Tag Archives: parks

New Cal Anderson Emergency Hub launches teaching ‘Urban Survival Skills’ including water sterilization and Narcan administration to help Capitol Hill’s core neighborhoods

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(Image: Seattle Parks Foundation)

A group is coming together to make sure Capitol Hill’s neighborhoods of densely packed apartment dwellers can build resources they need to be resilient during emergencies and natural disasters.

Already having an interest in personal emergency preparedness, Heather Currey attended an emergency hub drill after she learned of the event through Central Seattle Greenways. And while North Capitol Hill has its own emergency hub, Currey felt the need for stronger support in the central part of the neighborhood. Now, Currey is the captain of the Cal Anderson Emergency Hub, which is preparing for its September 7th Urban Survival Skills Fair in the park’s shelterhouse and sunbowl.

“Seattle has a fairly wide hub network, so these are places where under disaster conditions, when we’ve lost electricity and it’s harder for people to communicate with each other, hubs stand up to connect neighbors with neighbors, and neighbors with information,” Currey told CHS.

Currey said these emergency hubs are always needed.

The Cal Anderson Emergency Hub already has over a dozen volunteers who have been meeting for about six months and have worked to obtain grants and jump through bureaucratic hoops with the city, including Parks and Rec and the Department of Neighborhoods.

Those volunteer numbers are only expected to grow, Currey said. Continue reading →

‘Bouts of negative park activity’ — City fences off Capitol Hill’s Seven Hills Park, planning changes in three more over encampment concerns

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(Image: CHS)

Some neighbors and the area’s Seattle City Council member knew it was coming but nobody else was prepared for a Capitol Hill park to suddenly be fenced off over the Labor Day weekend for a 60-day “rest.”

“We recognize that this park has been impacted by bouts of negative park activity and we will continue to work to ensure that all parks are clean, safe, and welcoming,” a Seattle Parks spokesperson tells CHS about the two-month closure of Seven Hills Park at 16th and Howell.

Seattle Parks says the closure is part of a broader discussion involving the future of Seven Hills and three other area parks. Continue reading →

On the CHS Calendar: 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑

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You will have no trouble figuring out what to wear to this protest. Join “community members who just want to preserve our historically queer nude beach” and “your nudist neighbors” for the 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑 —

Protest to keep Denny-Blaine Park 100% clothing optional! Be nude in body or in spirit! There will be a potluck, art, music, and best of all, COMMUNITY!

The protest will be the latest actions in unclothed but civil disobedience as the Seattle Parks Department  responds to a court order by adding a restricted “nude zone” to the park popular with queer and nudist communities on the shores of Lake Washington east of Capitol Hill. The zone is hoped to address complaints of illegal sexual activity in the ongoing lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors and property owners over the popular nude beach.

CHS reported here on a weekend of nude puppet shows earlier in August as lovers of Denny Blaine have vowed to push back on the restrictions.

The Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest will take place on Labor Day from 3 to 6 PM. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s with partly cloudy skies.

 

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On a weekend to ponder covering I-5, a call to support Seattle’s original ‘lid,’ Freeway Park

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The roar of I-5 was a little more subdued this weekend with northbound lanes through the city shut for Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance.

The community group advocating for permanently quieting the freeway — and adding a cap covered with parkland, housing, and development — gathered nearby to illustrate the opportunity.

The Lid I-5 group is also asking the public to support needed work in the original I-5 lid between First Hill, Capitol Hill, and downtown — Freeway Park.

Saturday, the group gathered off Boren in Pillars Park above I-5 to mark the weekend’s northbound closure and spread the word about progress being made in plans likely to stretch out for decades to cover the freeway through Seattle. Continue reading →

Denny Blaine Park’s new ‘nude zone’ is in effect (Though somebody tried to tear the nude zone fence down)

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Seattle Parks quietly moved ahead this week with a plan to create a “nude zone” In Denny Blaine Park with new signs and fencing. Thursday night, somebody tried to rip that nude zone fence down.

Seattle Police were called to the park on the shores of Lake Washington just before 10 PM to a report from a nearby resident that someone was trying to rip down the just-installed fencing. Cops were looking for the suspect described as a male wearing a green shirt, black shorts, and a backpack last seen leaving the area on foot but it is not clear if they ever tracked the suspect down.

