Kirkland Weblog

Help Kirkland Win the Dog Park Contest!!

 
Kirkland needs your vote!  We are a finalist in PetSafe's National Dog Park Contest, with the contest winner receiving $100,000 to build their dog park.  The City of Kirkland and Kirkland  Off-Leash Group (KDOG.org) worked together on a video for the semi-finals for this contest, and then became one of just 15 cities in the country to make it to the finals.  You can vote every day until August 3rd for Kirkland at www.barkforyourpark.com & at PetSafe's Facebook Page.  You'll also be able to view Kirkland's darling video submission there with dog, Lucky, visiting Kirkland parks and businesses, and even talking to the mayor.  Kirkland's Off-Leash Dog Group has an approved park site for the dog park, but is building their park without any City funding.  Please help them by barking for Kirkland by voting each day until August 3rd.  For more information about the dog park and park sponsorships, please go to www.kdog.org.  The winner gets announced on Aug 5th- GO KIRKLAND!!!

Hooray for Honey Buckets

 
Moms and children were crying out in distress all across the "Kirk-Land" when many of the local parks closed bathrooms and removed facilities last year as the result of a budgetary woes.  But you can rejoice again (and not have to pee in the bushes).  Restrooms are now open at Phyllis Needy, North Kirkland Community Center (Train Park) and South Rose Hill.  Honeybuckets are awaiting you at Woodlands Park, the Tot Lot, Spinney Homestead, Terrace, and Homestead Meadows.  What a relief. ;-)

Peter Kirk Park: New Play Coming Soon!

 <--Now   Early March-->

I did a double-take driving past Peter Kirk Park today when I saw a cyclone fence surrounding the play area in shambles.  A quick call to the parks dept revealed that the playground is being refurbished.  Recycling started today and it is expected to take three weeks.  Since the previous structure was 14 years old and  consistently needed new parts to keep it safe, the Parks Board chose PK park as the recipient of  approx $60K from the CIP (Capital Improvements Plan) budget.  Each year CIP funds, which can only be used for infrastructure, go towards improving a local playground. Looks like the kids of Kirkland are in for some new fun this spring! ~j

Kirkland Parks: Restroom Closures

Be sure your kids take their 'potty' break before heading out to the parks this season.  Due to budget cuts, ALL honeybuckets have been removed and the following neighborhood parks have closed their restrooms: North Kirkland Community Center (my kids call this the "Train Park"), Phyllis Needy Park (aka Houghton's Tot Lot), and South Rose Hill Park.

That's not all folks...no garbage cans in neighborhood parks either.  So be sure to keep our parks tidy and still pick up after yourselves. Or don't bring food or drink to the parks and then you won't have to clean up or go to the bathroom.  ~j

Concessions in the Parks

Kirkland Parks is mixing it up for us a bit this summer by allowing a few local businesses to have concession stands in the parks.  Keep an eye out this week for the Market Street Cafe trailer at Marina Park and Jimmy's on Houghton (owned by St. James Espresso) at Houghton Beach Park.  I love this idea!  Often in the summer we end up on these beaches for hours in the sun and have to take a break to search for food.  This year the food is coming to us!

Market Street Cafe, whose main location is just up the street from Marina Park at 609 Market St, will be offering more 'park-ready' foods than their upscale restaurant.  Here's a sneak peak at the menu where you'll find salads, kabobs and kid-friendly snacks.  They will be located over by the Argosy ticket stand (south of the restrooms)--to the left is a photo of their future spot.  Expect to find them seven days a week.  This will really come in handy during those concerts in the park which start on July 8th, btw.  Or you could dock your boat at the Marina to stop for a quick bite to go.

Jimmy's on Houghton, whose mother-ship is St. James Espresso at 355 Kirkland Ave, will also be opened 7 days a week during daylight hours.  You'll find them right across from Kidd Valley in the multi-purpose building in Houghton Beach Park.  Check out the rendition of their new sign (left). The menu is still being finalized, but you should be looking for lots of espresso drinks, blended drinks, frozen treats, baked goods, wraps/kids sandwiches, soup, salads, and don't forget the dog treats!  You can even use your pre-paid St. James cards at this location too. 

Sounds like spending even more time in our parks this summer just got easier.   Once my kids spy these stands there will be no going home. :-)   j

132nd Square Park: Totem Lake does it Right

Seems like any time I'm in North Kirkland and looking for a park to run the kids, I end up heading back to the usual suspects of the downtown Kirkland area.  Then I discovered 132nd Square Park sitting on the corner of NE 132nd St and 132nd Ave NE (why do we use numbers as all the streets around here? That's crazy).  You enter the park from NE 132nd Street.

This park is GIANT.  Baseball fields, soccer fields, plenty of parking, walkways, picnic benches, bathrooms, lots of grass and brand new play structures for the little people.  There are plenty of big trees so you can choose whether you prefer the shade or sunshine.  SUNSHINE?! Huh? There are two play structures, one geared towards ages 3-5 and the other bigger one is for ages 5-12.  Of course, my 2 year old wants to play on the big one, so you need to keep a close eye here b/c it's really designed for the bigger kids.  There's one part that looks like a giant rolling pin that even I thought looked like fun.   I can do this, I thought, in a gerbil-on-a-wheel sort of way.  After multiple attempts (you didn't see me did you?) I cannot recommend that wheel for 35 year olds. 

