Awards announced for Everett public spaces

Published 9:00 pm Friday, November 26, 2004

Public gathering spaces, pedestrian friendly streets, and neighborhoods that invite civic engagement and community interaction are emerging in Downtown Everett.

Public spaces draw our urban community together and provide venues for sports, music, drama, and the arts – all tied into the wonder of our natural endowments on the edge of Port Gardner Bay.

Public space contributes to our community’s financial viability. Companies look for locations that provide a high standard of living, desirable housing and schools, the presence of arts and cultural resources, and parks and gathering spaces for recreation.

Public spaces host gatherings of individuals outside of home and work, where people put aside concerns and enjoy company and conversation. Visually interesting streets, cafes, coffee houses and libraries enhance a community’s social vitality. They promote social equality, provide a setting for grassroots politics, and offer support to individuals and communities.

For two years, the Committee to Establish Downtown Public Spaces has met to develop a vision of open space for Everett. Today, the committee recognizes groups that have made amazing contributions to our community. We applaud the initiative that has led to new destinations that gather people together, interesting avenues that form a pathway to our city center, and attractive gateways that introduce people to our city.

* A great destination has been created by the downtown Everett Public Library. It is a celebration of communal knowledge, culture and art. It fosters community groups, providing meeting rooms and a forum to present ideas to the public.

Great public spaces stimulate private enterprise. Espresso Americano is a coffee house that has opened within the library. It is always welcoming, providing a venue for local musicians on weekend evenings. It is a place for chess clubs to gather, a quiet retreat for individuals, and a place to meet friends and colleagues to discuss events and issues. The library and coffee house combined for the public benefit, an example of public spaces and private enterprise strengthening each other.

* Many of the best public spaces start as the inspiration of an individual or group. Small initiatives enhance the spirit of a place and encourage others to create further improvements. The multiplier effect of many small changes is tremendous.

The Port Gardner Neighborhood is recognized for the wonderful park it created near the old Railroad Station and for planning a nature walk up Forgotten Creek. This walk up a ravine with a lacy canopy of broadleaf trees will be a delight when it is completed.

* Avenues are a place to meet, a venue for art, and a caravan of people and activities to observe. The best streets are comfortable to walk with leisure and safety, where pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers comfortably coexist. A well designed avenue has a sense of enclosure from surrounding buildings; interesting facades, diverse people engaged in their daily lives, windows that invite inspection, trees, and distinct ends and beginnings.

We recognize two projects that create visually interesting avenues. The Everett Cultural Commission and Parks Department installed sculptures throughout downtown. These artworks are a delight to the eye, make us pause in our daily hustle, support local artists, and draw people into downtown as a great place to live, work and shop. We also applaud the Downtown Everett Association for the plantings it installed around the EverPark Garage that bring a splash of color and life to concrete sidewalks.

* Gateways determine a visitor’s first impression about a city. Everett’s most important gateway is the Broadway exit off I-5 which has become even more significant as the Special Events Center draws 600,000 people annually into downtown. The City of Everett is recognized for a small start on what can become a fabulous gateway to Everett.

In the median of Broadway, the city has planted trees, bringing life to what was an unsightly concrete expanse. Much more can be done to make this a beautiful gateway into Everett. The city has made a start that we applaud.

Projects like the downtown Everett Public Library, Port Gardner Neighborhood Park and nature walk, The Everett Cultural Commission’s public sculptures, the Downtown Everett Association plantings, and the city’s Broadway exit improvements are making Everett a wonderful place to live. We acknowledge these initiatives and look forward to 2005 when we hope to recognize further accomplishments.

Who knows what might be achieved? Perhaps we can create a park in front of the Everett Performing Arts Center with a fountain and a sculpture of a dancing Mike Jordan to usher us into another great Everett public space.

Desmond Skubi and Hap Wertheimer are members of the Committee to Establish Downtown Public Spaces. Other members include Rich Anderson, Al Boren, Jeff Capeloto, Joseph Diggins, John Hoffman, Greg Lineberry, Paul Roberts, Art Rubin, Craig Skotdal and Brenda Stonecipher.