The annual Ballard SeafoodFest is just around the corner and organizers are looking for volunteers.
The crowd at SeafoodFest 2009
“We are looking for help with set-up and tear-down, selling raffle tickets, being part of the ‘green team’ for recycling and trash, ice wrangling, music stage volunteers and working with children in the Kids Zone.” Joanne Orsucci the SeafoodFest 2010 volunteer coordinator tells us. “With expanded hours, we’ll also be adding a couple of new ‘Team Shifts’ to the Information Booth and Salmon BBQ.”
Individuals, organizations and businesses are welcome to volunteer or provide four or eight volunteers for the available shifts. If you’re interested you can email seafoodfestvolunteer@hotmail.com. You can also keep up with information on SeafoodFest on their Facebook page.
This year’s event is two weeks earlier than in years past. Mark your calendar for July 10th and 11th.
I’ll gladly volunteer my time if the BCC drops their frivolous lawsuit blocking construction of the Burke Gilman trail.
as it stands, I won’t help this group.
Thanks for that information! I will gladly help this group keep living wage jobs in Ballard and not replace them with nothing more than a bicycle route. Bicycles should use Leary Way which is plenty wide enough to support a route there.
Oh noes! If we don’t sue to stop the Seafood Fest, all of Ballard will fall into the sea! Is true! Really!
All of the industries providing pollution and lost fingers to their employees will vanish into the sea if the Seafood Festival happens!
Great idea Josh! Now, let’s put Leary on a road-diet and add a dedicated bike lane. While we we’re at it, lets add more cross walks and traffic signals all the way into Fremont!
So comments for every article about Seafoodfest are going to go like this, huh?
I will not be volunteering or attending the Seafood fest just because of the position of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce concerning the bike path. I will also continue the boycott of any chamber member business. The Chamber can at any time say they will not further hinder the bike path construction but they have not, so the boycott continues.
Amazing how many tax dollars of our money the chamber has wasted due to the delays, all while bikers continue to be injured.
Let’s support our business’s and family’s. The Chamber raise money for Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial, Boys and Girls Club, and many, many other non-profits.
Can you really blame the Ballard Chamber of “Commerce” for supporting business’s and family’s that have been here a long time-
Common Sense statemtent here- Probably not a great idea to put a Oil Company or Sand and Gravel company in a Green Belt or next to a National Forrest. On the flip side a bike path through a working industrial area (that has been an working industrial area for around a 100 years) probably doesn’t make much sense either.
I was totally going to volunteer, but now that the date is moved… well… I can’t! You’re going to have a lot of competition ’cause the Yankees are making their only appearance at Safeco Field this year that very same weekend! Hopefully, I can volunteer next year!!
Thanks Melissa, We had to choose between Torchlight, Bellevue Arts Festival, Capitol Hill Block Party or West Seattle and the Yankees. We chose to move it up. But when you come back to Ballard Saturday evening come check out The Maldives and DJ Riz on our Main Stage!!
Common sense statement #2: The bike path doesn’t remove any businesses. It’s entirely in a public right of way. There is already a road there.
Common sense statement #3. Bike paths have been built through industrial areas in this city and in many other cities with out issues. What is the problem?
As SPG points out the proposed trail is all on existing public right of way.
Common Sense Statement #3. Any business or entity wouldn’t get involved with a lawsuit unless the alternative is going to damage them.
Common Sense Statement #4 The reason for the road being in the condition it is is because heavy trucks, (the ones you find in an industrial area) are constantly on this road. Especially when its summer… the same time more are riding their bikes.
Common Sense Statement #5 Pulling all of that parking off that road and putting it into the surrounding areas will hurt local retail businesses that are not on that road.
Common Sense Statement #6 The jobs in the port areas are “Family Wage” jobs meaning that they average 70K a year. We are in the worse economy in 80 years.. does hurting families economically make sense?
no thanks. not interested in providing free labor for the BC of C. they can suck an egg while they’re at it…
There actually is a lutefisk eating contest and a hot dog contest sponsored by Dante. No eggs though.
Fred, re: your #3…Businesses are not some mythical geniuses that only make decisions that are wise and proven to be perfect, they’re run by people with all the petty little preconceptions and bad ideas that come with people. The businesses can be greedy and usurp the public right of way and fight to keep it while telling you another story of lost jobs and the end of the industry as you know it. Doesn’t mean it’s true.
#4. Trucks. Yeah? The same trucks from the same company that cross the Burke Gilman trail over in Fremont at SBSG’s other facility. What’s your point? The drivers all go blind and the trucks don’t have brakes when they’re in Ballard?
#5 Parking. This is the only real one in the bunch, but there are solutions. SBSG can lease a few parking spots from the Yankee Diner lot or encourage more car pooling. There are solutions available at little or no cost.
