The Ballard Chamber of Commerce has received it’s second grant in a year for the neighborhood. On Wednesday, the mayor announced that 18 neighborhood business districts will receive $1 million from the city as part of the Seattle Jobs Plan. Ballard will see a small chunk of that money.
In November of last year, the “Only in Ballard” campaign launched to highlight what Ballard has to offer. This grant serves a different purpose. “This grant is really more about Ballard and its unique issues. It addresses more than promotional needs, though that will ultimately be a component,” Beth Williamson Miller, Executive Director of the Chamber tells us. “The ultimate goal is to bring the merchant community together, determine overall needs, build some structure and create a vision and a plan just for Ballard. The hope is to build participation, create greater involvement and to get creative about funding going forward.”
Williamson Miller doesn’t know the final dollar amount that Ballard will receive from the Office of Economic Development, she says there is at least $8,000 to work with a consultant “to study and solve some of the problems facing Ballard’s business core. These include lose of retail businesses, empty storefronts, and the fragmented nature of our merchant community.”
“Once we get the contract in place, the Chamber will be reaching out to the merchant community to identify key partnerships and to begin meeting with individual business owners,” Williamson Miller says.
(Disclosure: MyBallard is a member of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce.)
hmmm. $8000 would probably pay for a small portion of the legal fees we’ve wasted to block construction of the ‘missing link.
c’mon Beth “build some structure”, “create a vision or a plan.”
These sound like descriptions of trail construction. or are you just pulling our leg again?
I think the city could have used that 1 million for better things. For example, a rookie police officer makes 64,310 per year. 1 million dollars could hire 15 new police officers.
I don’t think it’s that simple. Don’t they spend a lot of money training these guys before they actually start patrolling?
not that this training is that effective. oops, wrong thread!
We would probably had a safe multi-use “missing link” path constructed now if it were not for the Ballard Chamber and their obstruction. Hearing that they received money is just nauseating. I will not do business with any member of the Ballard Chamber. Keep in mind that most Ballard businesses are NOT members of the Chamber.
Spend that money to chase the bums out of Ballard, or at least stop making it such a welcoming place for them. THAT would be the best thing anyone could to for local businesses. I know lots of people who no longer come to Ballard because of all the scumbags. As long as the city makes coddling the bums a higher priority than keeping the streets safe, local businesses will continue to decline.
This week in Ballard: Huge Graffiti all over Kitchen & Things, several business’ flower pots cracked with baseball bats and tipped over, several doorways are home to outdoor sleepers, trash every where, vacant buildings all along the Market Street corridor, dry goods shops going out of business still, more bars and liquour-serving establishments opening up. I doubt $8,000 is going to help with any of these problems, but it does solve the problem of lack of revenue for Chamber staff salaries.
If you hire 15 new police officers at $64,000, then you can pay them for one year with that $1 million. Then you have to cut those 15 police officers, because that $1 million is gone.
Because Ballard is the only place in Seattle with bums…
I will not do business with any member of the Ballard Chamber.
Disclosure: MyBallard is a member of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce
Ooops, bye bye.
Thanks for bringing this up donard.
And what products or services am I purchasing from MyBallard? MyBallard has adressed these issues in the past as to their membership in the chamber. Perhaps as a news organization being a member of the chamber allows access to their BS. It is important that the media report on this organization and expose the chamber for what it is. Since the chamber is not working in the best interests of Ballard, I and others choose to boycott any member of the organization, and I urge other to look at the facts about the chamber and do the same..
“These include lose of retail businesses, empty storefronts, and the fragmented nature of our merchant community.”
I think the merchants are fragmented because the BCOC doesn’t represent their interests. Rather than siding with Gravel and Oil to fight the city and alienate customers perhaps the BCOC would have done more good by playing an intermediary or looking for solutions that would help everyone.
Other than the Seafood fest, which is great for funnel cake sellers that weekend, I don’t see the real results of anything the Chamber does on the ground.
The Tuesdays in Ballard and Buy in Ballard campaigns were both run by a rival merchants association, so what does the BCOC really do other than join in on their pals obstructionist lawsuits?
I’ve stopped using Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel. I’ll admit I probably wasn’t their largest customer, but I was in there more than a few times spending real money before the lawsuit. I know a couple contractors/design build guys who also stopped using them over the Missing Link lawsuit.
School out this week?
Of course we’re not, but it does make a difference to a lot of people who have options when it comes to shopping destinations.
“what products or services am I purchasing from MyBallard”
You’ve heard of ‘web advertising’ and ‘hits’, right? Or is your spandex on too tight?
