Sustainable Ballard

Est. 2003 · Seattle
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Category: Uncategorized

  • July 20th – Seven Wonders of Ballard Bike Tour

    July 20th – Seven Wonders of Ballard Bike Tour

    ggs250-rideabikeJoin us for a leisurely Saturday morning ride to explore seven wonderful treasures of Ballard — historic, fanciful and peculiar — and get to know more about our community and neighbors.

    A few of these “wonders” are well known to many residents and we hope some will be a delight to discover. We will try to use mostly those streets that have a bike lane or low traffic volume. A little exercise, a little fun, and a little discovery of our neighborhood.

     

    Details:

    July 20th, 9:00 am – 10:30 am
    Start point: Ballard Commons Park (58th & 22nd)
    FREE!!

  • Our 5th Annual Edible Garden Tour

    Our 5th Annual Edible Garden Tour

    egt12 orangeThis walking or biking tour provides examples of creative uses of parking strips, containers, raised beds, chicken coops, fruit trees, berries, bees and more! Meet the gardeners and ask questions. Be inspired! Check out your neighbors’ gardens. The tour includes a dozen gardens to explore within walking distance of Trinity United Methodist Church and Salmon Bay School. Your ticket includes a map of gardens and one entry into a Raffle of gardening books, supplies & Fiskars tools. Local NW gardening authors will be on hand to answer your gardening questions.

     

    egt12 potsWhen: Saturday June 29, 2013, 10am – 3pm
    Where: Buy your ticket/map at the parking lot west of Trinity United Methodist Church, 6512 23rd Ave NW, on the day of the tour
    Cost: $10 (kids are free) supports Sustainable Ballard’s community projects.
    Support this year comes from:

    Cool Season Gardener UrbanFarmHandbooklogo-fiskars-01gardenmentors

  • Livable Streets Candidate Forum

    On July 1st, from 7:00-8:30 PM at the MLK F.A.M.E Community Center eight of the candidates for Seattle mayor will discuss their plans for making Seattle’s streets great places for walking, playing, using transit, shopping, biking, getting to school, and raising a family. Eight of the candidates for mayor have confirmed and are expected to attend.

    The Livable Streets candidate forum is hosted by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and the Park Shore Retirement Community with support from the Seattle Parks Foundation, Safe Kids Seattle, Commute Seattle, Sustainable Seattle, Senior Services, Seattle Subway, Feet First, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, Cascade Bicycle Club, 12th Ave Stewards, Seattle Bike Blog, Futurewise, Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, the Madison Park Community Council, West Seattle Bike Connections, and Bike Works.

    Details:
    When: July 1st, 7:00-8:30 PM
    Where: Madison Valley at the MLK Family, Arts, Mentoring, and Enrichment Community Center, 3201 E Republican Seattle, WA 98112
    Cost/RSVP: Free. RSVP requested. Register online here:

    Transportation: The community center is served by nearby bus routes 8 and 11 and is on the Lake Washington Loop bike route. A by-donation bike valet will be available. There is no off-street car parking.

    Anticipated attendance: Mike McGinn, Peter Steinbrueck, Bruce Harrell, Ed Murray, Charlie Staadecker, Kate Martin, Joey Gray, and Mary Martin.

    Childcare will be provided (please register for childcare when you RSVP).

  • Family Bikes in Salmon Bay Park

    Family Bikes in Salmon Bay Park

    Interested in riding bikes with your kids, but don’t know how to get started? Local biking families will be in Salmon Bay Park on Saturday, June 29th at 10:30 am, with different family and cargo bikes to try out.  More info here.
    family bike

  • Sound Transit and SDOT Open House: Ballard Transit Expansion Study

    Thursday, June 27, 2013
    5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
    Ballard High School Commons (1418 NW 65th St., Seattle)

    The discussion will include preliminary route options for public consideration and output.

    More information is available here.

  • June 27 – Feet First at Reuben s Brews

    June 27 – Feet First at Reuben s Brews

    Reubens-Thank-You-Thursday_Photo-Credit-Suzi-PrattStop by Reuben’s Brews on Thursday, June 27th, any time between 3pm and 8pm and $1 of every pint will go to Feet First. If you would like to join us for a stroll to learn about walkable Ballard, meet us at the brewery at 6pm. We are joining forces with the East Ballard Community Association to take you on a free, short (a little over 1 mile) stroll around some neighborhood features making Ballard an even more walkable and vibrant community: More details and RSVP here.

