Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) has tons of ways for you to get your feet wet this summer! Visit one of our two outdoor pools, eight indoor pools, nine lifeguarded beaches, 22 wading pools or nine sprayparks. Whether you’re looking to dive into the deep end or dip your toes in a wading pool, we’ve got something for you.
SPR operates two unique outdoor pools for summer fun. Each pool offers swimming lessons, family swimming, water exercise programs and special events. The pools can also be rented for special occasions.
Lowery C. “Pop” Mounger Pool, at 2535 32nd Ave. W, 206-684-4708, is open daily May 12 to Sept. 9. Please note the pool will be closed for staff training on July 9 from 1 – 9 p.m. and July 22 from 8 – 11 a.m. Mounger Pool is really two pools in one place. The “big pool” has a 50-foot corkscrew slide and the warmer, shallower “little pool” is great for relaxing and for teaching little ones. Call the pool to reserve it for your own birthday party or other special event.
Colman Pool, at 8603 Fauntleroy Way SW, 206-684-7494, opens for the regular season on June 18 and will remain open until Sept. 3. The pool will also be open on certain pre-season weekends including May 26-28, June 2-3, June 9-10 and June 16-17; the pool will also be open for a post-season weekend on September 8 and 9. Please note the pool will be closed for the Seattle Open Swim Meets July 12-14 and 20-21. The pool enjoys a spectacular view of Puget Sound from its prime location on the beach in West Seattle’s Lincoln Park. It features heated salt water and the Giant Tube Slide!
SPR offers safe, lifeguarded beaches at nine sites around the city, and we strongly recommend swimming only where lifeguards are present. Summer Beaches are open daily, weather permitting, from noon to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. We offer free beginning swim lessons at every beach every week for kids ages 6 and older– just register at your favorite beach. More information available at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/swimming-beaches.
Summer (10 weeks): These beaches are open from June 23 through Sept. 3.
Summer (9 weeks): These beaches are open from June 23 through Aug. 26.
*Wading Pool schedules are subject to change. Check back at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/spray-parks-and-wading-pools for details.
*Spraypark schedules are subject to change. Stay tuned for information on the opening of the new Yesler Terrace Park Spraypark planned for mid-summer. Check back at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/spray-parks-and-wading-pools for details.
Seattle Parks invites public comment on first draft of Parks Legacy Plan!
Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the public to help plan the future of Seattle’s parks, community centers and other facilities. Parks is starting an important public conversation to ensure we have a great park system for generations to come. The goal is to offer access and opportunity to all, in a sustainable way.
To honor Parks’ 130-year legacy and to plan for our future, Parks needs to hear from Seattle residents, park neighbors and park users. Parks has scheduled a series of public meetings in May and encourages everyone who uses parks, community centers, swimming pools or other facilities to come and say what you think.
While some of the meetings focus on certain parks functions, comments on any Parks activity or function are welcome at all of the meetings.
People who cannot make it to a meeting and who want to comment on the draft plan can send an email to parkslegacy@seattle.gov.
The draft plan is available online at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/legacy/.
For interpretation services or special accommodations at the meetings, please email parkslegacy@seattle.gov or call Susanne Rockwell at 206-733-9702.
The Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee has rescheduled the public hearing to gather public comments on the proposed second round of Opportunity Fund projects for Monday, April 22, 2013. The hearing at Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E, will take place from 6 – 9 p.m.
Parks staff and the Levy Oversight Committee heard more than 40 group project presentations in January 2013. The committee is holding a public hearing to gather input before submitting its recommended projects to the Parks and Recreation Superintendent, Mayor and City Council. These community initiated projects represent interesting ideas from many Seattle neighborhoods.
The Levy Opportunity Fund is a $15 million fund within the $146 million Levy allocated to projects identified by neighborhood and community groups. After consideration and recommendation by the Oversight Committee, funding for these acquisition and/or development projects are approved by ordinance. The City Council approved a first round of Opportunity Fund projects in April 2011, and this hearing is for the second round that will allocate up to $8 million.
Some examples of projects from the first round include the acquisition of new park property at the corner of 19th Ave. and E Madison St., the Bitter Lake Reservoir Park Enhancement project, the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, and the Lewis Park Reforestation project.
The 16-member volunteer Citizen Oversight Committee advises the Parks Superintendent, the Mayor and the City Council on issues related to Levy fund expenditures. They advise on allocations for upcoming budget years, make recommendations on Opportunity Fund expenditures, and perform other duties. Members serve staggered terms over the life of the levy (2009-2014), are appointed by the Mayor (eight members) and City Council (eight members) and represent the community at large geographically.
For more information on the public hearing or the projects please call Rick Nishi at 206-733-9319 or email him at rick.nishi@seattle.gov. For more information on the Levy Opportunity Fund, please go to http://www.seattle.gov/parks/levy/opportunity.htm.
