Back in February, we noted that there were efforts afoot to extend the excellent Center for Wooden Boats to the north shore of Lake Union (aka Wallingford). We played a bit of phone tag with the director and gradually dropped the thread of the story.

Better late than never, we bring you good news of progress. The Friends of Northlake Wharf have been diligently planning, pleading and visioning to create a new public space that would include the CWB on Waterway 20 just to the west of Gas Works Park. And a couple weeks ago, they crossed and hurdle when they were awarded a $50,000 grant from the City of Seattle’s Large Projects Fund to invigorate the planning process.

Note that this is a separate project than the $90,000 awarded by the same fund to Waterway 18, which is just to the east of Gas Works. That money will be used to clean up the beach, improve public access and as well as create a potential feeding area for wild salmon.

We’ve always thought that the north shore of Lake Union has been somewhat wasted in terms of community space. Such a long, beautiful strip of coastal land seems squandered on boat storage. These two projects could go a long way to improving that. Please let us know how we can help.