Doesn’t matter what you are purchasing. By participating in these forums and reading MyBallard you are enriching the Swedes by allowing them to charge advertisers based on how many people come to this site. More people, more revenue for MyBallard.
How about hire one police officer for 15 years. Then have that officer work Ballard exclusively for one month each year, Magnolia one month per year, Capitol Hill one month each year, etc. 12 different neighborhoods.
Suggestion Swedes… If the same 4-8 posters post 85 times on a comment thread I find that I’m wasting my time reading the same posters making the same comments over and over again. What would be better is just mentioning how many people have commented on the thread. Last week I read 96 comments and it was the same 6 people.
86 times.
87 times…
if you or any one in your family needs to go to the hospital, make sure you drive all the way across town to first hill or harbor view, because ballard swedish is a chamber member…
and you and those couple contractors must have put a real dent in SBS&G’s business since they continue to operate…
Thanks for pointing that out Ballard Swedish is a member, I feel that the university hospital is better anyway. For a complete list of businesses to boycott pick up the Ballard Business Directory published by the chamber. The large majority of Ballard businesses are not part of the chamber, why would any business pay money into a bad cause while people are actively boycotting members of the organization.
There you go again asking about my spandex. I find this mildly disturbing. Sorry to disappoint you but I do not wear spandex. If you are trying to characterize the “missing link” and the chambers attempts to stop it as just about bicyclists, you are wrong. The multi-use path will be used by many people from babies in strollers to the elderly, recreational users to commuters. This issue also affects the Seattle taxpayer that has spend much money to fight the chamber. Also affected is anyone who drives along this route and is slowed due to the non automobile users that could be on a separate safe path. This issue affect us all, not just bicyclists.
SPG, the same damn rant over and over and over is really tiring. And I can’t be the only one.
The Chamber puts on ArtWalk, SeafoodFest, BURP (the mobile vendors and free movie in the park), the Sidewalk Sale, the Ballard Business Directory, it won the grant from the City that spotlighted Ballard and several local business in the Only in Seattle campaign last year, etc. These events bring a lot of business to Ballard.
It’s clear you hate the Chamber. But it’s also clear you’ve either never taken the time to learn about this non-profit member-based organization or you really do choose to view it myopically through the narrow lens of the trail. There’s more to life than just this one issue.
Next week.
Typical childish, entitled idiots that have ruined this city.
The chamber was also involved in getting the ballard “skate park” built.
And the Ballard Business Directory that the chamber puts together, and is free, also includes Ballard businesses that are not chamber members.
clearly they’ve done nothing for ballard but block the trail….
yawn….considering how popular ballard is on weekday and weekend nights and how popular the ballard farmer’s market is on sundays, the bums don’t appear to be a deterrent to anybody…
and the people who are “actively boycotting members of the organization” have accomplished what exactly?
Doing some good things does not give them a free pass on everything else they do, such as suing the city.
The Rant is Too Damn High!
How about you renters quit bitching about the bike trail. If Ballard land owners could vote we would say no, the problem is letting the temporary renters have a say. We don’t want no stinkin bike path down Seaview.
Ballard rise up and support our family wage jobs, seems the progressives want your hard earned tax dollars for their entitlements. Stop the madness.
I urge you to donate to BCC today to support the lawsuit and appeal.
Clean up the litter, graffiti, and bums. If that was done the neighborhoodwould be more inviting and business owners would want to invest here.
The chamber does put on these events, and uses them as fundraisers to hire lawyers to sue the city, costing all the taxpayers lots of money and delays.
They do publish the Ballard business directory. This is great because they list members and non members of the chamber. I use this guide to find a retailer or service provider who is NOT a member.
My hope is that someday they will get back on track and be a positive benefit for the community.
Like I said, I’m not their largest customer. The point is that in this economy should companies really do things like this that are going to alienate customers and potential customers who live in the neighborhood? I’m hesitant to call it a boycott, but the reality is that I just don’t want to do business with a company that doesn’t share the interests of the larger community, or in this case actively works against them in a real way.
Before this trail brouhaha, if there was a zoning issue that would have impacted SBSG or Ballard Oil I probably would have taken their side. Now that I see where they stand in regards to the people that live here, well…let’s just say that I won’t go out of my way to support them should they need it. Will they? Probably not now, but eventually that area will come up for a rezone and that will be the fight that they’ll need the support of their neighbors.
belch…considering how often I hear from people who have run ins with the bums around the library in the middle of the day and then decide that they can shop elsewhere, the bums do in fact deter a few people…
I’m not the only one ranting here…