If you’re a parent, chances are you’re in a continual search to find interesting, active, stimulating stuff to do with your kids. No doubt, parks play a big role in that. And you probably have your go-to parks – the ones where you can always count on a good time.
But wouldn’t it be nice to know what other parks parents are choosing? Thanks to some 2012 “Best Of” lists, we can help you discover new parks for your family that are sure to become old favorites.
The following list was compiled from Seattle Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards, RedTricycle’s Most Awesome Awards and ParentMap Magazine’s Golden Teddy Awards.
• Alki Beach Park: Whether you’re visiting in February or August, there’s always something interesting to see and do at Alki. This long beach is great for walking, taking in the views, building sandcastles or beach combing. Make a day of it by hopping the water taxi from downtown Seattle, grabbing lunch at the new Marination ma kai (of Marination mobile food truck fame) at Seacrest Park, and catching a free ride on the water taxi shuttle.
Cal Anderson Park features swings for babies and for bigger kids.
• Cal Anderson Park: Cal Anderson Park opened in 2005 in the densely populated neighborhood of Capitol Hill. It’s built on top of a former open-air reservoir, which has since been buried. The playground features swings – both the baby and the kid kind, slides and climbing structures. There’s plenty of open space for tossing a ball or just running around. It’s a great place for your kid to practice his balance bike skills – lots of pathways. In the summer, the wading pool opens. Take a bus, walk, ride your bike or prepare to pay for parking. The bathrooms are located in the shelterhouse between the park and Bobby Morris Playfield.
• Carkeek Park (Best Nature Outing and Best Playground Park): Located on the shores of Puget Sound, Carkeek Park’s 220 acres are great for hiking, salmon viewing during spawning season in late fall and early winter, picnicking or playing at the playground, which features a unique salmon slide. Little known fact: there’s an historical apple orchard in the park that is maintained by volunteers. To get to the playground, you must drive all the way into the park. It overlooks the Sound, near the train tracks. The bathrooms are near the playground.
• Cowen Park(and Cowen Park zipline at the playground): With the beautifully restored Ravenna Creek running the length of the park, alongside an easy walking trail, Cowen Park is one of those places where it can be easy to forget you’re right in the middle of the city. The playground with the zipline is located near the corner of NE Ravenna Boulevard and Brooklyn Avenue NE. There are bathrooms near the playground.
The zipline at Cowen Park Playground made the list as a top outing for kids and parents.
• Discovery Park (Best Nature Outing and Prettiest Park and Playground): This former military base is truly one of the gems of the city. It has miles and miles hiking trails, beaches, open lawns for flying kites, vistas, a giant sand dune for digging, ponds for frog watching, an Environmental Learning Center with a playroom, and much more. To get to the playground, enter the park from W Government Way, park at the Environmental Learning Center (where the bathrooms are) and walk on the path directly to the south of the center, past the sports courts. This playground has a great zipline too. Finding parking is usually not a problem; although, it can get rather crowded on beautiful weekend days.
• Ella Bailey Park: This park is one of our newer playgrounds. It opened in 2007, and has one of the best views of Seattle. It features gently rolling slopes, play equipment, picnic tables, barbeques and walking pathways. This park has no public restrooms, and parking is on street.
• Golden Gardens Park playground: Pirate-themed play equipment is a kid magnet in this newly renovated playground. Located conveniently off the parking lot and in front of the bathhouse (where the bathrooms are), this new playground features lots of opportunities for little climbers. And if they get bored at the playground, the beach and creek are nearby. This park is always a hit with kids.
• Green Lake Park: Arguably the most visited park in the city, Green Lake Park is popular with kids of every age. The playground is amply sized, and has both baby swings and big kid swings. It is located near the community center (where the bathrooms are). Parking is always tough. If you can do it, we recommend walking, biking or taking the bus.
• Green Lake Park wading pool and swimming beaches(Best Water Play): In the summertime, it’s a great fun to take your kids out to the waters at Green Lake. For little kids, the wading pool is a great introduction to swimming. For big and little kids, the beaches are fantastic. The water is clear and warm (okay, well warmer than the Puget Sound or Lake Washington). There are two beaches – one near the community center on the east and one near the Bathhouse Theater on the west side of the lake. Both have bathrooms and parking lots. Parking is a bit of a bear in the summer. If you can swing it, walk, bike or ride the bus.
The International Children’s Park has a mini-sized merry-go-round.
• International Children’s Park: What a treasure this little park is. It’s newly renovated – dedicated just last year, and located in the heart of the International District/Chinatown. It has brand new play equipment for climbing and sliding, a merry-go-round and dragon art/climbing structure. Parking can be a challenge in International District/Chinatown. Make a day of it, and stop in to one of the neighborhood’s many delicious dim sum places – are perfect for little appetites.
