By Peggy Sturdivant

She claims it started with the ladybug painted in the Wallingford intersection. But given that Megan Helmer moved to Seattle with her Geologist husband Ryan Kellner to start a doughnut business I suspect the combination of drive and whimsy dates back farther. Kellner and Helmer own Mighty-O Donuts, and Megan is set on creating a parklet to adjoin their new Ballard location on 17th NW.

Although she’s still very much an artist and graphic designer Helmer’s husband no longer works as a Geologist. His 2000 plan to start Mighty-O has resulted in three café locations as well as their wholesale business. The first Mighty-0 Café location was in Wallingford. The last two years have been incredibly busy, opening on Capital Hill last fall and in Ballard last August, at the southeast corner of 17th & NW Market. But ever since Helmer learned the City of Seattle was accepting applications for “Parklets” she has been pursuing that as well.

Kellner and Helmer arrived in 2000 and began crafting the organic, vegan “mini” that debuted at the University Street Fair in 2001. The Fremont Sunday Market was where they built the business. Meanwhile the “Wallybug” landed at N. 39th and Burke in 2005 and Hellmer was charmed.

Landscape architect Eric Higbee had seen street art in Portland and approached Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) about painting a busy intersection in the Wallingford neighborhood. The project’s success is in creating community as well as possibly slowing traffic. The huge painted ladybug is still beloved and SDOT continues to entertainment creative ideas for streets, such as participating in Park(ing) Day (pop-up parks) every September.

The term parklet was coined in San Francisco, defined as a parking space that has been converted into a small public “park.” The space is already a city street, or an extension of public sidewalk into the street in order to create additional public gathering space, at yes, often, the loss of a parking space. Seattle tried a pilot program and then made the program permanent in February 2015. Helmer had tracked the pilot parklets, especially that of Molly Moon’s, and her application was approved in April 2015. She applied even before learning that their new location was going to be part of 17th NW neighborhood greenway.

Although the Helmers live near Greenlake their first shared commercial kitchen was in Ballard with Blue Ribbon Bakers on that funny diagonal alley south of NW Market. Mighty-O’s Ballard café has a maritime theme, with portholes to view the kitchen and murals painted by Helmer. While working with architect David Squires on drawings that are part of the complicated process to fund, design and build the parklet Helmer said, “Wouldn’t it be great to have an actual boat?”

Squires must have liked the idea because he found a boat on Craigslist that an owner was willing to give away, even accepting that its use would be on dry land. The wooden sailboat is its own play on words, a 1946 knock-off of a Blanchard Knockabout. Its current owner is excited with the boat’s proposed role and looks forward to visiting.

Helmer would love to complete Ballard’s first parklet by August 2016, just a year after the Ballard café’s opening. She’s been putting together a Steering Committee and volunteers. She has also completed her first ever grant application, for a Small & Simple from the Department of Neighborhoods. She’s secured a micro-grant from a national realtor’s association, the first they’ve ever awarded to this type of request.

Meanwhile Helmer is the parent of a pre-schooler, a middle-schooler, helps run a very successful doughnut business and yet has the persistence to create a parklet. Inspired by that ladybug she’s working her way through the process to create a new public space. Helmer has a new source of inspiration. She lives near another intersection of art and traffic, one with an even larger wingspan…the Greenlake dragonfly.

Want to help? Contact megan@mightyo.com. Plan your own: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/parklets/Parklet%20Handbook…