A Community News Website for Broadview
Thousands of Appointments Available This Week
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Our region and state continue to make incredible progress on vaccinations. As of April 23, an estimated 61.5 percent of Seattle residents have begun the vaccination process, and 34.7 percent are fully vaccinated. This week, the City received 52,000 vaccinations from the county, state, and federal level, which is our largest allocation to-date. If this level of supply and demand continues in Seattle, we could vaccinate 70 percent of our workers and residents by the end of May. Even with supply breaking loose, the City can’t end this pandemic alone – we need your help. If you haven’t already been vaccinated, sign up for a vaccination appointment today at any of the four City-affiliated sites at Lumen Field, North Seattle, Rainier Beach, and West Seattle. Details are below:
If you have already been vaccinated, be a good neighbor and help your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers get vaccinated by sharing this link throughout your communities. To end this pandemic – and soon – we need to share registration opportunities far and wide: To our workforce, our neighborhood, and our friends and families. If you have any questions, the City encourages you to review our “What to Expect” website. And if you know someone 60 or older who hasn’t been vaccinated, take them to our hubs in Rainier Beach and West Seattle, and you’ll both get vaccinated without an appointment. You can find more information on our new Good Neighbor walk-in program here. Vaccines save lives. With more variants in our community, you can protect your health and the health of your family by getting vaccinated. If you’re unable to book an appointment this week, you can sign up for the City’s notification list and get notified via email as soon as appointments are available at any of the four City-affiliated sites. For more information, including the notification list, visit the City’s vaccination website at www.seattle.gov/vaccine. The site contains vaccination information in seven languages, and in-language assistance is also available over the phone. Even as more residents get vaccinated, public health measures like social distancing, wearing a mask, and washing your hands remain critical. Please continue to follow all public health guidance, and visit this website from Public Health – Seattle & King County for more information. |
Seattle Parks and Recreation is celebrating Earth Day and Month with a week of virtual and in-person activities to connect people to the planet and each other. Join us!
Visit www.seattle.gov/parks/earthweek to learn about the latest Earth Week activities!
One of the many activities is a guided nature walk at Carkeek Park:
Naturalist Nature Walk: Visit Carkeek Park from10:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 24 for a Nature Walk with SPR’s Environmental Education staff.
As of last week, play street permits are back – just in time for Earth Day fun on April 22nd! This comes after nearly a year-long hiatus in issuing these permits on account of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis.
With our free play street permit, you can open your street for exercise and fun and limit vehicle traffic up to 3 days a week, for a maximum of 12 hours per week during daylight hours. Learn all about play street permits and how to apply for one.
With a free play street permit, you can open streets for neighbors to get outside to walk, roll, exercise and play by closing non-arterial streets to through traffic.
The Broadview Garden Club Plant Sale, typically held the first Sat. in May at the Broadview Thompson school, will not be held this year. However, like last year, a few member will hold plant sales at their homes. I will post sale dates and locations and we get them organized. I’m happy to announce that the first sale is next weekend!
Date: April 3rd and 4th Time: 9 am to 5 pm Location: 12001 11th Ave NW
We will have the plants spread out for perusing, each marked with a price. We won’t have a cashier however a payment box will be available, cash or checks are accepted. Please keep social distancing in mind. Here are a few plants available, but we have many more so stop by: Cyclamen, sarcaccocoa, phlox, lilac, Trillium, mondo grass, phlomis.
The garden club appreciates your support! The money collected by the club is in turn donated to local schools, domestic violence shelters and local gardens like Dunn Garden, Jimi Hendrix Park and Plant Amnesty.
By William Murray
Recently a hiker in Carkeek Park stopped to ponder the trail names and asked about the history of the Clay Pit and Brick Road Trail. Dale Johnson, an avid hiker and Carkeek Park trail builder, replied. “The clay pit where the clay for the brick factory came from is on the west side of the Clay Pit Trail a little way uphill from where it starts at the Airplane Field parking lot. We named the Brick Road Trail that because bricks stick up through the surface. It was originally a road to some buildings where the trail intersects the Hillside Trail, where the road builders used brick debris to build up the grade of the road. 
There are also bricks sticking up through the side of the park road above the Y in the road, likely from brick debris used to build up the road bed. ”
Black and white photocopy of original faded photo of Ballard Brick Yards, located where Carkeek Park is today. 
Owned & operated by George Orovitz family (immigrants from Czeckoslovakia). Large brick structure with three chimneys. Courtesy of Ballard Historical Society archives.
For many years starting in the late 1800s, bricks were manufactured at the Ballard Brick yard located in what is now Carkeek Park. The devastating fire of 1889 in downtown Seattle spawned the opening of many new brickyards as demand exploded for fireproof building material. The process of creating bricks uses clay as raw material that is first prepared, formed, and dried. The firing of clay bricks is then performed through hacking, heating, burning, cooling, and de-hacking. The mineral content of the clay would determine the brick’s color—clays rich with iron oxide would turn reddish.
At the turn of the last century Broadview was home to large farms settled by families such as the Pipers from Germany and the Bauers who came from North Dakota in 1889. Joe Bauer grew up on the family’s strawberry farm at 125th and 12th Ave NW and worked at the Ballard brickyards. Jim Bauer remembered that just for fun, children who lived near the Brickyard used to bake bread in the kilns that remained hot long after closing time. The brickyard was destroyed by a severe winter storm in 1916.
