Our urban forestry landscape crew worked side by side with Alliance for Pioneer Square staff and local community volunteers to clean up the medians along 1st Ave S on Saturday, September 18. Photo credit: The Alliance for Pioneer Square. Come one, come all! This past weekend, we teamed up with the Alliance for Pioneer Square, a local non-profit organization, and a group of 30 community volunteers, to help clean up a six-block stretch of 1st Ave S in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. This work helped support and advance our Clean Cities parks initiative.
“The 1st Ave medians in Pioneer Square have needed landscaping improvements for a long time. The transformation that occurred last Saturday would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of community volunteers, City partners, SDOT Urban Forestry crews, and Alliance for Pioneer Square staff. Thank you to everyone who came together to make this event a huge success. Your efforts mean so much to the Pioneer Square community, especially in the midst of an economic recovery.”
-Sara Pizzo, Public Realm Manager, Alliance for Pioneer Square
The dedicated group of volunteers braved a forecast of heavy rain and worked hard throughout the day to clean up and weed the center medians, plant more than 1,600 new daffodil bulbs, and spread 34 cubic yards of new arborist mulch (a mix of wood chips and tree leaves). Our SDOT urban forestry landscape crew worked closely with the group to complete the effort. Our traffic control team closed the six-block stretch of roadway along 1st Ave S, between Cherry St and S Dearborn St, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The street closure helped ensure the safety of volunteers and travelers in the area while the crew delivered tools and installed new mulch in the roadway medians.
“I was so inspired to see community members taking part in this event and taking pride in their neighborhood.”
-Hannah, Seattle Department of Transportation Gardener
We’d like to thank this group of volunteers for their tireless efforts and dedication of time and energy over the weekend to help improve their local neighborhood. Great work!