A Community Runs Through It: Restoring Rainier Beach's Be'er Sheva Park

by Nimra Ahmad

Looking out at Be'er Sheva Park recently, a colorful landscape emerges against the dreary Seattle clouds. There's a cultural stage with blue-accented furniture, a mural on the bathroom exterior in vibrant shades of blue, orange, green, and yellow, and a new waterfront to Lake Washington.

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, the lake was inaccessible: Overgrown blackberry bushes blocked views of the lake and a lone picnic table stood by the water.

"It looked the way it did back when I was much younger and I used to play there," said Sally Li, longtime Rainier Beach resident and co-chair of the Rainier Beach Link2Lake committee. "It definitely was neglected by the city in terms of upkeep and improvements."

After years of community planning and recent construction, the fences came down at Be'er Sheva Park last month and it's officially open to visitors as spring arrives. A community grand opening featuring local artists is scheduled for Saturday, April 13.

The renovation was a long time coming. In 2012, the neighborhood was in the process of updating its neighborhood plan and one particular question kept coming up: Where's the beach at Rainier Beach?

"Folks that were a part of that, identified not having a beach for community members to actually engage with [at] this incredibly beautiful park and piece of water as a priority," said Maia Segura, one of the original founders of the committee who has since moved to Vermont. "That intention was something that I think really stayed with people and they were like, 'Yeah, why don't we have a beach? We should have a beach.'"

Rainier Beach's Living Room

At the time, Be'er Sheva Park — which is named for one of Seattle's sister cities, Be'er Sheva, Israel — was in a disheveled state. There was no natural access point to the lake, which lay behind overgrown weeds and bushes. It also lacked a clear entry point, so visitors would have to enter through a parking lot, and there were no covered areas. According to the project's 2018 schematic design report, crime occurred at the park often due to restricted sightlines and the large parking lot.

Although the park wasn't being used to its potential by any means — Be'er Sheva was underused due to its lack of amenities and residents feeling unsafe — co-chairs Li and Shannon Waits noted that residents still made the park their own by bringing their personal barbecues and picnic tables. There was a sense of it being the "living room" of Rainier Beach, Waits said.

"As a community, we decided it was definitely a neighborhood pearl that we had to kind of rejuvenate and bring to life," Li said.

A few years passed after the neighborhood plan update, and in 2016 through a partnership with Seattle Parks Foundation, the Rainier Beach Link2Lake committee convened as a group for the first time to take action.

Link2Lake's mission was to activate the corridor along South Henderson Street between the Rainier Beach light rail station on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and Lake Washington — renovating Be'er Sheva felt like a natural first step.

At the top of the committee's to-do list was creating a detailed design plan to present to Seattle Parks and Recreation — but they didn't want to single handedly decide what the park needed. As Rainier Beach residents themselves, they wanted the community to guide the process. What did the people that lived in the neighborhood want from this park?

So they held design parties and grill-offs.

"They threw a couple of design parties — basically some really fun, big events at the park and at the community center … to really collect the community's ideas about the space," said Michelle Benetua, the director of strategic partnerships and programs at Seattle Parks Foundation. "What it means to them, what they would like to see happen there."

The first design party in 2018 took place at the Somali Community Center and included performances from youth. A barbecue was held at the park where the design team chalked out an outline of proposed improvements on the ground so residents could walk it in person and offer feedback. For Waits, accessibility to these events was important. More than 18 languages are spoken at Rainier Beach, and 71% of the population is considered Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color.

"Having an understanding of the needs of the community [was important]," Waits said. "Having childcare available, having things translated, having all the fliers in multiple languages, and having activities where people from multilingual families could draw on maps … to give their input, [instead of] through a bunch of text or writing."

This kind of engagement was essential in allowing the community to give their input and feedback. Residents offered input on everything from the materials they wanted for the barbecues to what park chairs were most comfortable.

A New Era for Be'er Sheva

In partnership with Seattle Parks Foundation and Seattle Parks and Recreation, Rainier Beach Link2Lake raised $2 million to restore the park.

New amenities include a cultural stage, a covered picnic shelter, a pedestrian boat launch, an updated entry point, grills and picnic tables, and, of course, the beach.

"We can buy more parkland, but shoreline access is a finite resource," said David Graves, strategic advisor at Seattle Parks and Recreation. "To be able to make the improvements that make it easier for folks to access the water — touch it, or put a kayak in, or a paddleboard just to kind of stand there and look out — there's a whole bunch of great things associated with the park development, but I think that ability to access the water in a way that is accessible for everyone is really great."

There's a myriad of artwork at Be'er Sheva, including a 2021 mural painted by youth and community members. Local artist Lawrence Pitre designed a few artworks around the park, including one that displays the Duwamish name of Mapes Creek and others that illustrate the different ways residents may use the park, such as performing on the stage or fishing in the lake.

There's also an artwork near the waterfront by Lisa Jackson (Suquamish) entitled "Those Who Came Before Us" in honor of the Indigenous land that the park sits on.

Visitors are greeted by "Gyre," a 21-foot sculpture by South Seattle artist John Grade installed at Be'er Sheva in 2014. According to Grade's website, it is "directly above the transition point where water running through an underground culvert becomes a day-lit creek and protected salmon habitat."

If the importance of the Rainier Beach community in the park wasn't made evident enough, then visitors can read it on the entryway block when they first walk in. The word "community" is engraved in the concrete in 18 different languages.

Link2Lake will have an official grand reopening party on April 13 from 12 to 4 p.m. The event will include performances, food, and giveaways. Perhaps what Li imagines when she thinks of people enjoying Be'er Sheva will come to life.

"I see a ton of barbecue smoke. I hear laughter and I feel sunshine," Li said. "Every time I go there, I just want to touch the barbecues, throw some music on, just chill … I don't know if other parks give me the same feeling. I don't know if [Be'er Sheva] just has that super gathering nature, but it's so touching here."

📸 Featured Image: The newly renovated Be'er Sheva Park bears a welcome sign in multiple languages reflecting the diversity of Rainier Beach. (Photo: Alex Garland)