PHOTOS: Bike to Work Day in Lake City

Friday was Bike to Work Day. An estimated 20,000 people participated in the annual event aimed at getting commuters to get some exercise and get out of their cars. The Cascade Bicycle Club describes Bike to Work Day here:

F5 Bike to Work Day is a blast. Thousands of cyclists pack the streets. Smiles, waves and the friendly ring of bike bells fill the air. No matter what or where your commute, you won't be riding alone on Bike to Work Day.

This was also the first year that Lake City had its own Bike to Work Day station. The station was staffed by folks from Performance Bicycle and our own Kaffeeklatsch coffee shop and bakery, which provided cookies and coffee for commuters. The folks working the station counted about 80 riders commuting through Lake City during Bike to Work Day.

(Thanks to neighbor Justus Jessen for the photos. If you ever want to submit photos of events or happenings in the neighborhood send them along and we may publish them.)

Commuters stop at the station early in the morning.

Staff from Performance Bicycle are ready to do some wrenching

A commuter gets an assist with her bike.

A commuter stops at the station.

Commuters roll up to the station. We are sure the smell of fresh coffee was a draw.

A commuter gets some bike advice.

A commuter gets tips on biking.

Some helpful wrenching on a commuter's bike.

Lost Cat

Kiki has been missing since Tuesday evening. She usually walks with her owners through the neighborhood around the Olympic Hills Elementary area. On Tuesday night, the owners took a different route, heading further east than usual. She was last seen that evening near the elementary school.

Kiki has a blue collar and some of the dye from the collar has transferred to her white fur. If you see Kiki, please contact us with information.

Neighborhood BBQ scheduled for Friday evening at Virgil Flaim Park

The weather is warm, the sun is out, and residents of our community seem to be coming out of their moss-covered winter cocoons.

Lets celebrate the coming summer and our neighborhood with a good-ol'-fashioned barbecue this Friday, May 18th.

We will meet up at Virgil Flaim Park at 5:30 p.m. We will provide hot coals to grill on, plates, cups and drinks.

You bring something to grill or something to share. As always, everyone is welcome!

Lake City's first Bike to Work Day station to be set up this Friday

Better get some air in those tires, because Friday is Bike to Work Day.

This Friday, May 18th, is F5 Bike to Work Day. Over 20,000 people are expected to take their two wheels to Seattle streets as they bike to work.

And for the first time this year, Lake City will have its own Bike to Work station from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The Bike to Work station will be at the Lake City Mini Park, corner of NE 125th Street and Lake City Way. It will be staffed by the fine folks from Kaffeeklatsch and Performance Bicycle.

Cookies, coffee and and mechanical assistance for bike riders will be provided at the Lake City Bike to Work station.

They will also offer free water bottles, maps and other such items handy for bike commuters.

More info is available here on the Cascade Bicycle Club's events page.

And if you need to know the best route here is a handy bike commuter map provided by the City of Seattle.

And while we are on the topic of bicycles, remember that Bike Works is offering two free opportunities for you to learn how to work on your own bike or give it that summer tune up it desperately needs. Both opportunities are on June 3rd at the Lake City Community Center.

There is still plenty of space in the Squeaky Brakes Class but we would recommend signing up now as once people discover what a great opportunity this free class is it will likely fill up fast. The two hour Squeaky Brakes Class is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sunday, June 3rd. A Bike Works instructor will guide students on basic bicycle maintenance.

The second opportunity is the BYOBike Drop-in scheduled from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., also on June 3rd. The drop-in is also free and a Bike Works instructor will offer guidance during the BYOBike program.

Both are a fantastic opportunity to help you give your bike a much-needed tune up.

All are welcome to sign up for the classes. And again, they are free.

Pilot program to limit access to cheap beer, wine for chronic public inebriates begins

A sign at left informs that single servings of alcohol are not allowed before 1 p.m. at the 99 Cent Etc. Store

Some stores in Lake City have joined a pilot program where the businesses do not sell fortified beer and wine between the hours of 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. The program is an attempt to limit access to cheap beer and wine with a high alcohol content, drinks favored by chronic public inebriates.

It is well-documented by neighborhood groups that collect and count cans and bottles strewn on our streets during community walks that Lake City has a serious public drinking problem. Douglas Park Cooperative has collected staggering numbers of cans during its twice-weekly walks.

The new program comes after strong prompting from the mayor's office and cooperation form the distributors.

Neighborhood group Douglas Park Cooperative was first pursuing an Alcohol Impact Area for the neighborhood, a much more strict program. But the voluntary pilot program was proposed by the City of Seattle because of the difficulty of keeping updated lists of regulated drinks as makers of the drinks regularly change the drinks' names.

The program will be in place seven days a week and does not include bars and restaurants.

Under the program distributors encouraged retailers to participate in the program.

A tower of Steel Reserve tall boys in the 99 Cent Etc. store

Because the program is in its early stages there is not an accurate count of how many business in the neighborhood are participating in the pilot program. But signs stating that single servings of alcohol are not available before 1 p.m. have been seen at at least three convenience stores in the last few days.

