Tag Archives: miller community center

The Seattle Preschool Program is award winning — and there is still plenty of room for kids around Capitol Hill and the Central District

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By Juan Jocom

Seattle is providing high-quality, accessible early learning programs but the sessions are under-enrolled including four opportunities around Capitol Hill and the Central District.

For the second year in a row, the Seattle Preschool Program has been awarded a gold medal rating by CityHealth and the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University for the system’s high quality and accessible preschool programming.

“Seattle was one of 22 cities, out of 75 rated by CityHealth, to receive a gold medal award for high-quality, accessible preschool programming this year” the Office of the Mayor reports.

Living in one of the world’s most expensive cities poses challenges, especially if raising a child is added to the equation but programs like SPP can make these challenges more manageable. It also helps prepare kids for academic success.

“High quality preschool helps all children be ready for kindergarten and sets them up for better success in school,” early learning division director Leilani Dela Cruz said in an email.

Despite this celebrated achievement, the programs around the Capitol Hill and Central District area remain under enrolled. There are currently nine programs in the Capitol Hill and Central District area and four are still enrolling for the 2023-2024 school year.

Northwest Center Kids – Chinook* 401 5th Ave, Seattle , WA

206-286-2390
First Place – Main 172 20th Ave
Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center – Main * 1625 19th Ave.

(425) 736-6665 Voice Call

(206) 829-5128 Video Phone
Launch – Miller Community Center Annex 301 20th Ave. E.

Programs like what SPP offers help to soften the blow of child care, especially in a city that is growing more expensive each day. Seattle residents with children between the age of 3 to 4 within the respective school year are eligible to apply for the program. Continue reading →

Miller courts a popular center for pickleball’s growth in Seattle

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With a much-needed resurfacing and community-funded nets, the pickleball courts at Capitol Hill’s Miller Playfield are now some of the busiest venues of athletic competition in the city.

Seattle Parks says from 30 to 50 players compete for the two hours 10 AM to noon every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when the four pickleball-lined courts are reserved for free, open drop-in play.

Clubs and leagues that book up the courts the rest of the week keep them even busier. Continue reading →

Miller Playfield closed for the summer for turf replacement project

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The busy Miller Playfield and its popular basketball court will be fenced off through the summer as Seattle Parks undertakes an overhaul of the artificial turf.

Parks says the project at the field along 19th Ave E involves the replacement of 89,740 square feet of the plastic turf in a project expected to be completed by fall and the start of the year at Meany Middle School which is part of the Miller campus and utilizes the field.

Parks says pedestrian traffic through the Miller campus will be re-routed and the basketball court will be closed throughout the construction

A crew from Coast to Coast Turf will remove the old turf “and address any structural repairs to curbing, sub-subsurface, and drainage,” the parks announcement says. For the new turf setup, CHS reported here on the transition to more environmentally friendly solutions than the old crumb rubber previously used on the fields after a successful experiment at Cal Anderson. Continue reading →

Governor says new solar microgrid for emergency energy at Capitol Hill community center first of ‘hundreds’ across state

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Seattle City Light Energy Innovation and Resources Officer Emeka Anywanwu led a tour with the governor Thursday

Capitol Hill’s Miller Community Center is not solar powered but its $3.3 million microgrid installation including storage batteries and 132 solar panels on its rooftop produce enough energy to power the 19th Ave E Seattle Parks facility and gymnasium through a major emergency.

Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Bruce Harrell were on hand for a pre-Earth Day ceremony to celebrate the project installed during the pandemic but not yet fully celebrated by the community.

Calling the project the “beginning of a revolution,” Inslee celebrated “free photons from the sun” and said there will soon be “hundreds” of projects like the Miller microgrid on community centers across the state. Continue reading →

Seattle Fire treats overdose victim, one arrested after reported Miller Field stabbing — UPDATE

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One person reported stabbed turned out to be suffering an overdose and a suspect was arrested without incident in an afternoon altercation near the Miller Playfield. Seattle Fire treated the reported heroin overdose victim in the incident.

