Sunday, May 15, 2005

The Ballard Bowl and the new Ballard Library

Well the developers won and the Ballard skate park (Ballard Bowl) has been nuked, dug up, and turned into a mud pit.

At the same time, right next door, the brand new Ballard Library opened. Complete with wooden beams, to remind us of the forest that used to cover this city, and grass growing on the roof, that has no real purpose at all except for maybe an interesting, way to cover a roof.

The good news is that the developers promised to build a new better and bigger skate bowl when they tear down the old Safeway. I'm hopeful but, I'm not going to hold my breath. I will be the first to eat crow and post the bowl construction pictures when the actually get around to building it.

Here are some pictures of the Ballard Bowl, R.I.P. and the new library.
 
Posted by Hello



Right next door to the freshly demoed Ballard skate park is a brand new sparkling library, which just opened Saturday May 14th ... Posted by Hello


This is a picture that from Gridline that shows the Ballard skate park before it was demoed. Posted by Hello


The new Ballard bowl. Can't skate here no more. It's a very sad month for north Seattle citizens. I hope the city upholds it’s promise to replace the bowl with a bigger one in the new city park.  Posted by Hello

To see what the bowl used to be and look like go to it's sponsor, GRINDLINE!

3 comments:

Firefox said...

Actually modern sewer systems need large amounts of water flushed down them in order to work properly. If you don't use them they fill up with muck and stop working entirely.

Nevertheless I don't believe we are in any danger of the storm drains plugging up because we have 'gone green' anytime soon.

Thanks for the comment. I just wanted to remind people that Seattle is built on the site of an ancient rain forest and building lovely wooden structures on a site that was a deep rain forest only 300 years ago and then claiming to be 'green' seems just a bit hypocritical to me. The library is a monument and temple to conspicuous government consumption. Though it is a very beautiful building. I hope we get our monies worth and libraries are not entirely obsolete in 20 years due to internet replacement of them.

PS. The roof looks very high maintenance. I have no idea what the lifetime maintenance costs are going to be but I'll bet they are quite high and Ballard will have to foot the bill.

Firefox said...

PPS. By the way why are so afraid to publish a justifiable opinion and then make yourself anonymous?

It's called sniping. Posting and then trying to hide your identity teaches nothing and you learn nothing from it.

Firefox said...

PPPPS. They should install a thatched roof instead of a waterproof 'grass' roof.

Thatch was good enough for my mom and grandparents and my ancestors in England for a thousand years or more. Why not bring back thatch instead of creating a high tek artificial soil system on the roof.