In comments on yesterday’s post about upcoming neighborhood block parties on Capitol Hill, neighbor Dawggy asks a simple question — why don’t we have a Capitol Hill parade?
I’ve actually been wondering why the entire area between say 15th and 23rd doesn’t have a block party day geared to families and kids chock full of fun like with a parade, firetrucks, giant bouncy thingies, the works. It seems like every other neighborhood has one of these days during the summer but us. Seems like a no brainer. What gives?
We’ve written a little about this before — Time to invent a new Capitol Hill parade. But I’ll say that Dawggy’s vision wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. How to make the event more Capitol Hill? Or, am I being a “hipster” for thinking bouncy houses sound corny? And, should 15th Ave E. be the home for something like this or is it sacrilegious to talk about a Capitol Hill event not on Broadway?
Also, should have noted that it might make the most sense to help Sustainable Capitol Hill grow its summer festival into an annual Hill event.
I think something more family friendly would be cool. There’s seriously nothing like that around and it’d be a good opportunity to meet your neighbors in a laid back setting. It’s not like every single event in Seattle needs to be about mind altering substances or celebrating sexuality in some way.
Family friendly: Stevens School annual carnival is a good model.
15th Ave. would be great location: pretty central to all the families I suspect.
” celebrating sexuality in some way” – isn’t a kid-centered event celebrating the (results of) sexuality, in a way?
Available space?? Either block off 15th, or have a parade along 15th and down to 19th and have carnival booths at Miller Community Center: lower parking lot and grassy area. Or Stevens (or St Joe’s) school playground – a bit further from 15th. I doubt that you’ll get Safeway to volunteer their parking lot, which is the only other large space.
PS: Too late for this year. Broadway will be under construction next year. Is there some Sound Transit mitigation money around for this?
Great ideas. Why is it too late for this year? I don’t know what something like this costs but I would imagine people in the neighborhood, local businesses, could help shoulder the cost with donations, maybe a raffle?
For the past couple years as we have closely covered the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival and noted that, as its volunteers point out, “West Seattle is the only Seattle neighborhood that still has its own community float” (to appear in parades etc.), we wondered … why? Why isn’t there a Capitol Hill float, Ballard float, Greenwood float, Magnolia float? Why just WS? So with that, we say, good luck!!! It’s one of those great warm fuzzies, and maybe inventing it from scratch in the new millennium, you can find a cutting-edge way to do it.