By Peggy Sturdivant

This is an open letter to all of my friends and communities in Ballard, the writers, artists, teachers, parents, children, readers, gardeners, dog-walkers, cat-lovers, okay, everybody. Come out and play on Friday, September 18, 2015 (and keep on playing through Saturday if you want).

Friday, September 18th is one of my favorite days of the year, Park(ing) Day. For the third year in a row I’ll be part of a Pop-Up Park for the Ballard Writers Collective in front of The Scoop at Walter’s on 32nd NW. But that just wasn’t enough fun. I now have a hand in four out of the five parks that will be in Ballard area and am looking forward to visiting at least one other in “District 6,” over by West Woodland.

The City of Seattle has participated in the program for a dozen years out of the event’s 16-year history. They allow park hosts to use metered parking spaces without paying, waive the street use permit fees, and the Washington Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Seattle Design Festival have paid the rental fee for required barricades and cones for the first fifty Seattle parks. This feels like another glorious Buy Nothing Project moment, especially as I put out the call on-line and in this column to bring your toys (and plants) as you come out and play with us.

I plan these parks-for-a-day with my usual undisciplined approach, which unnerved my father before the first neighborhood block party and forced Martin to go on blind faith regarding an outdoor living room theme for our wedding reception. So if you’ve always wanted to set up a living room or art studio on the street please contact me. We need rugs, plants, furniture and at least one Pink Flamingo.

The international event falls during Seattle Design Festival 2015 with this year’s theme of Design for Equity. There will be about 50 parks throughout the city, all mapped on the city’s website. Past years I’ve met photographers and bicyclists trying to visit every park. Four of the parks are located near surplus or excess Seattle City Light substations in order to let the public know of their existence (rather than learning from a For Sale sign). All four mix arts with Seattle Green Spaces Coalition’s mission to re-purpose city-owned land for public use.

Ballard Writers Collective will be offering its “Ask A Writer” feature for the third year, along with distributing literary magazines and donated books in a reading room setting. The BWC is open to any Ballard writer, new or experienced, published or unpublished, and writing in any genre. The 6th Annual Ballard Writers Big Event will be at Sunset Hill Community Clubhouse on Friday, November 13, 2015 (Thirteen new works by 13 new writers on anything related to thirteen).

Across the street by the Sunset Hill Green Market Holly Gustafson Gold proves once again that she is as inspiring as her late mother, Carrie Gustafson of Lily and the People. A member of the Seattle Green Spaces Coalition, Holly’s park is steps away from the Sunset Hill Substation where her mother, and neighbors, have long hoped to create a ceramics park. Project Freeform invites all ages to play with clay and refresh the art adorning the Sunset Hill substation’s gate on 65th NW.

Meanwhile at the park in front of the former Market Street Substation and proposed transitional encampment Seattle Green Spaces Coalition invites one and all to use art to express their vision for the future of the site. Art supplies will be provided and local artists will be in residence Due to Metro bus layovers the 2826 NW Market Street park will only be open from 10-2 p.m.

The park on the east side of the 6700 block of 24th NW will link the street side park and a former substation that nestles between buildings, with its own stone walls and a chess game ready to be played with or without Park(ing) Day. This site will feature board games as well as educational materials about local trees and organizations working to create green space.

On Ballard Avenue the Seattle Urban Farm Company, which maintains the rooftop garden on Bastille Café and Restaurant, will bring its farm to street level. They plan a “micro urban farming experience with crops, chickens and a little free seed library.” Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and West Woodland are setting up protected bikeways at 6th NW & NW 65th. The Cascade Bicycle Club is hosting enhancements at the 9th NW and the Burke-Gilman.

To draft off the play in the street mentality of Park(ing) Day the next day is the launch of Seattle Summer Parkways, which will further open up the streets of Ballard (11-3 p.m.) with activities over the course of 3-7 mile routes. Activities include puppet shows, Zorba ball, croquet, a rock wall and tai chi. The same day, Saturday, September 19th, the Sustainable Ballard Festival takes place at Ballard Commons.

This has been an extraordinary summer in Ballard, one with too much development and too little rain. I’m looking forward to hauling books, typewriter, dictionary, furniture and plants onto the street and finally having fun on the last weekend of summer 2015. Rain or shine?