If you’ve been following CHS closely, you’ve already read jseattle’s article on this subject, New Math for a New Park. In case you haven’t: Parks is planning to build a park at John and Summit (the Diamond Parking Lot across from the Olive Way Starbucks). They’re over $150,000 short of the money they need to build the park as it is presently designed. The community was faced with a decision – raise the money and get an awesome park or take a grassy knoll as a consolation prize. The community chose option number one, and Unpaving Paradise was born.

And now for the update: UP just had its last Drag Charity Bingo night at Cafe Metropolitain (thanks again Giggles and Marc!), so now we’re onto Phase Two of community fundraising – The Shinka Tea Product Promotion. Delicious tea & desserts, and 10-20% of the proceeds go toward the park-to-be – it’s like having your cake and eating it too…literally, if you decide to order some cake.

On our to-do list is setting up more community-partnership fundraisers, applying for grants (including the infamous Neighborhood Matching Grant), and planning a community depave of the parking lot for sometime in August 2009. Interested? Contact us at [email protected].