Cal Anderson Park Alliance (CAPA)
Cal Anderson Park Alliance (CAPA) is a community-led stewardship organization that brings together neighbors, property owners, and other community stakeholders to ensure that Cal Anderson Park is vibrant, clean, activated, and welcoming for all.
Our values
As we work to maintain, activate, and improve the park and neighboring amenities, we are guided by shared values:
Access – Public spaces must be accessible and inclusive. Cal Anderson Park should ensure that every person in our community feels welcomed, valued, and liberated.
Respect – We value respect and empathy. They are the core of a healthy and engaged community.
Wellness – Cal Anderson Park should be a multigenerational space where all should feel safe and welcome. Our hope is this space can promote wellness while fostering a connection to nature, healing and community.
Sustainability – Sustainability will guarantee our future. Through accountable governance and environmental stewardship we will ensure the long-term health and livelihood of Cal Anderson Park.
Creativity – Cal Anderson Park is located in the Capitol Hill Arts District. Maintain and build space for arts and culture to thrive, challenge, teach and inspire through art installations, music, and performance.
CAPA Board
The CAPA Board is made up of volunteers who live in the neighborhood and who are very passionate about the park and the community. Contact us if you want to get involved!
Community Advisory Network
You can help shape the future of the park and engage with CAPA through the Community Advisory Network.
CAPA has launched the Community Advisory Network to foster and support community resilience focused around a vibrant, activated Cal Anderson Park that is welcoming to all. We will:
• Convene a space for important and thoughtful conversations
• Offer opportunities for connection and collaboration
• Share information
• Clarify a shared vision for the park
To join the Community Advisory Network, Contact us.
Contact us
Our e-mail is calandersonpark@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
CAPA’s history
Kay Rood
Neighbors came together in the 1990s, led by Kay Rood, to envision a new life for the Lincoln Reservoir and Bobby Morris Playfield. Through advocacy, community engagement, and perseverance, they partnered with the City of Seattle to create the park we know today. In 2005, the new park, over the lidded reservoir, was re-opened as Cal Anderson Park.
To ensure that the park lived up to its promise, Kay and other organizers established Cal Anderson Park Alliance in 2007. For years, the organization sponsored and helped to facilitate events and activities such as the annual Independence Day Community Picnic (free hot dogs for all!), the annual Community Garage Sale (no garage? no problem!), Pride events, movie nights, and more. Meanwhile, CAPA also kept an eye on maintenance and coordinated with the Seattle Parks Department to keep the park in good shape and add amenities, including ping pong tables.
Over time, CAPA’s Board dwindled and its resources waned. But in 2019, Capitol Hill community organizations, park neighbors, nearby property owners, and the Seattle Parks Foundation regrouped and revitalized the Cal Anderson Park Alliance, with the goal of activating the park and nearby amenities, stewarding the park’s maintenance and growth, and ensuring that the park is safe and welcoming for all.
It’s been an eventful few years since we began to pull CAPA together again. None of us expected a pandemic or an uprising headquartered in Cal Anderson Park. As our City and our neighborhood face tremendous challenges, CAPA's current Board is committed to not only making the park a green space that provides respite for the local neighborhood, but a vibrant, sustainable gathering place for all of Seattle’s communities.