Source: Recollections from Broadview/Bitter Lake Community History [1995]
Ballard bricks were used in many local construction projects and can still be found today in salvage yards. These bricks owned by the author are 3” thick and each weigh close to 8 lbs.!
Camps for children ages 5-12 will be offered at 17 locations.
Scholarships available; registration opens April 20.
As more businesses prepare to open and more parents return to work, Seattle Park and Recreation will offer full-day weekly summer childcare camps for children ages 5-12. Registration opens on Tuesday, April 20, and weekly sessions will be offered beginning June 28 through August 27. Program hours have been expanded to 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. to better meet family needs.
Program fees are higher than a normal year due to the additional costs of operating within COVID-19 guidelines. This includes lower staff-to-child ratios, lower capacity to ensure proper social distancing, cohort groupings, space limitations, and expanded hours to meet the needs of parents returning to work. Fees are $390 per week for full-day (7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.) Monday-Friday care; scholarships are available for qualifying families.
Programs will be located at community centers and other sites throughout the city and will be open to children ages 5-12. Programs will consist of engaging activities taking place both indoors and outdoors, and adhere to current public health guidelines regarding providing childcare with social distancing practices.
Health screening will be required for all participants and staff. Anyone showing symptoms of illness or has had exposure to a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 will not be allowed to attend program until well and not showing any symptoms of illness or 14 days have passed in the case of exposure. For more information on health screenings and requirements please contact lori.chisholm@seattle.gov.
Programs will open for children at:
West Seattle
Central Seattle
Northeast Seattle
Northwest Seattle
Southeast Seattle
Registration will open on April 20 by phone (206-684-5177) or online. It is our goal to provide accessible and safe summer childcare opportunities that supports families and children. Information on scholarships is available here.
Auction
The Casino Royale: Bet on Broadview auction takes place March 22 – March 27. Register today to bid on some amazing packages. All proceeds support grade-level experiences, the food program, teacher grants, the library, and more.
Register here.
Mayor Jenny A. Durkan today released a draft station area plan for the neighborhoods surrounding Sound Transit’s future light rail stations at 130th St NE and 148th St NE.
The draft plan expresses the community vision for a neighborhood with new housing and services with easy walking and bike access to the stations. There is strong interest in the neighborhood for day care, coffee shops, and other small retail. The community also expressed support for protecting environmentally sensitive areas near Thornton Creek and the Licorice Fern Natural Area. The draft plan does not consider changes to existing uses at Jackson Park Golf Course.
The City is considering early action for the block immediately adjacent to the future station at 130th St. Last year, the Seattle City Council requested a study of possible Comprehensive Plan amendments that would allow additional housing, small businesses, and other services across the street from the station. The Council may consider an amendment to the Future Land Use Map later this year, the first step in allowing construction of new housing types or retail. Zoning changes would only be considered after further environmental review.
The Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is currently seeking feedback through an online open house and survey and will continue to raise awareness of the draft plan with a mailing to the neighborhood.
Tax season is officially underway way. Taxes are due on April 15 this year. During tax season, the risk of scams increases with scammers targeting taxpayers and their data in order to file fraudulent tax returns, collect refunds, and engage in other identity theft schemes. Seattle Information Technology’s Security Team has a few warnings about what to look out for in the coming weeks:
Scammers seek out tax information, including W-2 information and personally identifiable information (PII) – such as:
They rely heavily on social engineering tactics conducted through email, phone, and text messages. These social engineering scams attempt to appear or sound convincing and authentic in order to trick recipients into disclosing sensitive information or credentials for online accounts. If they can steal a target’s data and identity, they can also steal their tax refund.
Tax Identity Theft
Scammers steal and use tax information, including SSNs, of unsuspecting taxpayers in several ways to file fraudulent tax returns and steal refunds. In order to acquire this information, threat actors may collect information exposed in a network compromise or data breach, or via social engineering campaigns. These social engineering campaigns are often email-based phishing scams that attempt to convince the recipient to divulge W-2 information or personal identifiable information (PII). Scammers often target HR and payroll personnel to request this information by impersonating a CEO or other executive. Scammers also may purport to be a trusted tax service and send phishing emails with links to spoofed websites that capture and steal information. Scammers may also send spoofed emails with tax documents available for download via legitimate services, such as DocuSign, to steal account credentials or other information.
Once a scammer has access to this tax information, they possess everything necessary to pose as you and file a tax return in your name to claim a refund fraudulently.
Keep Your Identity Safe
If you use an online application to do your taxes, you can now log in with your username, password and a third personal item like a phone number. Using all three will keep your identity and data safer.
For more tips, check out Taxpayer Guide to Identify Theft page on the IRS’ site.
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reports its progress on reducing arterial speed limits:
With funding from the voter-approved Levy to Move Seattle, last year we made significant process in reducing speed limits. There are now about 415 miles of arterial streets marked at the safer 25 mph speed limit, representing almost all of the arterial streets managed by SDOT! In total, we installed nearly 2,500 new speed limit signs along these streets so drivers are continually reminded to follow the speed limit. You can check to see which streets have 25 MPH speed limits on our Seattle Speed Limit Map.
