As we first reported last week, Seattle Parks has restarted the engine on the public process to name Capitol Hill’s two new parks. The Parks press release is below. CHS picked up the best suggestion it has heard yet for a name for the 16th at Howell project at the park’s groundbreaking ceremony this weekend. Iconic Hill scarf dancer Boe Oddisey suggests the park be named for Gray Lambert, the activist nearby Lambert House is named for. Here are ideas from recent CHS comments:
- Shannon Harps Park
- Desmond Tutu Park
- Queen City Park
- Emerald City Park
- Parkcrest Park
- Maidan Park
- Flattop Park
- Mia Zapata Park
- Riot Park
- Seven Hills Park
- Capitolinus Park
- Second Hill Park
- Lambert Gray Park
Summit and John:
- Paradise Park
- Summit Slope Park
- Wayside Park
- Rest Stop Park
Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the public to submit potential names for parks in the Capitol Hill and Lake City neighborhoods. Suggestions for names are due to the Park Naming Committee by Monday, November 16, 2009.
The following parks, characterized here by their working names, are undergoing the naming process:
Capitol Hill Park Acquisition: This .39 acre property, located at the northeast corner of E Howell St. and 16th Ave. E, was purchased in 2007 with Pro Parks Levy funds.
Parks held several public meetings to solicit ideas on the program and design for the park. The approved plan consists of an open lawn in the middle of the site that is bordered by a collective garden to the north and a crushed rock plaza and a pathway lined with trees to the south. Other elements include a garden walk, steps, a plaza and benches, barbeque, picnic table, and an art element. The art element includes a grouping of seven boulders for creative play and seating. It is intended to represent the “Seven Hills of Seattle.”
Construction on the site is scheduled to begin in November 2009 and to be completed by spring 2010. For more information, please visit http://seattle.gov/parks/proparks/projects/CapitolHillDevelopment.htm
John and Summit: This project, located on the NE corner of E John St. and Summit Ave. E, will provide a new neighborhood park on the western slope of Capitol Hill. Funding for the acquisition comes from the Pro Parks Levy and a matching grant from King County Conservation Futures Tax revenues. This .22 acre property was purchased in 2007.
The Pro Parks Levy funding supports a construction budget of $140,909 and the P-Patch program has provided $150,000 toward construction. The site incorporates P-patches in the overall design. Construction on the site is projected to begin next spring.
For more information, please visit http://seattle.gov/parks/proparks/projects/JohnSummitParkDevelopment.htm
Lake City Playground: Parks acquired this site from the School District in 1987. It had been the playground for Lake City elementary school; when the School District declared the site surplus to its needs, the playground was established as a separate land parcel. It is located at 12312 – 26th Ave. NE.
The Park Naming Committee is comprised of one representative designated by the Board of Park Commissioners, one by the Chair of the City Council Parks and Seattle Center Committee, and one by the Parks Superintendent. Criteria the committee considers in naming parks include: geographical location, historical or cultural significance, and natural or geological features. A park may be named for a person no longer living (deceased a minimum of three years) who made a significant contribution to parks and/or recreation. The Park Naming Committee will consider all suggestions and make a recommendation to the Superintendent, who makes the final decision.
Please submit suggestions for park names in writing by November 16, 2009, and include an explanation of how your suggestion matches the naming criteria. Send suggestions to Seattle Parks and Recreation, Park Naming Committee, 100 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, or by e-mail to [email protected]. In keeping with Seattle’s “Paper Cuts” program, Parks encourages electronic submissions.
Brilliant! Yay for Boe.
I swear I put Obama’s mother on the list in a comment. As in “Obama’s mother” and not her real name.
One – very obviously I’ve made it clear I’m absolutely opposed to the circus and carnival-like excesses of all these parks.
Two – without intending to be rude, to put it bluntly I don’t think being murdered should be a qualification to have a public work named after you.
Three – it’s absolutely and totally inexcusable not to have a monument of some type in Seattle for every single person from Seattle who’s won a Nobel Prize.
I’m going to submit a suggestion to have either of these parks named George Hitchings Park after the 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Zan-O:
If you’re referring to Shannon Harps in your second point, she wasn’t suggested simply because she was murdered. And although your comment was clearly not intended to offend, it did in it’s ignorance of all of the work Shannon did for the Capitol Hill community she loved, Seattle, and so much more.
Shannon was a community activist that not only worked towards getting that very park put there in the first place, but tirelessly worked to make the community a better place for all. She dedicated her time to preserving public lands for all to enjoy. I think that’s more than a good reason to name that particular park after her.
To name this park after some random person who has nothing to do with the park or Capitol Hill is ridiculous, in my humble opinion.
Frankly, you’re ridiculous in my humble opinion.
Has anyone on Capitol Hill ever survived cancer or had their life prolonged while afflicted with AIDS? Then Dr. Hitchings has a connection to Capitol Hill. If no one on Capitol Hill has ever survived cancer or contracted AIDS then I retract my suggestion to name the park after the Nobel Prize-winning Seattleite Dr. Hitchings.
Oh, another thing – next time you know someone dying of AIDS who is only prevented from being a wasted skeleton surrounded by the stank of death through a liberal prescription of Zidovudine I definitely think you should tell them, “yeah, I voted against that random dude from Seattle who invented that drug that’s keeping you from wasting away into a pile of dust and bacteria from having even one monument in Seattle to him because, like, he totally is just some like random dude, wot.”
I propose the name Shannon Green
Shannon Harps lived across from the proposed park site. She was an environmental activist who was murdered across the street from the park on 15th and Howell
The proposed name is a pun on themes of water and environmental and community remembrance.
Here is a definition of the word Shannon
(Origin Gaelic) From the Shannon, a river of Ireland. The tranquil, gentle river, from sen, gentle, and abhain, a river. Shan-eon, the tranquil river. S before a vowel, in the Gaelic, has the sound of sh. The river Seine, in France, has the same signification. Shanon–the ancient river, from sean, old, and oun or obhain, a river.
http://www.searchforancestors.com/surnames/origin/s/shannon.