We suggest Meinert and Lajeunesse talk to the creators of this 2013 Park(ing) Day installation about the 10th/Pike parklet design (Image: CHS)

The Comet will celebrate its reopening under new owners Dave Meinert and Jason Lajeunesse this weekend with the official beer can tab pulling on Monday. There will be a lot of changes inside the 10th and Pike dive. Later this year, you’ll also find the corner outside the bar changed, too.

10th and Pike has been selected as a location in the next wave of the Seattle parklet pilots program.

“It’s going transform the corner of 10th and E Pike,” Meinert (we think) deadpanned via email. No details of the plan are public yet.

The program, which works with neighborhood businesses to trade street parking to create public park spaces, will add a wave of new locations in 2014:

• Lost Lake Lounge and Comet Tavern in Capitol Hill (10th Ave and Pike St)
• Cortona Café in the Central District (2425 E Union St)
• Bottlehouse and Hi Spot Café in Madrona (1416 34th Ave)
• Tin Umbrella Coffee Roasters in Hillman City (5600 Rainier Ave S)
• Urban Visions at the Chromer Building in Downtown (1516 2nd Ave)
• Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Denny Triangle (1915 Terry Ave)
• Uptown Alliance at SIFF Cinema in Uptown (511 Queen Anne Ave N)
• U District Advocates in the University District (1316 NE 43rd St)
• Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream in Wallingford (1622 N 45th St)
• Delancey in Ballard (1415 NW 70th St)

Last year, Capitol Hill became home to the first parklet in the city as E Olive Way’s Montana’s management financed the small deck and hangout space in front of the bar. “90% of my customers are pedestrians,” Montana’s Rachel Marshall said about the decision to forego two street parking space to make room for the parklet. “Adjacent to the parklet, Montana Bar has also built a sidewalk café, which is designated for use by restaurant customers and includes fenced seating,” the city notes. “And just to the west of the parklet—in a space that was formerly designated as ‘no parking’—an on-street bicycle corral has been installed to increase the amount of bike parking in the area.”

The goal of the extended pilot program is to “allow SDOT to evaluate parklets in diverse neighborhoods and conditions before making recommendations on a permanent program for Seattle.” To apply, interested parklet creators were asked to submit “a simple site plan showing the ideas for your parklet, collect at least two letters of support from businesses or residents near the proposed parklet, snap a few photos of the parklet location, and write a paragraph or two explaining why you want to host a parklet.”

Meinert declined to say what Lost Lake and The Comet and any nearby businesses helping out will spend on the parklet and no design for the 10th and Pike space has been revealed publicly.

It should also, we think, be called Ed Comet Park.