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Last day to name new parks: A few more Capitol Hill notables to add to the mix

Monday is the deadline for community suggestions to name the two new parks being built on Capitol Hill. An e-mail from Capitol Hill Community Council president Jennifer Power spells out the parks department rules:

The Park Naming Committee is comprised of one representative designated by the Board of Park Commissioners, one by the Chair of the City Council Parks and Seattle Center Committee, and one by the Parks Superintendent. Criteria the committee considers in naming parks include: geographical location, historical or cultural significance, and natural or geological features. A park may be named for a person no longer living (deceased a minimum of three years) who made a significant contribution to parks and/or recreation. The Park Naming Committee will consider all suggestions and make a recommendation to the Superintendent, who makes the final decision.

Suggestions should be sent to [email protected]

We’ve written about the naming process several times — here are most of the suggestions we’ve seen on CHS. The only one we can endorse is the idea to name the 16th at Howell greenspace after Gray Lambert, the activist nearby Lambert House is named for. Some other ideas from CHS comments:





Summit at John
An angled, sloped walkway separating a grassy grade and community garden plots. With skateboard element and picnic area

 

Howell at 16th
A level turf area in the middle of the site, bordered by a collective garden to the north and a crushed rock plaza and allee to the south
Suggestions:

  • Paradise Park
  • Summit Slope Park
  • Wayside Park
  • Rest Stop Park
Suggestions:

  • Shannon Harps Park
  • Desmond Tutu Park
  • Queen City Park
  • Emerald City Park
  • Parkcrest Park
  • Maidan Park
  • Flattop Park
  • Mia Zapata Park
  • Riot Park
  • Seven Hills Park
  • Capitolinus Park
  • Second Hill Park
  • Lambert Gray Park
  • Obama’s mother’s park

Maybe we’re not as tuned into the Hill’s history as we should be but there aren’t any ideas that seem like obvious choices. Honoring Cal Anderson at the time the Hill’s park was being built, wrote community organizer Kay Rood, just seemed right:

State Senator Cal Anderson died of AIDS in August 1995, just as Groundswell was mobilizing on our first big grant project. One of our steering committee members suggested that we name the new park for him, and the idea seemed just right from the very beginning. I never knew Cal, but I know from all I have read and heard that he was an exceptional person. Widely praised for his work ethic and personal integrity, he worked tirelessly on behalf of the disenfranchised. A park in the heart of the 43rd District named for him would bring a pride of place to our community, a new name for a new future. We tucked the idea away. I figured we would know when the time was right to propose it, which was not until we had assurances that there would be a park worthy of Cal’s name.

Other Capitol Hill parks followed a more random path to naming. Tashkent Park, for example, is named for Seattle’s sister city in Uzbekistan. There’s a Jimi Hendrix Park (not on Cap Hill) — why not a Kurt Cobain Park?

Some other notables with Capitol Hill ties who died in recent years:

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Ben
Ben
14 years ago

I think Shannon Harps park is meant for the Howell at 16th park.

jseattle
jseattle
14 years ago

Thanks. Had the two lists reversed in the table. Fixed.

Finish Tag
Finish Tag
14 years ago

… for the 16th and Howell Park

Comrade Bunny
Comrade Bunny
14 years ago

As always, I vote we name John and Summit Paradise Park or Unpaving Paradise Park after the Capitol Hill Community Council’s Open Space Committee’s joint project with P-Patch Trust that raised $150,000 for the construction of said park. But if anybody has some really good famous dead people suggestions, I’d like to hear them too. We can’t let 16th and Howell have all the fun.

Mike with curls
Mike with curls
14 years ago

Macabre.

The murder is so famed it overshadows the best of intentions.

Of more real import – what will be the slang? That will be the real name.

On Appeal Park?

Please note – the naming thing – this is the skill level of bureaucrats everywhere.

*****Going to the Rose to celebrate, be there this evening … should be a good party.******