PARK(ing) Day – Sept 18th

July 30, 2009 / / No Comments

Last year, Aldan worked with some great people at FeetFirst and the Trust for Public Land to make ECOSS’s first-ever park for PARK(ing) Day. For those of you who didn’t come by South Park on that chilly, rainy day, we had hula hooping, ring tosses, and more hula hooping. So what is PARK(ing) Day?

San Francisco art collective REBAR first created “PARK(ing)” in 2005 to re-imagine the potential of the metered parking space. In 2006, in collaboration with TPL, REBAR founded “PARK(ing) Day”: a global exploration of the creative potential of streets.

Basically you take a parking spot along the street (there are tips for securing metered and unmetered spots) and you turn it into a park for a day. It was pretty fun, and really not as much work as you’d imagine since the partners have pretty much figured out everything you might possibly need to know. There was another park in our hood last year, and some in Georgetown, but this year we’d love to see more south-of-downtown neighborhoods represented! If you’re interested, there’s an Information and Training Event next Thursday August 6th, from 6.30pm – 7.30pm at the Officer’s Club in the Armory at Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Ave N.
E-mail Elaine Boyd to RSVP, and don’t forget to join the PARK(ing) Day Seattle Group on Ning!

-Audrey

A sad day in South Park – Updated

July 20, 2009 / / No Comments

We would be remiss if we did not address the fatal tragedy that took place in our office’s neighborhood this weekend. Two women were stabbed in their sleep on Sunday morning at 3am, leaving one of the women too injured to survive. The suspect is still at large. Police say the suspect is a black male in his late 20’s or early 30’s, between 5′ 8″ and 6′ 0″, has a thin mustache, medium build and is slightly muscular. The FBI is now joining the manhunt.

There is an emergency community meeting tonight at the South Park Community Center at 7:00. Our deepest condolences to the friends and family of the two women. Let’s all do our part to make sure this doesn’t happen again – please contact the Seattle Police Homicide Unit at (206) 684-5550 with any information, or King County Crime Stoppers at (206) 343-2020 or send a text to “crimes” (274637).

7/21-Update:
The Stranger has a great article that details the community meeting last night (along with a sketch of the suspect) here.

7/22-Update:
A Community Candlelight Vigil in remembrance of the victim, Theresa Butz, has been scheduled for this Thursday, July 23rd at 7:30pm, at the South Park Community Center.

-Elise

South Park, Seattle; not South Park, CO

June 10, 2009 / / No Comments

When I tell people I work in South Park, I am often met with either blank stares (“Where is that?”) or sarcastic comments (“Do you work with Cartman?”). In the rarer case where my partner in conversation has heard of the scrappy little neighborhood where ECOSS’s offices are located, they usually live in Georgetown or South Park, or have the impression that aside from crime, poverty, or waste transfer stations, there’s nothing else down here.

Not true, my friends.

Among all the other strong community development and neighborhood groups, the new “Market On Wheels” South Park Farmers’ Market starts on June 20th, and last weekend kicked off yet another community mural project at the now-defunct County Line bar just over the crumbling South Park bridge… okay that may not make our little neighborhood (did I already use the word scrappy?) sound like a booming commercial center, but both the Farmer’s Market and the mural represent an ongoing commitment to revitalizing this neighborhood. Dow Constantine, who has tossed his hat into the ring for King County Executive, even signed a highly-visible pledge to support the replacement of the bridge (which carries about 20,000 vehicles every day) as part of the mural work this weekend.

So if you’ve never been south of Yesler (other than the occasional trip to Alki, that is), my suggestion is to celebrate the end of Spring by coming to South Park on June 20th for the final weekend of the mural painting and the kick-off of the Market… and yes, you should still have time to get to the Solstice Parade in Fremont to catch some cyclists in the buff.

-Audrey

South Park food bank clients are seeing green

April 15, 2009 / / 6 Comments

South Park Fresh Starts (SPFS) is a partnership project between Yard Farmers and the Providence Regina House Food Bank in South Park.

The purpose of the program is to distribute vegetable plant starts to food bank clients. We provide educational materials in both Spanish and English, opportunities to ask questions of professional growers, and supplies for growing vegetables inside.

SPFS is a program designed to supplement the produce available to local food bank clients. With more people finding themselves in tight economic situations, the Providence Regina House Food Bank in South Park has seen their amount of patrons sky-rocket to record setting numbers. Talking with community members made me realize that there was a lot of untapped agricultural knowledge in South Park. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that most of this neighborhood was farmland. Seeing this trend and understanding the local history, all while trying to imagine creative solutions, it occurred to me that I already had the skills to help.

Next door to the food bank is a small greenhouse that had gone unused for several years. With some help from Kathy Pryor, the Sustainable Communities Advocate at Washington Toxics Coalition, we were able to get the greenhouse in working order. Currently we have more than 1600 plants growing, with the opportunity for more on the way. In about a month we will start distributing these on Saturday mornings during the regular food bank hours.

Food Banks typically have a difficult time obtaining fresh, nutritious produce from donors, so this project is attempting to fill that gap by empowering clients to supplement their diet with hyper-local, healthy vegetables.

-Todd