but the NE garden just never worked well as you can tell by the before and after pics above. We're encouraged that Cari will be applying her expertise to help the community bring this rain garden back to life. We invite you to join the EBCA for this event. It will be a great opportunity for you to get your hands dirty and learn how rain gardens contribute to environmental and habitat health. 

Wishing you a very happy New Year!
Dawn Hemminger
Groundswell NW President

Groundswell NW December Newsletter

Groundswell NW was pretty busy behind the scenes this past month. One huge accomplishment was to launch our new website! This undertaking started almost a year ago and was spearheaded by GNW board member, Jan Satterthwaite. We redesigned our site to better share our message, show off our accomplishments, and connect you better with our services and help you engage better with our community. Whether you're new to Groundswell NW or have been a faithful supporter for many years, we encourage to take a test drive and help us get the word out to the larger community of parks, open space and habitat stewards!

In December and January, we are also encouraging all of you parks and open space stewards to participate in one of Seattle Parks and Recreation 2017 Development Plan Citywide meetings. This is a 6-year plan that documents and describes the Seattle Parks and Recreation's (SPR) facilities and lands, looks at Seattle's changing demographics and lays out a vision of the future. Our new events calendar has ALL of these meetings and locations listed. Try out the new feature to automatically add the event to your calendar! Just hover over the event in the calendar to view a summary, click on the icon to view the details of the event and then click on +ical or +gcal to export a link to add to your personal calendar. 

Dawn Hemminger
Groundswell NW President