Anyway- you should check this one out.  Many improvements were recently made in a collaboration between the Totem Lake Neighborhood Association, King County Parks and the North County Parks Coalition.  Bonus: the play structures have been pretty empty each time we're there, so you can get the place to yourself.  It's expansive with a good feel, and it's all nicely tucked far away from the roadways.  If the parks dept would put a trash can over near the entry/exit to the park (by the bathrooms) it would be almost perfect!  ~Janis

Juanita Beach CLOSED to swimmers

Every year we hear about an overload of goose poop taking over Juanita Beach Park and causing closures.  But THIS time, it's an 8 inch sewer line leak from Lake Vue Gardens Convalescent Center.  So, if little Butchy wants to hit the beach this weekend, I'd head for fresher waters until Juanita Beach is cleared.  Helloooo Bellevue!

Come to think of it, I was water-skiing in Juanita Bay this morning.  No wonder there was nobody else out there on that glassy water! I didn't notice any snickers bars but now I'm starting to feel sick.   Please send tulips to my hospital room, they're my fave.  ~Janis

Heritage Park Improvements

It's quite a sight down at Heritage Park on the corner of Market St. and Waverly Way.  Lots of dirt and bulldozers at the moment. In case you are wondering what's going on, we're in Phase 2 of the 'Master Plan' right now which includes adding a historic Centennial Garden, new tennis courts, and improved parking.  More details can be found on the city website.

Woodlands Park: Where your Imagination can Run Free

North Rose Hill's Woodlands Park (located at 9930 124th Ave NE) will peak your curiosity when you drive down this popular thorough-fare.  It's a fenced in castle fortress equipped with bouncy bridges, a tire swing, creative painting, and a life-size chess set with plenty of open area for romping around.  Check out the pics.

But how do you get to it?  There's no parking along 124th, no lot, and you certainly don't want to be crossing 124th with small children anxious to escape you.  What a tease! All five of us loaded in the car to experience this park and had to circle the whole block before figuring out how to actually get there.  All while listening to the chorus in the back seat, "Mommy is that the park?  Where did it go?  Why are we going this way?  Are we still going to the park? P-L-E-A-A-A-S-E can we go to the park?"  For three year olds this must be the equivalent of seeing an ice cream sundae and having no spoon---so close, yet so far! 

Anyway, once we finally figured out that the best we could do is park on NE 95th in front of some homes and walk down the little nature trail, all was good in the world again.  This park was creatively designed by ideas that came from children who voiced what they would like to see in their neighborhood park.  And the intent was for it to be a community gathering place for the North Rose Hill residents, so therefore, maybe lots of those folks are just walking over.   They probably opted for no parking to keep people like the Rabuchins from busting in on their park. After all, they volunteered, funded and helped build the whole thing!

The structure is nicely put together with a Trex-like material and has lots of different alcoves and tunnels and varying challenges for a young child's imagination to explore.  The painting is fabulous-  check out the dragon to the right here.   There's even a section for smaller tots to tinker around in (with the exception of baby swings).  There's no bathroom, although the Kirkland Parks website says you can use the one at the adjacent Fire Station 26, which would still be a hike if you have a 2 year old that doesn't give you that much warning time.  The same site says you can park there too.  That would have been good to know at the time.    Definitely worth checking out- great play area.  Just bring your walking shoes and pee before you leave the house.  ~Janis

Wireless in the Park...I just don't get it!

Not sure if y'all know, but the City of Kirkland is in the process of spending $114,671 of our tax dollars to run a 15 month pilot project to offer wireless access in two downtown parks. Did you know it was live right now?   After I heard this I started to wonder why this is going on and who really wanted it?  Did the citizens all petition our city to get this done?  Is there huge demand for wireless in our parks? Perhaps this offers the city a new revenue source to ease our burden a bit?  Was this the best use of of 115 big ones?  I just don't get it! 

First let's get some facts down (click here for an overview of the project and access to the FAQ).  Here is why the city is saying you might use Wireless in the Park:

1. Perhaps you are a local parent and need to answer email while your children play in the park.
2. It's one of our fabulous sunny days and you can't resist moving your meeting outside. 
3. You are a visitor and want to find out about the restaurants in town. 

Now let's break this down a bit.   Janis and I take our kids to the parks all the time (read our park reviews if you don't believe me).  The last thing Janis or I want to do is bring our laptops along, ignore our kids, and sit there doing email (besides, a blackberry device works much better if you really must do email that often--you don't need the city to provide wireless either).  OK, so let's suppose you do bring your laptop to the park and it's one of those nice sunny days the city references above.  Have you ever tried looking at a laptop outside, during a sunny day?  You can't see a damn thing unless you are sitting in a covered/shady area--which are not abundant in either Peter Kirk Park or Marina Park.  Better yet, let's take the "visitor" benefit statement.  Yup, I see visitors all the time just walking around our parks with their laptops wondering where the heck they might find a restaurant around Kirkland. Then they get all frustrated because we don't have wireless in our parks.  I just don't get it!   

So why is the city spending our hard earned tax dollars on this project?   Many of the local businesses already offer WI-FI for free.  Kahili is a great example.  The city mentions the likes of San Francisco and Philly as examples of other cities that are putting in wireless networks.   Is that the reason we are doing the pilot?  So we can be like San Francisco?   I just don't get it!

OK, here is my last rant on this topic.  I have been going to a few of the City Council meetings lately, and have read some of the requests for new funding for various projects/investments/human resources, etc.  Every time I go to these events all I hear is how poor the city is, how understaffed we are compared to other cities our size, and how we need more greenbacks to run the city properly.  Then I see the spending for "Wireless in the Park" and several other projects where we just seem to be throwing money around (e.g paying an architect firm 50k to do a study on the old Kirkland Cannery--does the city even own the building?).

So I guess my point here is that I hope the city is doing things we really need and providing services people are really asking for--versus just doing things just because they can.   We all pay a lot of taxes here especially if you own property in Kirkland.   Let's make sure we are spending it wisely or saving it for the future.   Again, I just don't get it. 

Please provide your opinion by adding comments.   I am happy to be convinced this is a good use of funds...Steve