Summit at John park needs you, 80 grand

By jseattle ( report abuse )

We wrote about money troubles for Capitol Hill's two planned parks when the budget shortfall was announced at last month's city design reviews. The Summit at John project is in the biggest trouble -- the parks department is $80 grand short on the $250k required to build the park to plan. Contingent plan is to simply build about 2/3 of the park and finish the bottom slope of the park with a grassy grade.

The hope, say the city planners, is that the community steps in to lend a hand so the full design can be realized. Fortunately, a community is starting to develop around fundraising for the park. Meet neighbor Jen and the Unpaving Paradise group -- they're hoping to solve the John & Summit shortfall and help Capitol Hill preserve and create open space. The first step for UP is to create awareness by participating in National Park(ing) Day -- on September 19th, groups creates grassy and tree-shaded park spaces in the middle of paved parking lots and the like. There's a meeting Wednesday night to begin organizing Park(ing) Day in Seattle. If you're interested in getting involved, you can check out the Open Space forum on the Capitol Hill Community Council site or follow Jen's blog about life on the Hill.

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tags: parks, unpaving paradise, capitol hill community council, advocacy + add tags

location: I-5 ShoresSeattle, Washington

posted on Tue, Aug 12, 2008 02:32 PM

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Wow byRyan in the sky4 months ago	( report abuse ) ( reply )
I like the sound of the contingent plan. Spend 80 thousand dollars on something else. Grass! That's what makes a park.

	RE: Wow byjrrrl4 months ago	( report abuse )
	grass makes the park? oh no we have to bulldoze cal anderson and start over :-(

	RE: Wow byRyan in the sky4 months ago	( report abuse )
	Cal Anderson has grass, I don't really get what you mean. Take a look at the brand new counterbalance park in Queen Anne to see a park that doesn't actually know how to be a park.

	RE: Wow byjseattle4 months ago	( report abuse )
	Ryan, the point is that Cal Anderson has grass -- and more. If you only want John & Summit to be a field of grass, you won't really have a park. Oh, and you also won't have things like garbage cans.

	RE: Wow byRyan in the sky4 months ago	( report abuse )
	This park isn't supposed to be Cal Anderson...this is going to be just like Thomas Street park one block away, which is just a simple place to hang out with a book or your dog. I could be completely wrong, but doing the park with 1/3 grassy grade sounds like it would be perfectly suitable. We do need garbage cans though. 145 grand doesn't buy anything these days. As someone who lives right next to here, I'm just happy it's being built. And I don't have any money to give them.

Yeah, $80k is a lot byUncle Vinny4 months ago	( report abuse ) ( reply )
I'd be inclined to go with 1/3rd lawn instead of spending $80k... I'd want to see a side-by-side comparison. What's the downside of just putting in some grass? Kudos to Unpaving Paradise for choosing an awesome name, though!