Elliot Bay is graced with a slender necklace of parks. Soon another gem will be added to that necklace: 2.4 acres on West Galer Street - at the top of the Magnolia Bridge – a stunning overlook with views of the city, the bay, and Mount Rainier. Seattle Parks and Recreation have begun public process for naming this site – and if you ask many people in our community - a clear consensus to name it after Ursula Judkins has emerged.
Who was Ursula Judkins? At the behest of her friend (and another community hero, Heidi Carpine), in 1987 Ursula began to devote her energies fulltime to Magnolia, and became a fixture at meetings on behalf of our community. Her contributions brought honorary proclamations from the mayor and city council and the county executive. In 1999 Jim Diers, then director of the Department of Neighborhoods, noting that Seattle has an international reputation as a city where neighborhood activists play a major role, stated “Magnolia is known as a community in Seattle where much of the citizen activism is centered. But people in Magnolia know that activism begins with Ursula.” Three specific examples: Do you use our wonderful Pop Mounger pool? She helped to see it realized. Are you thankful West Point did not expand again? Or, that Capehart housing will revert to Discovery Park? Well, Ursula was a key negotiator on our behalf, seeing that the plant would not later be expanded and that the County would pay $5 million in mitigation if certain conditions were not met. That money was paid and, true to Ursula’s visionary nature, gave the community muscle in negotiating the Capehart agreement.
Why name this specific land at the bridge crest after Ursula? In the early 90’s, Ursula’s research determined it was originally purchased by the city in 1910 for a park, but was instead given by the city to the Navy in 1942. She then incited our congressional delegation to enact national legislation to revert the site back to the city at no cost; this happened in 2003 (three years after her death) because of what she had done 10 years earlier. This park parcel is a direct consequence of Ursula’s activism on our behalf - and overlooks the Pier 90-91 area for which she was Magnolia’s most ardent representative on the Neighborhood Advisory Committee to the Port of Seattle.
Her contribution to parks is perhaps best summarized by this quote from a 1999 article by the Magnolia News’ Russ Zabel: “Superintendent of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation Ken Bounds also spoke in praise of Judkins at the meeting. ‘Some people who are parks advocates are not effective because they are not respectful and do not know how to support their positions in a positive way,’ he said. ‘Judkins, by contrast, takes the right approach. We couldn’t do our job without that kind of advocacy,’ he added, ‘and I think Magnolia is very, very fortunate to have Ursula here be an advocate...for parks.”
The Magnolia Community Club, after her death in 2000, wanted her – our constructive, dedicated, and highly-effective citizen activist – to be a forever-remembered exemplar of the kind of civic citizenship to be honored and treasured. In that way, it is hoped, others among us will seek to emulate her example.
The organizations and individuals that worked the most with her have developed a firm consensus for naming the park after Ursula. Among the documentation already received by Parks are letters of support from the Magnolia Community Club, the Queen Anne Community Council, the Discovery Park Advisory Committee, County Councilman Larry Phillips, and City Councilman Richard McIver.
Naming the park “Ursula Judkins Overlook” is tribute to how any one of us can make a difference for our community, and is incredibly symbolic of how Ursula always kept an eye on downtown in order to protect Magnolia’s neighborhood interests. Anyone with other suggestions, and particularly those fortunate to have known Ursula, or have benefited from what she did, is encouraged to comment before the February 28, 2005 deadline to: Seattle Parks and Recreation, Park Naming Committee, 100 Dexter Ave N., Seattle, WA 98109, or by e-mail to paula.hoff@seattle.gov.
(Steve Erickson is a Trustee of the Magnolia Community Club.
P. Scott Cummins is a freelance writer, community volunteer, and contributor to the Magnolia News)
No comments:
Post a Comment