Dear Green Trail Readers,

On Monday Mayor Greg Nickels presented his 2009-2010 proposed budget to the City Council.

As you know, City revenues from sales taxes and real estate excise taxes are down, and the Mayor asked all City departments to do some belt-tightening. At Parks and Recreation we’ve tried hard to do that by finding internal efficiencies in order to protect the services we provide directly to you. We have identified more than $1 million in savings by actions that include closing our print shop and warehouse, realigning our teen leader staff to allow flexibility to serve at risk youth, and transferring support for some computer labs to our partners.We are also ending or reducing programs that were successful but had implementation challenges, such as the learn to swim program, and opening our summer beaches one hour later, at noon.

Internal reorganization has allowed us to create a “Community Connections” unit to step up outreach to immigrant and other underserved populations, and a Natural Resources unit that combines horticulture, urban forestry, and environmental education.

The reductions don’t mean we can’t move ahead on some important initiatives or continue our focus on the Mayor’s priorities. To begin carrying out the tasks in our 2008 Strategic Action Plan (http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/ParksActionPlan.htm), we will begin collecting data on park maintenance to provide clear information about those costs, a new position will work on an asset management system to help prioritize capital planning and expenditures, and we will move forward on evaluating current use and projected demand for our sports facilities.

We will move ahead swiftly in partnership with other City departments and community organizations on Mayor Nickels’ youth anti-violence strategy by providing positive activities for the most at-risk youth at youth centers with expanded hours, especially for kids who are not safe at home or who have been arrested for minor crimes and released, and by working helping them stay in school and succeed.

We’ll add a fourth tree crew to accelerate work on much-needed urban forest restoration, and we’ll move forward with our “Healthy Parks, Healthy You” initiative to encourage the people of Seattle to take up and keep up healthy habits (http://www.seattle.gov/parks/healthyparks/default.htm). Please join us!

We look forward to continuing to work with you to build community by actively caring for our environment, providing safe and fun places and programs for recreation and contemplation.

For more information about the 2009-2010 budget, please see http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/.

In this issue of The Green Trail, you’ll find information on progress with the Strategic Action Plan, getting healthy the Parks way, an update on our successes with the Parks Rangers, a bike trail first at I-5 Colonnade and much, much more.

As always, I encourage you to write me with your ideas, suggestions and comments. I hope you find some time this fall to enjoy one of your City of Seattle public parks.

Sincerely,
Tim

Strategic Action Plan

After 75-plus public meetings and many iterations of the draft document, we now have a Strategic Action Plan that lays out tasks we need to do over the next five to seven years to position ourselves for the next 25. Thank you to everyone who came to a meeting, sent an e-mail, or participated in any way. We heard what you said, and we’re ready to move forward with great energy, starting with the maintenance management and asset management plans and the demand study for sports fields mentioned above. You can find the document online at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/ParksActionPlan.htm/.

Healthy Parks, Healthy You

Here at Parks we’re up and running on our “Healthy Parks, Healthy You” initiative, an effort to encourage people to adopt and sustain healthy habits. Parks and Recreation has a long history of helping promote physical and environmental health, and now we’re taking it a big step farther. We’re alarmed about rising obesity rates in the U.S., and we share Mayor Nickels’ commitment to “build strong families and healthy communities.” We’re challenging Seattle residents to take advantage of our huge spectrum of offerings by offering a “Try it for $2” program this fall. To see what you can try once for $2, please see http://www.seattle.gov/parks/healthyparks/. We’re guessing you’ll find one you want to continue! 

Photo: At the Healthy Parks, Healthy You kick-off at GreenLakePark in August.

Home, Home On The Range(rs)

Our seven new park rangers have just wrapped up their first summer in downtown parks, and the reports are good. They appear right at home stopping to pat a dog or offer directions to a tourist.

The program is one element of a three-part strategy for making downtown parks feel safer and more inviting, developed by Mayor Nickels’ Center City Parks Task Force. The elements are physical improvements to parks to make them feel open; working to enliven them with movies, concerts, dancing, buskers, and other events; and stepping up security with the park rangers.

The rangers move from park to park acting as ambassadors for the city. They offer information and assistance, help solve problems, monitor the parks for safety issues, educate people about Parks rules, and in general provide a friendly, authoritative presence. They alert Seattle police when they need help or see activity that requires police attention. They are trained in customer service, laws and regulations on use of parks and public space, crime prevention, community relations, personal safety, basic First Aid and CPR, human services and public health resources, general Seattle parks and downtown parks history, basic plant identification, and other information about individual parks.

