Mayor to help clean up Ballard Saturday

Geeky Swedes Ballard

It’s time for some spring cleaning in downtown Ballard.

As part of the Mayor’s “Clean and Green Seattle initiative,” Marvin’s Garden Park and the surrounding area will get spruced up this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Mayor Nickels, city workers and volunteers will be cleaning, painting over graffiti, removing old posters from utility poles and pruning the landscaping within the area bounded by 24th Ave NW, 20th Ave NW from NW Market to Shilshole NW. As Rob Mattson, the Ballard District Coordinator puts it, volunteers are needed “to roll up their sleeves for a couple hours to put a spit shine on our well-used and sometimes abused heart of Ballard.” Everyone is welcome to help out (we’ll be there, too). If you have any questions, you can contact Rob at rob.mattson@seattle.gov.

Earlier: Petition aims to fight crime at Bergen Place, Marvin’s Garden

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

29 thoughts to “Mayor to help clean up Ballard Saturday”

  1. What?!?!? I just did a spit-take with my can of seltzer here… did you say that Mayor Nickels is coming to Ballard? And he's doing it without being coerced or at gunpoint or otherwise against his will?

    No… no… I don't believe it.

  5. Actually, I know some people who are deeply involved with helping to combat homelessness in Seattle and according to them, Nickels has been a great help and a tireless advocate..give the guy a break, he's finally doing something good for your community so be glad, not unpleasent and mean…
    that having been said…now that they are planning on cleaning up Marvin's park will anyone be willing to camp out there so that the drug dealers and other undesireables will not simple comeback to set up camp in the nice newly cleaned up park??

  6. I think Mayor Knucklehead has earned a little 'unpleasant and mean.'
    That said, this is actually a good thing. Both 'parks' in downtown Ballard could use a clean-up effort. Thanks for the heads up, Geeky Swedes!

  7. You should offer to take him on a tour of Ballard's meth houses. The abandoned house behind Kinko's, 7-11, and the old Denny's site are all within a short walk. In all seriousness it might be the kind of wake up the mayor needs.

  8. I'll be focused on the goal of cleaning up the park. Also, if any of you know me, you'll see me, but it won't be chopper 74 showing up…just so you all know.

  9. So fat boy is coming to Ballard for a visit and photo op. In his chauffeur driven car I'm sure. It's nice that he visits the Plebeians every once in a while.

  14. Holy cow, what an incredible opportunity to speak to the mayor about our needs in Ballard.

    Also, Rob Mattson might be a good person to meet. According to http://www.ballarddistrictcouncil.org/about.html, his job is to bring our needs to the City's attention. That site hasn't been updated since 2007, but the fact that this event is happening on Saturday shows that he's still active.

  17. I feel your frustration, Chopper_74. But I think most of my fellow cranky butz know how important this is and will be there.
    I just hope it's t-shirt weather on Saturday.

  19. Well, I'm thinking it would be great to line up a bunch of vikings and hawk a collective loogie at hizzonor, but I doubt people here have the cajones….

  20. So the corpulent one is coming to Ballard eh? BFD. Another photo-op. That and a good yada yada yada session no doubt too. Being a mere figurehead, it's not up to him to clean much of anything, let alone cool the planet. Driving (unfortunately) to Bellevue the other day I was reminded exactly what he and others “leaders” have NOT accomplished. As in fixing 520 or the viaduct. And again WTF are we all waiting for as far as decent signals along Market St? Current ones are from the 60's-70's. Is he going to fix this? We all drive don't we? Or is Market St just a joke? Like Hizzoner, McCheeze. I hope a bird poops on him Sat

  24. last time I saw the mayor do this in Ballard he worked really hard for 3min while the cameras were on then he stopped and left. So Sad…

  25. Cleaning up the park is fine and dandy but what we really need is to get the crime, drugs, booze and transient problems dealt with. If the mayor is going to use the park cleanup as an excuse to claim that he's dealt with the real problems then this is an empty gesture for us and a photo-op for him.

  26. Of course it's an empty gesture and a photo op for Mayor Knucklehead. Empty gestures and photo ops are his specialty.
    But these parks are both a major mess. It doesn't have to be empty for those of us who live here. So pack up your paint brushes and your garbage bags and meet us all down there. It's just a small step but it's a step.

  27. Well, as I made a snide comment about him not being around in Ballard on another forum, I have to give him respect for coming to town. Thanks Greg, glad your are stoping by!

    I hope you get to see the bizarre, truly surreal, mix of a happy families living in a great neighborhood mixed with the new and emergent population of transient homeless.

  28. Is this why we can't park on Ballard or 22nd from 9pm to 6am now? I wish they'd at least let us park on Shilshole during the night in the meantime, but no, still can't park on Shilshole from 2-5 AM. I live on Ballard Ave., what the hell do I do with my car?

  29. The no parking from 2-5 AM was done to keep homeless people who are living in their cars from parking there. The same was done on 14th NW and around Fred Meyer in Freelard.

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