• Jefferson Park’s Beacon Mountain: Another amazing new park in Seattle, the renovated Jefferson Park and Beacon Mountain are truly one-of-a-kind. With two zip lines, slides that go down hills and a play water feature, this park attracts lots of families. There are paths for scooters, balance bikes or regular, big-kid bikes. The park features interesting, geometric climbing structures. There are bathrooms nearby at the community center, and there is parking. Parking can be tight on a beautiful day, but there’s usually a spot to be had. If you don’t want to deal with parking, the park is well served by buses.
• Lake Union Park sailing pond: This one is not free, but it’s good, cheap fun. Every Sunday, for a suggested donation of $5 an hour, you can be the captain of your own pond boat. The Center For Wooden Boats runs the program, and it’s one of our favorites. Now, you have the added bonus of visiting the newly opened MOHAI at Lake Union Park. Kids under 14 get in to the museum for free. MOHAI restrooms are free for park visitors. There is a small pay parking lot. But why not ride the South Lake Union Street Car over there? It stops right in front of the park.
Carkeek Park’s chum salmon have returned to Pipers Creek. Those chum are a gift to the people of Seattle from the Suquamish Tribe for the Piper’s Creek salmon stock supplementation program.
The chum and a few coho return each year to the natural beauty of Carkeek Park. From Saturday, November 10 to Sunday, December 9, Salmon Stewards will be on hand at the park each Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to enhance visitors’ understanding of the life cycle of the salmon. The Salmon Stewards Program is a community volunteer program funded and collaboratively run by Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Restore our Waters program at Seattle Public Utilities. To date, volunteer salmon watchers have recorded 145 live chum and 17 live coho.
The public is invited to the annual Pipers Creek Salmon Celebration, which takes place this year on Friday, November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., is one of the best opportunities to see salmon at Carkeek. There will also be treats, warm drinks, music and kids activities to welcome the salmon home.
Pipers Creek has a long and spotted history with salmon. Historically the creek and its tributaries most likely supported runs of steelhead, sea-run cutthroat, and coho salmon. In 1893, the Great Northern Railroad was built over Pipers Creek, and in 1906 the railroad built a rock seawall and placed the creek in a culvert under the tracks. The last of the virgin timber in the watershed was logged in 1921. Development in the watershed also contributed to water quality and habitat degradation and in 1927, local residents reported seeing the last pair of spawning salmon in the creek.
Fortunately, in 1929 much of the Pipers Creek watershed became Carkeek Park. This preserved the land surrounding Pipers Creek (currently 223 acres). The park land, the existing open spaces, nearby back yards and large trees act as buffers to help protect the creek and its spring-fed tributary system. Though the historical salmon populations vanished, the creek system has continued to provide habitat for an ancestral, resident cutthroat trout population.
Because of the potential for salmon production in the watershed, in 1980, volunteers from Carkeek Watershed Community Action Project began a salmon enhancement project in Pipers Creek in partnership with the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW). Today the Suquamish Tribe’s Grover’s Creek Hatchery provides chum salmon as fingerlings for release into Pipers Creek and eggs for local schools to raise.
About 70,000 chum fingerlings are first introduced into the Les Malmgren imprinting pond at Carkeek Park each winter, and 5,000 additional eggs are provided to approximately 25 elementary schools that raise and release their salmon into the imprint pond at Carkeek Park each spring as an activity of the Salmon in the Schools Program. The young chum are held in the pond under the care of diligent volunteers and fed for about three weeks to imprint them to the “smell” of the creek system, which helps them return as adults to spawn.
After two to five years at sea, the chum salmon return to Pipers Creek as 10 to 22 pound adult fish, ready to spawn. The returning chum salmon include fish released through the stock supplementation program and potentially, descendants of fish that spawned naturally in the creek. typically, between 100 and 600 chum salmon spawners return to Pipers Creek between late October and mid-December.
The peak of spawning generally occurs each year around Thanksgiving. Stay up to date on fish sightings in Pipers Creek by following the Carkeek Park Salmon Stewards on Facebook, or call 206-684-5999.
If you like working with young people, you’re 16 or older, and you’re interested in making some money, please contact the Seattle Parks and Recreation Athletics Program.
We’re looking for men and women to become basketball officials for the Citywide Youth Games League, which runs from January through March 2013. We encourage women and minorities to apply.
If you’re interested, please call Brieah Marino at 206-684-7093 or email her at brieah.marino@seattle.gov. Parks will provide training to develop the skills necessary to work successfully as an official.
There is a special need for officials to work Saturdays and Sundays. League play runs from January through March 2013. Pay starts at $20 per game.
