Mother’s Day is here and it is time to celebrate the special lady in your life! To mark the occasion the My Ballard team want to feature some special messages and photos for the amazing local Mom’s out there.

Reader Elle writes:
“I have an amazing, supportive and beautiful mother!  I could not be more lucky.  My parents are about to celebrate their 1 year anniversary moving to Ballard from the East Coast and I am exceptionally grateful to have them close by.  Here we are at The Viking celebrating Halloween! I love you, Mom!”

Elle and her Mom

If you have a shoutout or photo that you would like included in our special Mother’s Day post email us at tips@myballard.com and we will upload it!

The weekend is here and the sun is shining just in time for Mother’s Day! Check out the great events going on in and around our neighborhood on our weekly weekend roundup.

Friday May 10:

• Launch of new book “The Originals” by author Cat Patrick at Secret Garden Bookstore (2214 NW Market St) from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Attendees will be treated to clone-worthy food and beverages like DNA cupcakes and test tube punch, then a (humorous) dramatic reading featuring Cat and her You Are Next tour mates, Sean Beaudoin (The Infects), Martha Brockenbrough (Devine Intervention), and Kevin Emerson (The Lost Code), during which time it is possible that boys will read—and dress—as girls. There will be a photo-cloning station for participants and their look-alikes. Click here for more details.

Saturday May 11:

• Golden Gardens Work Party at Golden Gardens Park (8498 Seaview Pl NW) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For more information click here or email doug@greshamenvironmental.com

• Bergen Place Work Party (5420 22nd Ave NW) from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. All are welcome. For more details contact Victoria Sangrey Hunter at (206) 335-8391 or email v.sangrey@comcast.net

• Carkeek Park Family Low Tide Beach Walk (950 NW Carkeek Park Rd) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Search for anemones, moon snails, and clams during a great low tide. Learn more about life in Puget Sound.All are welcome and the event is free. Click here for more details.

• Sound Cycling Series at Ballard Library (5614 22nd Ave NW) from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. Anne and Tim King, long-time Seattle bike bloggers at carfreedays.com, will discuss how to get started biking in Seattle. Workshop is free and all are welcome.

• Free Them 5km/10km Run/Walk to Stop Human Trafficking is being held in Fremont. Click here for more details.

• VolunteerGo Kick Off Event at Ballard Odd Fellows Hall (1706 NW Market St) from 7:30 p.m. Show your support for volunteers everywhere by helping make VolunteerGo a reality. Enjoy live entertainment, a DJ and raffle with awesome prizes. Tickets are $10. Click here for more information.

Sunday May 12:

• Autumn Martin’s Mother’s Day Cooking Class at Hot Cakes Molten Cakery (5427 Ballard Ave NW) at 2 p.m. Martin is hosting a special class for moms and kids, of all ages. During the hour-long class Martin will demo a creamy dreamy shake, a brand new preserved Meyer lemon caramel sauce, and her award-winning sea salt caramel sauce. The cost for the class is $50 per person, and it includes a signed copy of her new book Malts & Milkshakes and a 7 oz. jar of Pacific Coast Sea Salt Caramel. To reserve a spot, please call 206.420.3431. Space is limited.

• Ballard Farmer’s Markets on Ballard Ave from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Head on down and buy something special for Mom. Click here to see what’s happening this week.

• Carkeek Park Family Low Tide Beach Walk (950 NW Carkeek Park Rd) from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Search for anemones, moon snails, and clams during a great low tide. Learn more about life in Puget Sound.All are welcome and the event is free. Click here for more details.

• Discovery Park Family Low Tide Beach Walk (3801 Discovery Park Blvd) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Explore the intertidal world of sea stars and clams. The walk is perfect for young children. All are welcome and the event is free. Click here for more details.

• Mom and Me Event at Woodland Park Zoo (601 N 59th St). Mom’s receive half price on Zoo entry all day on Mother’s Day. Click here to check out a list of the special Mother’s Day events.