#6 Jobs. WTF does a bike trail have to do with jobs? Fewer ER visits at Swedish from the cyclists who crash on the tracks? There is no way that a bike trail would impact any local job.
I’m getting a little tired of having to listen to the BS spewed by these “businessmen” who are afraid that a bike trail will mean the end of some mythical “Old Ballard”. What’s next? Are they going to fight every improvement in this neighborhood in the hopes of keeping their area a S—hole so they can have cheap rent and make more money?
dmcm anus, You’ve moved the date to avoid a conflict that would keep people from attending yet you hold your position on the bike trail that is not only keeping people from attending, but also getting a lot of the community so annoyed at the chamber that they’re boycotting the very businesses that you’re supposed to represent?
Whoa, Jsut saw how I typed the name and I really didn’t intend that typo above despite my penchant for wordplay. There’s no way to edit posts anymore? Hey GS, can you fix that name above please?
SPG- in Response-
Actually we moved the date because we were in competition with the 2nd largest Seafair event- “Torchlight”, The third largest Arts Festival on the West Coast- “The Bellevue Arts Festival” and the fastest growing event in the region- “The Capitol Hill Block Party”. The combined amount for those three events for that weekend is nearly 400K people… and then you try to add SeafoodFest… it was too much. As we are sharing the weekend with West Seattle, and a few others we are not competing for the same amount of “festival goers” that we were before.
We have expanded the hours this year and we have a great line-up of music including Ballard’s own Maldives and DJ Riz. Also the Saturday Night will be the Ballard Art Walk which gives a great forum for Artists and local restaurants and gallary’s.
We have added an a Friday night event. It’s a fundraiser for the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial. They provide comfort and scholarships to families that have lost love ones at sea in Ballard’s oldest industry.
We understand your concerns for the Bike Trail or “Missing Link”. As a Chamber of Commerce it’s in our interests to support business’s in the area, just like it’s in the Cascade Bicycle Club’s interest to promote trails and bikes. The members of the Chamber understand that sometimes we take positions that are not going to make everyone happy. But realize that the only thing that you are boycotting are local business’s and local charities that support children, families and jobs in the area. If you think the Chamber is some group of rich guys hanging out in some private club carving up Ballard you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s core members are made up of volunteers trying to make the area better for business’s, familes and local charities. “Buy Local” is what we are trying to promote. BTW we get no Federal Funding.
The “missing link” will be decided one way or the other sometime soon. This is a blink in the eye of our existence. The Chamber has been here for 85 years and will be here for probably another 185 or more years. If you don’t want to support local business’s, charities and families that’s your perogative. I’m confident we’ll do fine without ya.
#3.. and then there is the real world. I think people and companies like wasting money on lawsuits. It’s a fun and rewarding experience to do for Sh*ts and Giggles.
#4.. the reason why so many bike riders who are forced at gunpoint to ride down that street is precisly because heavy trucks actually smooth the road for bikes. They don’t cause any damage to the roads.
#5 is a huge deal and to just say “little or no cost” shows how much you have really thought about this.. I’m sure the retailers on Ballard Ave and Market love your answer.
#6 We force bike riders by gunpoint to go down this road and crash… your absolutely right. There is no other road (or form of transportation) in all of Ballard for them to take… I mean inconvenience them.
These people are the dumbest people ever for continueing to go down a road that they know is dangerous and thinking that for some reason that they shouldn’t be responsible for that choice and put the blame on the road or the business’s around it is beyond logical. The road is in the condition it is in because it is used for industry. Outside of a Bike bridge over the area paid for by a local bike tax I think they should find someplace else to ride or face the consequences of their own stupidity.
In case anyone did not see the recent article in the Times regarding bike safety, the map they provided indicated that other areas where the Burke Gilman is compete actually have much higher accident rates than does the area through Ballard. Seems that cyclists have a hard time no matter what.
Let me be clear, I am not boycotting ALL Ballard businesses, only the ones that are members of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce. I would guess the majority of businesses in Ballard are not chamber members.
dmcmanus:”We understand your concerns for the Bike Trail or “Missing Link”.”
TRANSLATION: We don’t care what you think.
dmcmanus:”As a Chamber of Commerce it’s in our interests to support business’s in the area, just like it’s in the Cascade Bicycle Club’s interest to promote trails and bikes.”
TRANSLATION: We’re looking out for our buddies and everyone else can jump in a lake. or get hurt riding their bikes. We don’t care.
dmcmanus:”The members of the Chamber understand that sometimes we take positions that are not going to make everyone happy.”
TRANSLATION: We don’t care how adverse an impact our actions has so long as our buddies are happy.
dmcmanus:”But realize that the only thing that you are boycotting are local business’s and local charities that support children, families and jobs in the area.”
