Big turnout for movie at new park

Posted by Geeky Swedes on July 18th, 2009

Over a hundred people unfolded their chairs and blankets to watch the movie “Wall-E” in Ballard’s newest park on Saturday night.

It was the largest event to date at the new park property purchased by the city last year at 9th Ave. NW, just up from 70th St. Earlier in the day, volunteers helped clean up the park, and neighbors enjoyed ice cream while filling out an informal survey on their vision for the property. The movie was organized by the Whittier Heights Community Council. Plans to develop the park will start taking shape this fall with a series of public meetings.

Plus: See more photos here, courtesy of My Ballard reader Silver

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Alyssa

Hi - I am the volunteer lead for the park. We aren't pursuing any neighborhood matching funds at this time. The levy had $800,000 put aside for this park, and the development meetings will begin this fall/winter. If you are interested in helping with the park, you can join our list by emailing: 9thavenwpark (at) gmail (dot) com. The city/public has not given the park a formal name yet, so that's what we have for now. Naming comes at the end of the development process from what I have heard.
Silver - in your pictures, its me and Karim Miller from WHCC giving a little welcoming speech.
Thanks
Alyssa

Silver

Thanks, Alyssa! I've changed it. I'll go try to figure out what you last name is. ;-)

Silver

Got it! Smith, right?

Alyssa

Yes - thanks!

Thanks to all involved, and I am glad everyone enjoyed the park. We were glad to have so many first time visitors!

datajunkie

So this park is nameless? I'm not saying the name "Park at 9th Ave. NW, just up from 70th St" is a bad name or anything. It's actually quite descriptive.

gumba

The New Park on 9th is just a working name for now. It will eventually go through Parks' naming process. I suggested 7th Heaven, since it is the former 7th Elect Church in Israel site, but I think the neighbors spearheading the planning for it wanted something more descriptive.

whittierwisdom

I like your reference to the 7th elect church. What do you know about the bretheren? Some of us don't remember.

gumba

I can't speak with any authority on the 7th Elect Church. The Weekly ran a pretty extensive article on them in the early 90's, I believe. I don't know how accurate it was. I met a former member who was involved in the sale of the property to the Parks Department. She was a very nice lady who wasn't particularly interested in commemorating the church, but seemed to like the 7th Heaven name idea, as well as some sort of respectful interpretive element about the church's role in the history of the site, if the neighbors were inclined to include that sort of thing.

jm

A great film!

lia

What? I wish I knew about this! I so would've gone!

evanb

Wow - what a great event sorry that we missed it.

In related news - I see the link to the WHCC (whittier heights community council) but their website hasn't been updated since last year.

I'm interested in getting involved with the planning for this park - but not sure who is leading the effort. Does anyone have information about it? Is it pursuing a Neighborhood Matching Fund for this cycle?

whittierwisdom

look at groundswell NW which is sort of a parentorg/fiscal umbrella for the "friends of 9th Avw park". The "friends" group is responsible for facilitating planning......and if it is like any other park "friends" group is open to all sorts of volunteer effort. What sort of neighborhood match fund do you think is essential at this point in time?

Silver

Hi Evanb,

I put the contact info I had in the caption of this photo:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dk8VWvXU8Q...

(Scroll down to see it.)

Silver

Oh man! My pictures suck by comparison!

If you want to see them anyway, they're here: http://picasaweb.google.com/silverone/MovieNigh...

Thanks for organizing this, WHCC!