• Taylor Sherman Exhibition Opening at Seattle Creative Arts Center (2601 NW Market St) from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. The subjects range from abstract colors and shapes, to landscapes and foliage, to occasionally even people. This show focuses exclusively on photographs taken in and around Ballard in 2012 and 2013. Click here for more information.

Know of more events on this weekend? Want to include a special shoutout or photo for Mom in our special Mother’s Day post? Email us at tips@myballard.com

Photo courtesy of Woodland Park Zoo.

Tomorrow night, Adams Elementary School choir will take center field at Safeco Field to sing the National Anthem for the Mariners’ game. The students submitted an audition and were chosen earlier this year to sing before the Mariners vs Oakland A’s game. They’ll take the stage at 5:57 p.m. and the game starts at 6:10. The game will also be aired on Roots Sports.

“We’re so proud of the kids, they’ve been practicing outside to get a better feeling of this but I don’t think anything is going to prepare them for being on that huge field and this experience!” Adams Elementary parent and chair of the PTA music booster program Rachel Hart-Rios writes.

The event doubles as a fundraiser for the Adams Elementary music program. They’ve sold over 300 tickets, the proceeds of which will go directly to the school’s music program. If you are interested in finding out more information or wanted to purchase a ticket to the game email Sara Diregorio at sara.digregorio@comcast.net

The long-awaited opening of Hotel Ballard (5216 Ballard Avenue)  is finally here after seven years in the making. The hotel, owned by Debera and James Riggle, has been under construction for the past year and a half, and is the only 4-star hotel in Ballard.

Hotel Ballard is adjacent to the Olympic Athletic Club (also owned by the Riggles), has 29 rooms, with the costs ranging from $189 to $429 a night. In addition to offering complimentary access to the athletic club, the hotel will soon be joined by a restaurant on the ground level called Stoneburner and a private event space on the rooftop. Each room sounds pretty plush, offering king-size beds, free wi-fi, HD plasma screen TVs.

“The guest rooms, amenities and location create an unmatchable guest experience,” said Hotel Ballard General Manager Travis Williams in a statement. “We are already receiving feedback from our first guests about the warmth that they feel from the moment they walk into the lobby to the smallest details in the guest rooms. Additionally, the ability to be able to walk out the hotel’s front door and be in the center of a neighborhood like Ballard gives one a sense of belonging and really having a chance to explore the city.”

For more about the hotel or to make reservations, click here.

This Saturday is the monthly Art Walk in Ballard, during which artists open their studios to the public and businesses host local art on their walls. This Art Walk will feature art from Gordon Lambert.

On Saturday, May 11, several Seattle neighborhoods will be taking part in an earthquake preparedness drill. From 9 a.m. to noon, neighborhoods across the city will test their emergency radio communications skills in an exercise based on a simulated catastrophic earthquake. The goal of the exercise, according to the organizers, is to, “practice preparedness and response actions that will contribute to community resiliency in surviving a significant disaster.”

The drill, titled, “Mayday Mayday” will include over a hundred people from disaster preparedness groups and volunteer response teams, including the Public Health Reserve Corps and ham radio emergency communications teams, sponsored and trained by the Seattle Office of Emergency Management. They use radios for the drill because cell and landline phones can become overloaded or damaged due to catastrophic events.

From the organizers:

The scenario for the event is based on the impact of the 6.3 magnitude, 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand applied to the Seattle area.  That disaster took the lives of 185 people and severely damaged the central city buildings and infrastructure as well as causing massive destruction to its suburbs.

Responding to Saturday’s simulated disaster event are community volunteers forming neighborhood “Hubs”.  Participants have practiced solving neighborhood problems that could occur during a disaster, responding to needs affecting life and property, sharing community resources, and reporting simulated emergency messages to the Seattle Office of Emergency Management using ham radio.

