Parkways Seattle Parks and Recreation

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the Fremont community to review and provide input on the proposed design for the B. F. Day Playground Play Area Renovation project. Please participate in the online survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BFDayPlaygroundRenovation) to inform the design for the renovation. The survey will close on January 1, 2020.

This play area renovation project will replace the play equipment and improve the adjacent picnic area, including replacing the drinking fountain and making accessibility improvements in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and national safety standards.

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting on December 5, 2019.

Funding for this park project is provided by the Seattle Park District. Approved by voters in 2014, the Seattle Park District provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding to tackle the $267-million major maintenance backlog for Seattle Parks and Recreation as well as other facilities including the Aquarium and Zoo. In addition, it provides funding to improve and rehabilitate community centers, preserve the urban forest, perform day-to-day maintenance of parks and facilities, provide more recreation opportunities for people from underserved communities, provide programs for people of all ages and abilities, and acquire and develop new park land.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/b-f-day-playground-play-area-renovation

For questions about the project please contact Colin Campbell, colin.campbell@seattle.gov or 206-256-5604.

This year, we worked in every corner of the city to expand recreational opportunities, restore our urban forest, build and design new parks, renovate play areas, and engage with community.

As Seattle’s population grows, and livability, affordability, and transportation issues continue to become more challenging, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is working hard to provide affordable, accessible programming that helps maintain the livability of our city, and to provide indoor and outdoor spaces for community to gather, be active, and connect with each other and the natural environment.

Read on to see how SPR helped support Strong Communities in 2019, and click the links to see how we supported Healthy People and a Healthy Environment!

Strong Communities:

• Supported the citywide snow response: During the February 2019 snowstorm, SPR maintenance staff provided 6,151 hours of support to SDOT in snow and ice control, including removing snow from roads, sidewalks, and community centers, as well as hauling over 1,000,000 pounds of salt. SPR also opened two emergency shelters, one at Bitter Lake Community Center and one at Garfield Community Center, serving upwards of 50 residents each night for over two weeks.
• Celebrated the 30^th Anniversary of our Teen Late Night Program, a program that providing at-risk young people ages 13-19 with a safe place, a healthy meal, recreation programs, and the opportunity to develop life skills. 
• Welcomed volunteers: Through the third quarter of this year, we have had 17,824 volunteers donate 116,160 hours of support to SPR programs, parks and activities.
• Collaborated with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to hold 6 of their 14 Citizenship Clinics at SPR community centers. [Bitter Lake (twice), Meadowbrook, Van Asselt, Delridge, South Park]. A citizenship clinic is an event serving 25-50 people where volunteer attorneys, interpreters, and others assist eligible green card holders with completing their N-400 naturalization application. Attendees may also receive information about low-interest loans to pay for the naturalization application processing fee or help completing a fee waiver application.
• Completed the Seattle Parks and Recreation 2020-2032 Strategic Plan that will guide SPR’s priorities and investments. This plan lays out a bold vision for how SPR can help achieve our vision of supporting Healthy People, a Healthy Environment, and Strong Communities and build a more equitable and inclusive parks and recreation system. As part of the process, we engaged with over 10,000 people in many ways at over 35 meetings, Parks and Rec Fests, listening sessions, social media, online and more. SPR’s Community Engagement Ambassadors attended meetings and events and were able to communicate with the public in 12 languages.
• Supported a range of special events and activities in parks: Our Event Scheduling Office issued close to 5,000 use permits, including 237 ceremonies, 17 day camps, 977 special events, 263 film permits and 3,594 picnic reservations.

This year, we worked in every corner of the city to expand recreational opportunities, restore our urban forest, build and design new parks, renovate play areas, and engage with community.

As Seattle’s population grows, and livability, affordability, and transportation issues continue to become more challenging, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is working hard to provide affordable, accessible programming that helps maintain the livability of our city, and to provide indoor and outdoor spaces for community to gather, be active, and connect with each other and the natural environment.

Read on to see how SPR helped support a Healthy Environment in 2019, and click the links to see how we supported Healthy People and Strong Communities!

Healthy Environment:

• Acquired new park land: SPR acquired 8 parcels of property, totaling 7.8 acres of new public park lands. These acquisitions, consisting of 6 acres of new greenspace properties and 1.8 acres of active park land, meet a range of public open space and recreation needs. Scheduled to close in late December 2019 is an addition to Terry Pettus Park, which will effectively double the access to Lake Union for the Eastlake community.
• Restored our urban forest: This year, through the Green Seattle Partnership, volunteers donated more than 62,000 hours of time to remove invasive plants from more than 105 acres of parkland and helped us install more than 72,000 plants.
• Supported pesticide reduction efforts: SPR coordinated efforts to propose and implement a Mayor’s Executive Order restricting the use of the pesticide Glyphosate by the City.
• Managed irrigation and reduced water use through computer-assisted monitoring and timely irrigation head repair across 350 irrigated sites.
• Maintained parks citywide: SPR provided 320,719 labor hours to maintain parks citywide.
• Supported the completion of the Master Plan Update for Kubota Garden: Working with the Kubota Garden Foundation, we jointly supported the completion of the Master Plan Update for Kubota Garden to build a roadmap for the planning, development and refinement of Kubota Garden over the next 25 years.

This year, we worked in every corner of the city to expand recreational opportunities, restore our urban forest, build and design new parks, renovate play areas, and engage with community.

As Seattle’s population grows, and livability, affordability, and transportation issues continue to become more challenging, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is working hard to provide affordable, accessible programming that helps maintain the livability of our city, and to provide indoor and outdoor spaces for community to gather, be active, and connect with each other and the natural environment.

Read on to see how SPR helped support Healthy People in 2019, and click the links to see how we supported a Healthy Environment and Strong Communities!

Healthy People:

• Opened new parks & renovated playgrounds! We opened Urban Triangle Park in the South Lake Union neighborhood, and Alice Ball Park in the Greenwood/Phinney neighborhood. We also continued to work on the design and permitting of 7 landbanked sites which are on track to open in 2020. In addition, SPR renovated 6 play areas across Seattle (David Rodgers, E.C. Hughes; Wallingford PF; Gas Works; High Point; Puget Ridge).

• Welcomed summer beach goers: More than 186,000 people visited our lifeguarded summer beaches!
• Partnered to support Scholarships and Summer of Safety: Amazon and the Alliance for Education granted SPR $225,000 to support our work keeping young people engaged in safe, structured activities during the summer. SPR used these funds to provide scholarships for 142 young people on our camp waitlist, allowing them to attend 932 weeks of camp, collectively. In addition, we supported the Summer of Safety, a drop-in program geared toward youth not otherwise enrolled in programming, that served an average of 72 youth a day.
• Expanded access to Roller Derby: When Seattle-area roller derby teams lost their main practice space in Shoreline, SPR worked with them to identify spaces, times, and other needs to help accommodate this growing sport that serves mostly young women. Now, we’ve put roller derby stripes on courts at Bitter Lake, Delridge, Garfield, and Meadowbrook community centers, with more to come.
• Achieved record-breaking attendance at specialty gardens: Working with our partners, we achieved a record number of attendance at three specialty gardens: Kubota Garden (over 100,000 visitors); Japanese Gardens (over 100,000 visitors); and Washington Park Arboretum (over 250,000 visitors).