It’s a busy — and fun — week for Capitol Hill’s parks as one long-running story involving surveillance technology in Cal Anderson is about to finally reach a conclusion, there’s a fresh, local strawberry opportunity in the new Seven Hills Park and a park that doesn’t even exist yet gets some attention to figure out how to make something of the space now.

• Cal Anderson cams: The last we reported on the ongoing saga around Seattle’s surveillance cams in Cal Anderson Park and near the Garfield Community Center, the City Council was reversing course and making plans for how to pull the cams down and put the hardware to better use. Parks tells us the cams are still in place in Cal Anderson pending new legislation the department is waiting for from the Council that will define what’s next for the surveillance technology in the city. Parks committee head Sally Bagshaw’s staff tells us the legislation will be presented on September 23 at a special meeting of the Parks & Seattle Center Committee. According to staffer Philip Roewe, it’s possible Bagshaw might go for all the shebang and push the new legislation through a briefing, discussion and vote all in the special meeting. A Parks spokesperson tells CHS they were expecting to learn more about the new legislation at this week’s committee meeting on Thursday the 16th so we might get a preview of what will be discussed at the special meeting. That special session, by the way, wasn’t called only for Cal Anderson cam discussion, we’ve been told. “Given Council recess in the end of August, the Parks and Seattle Center Committee has a backlog of legislation to review before the mayor presents his budget at the end of September and we’re trying to be as efficient as possible,” Rowe said.

Sweet & Juicy Originally uploaded by sea turtle

• Seven Hills berry sale: Following last week’s official opening ceremony, Seven Hills Park and P-Patch is settling into the rhythm of a hard-working Capitol Hill green space. The ambitious little fella already has something interesting coming up later this week — even with its grass still fenced off and nothing yet to be harvested from the collective garden. Here’s the word on Strawberry Mob 2 from organizer Ethan Schaffer of GrowFood.org. If you want to order some berries, you’ll need to add your order to this Facebook event posting.

Strawberries for sale in Seattle! You’re in luck, we have another crop of fresh, local strawberries at Viva Farms. Pre-order your $15 half flats here (Price is a little higher for the late season crop, but still cheap. 6 pint baskets per half-flat). Grown in the rich, glacial soil of the Skagit Valley. They’re packed with so many antioxidants they suck the cancer right out of your body.* Post how many half-flats you want as a comment. Order by Wednesday. They will be available for pick up Thursday, 9/16 at the new Seven Hills Park at 16th and Howell on Capitol Hill from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Cash, check or PayPal accepted. Make checks to Santiago Lozano, the farmer who grew the berries.

Feel free to invite others to this event.

Eat them fresh, freeze for smoothies, make jam or transform them into lavish desserts! Tip: to prevent freezing into a brick, cut off the tops and freeze on a baking tray and then transfer to a feezer bag.

Viva Farms is a project of Grow Food. It is a 33 acre farm in the Skagit Valley that incubates new farmers. Viva Farms makes a special effort to help Latino farm workers who are ready to make the jump to farm ownership.

Visit www.vivafarms.org for more info about the project.

*This statement isn’t true but strawberries are high in the antioxidant ellagic acid.

• Putting Fed/Rep park space to use now: The community rallying around the new park space at Federal and Republican is looking at options for putting the land to use for neighborhood good immediately and not waiting for the multi-year process that will likely need to play out to design and build the park. Ideas raised in an earlier discussion about ‘early activation’ of the space included creating a temporary p-patch, off-leash dog area, skate park, or art space.

mappy says in CHS comments that there will be a gathering Monday (September 13th) to get the ball rolling:

Also on Sept 13th, another meeting of neighbors/citizens for the new Federal&Republican Park!! by mappy

6pm? at the above-alluded-to-intersection and park site. potluck (possible BBQ?)

Neighbors/citizens/brazen activists to discuss short-term and longterm plans for this new $2million Seattle parks acquisition.

My vote is for a mini iconic destination waterpark, with slides and one of those ‘lazy rivers’.

Or a playground (wisely anticipating the needs of familes and specifically tuned to the exponentially increasing number of little tykes in the immediate park walkshed area).

…Whichever is more financially feasible / sound.