“In a real event, information communicated by ham radio from the Hubs could be used by City response planners to help assess conditions throughout the city and develop response plans”, said Cindi Barker, a member of the design team for the exercise. Exercise designers have built in some twists and turns involving communications networks and several challenging issues at Hub sites which will develop during the three hour training event.

These exercises provide an opportunity for preparedness new-comers to work alongside their more experienced neighbors to gain experience and learn skills.  “It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors” said Carl Leon, one of the drill organizers.  “We set up neighborhood Hubs where people can come to get information and share resources or skills to help those that have been affected”.

The Loyal Heights Community Center (2101 NW 77th St) is one of the participating hubs. Other locations include Beacon Hill, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Fremont, Lake City, Magnolia, Maple Leaf, Queen Anne, Shilshole, Wedgwood and West Seattle. All locations welcome visitors who would like to learn and participate in the drill. Contact Cheryl Dyer at 206-684-4052 for more information on the Loyal Heights hub.

To learn more about the city’s emergency preparedness, visit the Seattle Emergency Management site.

Tonight is the monthly meeting for the Central Ballard Residents Association at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Swedish Hospital. The meeting tonight will include a roundtable discussion on public safety issues and placement of a “comfort station” at the Ballard Commons Park. Also in the discussion will be a conversation about how to make central Ballard and the Commons Park a safer place for residents.

The CBRA was formed by residents of Ballard to provide a forum for and to advocate on behalf of residents, “to promote a healthy, livable, walkable and safe community in Ballard’s historic core.” The meeting is open to all. For more about the CBRA, click here.

The park proposed for 14th Ave NW has a $3 million price tag, and that’s irking some residents. The park will replace the parking median down the middle of 14th, just north of NW Market St. The plans have been in the works for the last several years, but according to a recent article by KOMO News, some residents are worried about whether it’s worth the price.

One of the sketches of the park boulevard plan presented to the Ballard District Council last year

KOMO looked at the issue as part of their “What a Waste” series, and interviewed some residents about the project. Park opponent Tom Ormbrek told KOMO, “I really doubt that most of the taxpayers when they voted for this levy fund envisioned a 29 foot park with a water garden – for three million dollars.”

The park will be 29 feet wide, and will span two blocks. Traffic will be diverted to one side of the park, and a 13-foot rain garden will be added.

The proposed park also gained some negative attention last year because it will eliminate 89 parking spaces, which residents say are in high demand because of the recently constructed apartment buildings on NW Market St. East Ballard Community Association’s Dawn Hemminger recognizes that the park isn’t large, but said it will be a much-needed green space for the nearby residents. Currently, the closest park is Gilman Park, which is on the south side of NW Market St., but locals want something closer to their homes. “It’s going to be more of a respite, more of a nice place to meet friends and family,” Hemminger told KOMO.

Funding to develop the park became available from the voter-approved 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy Acquisition Fund, according to Seattle Parks and Recreation. The Seattle City Council will consider the final approval in the next few months, and construction is planned to start in early 2014. To see the city’s plans and read more about the background of the park, click here.

While the sunshine kept most people away, a group of about a dozen gathered for last night’s Ballard District Council meeting, which covered several changes coming to the neighborhood, including the installation of Ballard greenways, zoning changes to some Interbay areas, and street improvements for the coming year.

City makes first phase of recommendations for land use in Interbay

First on the agenda was the results from a year-long land use study in Interbay. Patrice Carroll from the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD) presented the findings and recommendations from the study, which looked at ways in which Interbay is currently used and where there is room for growth and change. The city focused on the Dravus area, which includes the 15th Ave corridor just north and south of Dravus St. Carroll said the recommendation is to replace the Industrial General (IG) zoning with Industrial Commercial (IC), which the DPD believes would encourage local production uses.

Carroll also highlighted the Armory area, which includes the area just north of the Magnolia Bridge alone the 15th Ave corridor. Carroll said the DPD recommended augmenting the retail space. “This could be a good place for retail that’s not available in other places along this corridor that could serve not only the local neighborhoods of Queen Anne and Magnolia, but also the downtown community – that is where most of the growth will happen over the next 20 years,” Carroll said.