The Office of Economic Development plans to work with the businesses to highlight other options for small businesses that relied on selling large amounts of fortified beer and wine.

City leaders have said that if the program does not prove successful an Alcohol Impact Area may still be enforced in Lake City.

Parks Improvements Survey

Please fill out the survey below so that we can show community support for the crime prevention changes to the Park that were discussed at last Monday's meeting.

Highlights from Reclaiming Lake City Parks Meeting

Those attending Monday's meeting shared common concerns with Lake City parks: negative experiences, perceptions of drugs, inebriation,crime, feeling like the neighborhood is in crisis mode - which leads to planning around nuisance behaviors rather than planning for positive events.  Residents are driving outside of Lake City for community space, rather than staying here.  Much of the discussion was specific to Virgil Flaim Park, however, many of the safety and action items can be applied to other area parks & playgrounds.

SAFETY

According to city attorney liaison, Jana Jorgason, there were only nine 911calls from  Virgil Flaim Park in the last year.  Meeting participants immediately disagreed based on their own experiences making calls. Action items from the discussion include:

Call911 for any suspicious or criminal behavior. When you do:

• Ask for the event number & record it. (Incident numbers are only created if an officer responds and writes a report, but event numbers are recorded when a call is received.)
• Don’t be disappointed if officers don’t respond immediately; all calls are logged and that information is used to deploy future resources.
• Give the exact address of the park.  (Issues with inaccuracies in the number of logged 911 calls may be related to differing addresses being given.)

Virgil Flaim Park  2750 NE 125th St

Albert Davis Park  12526 27th Ave. NE

• Alcohol is not allowed in Seattle public parks - so any drinking can be called in.
• Meeting participants asked for a copy of the questions 911 operators ask  - this will make it easier for residents to anticipate & answer questions when calling.
• Do not be discouraged by laissez-faire police response. In fact, if you are treated discourteously, contact a supervisor.

Establish a community Block Watch in properties surrounding parks. (Seattle Neighborhood Group can help with this.)

CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) for Virgil Flaim Park

Changes to property can help address problems. For Virgil Flaim, this requires coordination with Lake City Prof.Center and Dept. of Parks &Rec.  Lorig Properties, which operates the Lake City Prof. Center noted their budget is currently on hold as they negotiate the sale of the property with Seattle Public Schools (read more about the history & ownership of the property here). Suggested changes:

• Cut back laurel hedge to improve sight lines and remove hiding areas.
• Thin trees on NE corner
• Improve lighting
• Adding a kiosk to promote park activities
• Temporarily removing BBQ’s to see if it alters behaviors

POSITIVE PROGRAMMING

Activating parks helps push out problem behaviors by providing positive opportunities. Partnerships with Lake City Community Center or Meadowbrook Community Center were suggested.  SmallSparks grants for up to $1,000 are also available to help with this, and community volunteer hours count as matching funds at a rate of $20/hr per person.

• Ice cream socials
• Kite-making at community center with kite-flying at park
• Health & fitness programming
• Outdoor movies
• Weekly neighborhood sporting events, such as volleyball, kickball, or badminton
• Music series
• Family potlucks
• Crafts

RESOURCE CONTACTS:

Katie Gray, Department of Parks & Recreation, North Manager, 206-684-4561

Katie.gray@seattle.gov

Peggy Pullen, Department of Parks & Recreation, Maintenance

Peggy.pullen@seattle.gov

Thomas Whittemore, Department of Neighborhoods, North District Coordinator, 206-684-4096

thomas.whittemore@seattle.gov

Kelly McKinney, Seattle Neighborhood Group, 206-323-9666

www.sngi.org

Seattle Police Department (SPD) representative was not able to attend.

Several follow-up questions will be addressed to SPD & we will report back the answers.

People participate in the meeting at the Lake City branch of the Public Library

Meeting summary courtesy Families for Lake City. If you don't follow them you should, they are a fantastic neighborhood source of information. You can find them on Facebook here.

Meeting Monday to help reclaim Lake City Parks

Everyone wants to feel comfortable taking their kids to the park. Yet there are problems in some of our Lake City parks that leave families feeling nervous or unsafe.

Please join Douglas Park Cooperative and Families for Lake City in working to change that.

Sign at Virgil Flaim Park

This Monday, May 7^th representatives from the Dept. of Parks & Recreation, Seattle Police Department, and the Dept. of Neighborhoods will be on hand to craft an action plan to improve the safety and usability of Virgil Flaim and Albert Davis Parks.

Lake City Professional Center - Proposed Sale

The Seattle Public School Board met on Wednesday, May 2nd. One of the items discussed was the sale of the old Lake City School on NE 125th Street. 

Photo of Lake City School circa 1935 ( SPSA 240-334 )

Recent photo of Lake City School ( 2012 )

Making Connections - Pierre Project Mental Mapping

DPC met Thursday with Marty Curry and three of the UW grad students working on the Pierre Property project. We were given a sheet of paper and were asked to draw out our perception of Lake City - to make a "mental map". Afterwards, we each explained our maps - what we liked about Lake City and what we thought could be better in the context of the Pierre Property redevelopment.  Some highlights after the jump.