Seattle Police and Seattle Fire were called to the scene for an injured male reported just after 1:30 PM.

The victim had been reportedly stabbed by a man camping at the field but he was discovered to be suffering an overdose and had not been assaulted. Continue reading →

What is ‘the future of pickleball’ in Seattle? Parks to hold meeting on courts, new locations for the official sport of the pandemic

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Pickleball, the official sport of the Seattle pandemic™ and, basically, slow tennis, is having its moment. 3,300 people took time to fill out the city’s pickleball survey earlier this year.

Now the city’s parks and rec folks want more input from pickleball — and tennis — players as they share the results of three years of study and community feedback and roll out a new plan for “the future of pickleball in Seattle’s parks.” Continue reading →

BREAKING: SEATTLE PICKLEBALL STUDY IN CRUCIAL FINAL PHASE

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Miller’s courts have been busy (Image: Seattle Parks)

(Image: Seattle Parks)

The way this pandemic is going, we’re going to need a hell of a lot more than pickleball to get us through the days. But the pastime sport has helped people keep moving and has made the city’s netted sports courts busy centers of outdoor activity.

To cap off a $50,000, three-year study of the pastime sport — really — Seattle Parks is conducting a survey to find out more about how people want to use its outdoor courts and is looking for feedback from “tennis and pickleball players on how we can best support the growth of pickleball, a fast-growing sport in Seattle and the U.S” — emphasis theirs! Continue reading →

City has few answers in neighborhood meeting over Miller Playfield encampments

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(Image: CHS)

When an encampment at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park was swept in December, nearby parks saw a growth in tents as some unsheltered people looked for new places to go. One of those growing campsites is 19th Ave’s Miller Playfield.

Now with the district making plans for students to return to the adjacent Meany Middle School and the kids at nearby St. Joseph’s School already back in the classroom, neighbors met virtually Wednesday night with Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller and other city officials. The meeting organized by the Jesuit parish was set ostensibly, organizers said, to hear the city’s plans for interacting with the encampments over the next couple weeks and implore the city to prioritize removing individuals from Miller and find housing options for them.

“We invite you to join us, but want to make clear this will not be an open forum where anyone can speak,” the invite read. “We want to be very focused on getting concrete responses from the Deputy Mayor.”

“It’s an emergency, so if the city isn’t up to it, we need to know that,” one attendee said, summing up the tone of the night’s conversation.

The meeting came amid growing complaints about trash and disorder blamed on the encampments even as the COVID-19 crisis continues and limits safe options for shelter during the pandemic. It also fell only hours after Seattle Police officers and parks employees cleared about 20 people from Denny Park earlier Wednesday. Public health guidelines advise against sweeps during the COVID-19 crisis if there are no safe shelter alternatives available.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s administration has taken to touting the pounds of trash collected under a “Clean City” surge program set to end in April that has been focused on “removing trash to begin to set Seattle up for clear road to recovery—for our businesses, schools, neighborhoods, and residents.”

“Our challenges here at the city are not just about CDC guidance,” Sixkiller told the attendees of St. Joseph’s online session Wednesday night. “It is about access to services, it’s access to housing… We don’t have places for people to go and so as a result folks have found other ways to survive through the past year.” Continue reading →

After Cal Anderson sweep, other Capitol Hill park encampments grow

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A sign of protest before the Cal Anderson sweep

Though outreach efforts moved many campers into shelter in the sweep and clearance of tents and encampments from Cal Anderson just before Christmas, officials acknowledge camps have grown in other parks away from Capitol Hill’s core and tell CHS work to connect people to available facilities continues.

At one Seattle Parks field, Cal Anderson campers moved in immediately following the Friday, December 18th police raid and city worker sweep. Some brought vehicles and the shelter materials that had become parts of the scene for weeks along 11th Ave where Cal Anderson has now been officially reopened to the public after six months of closure.

Others joined the camps at Capitol Hill’s smaller park in the following days. A Seattle Parks representative tells CHS “there is no limit or measurement managed by SPR about how many people can camp.” Continue reading →