To review the recommendations online, click here. The DPD will continue to ask for feedback via this online survey prior to making their final recommendations for land use in the area.

Greenways underway in Ballard

Next on the agenda was the Ballard Greenways, which are already being installed along 58th Ave NW.

Ballard Greenways route map. (Click on map for larger version) Graphic courtesy SDOT

The majority of the work being done includes curb ramp installation, paint on the road to designate bike lanes, signs and new “rapid flash beacons,” which are essentially crosswalks with button-activated flashing lights. The installations, which cost the city about $900,000, include the following implementations (from SDOT):

• Directional signs, neighborhood greenway signs, 20 mph speed limit signs andbicycle pavement markings
• New stop signs to control traffic crossing the greenway at certainintersections
• Wider sidewalk on Seaview Avenue NW
• Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons at 24th Avenue NW and NW 58th Street
• Partial diverter for eastbound traffic at 15th Avenue NW and NW 58th Street (at St. Alphonsus School)
• ADA ramps, speed humps, crosswalks and crossbikes
• Bicycle parking at destinations along the route
• Concrete panel and spot pavement repair

Chris Saleeba from the Ballard Greenways group says one of major focuses of the greenway is to control the arterial crossings along 58th Ave NW. “That’s really one of the most challenging aspects of riding a bike, or walking, or being a dad and pushing a stroller, is getting across those really busy intersections,” Saleeba explained. The greenways project should be complete by the end of the summer.

City’s street improvement plan for 2013

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s Art Brochet went over some of the street improvement plans for Ballard in the coming year. Some upcoming projects include the following:

• New curb bulb at SE corner of NW Market St. at Tallman Ave NW
• Mid block crosswalk improvements – 24th Ave NW (between NW 77th & 80th Sts)
• New crosswalk – Seaview Ave NW near NW 70th St. – no curb ramps until 2014
• Ped walkway improvements – 17th ve NW (NW 89th to 90th Sts)

South Ballard corridor improvements:

• Pavement patches on NW 45th St. west of 11th Ave NW (Fred Meyer)
• Advisory bike lanes on NW 45th St. between 11th and 15th Aves NW
• Revised striping on Shilshole Ave NW from 15th ave NW (around bridge piers) to 46th Ave NW
• Painted island at intersection of Shilshole Ave NW and NW 46th St.
• Repair of shoulder on Shilshole Ave NW between 17th Ave NW and the 2300 block
• Curb ramp on Shilshole Ave NW at 24th Ave NW (SE corner)
• Painted island at Ballard Ave NW and 17th Ave NW (SW corner near Canvas Supply)
• Painted T-intersection where NW 48th meets Ballard Ave

Other work for this year includes the Ballard Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project and some remaining Rapid Ride D line projects.

The local great blue heron population has been relocating their nesting sites due to an increase in eagle predation, and a local group is asking Ballard and Magnolia residents for help with finding their new nesting locations. According to the Heron Habitat Helpers, the majority of 90-plus heron nests established this spring in Kiwanis Reserve near Discovery Park have failed due to eagles preying on their eggs and chicks. The group is asking that residents report sightings of herons carrying twigs and building new nests to info@heronhelpers.org.

Pam Cahn with the Heron Habitat Helpers reported that most of the herons have abandoned the colony due to the increased predation, and an undetermined number of nests, some with chicks that have hatched, remain. Cahn also reported that in the last few days, there’s been an increase in heron nest-building activity at Commodore Park. She believes those new nests are being built by the displaced Kiwanis Reserve herons.

The Heron Habitat Helpers say that people in the area can help track the nesting activity by watching for herons in flight carrying small sticks and twigs and noting approximately where the birds land. They note that the herons nest in both deciduous and coniferous trees.

Photo courtesy Heron Habitat Helpers’ webcam