The surprisingly fast turnaround on the project to install the new signs and fencing happened quickly this week as the city responds to a court order to address sex and drug crime around the park reported by neighboring property and area residents while, city officials say, also attempting to respect the beach’s place in Seattle’s queer and nudist communities. Continue reading →

‘Revive in 25’ — Christian groups reportedly set for return to Cal Anderson for August 30th rally

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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office is relying on technicalities as it explains the status of city permits for an August 30th anti-LGBTQ fundamentalist Christian rally in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.

“Park Use Permits aren’t issued for about two weeks (~15-30 days) prior to an event. See full permit process here. So at this time, a permit has not been issued for this event,” the mayor’s press secretary Callie Craighead told CHS Wednesday.

CHS asked Craighead what the Harrell administration is doing to protect the neighborhood and prevent the issues that occurred in May as Seattle Police moved on crowds of counter-demonstrators gathered in the park.

The mayor’s office has not responded.

Now, another concert and rally from the church groups is planned to return to the Capitol Hill park despite previous vows from city officials. Continue reading →

In court-embattled Denny Blaine Park, a show of defiance, nudity… and puppets

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While the battle to keep Denny Blaine nude is playing out in court, members of the queer and nudist communities that love and utilize the park have continued to visit the popular beach this summer.

In a city where developers and wealthy NIMBYs seem to be nearly constantly scheming to carve up public space for private gain, revolutionary energy is also bubbling up at Denny Blaine in the form of puppets, nudity, and unapologetic queer defiance.

This weekend, guerrilla performances transformed the lakeside park into a stage for radical satire, bodily liberation, and a middle finger to privatization. The shows were part absurdist comedy, part scathing political critique, and directed their ire at figures like Stuart Sloan, the wealthy neighbor who has spent years trying to sanitize Denny Blaine, and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s laughably inept attempts to placate the NIMBYs.

One performance swung between nostalgia for freer times and biting commentary on whose bodies get to take up space. “These are my boobies!” declared an actor, fully nude except for a top hat. It was cheeky but the message hit home. Freedom has some rough edges — and the battle isn’t done. Continue reading →

Cal Anderson Park hosting this weekend’s Vegan Street Fair visit to Seattle

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It has been a sad year for Capitol Hill vegans. 2025 began with the closure of 12th Ave’s Plum Bistro after 20 years of vegan good eats.

Want to cheer up your favorite Capitol Hill non-animal eater?

An annual celebration of vegan cuisine is returning to Seattle this weekend. Sunday, the Vegan Street Fair will take place in Cal Anderson Park:

Vegan Street Fair is a free entry annual all ages vegan food celebration where local vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants and vendors come together to serve you bite-size portions of vegan eats and sell you vegan wares all in one place. Attendees can nosh on as many small portions ($5 or less) as they wish without getting full on 1 large item OR they can purchase larger items too.

Continue reading →

City, community groups creating ‘Memorial Garden’ in MLK Way’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park

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“The park features Robert Kelly’s 30-foot-tall sculpture inspired by King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which was gifted to the city by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Committee in 1991″ (Image: Another Believer/Wikipedia)

While the public process around a planned art installation honoring the Black LIves Matter movement at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park has gone quiet, an effort to create a new memorial garden in MLK Way’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park is busy.

This summer, the MLK Memorial Garden Development Project is beginning with an effort to create a garden and “enhanced park space” that promotes “healing, solidarity, and sustainable living.”

“By centering community voices throughout the design process, SPR seeks to co-create a garden that honors Seattle’s Black diaspora, celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s enduring legacy, and provides a dedicated space for reflection and remembrance of those lost too soon to gun violence,” Seattle Parks and Recreation said about the project as it kicked off earlier this summer. Continue reading →

‘Your Voice Matters’ — Police Commission seeks ‘community members impacted’ by Seattle Police crackdown on Cal Anderson May 24 protest

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The Seattle Community Police Commission is seeking accounts of the experiences of demonstrators and park-goers caught up in the SPD response to protests against an anti-trans and reproductive rights Christian rally in Cal Anderson in May.

“Your experience can help inform our work and ensure community perspectives are part of upcoming reviews and policy recommendations,” the flyer being sent to LGBTQ community groups reads.

The Saturday, May 24th Christian rally ended with police moving on demonstrators protesting the event from On Fire Ministries, a Spokane-based religious group that has grown under Christian fundamentalist pastor and former state representative Matt Shea and is supported by anti-LGBTQ religious activist Sean Feucht. There were multiple arrests but no significant charges made against demonstrators. Continue reading →