This comes at a time when Delridge is taking for-freakin’-ever and Maple Leaf skaters got straight up jacked.  I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

But I tell you what, Seattle Parks project manager Kim Baldwin sure knows how to get it done.  This one was presumed to have been DOA.  With Lower Woodland, Jefferson, and now Crown Hill under her belt, she’s looking to take the title from the reigning SPD skatepark champion, Kelly Davidson (Dahl, Delridge, and the Capitol Hill skatedot).

As usual, don’t celebrate until the ‘crete is dry, but this is a great little amendment to the system up in the NW corner of our soon-to-be-skateable city.

Watch here for the meeting notices and get your ass out there. These projects have a way of going South unless there’s a solid base of support behind them.  You never know when those crafty lawn bowlers are going to sneak up and snatch your turf.

Three skaters showed up to the last meeting, which would’ve been a great time to get feeedback in, so it should be interesting to see who shows and what goes down.  It’s probably a bit late to get major changes in, but several things came out in the last meeting and in the Grindline forums that may be reflected in the amended design:

• separating the flow area into two smaller bowls to accommodate more simultaneous skating
• squaring off the deep end for true vert skating
• bringing the street section into focus because Seattle needs it
• the effect of Seattle Parks discovering a huge underground utility line that runs right across the middle of the site, making sub-grade features a no-go in the place that makes the most sense to have them

I’m mostly just curious to see who shows up.  Even though it’s billed as the presentation of the schematic design, changes have been made after the “final” meeting in the past.  They don’t really need to have a meeting to unveil a design, so it should be assumed they want your feedback.  Show up if you care.

The meeting will be held in the usual spot:  Jefferson Park Community Center.

“The park is being built now.  Rough grades, fill, and subgrade compaction are complete.  Gravel underlayment has been placed and Mark Hubbard is onsite this week getting the forms laid out.  One of the folks from Grindline Japan is in town and is supposed to be lending a hand in the coming weeks.  Hopefully the dry weather holds, although we are out of the woods now that the site has passed geotech inspection and properly drains so as to not create ponding in the middle of the site.  Anyone who might have a giant tent to loan would be the biggest hero in the world – let me know if you hear of anything.

We’re looking at 7-9 weeks until the concrete work is complete.  It is nice to finally follow up on the pledges that were made so long ago.  James Klinedint’s tireless work to document the park for permit (TWICE!!!), Hubbard being there for us on and off and on again, Matt Fluegge’s cool hand, Department of Neighborhoods’ cash money, SODO Rotary, NUCOR’s rebar donation, Cadman’s super-discount, and the South Park neighborhoods’ unwavering patience.”

This is huge news and the realization of an amazing grass-roots community skatepark success story.

A nice event at SeaSk8 has been planned by the usual suspects.  Get out there and skate, then look around and try to figure out how you can make every day Go Skate Day.  You know it should be.

It accompanied a less-interesting “best parks” list, which isn’t awful, but this kind of thing can be quite subjective.

This will likely be the last big skatepark project built in Seattle for a while due to the continuing Seattle Parks budget shenanigans.

The meeting is at 6pm, at the Jefferson Park Community Center (3801 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98108).

Once again, Skate Like a Girl has done a fantastic job organizing the action, with the help of the cream of Seattle’s skate industry crop.  The one thing that’s been coming out of a lot of these events is a willingness for competing skate-related businesses to work together to sponsor events.  It’s nice to see people putting business competition aside to help the skate community.

Anyway, the event sounds fun, super family-friendly, and as always will be a good time.  Go check it out @ SeaSk8, this Saturday starting at noon.

(via Skate Like A Girl)

The feedback has been good so far, and the locals have been participating which is great.  Grindline has posted three options for overall site layout.  Please log on to the Grindline forum, enter the password ‘jefferson2010′, and vote for the option you think works best for you and the overall Seattle skatepark system.  Then make sure to attend the next meeting on Wednesday, May 26th at 6pm, at the Jefferson Park Community Center (3801 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98108).

The scuttlebutt is that he quit, and that there are rumblings of the creation of a Metropolitan Park District that’s lorded over by the City Council, and not the Mayor.  More on this later, but there seems to be much upheaval in the world of Seattle Parks at the moment.

Here’s the ex-Supe’s resignation letter that says a bunch of stuff about staff education, and sums up his resignation as, in essence…”our goals do not align”.  But more importantly, he sounds an alarm about the sustainability and maintenance of the parks we already have which is something that the SPAC has seen first hand.

Thanks for the skateparks Tim!

—–

To:                          Mayor Mike McGinn

Council President Richard Conlin and Seattle City Council

From:                    Tim Gallagher, Superintendent Parks & Recreation

Subject:               Letter of Resignation

Effective May 10, 2010 I will resign my position as Superintendent of Parks and Recreation for the City of Seattle.

When I decided to return to work in 2007 my decision was based not only on the opportunity to manage one of the great park systems within the United States but my continued concerns with the issues of environmental sustainability and obesity, especially with the long-term health effects towards children.   During my time with Seattle I have made those issues a primary effort and one that was recognized by the Seattle public as important.

Further, I worked to develop an organization with a culture of learning and one that placed a value on the systems greatest resource, its employees.  I worked to develop and encourage a learning environment within the organization, bringing in new ideas and concepts and tracking the trends and developments in the field, not only in the United States but world-wide.  Further, I made an effort to reach out to the public as was evident by my 200 plus after hour public meetings each year.

As with many professions, continuing education is important to not only the sustainability of the profession but the requirement to be up to date.  Recently the department sent nearly three dozen employees to the annual Washington Parks and Recreation Society’s annual conference.  This is but one example of the many learning experiences and continuing education opportunities that the employees  have been provided  to attend during my term  with the City.  The investment in the employees has many positive outcomes, including, but not limited to the development of staff and delivery of services to the public.

I will stand by my efforts to develop this learning environment within the department not just as it relates to the employees but more importantly as it relates to the long-term sustainability of the department.  Clearly, the subject of long-term sustainability is one that must be addressed in the next year.  Voter approval of several recent levys shows  the tremendous public support for parks and recreation, unfortunately operation and maintenance resources have not been provided to the department to match the public’s request.  The result is a park and recreation system that is now unsustainable and in jeopardy of collapse.

Unfortunately, the press has decided to focus on other matters and not the real story, the upcoming collapse of a truly great park system.  With the reality of the direction of the focus, I believe it is best for me to step aside to allow the press to concentrate on the real issue at hand, the sustainability of the park and recreation system for the City of Seattle.

Over the past several months we have suggested several avenues to develop a level of sustainability, from elimination of lines of business, to asking the voters to decide on new revenue to support the current system.  My hope is that all elected officials step forward and fully evaluate the opportunities at hand.

Sincerely,

Tim Gallagher