An example of the kinds of activities that fill the Rangers’ days occurred one afternoon at Westlake Park. Two rangers encountered a woman who had left her belongings in the park while she went to the hospital. Seattle police threw them away, thinking they were abandoned property. When the distraught woman returned to the park she was wearing only a hospital gown and a plastic rain slicker. The rangers went to the women's wellness center and got her some clothes and helped her connect with her brother in Spokane. She is now there, and is no longer living in the park.

Photo: The new Park Rangers just completed their first summer in Seattle’s downtown parks.

Lake Washington Boulevard Vegetation Management Plan

After a long and careful process working with a Project Advisory Team, we have adopted a vegetation management plan for Lake Washington Boulevard. The plan provides careful guidance for the care and replacement of existing vegetation, and for additions and decreases in vegetation. Sources for elements of the plan include the 1903 Olmsted plan for the city’s boulevard system, a 1986 EDAW study of the boulevard, the city’s Urban Forest Management Plan (http://www.seattle.gov/trees/), and Green Seattle Partnership (http://www.greenseattle.org/) documents. Parks will carry out the plan as funding becomes available.

The World At Your Back Door

On Saturday, September 20, Mayor Nickels, the Arboretum Foundation, the University of Washington’s Botanic Gardens and College of Forest Resources, Parks and Recreation, and the community gathered to celebrate the “pre-opening” of Phase 1 of the new Pacific Connections Garden.

The Garden will ultimately feature 14 acres of botanical displays from five Pacific Rim regions: Chile, China, New Zealand, Australia, and our own Cascadia. The displays highlight environmental, cultural, and economic ties among the five regions and create unique opportunities for recreation, education, and conservation in the heart of Seattle.

The first phase includes a welcoming meadow and interpretive shelter surrounded by a series of intricately designed preview gardens. The gardens showcase the horticultural and ethnobotanical uses of trees and shrubs from the five Pacific Rim regions. In future phases, visitors will be able to walk through complete forests to experience each region’s plants in their natural settings, from ground cover to tree canopy.

Photo: members of the Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill Team performed during the opening ceremony of the PacificConnectionsGarden exhibit in the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.

A First: Bike Trail At I-5 Colonnade

The first urban mountain-bike park opened on Sept. 13 at I-5 Colonnade to rave reviews from both experienced and newbie riders alike. The trail is part of the larger I-5 Colonnade, which was funded by the Pro Parks Levy and opened in December 2005. The park and the trail are constructed entirely under I-5 on property owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation.

In a unique public-private collaboration, the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (EMBA) raised funds through private donations and grants from King County and the Department of Neighborhoods. Two years, more than $200,000 and 12,000 volunteer hours later, the EMBA unveiled the first urban mountain-bike park – anywhere, ever.

The park has everything from the mountain bike equivalent of the bunny slope for kids and novices to black-diamond-like trails for the old pros. For those who know the lingo, the park includes: climbs and descents, flow lines, rock chutes, a pump track, teeter totters, ladder bridges, jumps and drops, skinnies and logrides. If those terms are new to you, go on out to the park and take a look. It’s a great opportunity to learn something new.

For more information, or just to check out some cool videos of the trail and riders, check out the EMBA website at: www.evergreenmtb.org.

Photo: members of the EvergreenMountain Bike Alliance, Parks Deputy Superintendent and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen cut the ribbon for the new bike trail earlier this month; photo courtesy of EvergreenMountain Bike Alliance.

Phase 2 Of Lake Union Park Development

This morning we joined Mayor Nickels and the Seattle Parks Foundation to celebrate the launch of Phase 2 of the Lake Union Park Development project. The park, a former U.S. Navy reserve center, will be completed in 2010, and will include a 300-foot long interactive fountain, a model boat pond, restored shoreline habitat, a tree grove and picnic area, landscaped mounds, and even more green space. In the near future, other features will bring even more activities to the park, including the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation Northwest Native Canoe Center, The Center for Wooden Boats’ education center, and the Museum of History and Industry.

We celebrated the completion of the first phase of the park this past April; it includes 1.6 acres of park with terraced steps and a boardwalk along the water’s edge, the great lawn, a pedestrian bridge over the water, pathways, and boat-shaped planters.

