Last year, a weak plan (only closing a short stretch of street), rain and ill-advised parking patrols ruined Capitol Hill’s participation in the city’s Summer Streets program. Despite the problems, the Hill still made the cut for city locations participating in the program in 2009. But the program won’t be closing down Broadway or Pike or 15th Ave. Instead, the Summer Streets program on Capitol Hill is all about parks. The parks board is scheduled to make a final recommendation on this plan to close Volunteer Park permanently to cars on March 12 at 7p at the West Seattle Golf Clubhouse, 4600 35th Ave. SW. There’s also a one-day closure planned for Interlaken Park on June 21st.

Meanwhile, in other neighborhoods, many of the events are planned for major arteries in the heart of things: Greenwood Ave, Alki Ave, University Way. A park spokesperson said the locations are selected based on “community interest.” Capitol Hill is going to have to show an interest in shutting down a real street if it wants its participation in these kinds of city events to be anything more significant than kicking cars out of places where there weren’t that many cars to begin with.