Vandals

Vandals destroyed some of the beauty in our lovely new White Center Heights Park. In June, Starbucks donated $550,000 and massive amounts of volunteer labor for the seven-day extreme makeover of the small community park. I worked six of the seven days and feel both pride and a sense of ownership. One of the things I love most about the makeover is the inclusion of art. Now part of the art is gone.

The bare posts say it all. Don Haig, Acting Supervisor III of Park Operations for King County, told me at a meeting for Friends of Hicks Lake volunteers that the glue on the post caps didn’t set properly. The vandals pulled the beautiful glass caps off and smashed them. The caps the vandals left in place were removed by King County to prevent them from being broken, too. Ironically, security cameras scheduled to be installed before the vandalism occurred were put in place just a week after the glass caps were destroyed. Not that the cameras would have prevented the destruction, but catching and punishing the culprits might have prevented future problems.

When I volunteered for a Lakewood Park cleanup in September, Geraldine, another King County employee, told me Parks Operations plans to replace the caps with new ones made of some kind of material less likely to be broken, i.e. plastic or metal. I’m guessing the replacements will not be as beautiful as the original glass caps. So sad not everyone shares in the desire to improve our White Center community.

Some time ago, my sister and I rode on the subway during a visit to Hollywood. We sat, outraged but silent, watching a vandal use a knife to scratch a message on a window. We both wanted to stop him but were afraid—after all, he had a knife. Now, I’m asking you to do what I say, not what I did. If you see someone degrading our shared public spaces, do something. You don’t need to put yourself in danger. You probably carry a cell phone; go where you won’t be seen and call the authorities. Everyone who loves parks will thank you.

Makeover

July 4 is a great day to write about parks, considering many celebrants spend their holiday in one. June 8-14 was an exciting park week for me. As a part of their Neighborhood Parks Program, Starbucks Coffee Company donated $550,000 to King County Parks (the largest gift they’ve ever received) for an "ultimate makeover" of White Center Heights Park. I (along with a total of 1,500 other volunteers) worked one of the two four-hour shifts every day of the renovation except Sunday, laying sod, grubbing blackberries, hauling and spreading wood chips, and shoveling mulch. It was thrilling to watch the park take shape.

By Friday morning, June 15, the park was ready for the unveiling and dedication. In typical Seattle style, the event was accompanied by rain, but the drizzle didn’t douse the spirits of the hundreds of children from White Center Heights Elementary who had walked across the street for the party. When King County Executive Ron Sims took the stage, I heard a little girl solemnly tell her friend, "He’s a politician." Other dignitaries spoke, including Executive Director of the White Center Community Development Association Aileen Balahadia, King County Parks Director Kevin Brown,. Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington Daniel Winterbottom, Starbucks Coffee Company Regional Marketing Manager Heywood McGuffee, King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, and Washington State Representative (D-Seattle) Joe McDermott, who helped secure $500,000 in the Capital Budget for the next phase of renovation at the park, including wetlands restoration and water quality improvement. A Native American gave a particularly moving talk about respecting and loving the land, but I failed to note his name, as did King County in their news release. Shame on them and shame on me.

After the speechifying was over, the crowd swarmed into the park, exclaiming over the beauty of the plantings and art and lining up for the hotdogs for the children and ethnic food (Indian, Central American/Mexican, Vietnamese) donated by local restaurants for the adults. One of the unusual features of the new park is a traditional imu, or underground pit for roasting pig. Imu is the Hawaiian name for the pit; the park signage probably calls it something else, but since I once lived in Hawaii, imu is the word I know best. Community members, including me, attended several meetings last fall and winter to plan what we wanted for the renovated park. Since White Center has, among 80 other nationalities, a large contingent of Tongans and Samoans, an imu was strongly recommended, and the University of Washington students included it in their park design. Pacific Islanders started their preparations on Thursday for the roasted pork that was served at the unveiling on Friday. It was totally delicious.

Okay, how lame is this? A picture of a picture. But I was included on the Starbucks poster that is displayed on an events kiosk at the park entrance, and I wanted to flaunt my moment of celebrity.

Harrison, one of my Cub Scouts when I worked in the Scouting program, made this owl house, along with numerous songbird and bat houses, for his Eagle Scout project. I’m so proud of him. The birdhouses are a great addition to the park.

Art is a big part of the new park. The King County Parks site has an all-inclusive slide show documenting the park makeover from the initial park-planning meetings to the final dedication. You can see the decorative glass being poured, fitted into the columns, etc. It was a fascinating process. Check it out.

Volunteer

I’ve taken part in three plant/land events this last week. The photo is of me wearing my White Center Spring Clean tee-shirt and Trust for Public Land hat.

Friday, May 11, I worked for the Washington Native Plant Society to prepare for the spring native plant sale at the Bellevue Botanical Garden on Saturday, May 12. Tuesday, I attended the 12th Annual Conservation Awards Breakfast sponsored by the Cascade Land Conservancy, and this weekend I volunteered at the 4th Annual White Center Spring Clean, organized by the White Center Community Development Association.

I’m always glad to see the labels at the WNPS sales. The sales, held in the spring and the fall, raise money for Plant Society activities such as native restorations and educational outreach. But the labels, tidily affixed to a pot containing only one native species, provide a much-needed refresher course in plant identification for me, so much easier than trying to pick them out amongst the jumble of nature-gone-wild in the forest. It’s like any other skill, use it or lose it, and since my native plant stewardship training in 2001, I haven’t used it enough to remember all of Washington’s native plants.

Then I had breakfast with the governor (along with 1800 others). Gov. Christine Gregoire said she couldn’t bring all of the Land Conservancy supporters to Olympia, so she brought Olympia to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. There she signed the Transfer of Development Rights into law. Frankly, I don’t entirely understand the bill, must do more research. In addition to recognizing those who’ve contributed to the conservation of lands, the breakfast was a fundraiser. According to the thank you I received in the mail the very day after the breakfast (how did they do that?), $653,705 were raised. That should help save a few trees.

At the Saturday White Center Spring Clean Up, I grubbed Himalayan blackberries Rubus discolor at Lakewood Park. If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, you probably don’t know that this species of blackberry is extremely invasive. The Washington native trailing blackberry Rubus ursinus looks quite a bit like the Himalayan variety. Ideally, you eradicate the invasive while leaving the native in place.

A large contingent of Seattle Pacific University students volunteered for the Clean Up. Working with them was a delight. One young woman I talked with was born in the Ukraine. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was only eight months old, but they continued to speak Ukrainian in her home, so she’s bilingual. This summer she’s going back for the first time. She’ll be working in an orphanage.

A group of young men made the time-consuming, hard physical labor of digging up blackberry roots pass more quickly by inventing stories. One student would start a fantasy, and the next one would pick it up and elaborate. Since I’m a writer (you can read about my work at www.linda-wallace.com), I was thrilled at their choice of entertainment. The stories were pretty good, too.

When the Spring Clean was over, I returned home tired, with scratched wrists (must remember to wear my gauntlet gloves next time) but content. Volunteering. It makes me happy.