Park(ing) Day Seattle Prize Winners!

Tastiest prize: Zen Cakes and Zines (Park(ing) Day Central Park, Bluebird gift certificate)

image courtesy of gravitysalad

Most Multi-Modal: Bike Works (Columbia City, ZipCar gift certificate)

Most Playful: 4-PLAY (Park(ing) Day Central Park, games from Gamma Ray Games and Bucephalus Games)















Greenest Park: Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Wallingford, gardening books from Spine and Crown Books)

Best Execution: Park N Play by Perkins + Will (Downtown, Victrola coffee and shirt)

Most Original (Grand Prize): air.stream by Signal to Noise (Park(ing) Day Central Park, $200 and custom trophy)

image courtesy of gravitysalad

Congratulations Park(ing) Day Seattle prize winners! More pictures to come!

(If not otherwise attributed, pictures are courtesy of the lovely Jen Power, Unpaving Paradise's fearless leader/photographer)

Paradise Unpaved - UP at Park(ing) Day Central Park

Friday, September 18th was a fabulous day to spend in the park. I could write all about it, but the best way to show you is in pictures:

Here's our lovely garden, and below is our fine and upstanding park activity: picking out new sites for parks on Capitol Hill, courtesy of the Parks Department and acquisitions money from the last Pro-Parks Levy.

image courtesy of gravitysalad

Also, the lovely model of John and Summit Park, courtesy of Mithun, set to become a reality late next year :)

Kicking it with the Zen Cakes - Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads fame chats up the women of WorldChanging.com.

image courtesy of gravitysalad

Web Crowell, Renaissance Man: animator, Capitol Hill Community Council representative, and now founder of Under Pressure Seltzer Works.

Cookies (and moocher) courtesy of Seattle Arts and Lectures.

And look! We made it into the news! If you look closely, you can see Capitol Hill Community Council President Jen Power walking behind Denise Whittaker and she talks about John and Summit Park.



If you'd like to see more, you find more pictures about Park(ing) Day Seattle at People's Parking Lot (of course), the Slog, CHS Blog, and Flickr (thanks gravitysalad!).

Tabling at the Cap Hill Farmer's Market - 9/6

Spend time with the delicious organic veggies and talk up Unpaving Paradise this Sunday, Sept. 6th at the Capitol Hill Farmer's Market. If you're in town, it's not a bad way to spend your Labor Day Sunday. We need volunteers from 10:45am until 3:20pm - if you're interested just email us at unpaving.paradise(at)gmail.com with the hours you can volunteer.

Park(ing) Day Posters and Prizes

Our event partner People's Parking Lot has an update on prizes that have been donated thus far for the Park(ing) Day Seattle Prize...and have we mentioned that first prize is $200 plus a magnificent and super-secret trophy?

They've also come up with the nifty poster you see to your left. If you'd like to help spread the word about Park(ing) Day and Park(ing) Day Central Park, print out a passel of posters and put them put them up around the neighborhood.

Park(ing) Day 2009

Unpaving Paradise is taking part in Park(ing) Day 2009 (Friday, September 18th). For those who don't know, Park(ing) Day is about making car spaces (parking spots) into people spaces (temporary mini-parks). The mini-park we hosted on Broadway as part of Park(ing) Day 2008 was a huge success - we got visits from the Seattle PI, Q 13 News, and about half of the neighborhood to boot.

This year Unpaving Paradise is taking part in Park(ing) Day Central Park, a collection of mini-parks hosted by neighborhood organizations and businesses in the empty lot at 500 E Pine. We need volunteers to set up, take down, and hang out at the park during the day. Set up will likely begin at 8am. Take down time is yet to be decided, but will be after 6pm.

If you're interested in participating, please email us at unpaving.paradise(at)gmail.com with hours you can volunteer. If you're busy on Friday, September 18th, we can also use help making and distributing flyers, gathering prizes for the Best Park in the City awards, and generally spreading the word about the event.

For more info, see this CHS Blog post.

Fundraising Update

As of this last week, Unpaving Paradise made the August deadline and raised enough money to fulfill the construction budget for John and Summit Park. While we still plan on raising money for some of items that will go in after the park/P-Patch is built (tool shed, benches, art pieces), the Parks Department now has all the money it needs to start bidding out the project. We'll keep you updated, but if everything goes according to plan, Parks should break ground at John and Summit at the beginning of next year.

UPDATE: Chill 'n' Grill on the Hill

For some pictures of the evening of all-ages awesome (with free City Market hot dogs, hamburgers and soft drinks and a line-up of diverse and talented local bands including Mighty Tiger, Eagle Seagull, Norey, Viva la Villain and The Autumn Electric), clicky here.

7/5 - UP Outreach at the Capitol Hill Farmer's Market

Your friendly neighborhood gardeners will be tabling at this Sunday's Capitol Hill Farmer's Market. If you'd like to volunteer, please contact unpaving(dot)paradise(at)gmail(dot)com.

Community Supporter: Half Price Books

Half Price Books just donated $1,750 to Unpaving Paradise through its corporate environmental initiative. The Capitol Hill location led the way in pooling the environmental grant money from stores all over the Seattle area to give to the park at John and Summit. Our friendly neighborhood Half Price Books has also been kind enough to host an info table on UP and the park-to-be - if you have a chance to visit, it's on the top floor just to the left of the stairs.

8/4 - UP to co-sponsor Cap Hill Chill 'n' Grill

August 4th is the Seattle Police Department's "Seattle Night Out". "Night Out" is a nation-wide crime prevention event that the City of Seattle participates in by waiving the fees for blocking non-arterial streets, thus encouraging block parties all around the city.

This year, Cafe Metropolitain and Unpaving Paradise are co-hosting one of the block parties of the "Seattle Night Out": The Capitol Hill Chill 'n' Grill. There will be free food and entertainment for the whole family, booths with information about neighborhood non-profits, and plenty of time to chill out and meet your neighbors.

If you'd like more information or you're interested in volunteering during the event, please email us at unpaving(dot)paradise(at)gmail(dot)com.