While Rainier Beach Community Center and Pool are closed for construction of new facilities, the youth Late Night Program has found a home at South Shore K-8 School on weekends, and the partnership is now expanding to weekdays throughout the school year.
Beginning September 11, the Center and Seattle Parks’ Youth Violence Prevention Program will open the school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. for informal and formal recreation programs and services that are specifically designed for teens and their families.
City and Seattle School District staff agree it is important for our community of youth in Rainier Beach to be engaged in active education, recreation and social services.
Programming will include boxing conditioning, hip hop dance, fashion design, and a youth empowerment project, a curriculum through World Vision that allows Youth to become agents of change in their own communities after learning about civic engagement, advocacy and policy making. Parks will add other partnerships and activities as staff develop relationships and listen carefully and compassionately to community youth on programs and services they want to see.
For more information on Rainier Beach Community Center Teen and Family Programs, please call Jeron A. Gates at 206-255-4051 or email him at Jeron.gates@seattle.gov.
For more information on the Safe and Stable Community Action Plan, please contact Catherine Lester at 206-386-1143 or email her at Catherine.lester@seattle.gov.
• Are our resources deployed in the most effective manner?
• What is the public view of our park system?
• What are the basic services Parks provides?
Working with Parks’ key partners the Associated Recreation Council and Seattle Parks Foundation, and led by the Board of Park Commissioners, the first phase of the plan will be the development of shared Vision, Mission and Values statements. The second phase will be a programmatic review, telling the story of Parks and Recreation: what we do, who we serve, how we are funded. In this phase, Parks will examine emerging recreation trends and the latest census data. We will conduct a statistically valid survey citywide to gather information on how our park system is used, frequency of use and park users’ concerns. Phase three will be a look to the future that provides a framework for a sustainable parks and recreation system.
Parks invites the public to take an online survey, available from August 31 through September 23, at www.seattleparkssurvey.com.
Input from Parks staff and the public on the Legacy Plan will occur at many junctures over the next year and a half. The Park Board will provide the public review forum for Phase 1, Vision, Mission and Values. Phase 2 will include a public survey in fall 2012, and staff and community review of the draft plan in spring 2013; and the public and staff will review Phase 3 in fall 2013. Progress reports for the Board of Park Commissioners will occur regularly throughout Plan development.
In 2009, Parks and Recreation concluded a strategic planning process with the publication of the Strategic Action Plan, a five-year ‘to do’ list which provided direction for stewardship of the park system. Many Strategic Action Plan tasks have been accomplished, while others have been delayed due to the economic recession. The Parks Legacy Plan will be an update of the 2009 Plan, with a focus on data collection and analysis.
Phase 3: Strategic plan for the future to be completed by January 2014.
More information about the plan is available online at www.seattle.gov/parks/legacy.
•	International District/Chinatown Community Center, 719 8th Ave. S, Thursday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and today and Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
•	Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St., hours vary because of daily programming; please call 206-684-4788 for public hours.
•	Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E, hours vary because of daily programming; please call 206-684-4753 for public hours.
•	Yesler Community Center, 917 E Yesler Way, Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. Additional hours may be available for public use based on daily programming; for information, please call 206-386-1245.
•	Southwest Teen Life Center, 2801 SW Thistle St., will open today and tomorrow (Thursday) from 5 to 8 p.m. and Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. but no technical support will be available.
Regular library operations resume on Tuesday, September 4. During the closure, a list of available online services is here: http://www.spl.org/CLOSED_PAGES/closure_services.htm.
Parks’ computer labs are a service of the Rec Tech Coalition, a project of Parks’ partner the Associated Recreation Council.
Parks works in partnership with the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) to bring high-quality, accessible and affordable recreation opportunities to the people of Seattle. For more information on ARC, please see http://www.arcseattle.org/.
Seattle Parks and Recreation will hold a sale of low cost life jackets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 18 at Evans Pool, 7201 E. Green Lake Dr. N.
Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among children ages 1 – 14 years old. Wearing a life jacket saves lives. Washington State law requires children ages 12 and younger to wear a Coast Guard approved life jacket or life vest on vessels shorter than 19 feet, and there must be a life jacket on board for each person older than 12.
The cost for life jackets sizes infant to youth large is $20. For adult sizes XS to XXL the cost is $30. The life jackets are comfortable, high quality vests in fashion colors. Sorry, Parks cannot offer refunds or returns.
Customers younger than 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Fitters will be on site to help people choose the correct size. The person for whom the jacket is being purchased must be present for proper fitting.
The last life jacket sale of the season will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 15.
Parks offers this program in partnership with Seattle Children’s Hospital, Mustang Survival, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
For more information, please email Diane Jones, diane.jones@seattle.gov.