21st Century Viking: Corners Park a model for neighborhoods

Recently I was driving home from work and noticed that the fence around Ballard Corners Park had been taken down. The next day, I went over to check it out and sure enough, it is now “open for business.”

Despite my earlier concerns about traffic flow near the park (The importance of being involved”), I am pretty excited that the park is there. It is really great to have watched the efforts of a concerned group of people turn into something that is a benefit to the community.

When I first arrived in Ballard, I would often pass by the large vacant lot behind a lonely abandoned house. Soon after, I noticed there were signs proclaiming that this was not merely a vacant lot but was soon to be Ballard Corners Park.

First they demolished the house, then last summer they began landscaping it and this winter and spring they have been working on the finishing touches, including expanding the park further out into the street and building the wacky concrete living room set benches.

You have to give the Ballard Corners Park group credit: the park is quite distinctive already and will be even more so when the plants grow in the area bounding 17th Avenue Northwest and the memorial to the corner store that once stood on the corner of 17th and 63rd is built. It will probably be one of the most interesting parks around.

This begs the question: why doesn’t the city of Seattle let neighborhoods do this more often?

As far as I understand, the parcel of land that is now Ballard Corners Park was purchased in part by Seattle through the Pro Parks Levy Opportunity Fund, but the city allowed the Ballard Corners Park group to have a great deal of say in how the park was designed.

Most parks around, wherever they are, are unfortunately pretty bland. They are designed to be utilitarian, multi-use facilities that offend no one and are able to be used by any citizen. These parks have a baseball field or two, soccer goals, a kid-safe play area, and maybe a water fountain and are indistinguishable from just about any other park in America.

Ballard Corners Park is a neighborhood pocket park, and its character not only reflects the neighborhood it is in, it actually tells the history of that block.

I think it is great that the city gave a neighborhood group such a free hand in creating the open space that was being created in their midst. I would also like to thank the Ballard Corners Park group and the efforts of everyone who labored to make this park a reality so neighbors like me who did not help out could go there and hang out.

Seattle Parks and Recreation could really unleash a localism revolution if more neighborhoods not only design the new parks that are being made but also to remodel existing parks to make them more distinctive. Could it be that what has unfolded at Ballard Corners Park will be a model for Seattle parks of the future?

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