by Ari Robin McKenna
Following an early afternoon shooting in October 2020, where almost 70 shots were fired and five people were hit with bullets on the dead-end street between Hutchinson Park and Emerson Elementary School, neighbors were on edge.
For some, it set the tone for the nervy pandemic months that followed, the violence echoing across Hutchinson Park and its playground. Community members in this slice of Rainier Beach pined for a playground and park that reflected their hopes for public, communal space to ease the isolation of the pandemic. The Hutchinson Playground is also the playground for Emerson Elementary School students and neighborhood children, a place for play and learning.
But for much of the past two years, the park and playground have been neglected or unused due to broken and worn parts on the playground. Or, as one neighbor called it, โa dead playground,โ taking her grandchildren to another park to play.
In one way, this is just a story about fixing playground equipment. But in a larger sense, it is a story of grassroots advocacy about South End neighbors within a historically under-resourced community taking their frustration with government and making it โwalk the walkโ in regards to racial and socioeconomic equity.
The site of the uninspired Hutchinson Playground became the site of an inspired push for neighbors to be seen and heard by City government, and City government in the form of the Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), at first a seemingly distant and indifferent authority, is one the neighbors have recently begun to hope will be their partner in building community.
A Primary Site for Community Recreation
Initially built to be Seattleโs first preschool in 1910, Emerson Elementary School currently serves a student population that is 93% Students of Color. It is one of only three Seattle Public Schools that doesnโt have space for an adequate playground, and therefore uses an adjacent SPR site as its primary recess yard.
Located in the Rainier Beach neighborhood between Kubota Garden and Lake Washington, Emerson has a history of not being properly resourced, and it is often unable to meet the 25-person requirement needed to form an official Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA).
On one hand, most working families who send their children to Emerson have limited time and energy to spare, and on the other hand, when Emerson does have a PTSA and receives donations beyond the roughly $3,000โ5,000 raised annually by its fall and spring carnival events, those funds are often absorbed by the pressing needs of students, as opposed to being used for enrichment activities.
For example, an anonymous donor gave Emerson a significant amount of money during the pandemic. While the PTSA would normally allot 29% to teachers, 29% to the general fund, 29% to families in need, 4% for operating costs, and the rest for savings, the PTSA chose to allot 50% of this money to its Family Emergency Support Fund, because the 47 students who attend Emerson, who are either experiencing homelessness or do not have permanent housing, took priority โ especially during the pandemic.
Last yearโs Southeast Seattle Schools Fundraising Alliance Move-a-thon fundraiser provided the Emerson PTSA with almost $15,000 โ an unheard of amount โ but to put things in perspective, the District 5 Student Council PTSA director and advocacy and policy manager for the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition (SESEC), Vivian van Gelder, provided data showing that in 2018โ2019 (the most recent IRS reporting year), 35 Seattle Public Schools north of the shipping canal raised over $100,000 dollars each.

Tiny Totsโ Hutchinson Hawks preschool and after-school program students also utilize Hutchinson Park, as well as people from the neighborhood and numerous formal and informal sports teams that practice and play games on the parkโs two baseball fields, its makeshift soccer field, or its basketball courts. Though SPR doesnโt keep usage statistics, for its size and function, Hutchinson Park is a highly used community recreation site.
A Network of Community Support
When Emerson Principal Erin Rasmussen heard about cracks forming on the slide near fastening points with protruding screws, she reached out to SPR in November 2020 to have it boarded up and then fixed.
After the slide had remained boarded up for months, neighbor and Emerson PTSA President Roisin Huang complained about it on a neighborhood Facebook page. Chukundi Salisbury, 37th Legislative District representative candidate and the current SPR sustainability and environmental engagement manager, chimed in, suggesting Huang start a Facebook group. Huang did just that, starting โFriends of Hutchinson Park,โ intent on โbuilding a network of community support to advocate for our beloved park with the Seattle Parks Department.โ
Stewart Bowerman, another neighbor, put up a poster with a QR Code for a survey and got 81 responses within a week โ including many suggestions of neighborsโ hopes for the park. Neighbors wanted: outdoor dance classes for kids, pick-up soccer and basketball for adults, morning exercise classes, Vietnamese language classes, a farmers market, an annual community barbecue or block party with music, a community garden, and an outdoor movie night.
One of the surveyโs main takeaways was that the community wanted a better playground. The Emerald asked community member Marcella Lyons what she thought about the current playground on a sunny day in March. She responded that even though she lives around the corner, she brings her grandchildren elsewhere to play.
โItโs a dead playground,โ Lyons said. โThereโs nothing to do here. All you can do is run around, and thereโs two slides. The slides are not safe for anyone under 5, because theyโre off the ground. There needs to be more to do here.โ
Though happy to get such a strong survey response from his community, Bowerman, who is the program coordinator for Rainier Beach Action Coalitionโs unique, community-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports initiative, admits being frustrated with the Cityโs lack of responsiveness.
โFrom a public safety perspective, itโs maddening that the playground got boarded up in the aftermath of a major shooting,โ Bowerman said. โWhen something like that happens, the City should be showing its support for the community by making investments, not sending the opposite message by boarding things up and leaving them in disrepair for so long.โ
William Hanson, who brings his oldest son to baseball practice at Hutchinson Park, spoke with the Emerald after leading his two younger kids, Sho, 8, and Rei, 4, to the playground. After they played for a few minutes on the playground, they noted the boarded-up bridge and ran off toward the trees beside the baseball field. Hanson wasnโt surprised, and said kids tend to โfocus on the thing thatโs broken.โ
Before walking off to continue supervising Sho and Rei under the tall trees, Hanson added, โIf this is the primary playground for the school, it should take priority. A lot of kids come down [from Emerson]; they gotta have something to do.โ
Grassroots Advocacy Leads to Genuine Commitments
Four months from the time when it was boarded up, and three and a half months since the genesis of the Friends of Hutchinson Park Facebook group, the slide was replaced โ though it is still strikingly steep for a playground located between an elementary school and a preschool, and the monkey bars are notably high.
Neighbors say several children have broken their arms after losing their grip and falling to the ground off the monkey bars. The dramatic slope of the unlined basketball courts and the weeds growing from cracks in the tennis court also catch the eye as aspects of Hutchinson Park worthy of someoneโs attention.

