Tashkent Park Re-Opens as International Symbol of Goodwill

Tashkent Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill was officially re-dedicated on Saturday, September 24. The celebration featured remarks from representatives of the city of Seattle, the STSCA, and the Secretary of the Uzbek Embassy.

Former STSCA President Dan Peterson spoke about the Sister City relationship, and Deputy Mayor of the City of Seattle Hyeok Kim honored University of Washington Professor Ilse Cirtautas and former Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman for their role in the founding of the STSCA.

Mayor Uhlman, who served from 1969 to 1978, worked with Professor Cirtautas and Tashkent officials to make the sister-city relationship a reality. Governments may not always get along, he said at the ceremony, but people do. “I felt very strongly that we ought to get the people together and forget the government,” Uhlman said.

Secretary Abdufarrukh Khamirov of the Uzbekistan Embassy in the U.S., said the park is a piece of his country in Seattle. “It (is) a symbol of our friendship of our nations,” he said. He also said that the 43-year-old relationship between the cities is a good example of cooperation.

Renovations to the park included landscaping, tables and chairs, a new plaque and plaza upgrades that make it ADA-accessible. Funding for the upgrades came from the Community Development Block Grant, a federal program designed to provide resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs.

A big thanks to the City of Seattle Parks and Rec Department for their work in landscaping the park! Thank you also to everyone who attended the re-dedication–it was a historic event!