Wallingford is a great community. To keep it a livable and stimulating environment, efforts are being made to make it more beautiful with public artworks and community engagement to enhance the beauty of the neighborhood.
The Wallingford Beautification collaboration was launched last November with volunteers from Historic Wallingford, the Wallingford Community Council, Celebrate Wallingford, and the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce. The effort was initiated by Historic Wallingford, to promote the Wallingford-Meridian Streetcar Historic District.
In January, Wallingford Beautification circulated a survey in the community asking participants to prioritize four potential projects to make our community more livable. The results of the survey listed:
- Graphics on utility boxes as number one
- An organized group utilizing the City of Seattle app, Find it Fix It was second.
- Banners on 45th was third.
- Holiday décor on 45th was fourth.
Wallingford Beautification is currently moving forward with the first two projects.
Utility Box Graphics
The results of a second survey circulated in March supported the effort of utilizing a combination of historic photos and whimsical original art works as graphics placed on utility boxes and covered by a graffiti resistant laminate.
Three boxes have been identified by Wallingford Beautification as the first for the graphic application effort. They are in the heart of Wallingford, N. 45th and Densmore, in front of the Wells Fargo Bank, N. 45th and Wallingford in front of QFC and N. 45th and Meridian in front of the Silver Tray Thai Restaurant on 45th. Work is ongoing to explore art options, pursue permitting and financial options. The collaboration is working with the Department of Neighborhoods to secure a matching grant, as well as solicit funding from civic organizations and private donations. If you would like to donate to this effort, currently through May 8th you can make a contribution via this site Give Big. Your financial support would be greatly appreciated!
When funding is secured, a call for artists to submit their ideas will be issued to move forward with the project. Wallingford Beautification welcome participants. You can reach out to [email protected] . Volunteers with experience in public art administration would be particularly helpful.
Find It Fix it and let us clean up the neighborhood!
Working with city resources is a win-win situation, getting results without additional financial resources. In response to comments in the prioritizing survey, Wallingford Beautification suggests a four-prong approach to cleaning up the neighborhood:
- Promoting the use of the City Find It Fix It App. From this free app downloadable from the Apple App store to your cell phone, you can report a wide range of issues to the city, from potholes to dumped items or garbage. If a leader steps forward, there could be coordinated effort to keep track of what has been reported and resolved.
- The City of Seattle Adopt-A-Street Program supports efforts to pick up litter. They provide tools, liability insurance, and a means to dump the litter picked up. Cleanup efforts as community events have taken place in Wallingford in the spring and fall since 2022. On April 20th, 80 volunteers showed up at 45th and Wallingford to take part in one of these community efforts and were directed to areas along 45th from Aurora to I-5. This community effort is being led by Will Vagle and Michael Dewar, who have adopted 45th Their next community cleanup will take place in the fall. They can be contacted at [email protected]. You can also sign up as an individual or as a small group to adopt a street or area to tend to on your own schedule. Here is information directly from Jenny Frankl, director of the Adopt-A-Street program: As basics, if an individual would like to sign up: https://bit.ly/aas-signup; But if an individual wants to join an existing effort, but do it on their own time – they would just choose the Adopt-A-Street group name/nickname (i.e. Street Keepers, Wallingford Litter Round Up, etc.) to request supplies (https://bit.ly/aas-supplies) and report their cleanups (https://bit.ly/aas-cleanup). Individual litter supplies can be picked up at the Ballard or University Customer Service Centers. ***It would just be important that volunteers joining the group effort understand the program guidelines and protocols (staying safe & how to report cleanups, where/where not to place bags being most important). Here is a link to our FAQ page which has a lot of useful information (I hope!). Let’s envision a network of Adopt-A-Street litter pickers cleaning up the neighborhood!
- Council member Maritza Riviera mentioned a staff position in the mayor’s office dedicated to dealing with graffiti. Wallingford Beautification is reaching out to connect with this person. Hopefully we can identify resources from the city to help business owners contend with the ongoing graffiti issue.
- We hope to encourage businesses to clean up the area in front of their workplace. Bedrooms and More is a notable example of a business, led by the Garfield family, who tend daily the area around their store picking up litter and painting out graffiti—and unfortunately sometimes replacing windows. There are many more businesses who clean up as well. More of this effort would be an immense help in the appearance of the neighborhood.
Many people cherish this community, and Wallingford Beautification efforts are being made to increase the community pride and engagement found in Wallingford.