TRANSLATION: We’re making sure that cyclists continue to get hurt, but you’re the big meanie for pointing it out.
dmcmanus:”If you think the Chamber is some group of rich guys hanging out in some private club carving up Ballard you couldn’t be more wrong.”
TRANSLATION: The Chamber is a group of well off guys scratching each others backs in an ugly office at the cost of the rest of the people who live here.
dmcmanus:”BTW we get no Federal Funding.”
TRANSLATION: Obama is scary. We like Palin.
dmcmanus:”The “missing link” will be decided one way or the other sometime soon. This is a blink in the eye of our existence. The Chamber has been here for 85 years and will be here for probably another 185 or more years.”
TRANSLATION: Even though a lot of people will suffer a long time from their accidents and endure pain and spend a lot of time in rehab from these accidents it doesn’t matter because we’ll all be dead eventually.
dmcmanus:”If you don’t want to support local business’s, charities and families that’s your perogative.”
TRANSLATION: Wasting the city’s money to fight our lawsuit and making sure that people continue to get injured while riding their bikes to work is okay because we give a few bucks to charity.
dmcmanus:”I’m confident we’ll do fine without ya.”
TRANSLATION: F. U.
Oh no, no men in spandex at Seafair? How will we survive?
A boycott by half a dozen cyclists isn’t a boycott. It’s a tantrum.
Fred said:”#3.. and then there is the real world. I think people and companies like wasting money on lawsuits.”
-No, they like to keep on using the public right of way without having to pay for it. They don’t ride bikes and think that a bike trail will cause their part of town to become too nice and maybe someday it will get rezoned and their rent will go up.
Fred said:”#4.. … because heavy trucks actually smooth the road for bikes. They don’t cause any damage to the roads.”
-Duh, a bike path would be separate so it wouldn’t matter. But destroying the roads that you and I pay for is ok?
Fred said:”#5 is a huge deal and to just say “little or no cost” shows how much you have really thought about this.. I’m sure the retailers on Ballard Ave and Market love your answer.”
-Yes parking is the only real issue as I said. BUT, there are options. There is land around there that isn’t being used and ways to put in a bike path that will have less impact on parking. Just because you’re enjoying the parking doesn’t mean that it was always supposed to be there. And the BCoC modest proposal? Take out all the parking on several other major streets of retail businesses to preserve Shilshole? Yeah, they care.
#6 We force bike riders by gunpoint to go down this road and crash… your absolutely right. There is no other road (or form of transportation) in all of Ballard for them to take… I mean inconvenience them.”
-You sure do like to wave that gun around, don’t you? But what is your point? You don’t ride a bike so nobody else should either? The reality is that the businesses have been inconveniencing everyone else for their own whims and interest, not to mention causing a lot of people to get hurt and waste a lot of our scarce tax dollars with the lawsuits.
The rest of your diatribe just becomes idiotic at this point so nevermind.
I normally skip over any comment by rose, but have you considered that the density on the BGT is radically higher than the rest of the city? Of course you’ll see higher numbers under denser use areas simply because there are more users. As a percentage of users you’ll see much lower rates compared to the streets. You’ll also see a really low incidence of accidents where nobody goes no matter how unsafe it is simply because nobody is there.
SPG can’t be disagreed with. SPG doesn’t reason, rationalize or respect anyone else’s opinion OR RIGHT TO HAVE AN OPINION. SPG spews vitriol and couldn’t possibly be a very happy person. PLEASE don’t volunteer for SeafoodFest SPG. it’s not for you. Many of us are tired of reading your caustic, hateful proselytizing on this site. Please get yourself some rest. (LOVED the tantrum post, so true!!)
uh, you do realize that you are making pronouncements about absolutes in all caps while using the handle “queenofballard”?
Irony. Look it up.
“Oh no, no men in spandex at Seafair?” Is there anything funnier or more pathetic than men in spandex? Yes! COPS in spandex on bikes.
“ring ring, pull over” LOLOLOL
SPG sweet is not pointing out areas that are less dense. The are in question is BALLARD where there are fewer accidents than in areas where the Burke Gilman is complete. In fact Ballard is more dense than many areas where there are a HUGE number of bike accidents on the trail.
Doug11=SPG.. We all missed your sunshine.
I didn’t realize this was sponsored by the Ballard Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to the bloggers on this site for pointing this out. I certainly won’t be going now – I like bike trails too much. They need to drop their frivolous lawsuit.
“Is there anything funnier or more pathetic than men in spandex? ”
Well yeah….. fat women.
If you were to boycott the chamber, how would you know which businesses to boycott? I see no member listing on their website.
How’s that boycott working out anyway? Anyone know? Bueller? Bueller?