Image: Phase 2 of LakeUnionPark will create more usable open space for residents; image courtesy of the Seattle Parks Foundation and City Investors.

Alki Statue Of Liberty

Hundreds of people were on hand for the "re-unveiling" of the new statue and the official ribbon-cutting of the beautiful new Statue of Liberty Plaza at Alki Beach. 

The original statue and pedestal were placed at Alki Beach in 1952 by the Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts of America. Since the mid-1990s there have been several efforts by local groups to repair, and then to replace, the original statue and pedestal, both of which had seriously deteriorated. In 2007 the Seattle Statue of Liberty Project was formed to complete the process. With the fiscal sponsorship of Urban Sparks and generous support from hundreds of donors, the new statue and pedestal were dedicated on September 6.

Photo: throngs of people turned out for the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach; photo  by Jeffry Myers, courtesy of Paul and Libby Carr.

Summer 2008 Wrap-up

We’ve signed off on another successful summer of programming and the usual heavy seasonal use of our parks. We take water safety very seriously, and we’re proud to have experienced our 39th year without a drowning at a lifeguarded Seattle beach.

Our jam-packed schedule of downtown activities has played to rave reviews, and the movies, buskers, concerts, dances, festivals, arts and crafts and street markets, bocce, book sales, and even gardening classes for downtowners have provided fun and entertainment for thousands of people who work, live, and play downtown. The park rangers put in their first summer, and are becoming more seasoned with every passing week. We will have a report for you later this year on these two elements of Mayor Nickels’ three-part strategy (the third is physical improvements to downtown parks as funding allows).

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center's Annual Teen Summer Musical, Snow White and the 7; Each One, Teach One, was written and directed by Parks’ own standup comic and all-around showman, Isiah Anderson. Inspired by Snow White and re-told by Marilyn Joshua Shearer, this inspiring story of self-discovery show drew thousands of people with its dance, traditional rhythms, and life lessons.

We expanded the days Lake Washington Boulevard is closed to motor traffic, and began having car-free days at Volunteer and Seward parks. We sponsored myriad events for teens and seniors, and held the third year of our playground art in the park program. We continued to sell low-cost bike helmets in partnership with the Cascade Bicycle Club, and life jackets with our partners Children’s Hospital, Fisheries Supply, Rehab Without Walls, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The small craft centers’ classes were packed, and our environmental learning centers took advantage of low tides, told stories around fire circles, and sponsored walks and classes.

Our gardens – Kubota, the Japanese Garden, Parsons Gardens, the Volunteer Park Conservatory, and the Washington Park Arboretum – were at their glorious summer best, and we hosted countless community festivals, picnics, and outdoor weddings.

Photo: buskers and other activities livened up Seattle’s downtown parks this summer.

Upcoming Public Meetings

We hold public meetings to get community input for all of our park development projects and for many of our long-term plans. Following are upcoming public meetings. Please visit the Parks website for details about future meetings. 

Orchard Street Ravine Through-Trail Open House
Oct. 4, 11 a.m. – 12 noon
Orchard Street Ravine, 38th Avenue SW and SW Orchard Street
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/proparks/projects/orchardStRavine.htm

Laurelhurst Playground
Oct. 8, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Laurelhurst Community Center, 4554 NE 41st St.

Orchard Street Ravine Community Celebration
Oct. 11, 12 noon – 2 p.m.
Orchard Street Ravine, 38th Avenue SW and SW Orchard Street
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/proparks/projects/orchardStRavine.htm

Southwest Community Center Fitness Room
Oct. 16, 6 – 8 p.m.
Southwest Community Center, 2801 SW Thistle St.

Center City Cameras Open Houses
Oct. 28, 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. – Hing Hay Park, 423 Maynard Ave. S
Oct. 29, 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. – Occident Park, Occidental Avenue S and S Main Street
Oct. 30, 11:30 a.m. – 2p.m. – Victor Steinbrueck Park, 2001 Western Avenue
One additional evening meeting will be added to this list of open houses. Please check with Karen O’Connor to find out more details. Karen can be reached by emailing Karen.O’Connor@seattle.gov or calling 233-7929.

The Board of Park Commissioners, a volunteer advisory board, consults with and makes recommendations to department staff, City Council, and the Mayor regarding Parks and Recreation's policies for the planning, development and use of the City's park and recreation facilities. The Board meets at 7 p.m. at 100 Dexter Ave N. on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. For agendas and information on this public meeting, visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkboard/default.asp

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