  • Meet Janet, Johnny Appleseed of Ballard’s Little Free Libraries

    Meet Janet, Johnny Appleseed of Ballard’s Little Free Libraries

    photoJanet came to our Open House today; she loves little free libraries, and although she can’t host one, she has books she’d like to donate. She’s going to be a Johnny Appleseed, planting books into all the Ballard Little Free Libraries while she’s out on her walks!

    Here she is with a book another visitor is going home with, that Natacha brought to the last event that Julia P took home and brought back today…and now it’s off to its next home!  Want to help us spread Little Free Libraries around Ballard?  Click here!

  • Think Green Challenge Winners

    Think Green Challenge Winners

    picture1bWe’re excited to announce that Sustainable Ballard has won the Think Green outreach challenge along with 2 other neighborhoods (Wallingford and Delridge/South Park). Each will receive $3300 for a non-profit of their choice. Winner of the $40,000 Least Garbage Tonnage award is our neighbors, Phinney Ridge. Congrats Phinney!!

    The City of Seattle was very impressed with all of the outreach we participated in – Christmas carols, costume and spring-cleaning swaps, event booths, reusable bag pledges, and answers to “I love recycling, because…” that would put Shakespeare to shame. Visit our facebook post to see some of our answers.

    Thanks to everyone who participated in our outreach events. And thanks for reading our Monthly Waste Reduction Tips.

  • Solarize Seattle NW Update – 100 solar contracts

    Solarize Seattle NW Update – 100 solar contracts

    solarizeThe workshops have now ended and solar contractors Puget Sound Solar and Artisan Electric are busy responding to all the interest generated in NW Seattle. More than 650 Northwest Seattle residents attended the workshops and as of yesterday 100 have signed contracts. Hundreds more have received a site assessment and are in the midst of the decision-making process.

    What’s more, those 100 Solarizers have helped us power past another big milestone. With the help of Northwest Seattle residents, Solarize Washington participants have collectively installed more than ONE MEGAWATT of new solar power since the program launched in 2011. (See the impact at solarizewa.org)

    Thank you to NW Seed and Seattle City Light for bringing such a great program to our neighborhood, to Bill Thorness and the organizing group for catalyzing us and our partner organizations into action, and to all of you that have been so instrumental in getting the word out about Solarize! Contracting will wrap up within the next two months—so there is much more to come!

  • Thanks for all the Love!!

    Thanks for all the Love!!

    Thanks to those who submitted photos and stories for the Umpqua Bank “Show Us How You Give” contest last month. We didn’t make it into the finals, but we LOVE all the photos and stories you sent in. You can see them all in our Facebook history. Feel free to keep posting why you love Sustainable Ballard on our Facebook page!!

    Vic shared how Sustainable Ballard partners with other organizations to influence change:

    2009missinglink2“We Are The Missing Link” is one particularly noteworthy action event Sustainable Ballard collaborated on with many organizations. Over 200 people attended this event WITH their bicycles to bring attention to the fact that the “Missing Link” of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard still wasn’t completed. And today, this segment of trail STILL isn’t completed. Time for the next installment of action from all of us !

    Emily talked about our annual festival:

    teesThe Sustainable Ballard festival is the only one of it’s kind! Thousands of people in the local community attend this volunteer-powered event to learn more about how they can live more sustainably. We also make some really rad t-shirts and onesies 🙂

     

     

     

     

    Jenny shared the successes of our solar outreach:

    solarfairLast summer Sustainable Ballard hosted a solar fair to help folks learn more about the best options for solar. Since then we’ve helped educate over 500 neighbors about solar and how to become energy independent. And we’ve helped over 50 families install solar thanks to two different bulk-buying programs and great federal, state and local incentives. AND green lending programs from socially-conscious banks like Umpqua!

    P.S. Update – we’ve now helped educate over 1000 neighbors and nearly 200 have installed solar.  That’s 892 kilowatts of solar, nearly a megawatt!

    And Eric told a story that literally brought us to tears:

    This is Beatrice. She’s not the Sustainable Ballard mascot or anything like that, but I Beatricethink she helps show how Sustainable Ballard builds strong community ties between neighbors. Right before my wife and I were scheduled to leave on our two-week honeymoon, Beatrice swallowed a tennis ball and had to get emergency surgery. We needed someone to take care of her and help her recover, and another Sustainable Ballard volunteer stepped up to the task. (Thanks, Julia!) Neighbors helping neighbors is what our organization is all about, and I think the kind of resiliency and community spirit that SB helps build gets to the heart of what it means to be sustainable.