When community member Karen Uffelman emailed SPR, they eventually received a reply from Oliver Bazinet, a senior planner, about where repairs that matched their own requests would happen within SPRโs six- and 12-year plans. Bazinet estimated the repairs were to begin being conceived of in 2024.
Then, this school year, the bridge in the playground (installed in 2000) rusted out, and Emerson Principal Rasmussen quickly emailed and called SPR about it in February. Yet after she hadnโt heard back from them at weekโs end, she grew concerned students could get seriously hurt and reached out to the PTSA โ which organized a Find It, Fix It blitz. Using the Cityโs app designed to empower citizens to report damaged city property, they flooded it with complaints about the dangerous bridge that weekend, and it was boarded up by early the next week.
As the weeks began to pass without the boarded-up bridge getting fixed, the neighborsโ frustrations started to compound, along with their list of grievances: the crooked, unlined basketball court; the cracks growing weeds on the tennis court; the uninspired, dangerous playground that seemed to always be boarded up; the lack of a park bathroom; unmowed baseball fields during the pandemic where the grass reached almost 3 feet tall; and that a group of neighbors had weeded and SPR hadnโt come through to deliver the wood chips theyโd promised, so the weeds quickly returned.
Hutchinson Park, meant to be a place where the community could relax and exercise, was instead an anxious proxy for feeling ignored by the government.
By late March, Huang and Bowerman took their grievances to the SPR Board meeting and testified as much.
Bowerman brought his survey data, but Huang decided to hold off on sharing the Change.org petition that currently has over 600 signatures โ thinking it might antagonize SPR. Both Huang and Bowerman left spirited public comments. Bowerman sent his comment in advance, and Huang also resubmitted her comment a week later โ as a reminder.
Huang recalls that during the public comment portion, she became aware that though acting Superintendent Christopher Williams was relaxed and personable, he was โvigorously writingโ notes. Then, she admitted to being shocked when Williams took the time to address every single person who had spoken. She said Williams โmade it very clear this type of advocacy was so important. โฆ It was just such a different experience than Iโve ever witnessed, a level of government leadership I havenโt seen before.โ
A little more than a week after their testimony, Andy Sheffer, SPR director of planning, development, and facilities maintenance, reached out. In an email, Sheffer said that a โcomprehensive plan to improve the siteโ based on a โshared visionโ would start in 2023. Sheffer, Huang, and Bowerman have since met and have been emailing back and forth, beginning to build rapport while rebuilding community trust; theyโve looped in Emerson Principal Rasmussen as well. SPR has also sent workers to the site of Hutchinson Playground at least three times in as many weeks to remove bushes, lower the monkey bars, and assess the slide.
In an email, SPR spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said they are using a Racial and Social Equity Index in their discussions about prioritization of projects up for renewal โ especially when there are limited resources. Schulkin said their Equitable Development Fund is โdesigned to increase the capacity of underserved communities in hopes of improving SPR facilities in historically underserved neighborhoods.โ
When asked about the speed of repairs to Hutchinson Parkโs bridge and slide, Schulkin pointed to playground parts being โslow to procure and ship during the pandemic.โ Schulkin also emphasized, โPartnering with community and other government agencies is critical to maximize opportunity and create and maintain parks that reflect the communities they serve.โ
While these same words may have rung empty just a few weeks before, Bowerman was now hopeful. โAndy [Sheffer] and SPR have given us every reason to believe that they are going to do whatโs in their power to make it happen, and work with us in the process. There are budgetary things they donโt have complete control of, but I think there is a genuine commitment there.โ
Huang praised Shefferโs personable, responsive approach, and hinted that SPR depends on the type of advocacy she, Bowerman, and their community drummed up to know that their efforts will match its needs.
โItโs really exciting to feel like youโre not just working with the government anymore, but that youโre working with a person who also cares about what you care about. โฆ The parks department wants to make sure that any changes they make are approved by the community,โ Huang said.
โThe community members, everyone who has signed the petition or filled out the survey, everyone who has joined the Friends of Hutchinson Park Facebook group, the people Iโve met at the park,โ she said, โโฆ Itโs been amazing to connect with the community, and hear about how we can turn the park into something really wonderful that everyone can enjoy.โ

Ari Robin McKenna worked as an educator and curriculum developer in Brooklyn, New York; Douala, Cameroon; Busan, South Korea; Quito, Ecuador; and Seattle, Washington, before settling in South Seattle. He writes about education for the Emerald. Contact him here.
๐ธ Featured Image: Caution tape is woven into a play structure at Hutchinson Park. (Photo: Ari Robin McKenna)
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