Seattle Neighborhood e-News
keeps neighborhood activists up-to-date
On July 10 the Seattle Department of
Neighborhoods unveiled Seattle Neighborhood e-News, a new electronic newsletter
intended to supplement the Department's regular printed publications and
provide links to information on neighborhood programs, projects, and events.
The first issue included information on
recent Neighborhood Matching Fund and Neighborhood Opportunity Fund awards, a
reminder about an upcoming application deadline, and links to neighborhood plan
implementation reports, a history of Neighborhood Service Centers, and a
variety of recent newspaper stories that can be found on the Web.
Seattle Neighborhood e-News will be published periodically, primarily between delivery of other printed publications. To subscribe, go to www.cityofseattle.net/lists.htm on the Web or send e-mail to neighborhoodnews-subscribe@list.ci.seattle.wa.us.
Following is the entire July 10 issue of
Seattle Neighborhood e-News to help you decide if you want to subscribe to
receive future issues
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Seattle Neighborhood e-News
A periodic electronic newsletter supplementing the bi-monthly
printed Seattle Neighborhood News and providing links to information on
programs, projects, and events related to the Department of Neighborhoods. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this
electronic newsletter, go to www.cityofseattle.net/lists.htm on the Web. No. 1
(July 10, 2001)
RECORD NUMBER OF SMALL AND SIMPLE PROJECTS AWARDED In May, we received 47 applications for Small and Simple Projects, a component of the Neighborhood Matching Fund that provides awards of up to $10,000 for short-term neighborhood-based self-help projects. I am pleased to announce that a record 32 groups will receive awards totaling $210,868 (listed at www.cityofseattle.net/news/detail.asp?ID=1792&Dept=30 and www.cityofseattle.net/news/detail.asp?ID=1778&Dept=30 on the Web). These groups have pledged to match the awards with $539,593 worth of donated labor, goods, and cash. That, too, is astonishing! Recently we summarized the volunteer time that neighborhood groups have logged since the program began in 1988. Over 650,000 hours have been reported, and that's only what was necessary to meet the award contract. From project conception through implementation, there are thousands of additional volunteer hours that we never hear about. After project completion, volunteers continue to work on maintenance and on wonderful "spin-off" projects that happen whenever great neighborhood minds start working together. At $4.5 million, Seattle's Neighborhood Matching Fund is the largest of its kind in the U.S. Seattleites have utilized the Fund to complete nearly 2,000 projects since 1988, with awards ranging from $100 to as high as $300,000. There is no minimum or maximum request. You can search a database of completed Neighborhood Matching Fund projects by going to www.cityofseattle.net/don/neighfnd/ on the Web
MATCHING FUND DEADLINE
APPROACHES The next application deadline for both large
projects (requests over $10,000) and small projects (requests up to $10,000) is
Monday, July 16. Later Small and Simple
Projects Fund deadlines fall on Monday, September 17 and Monday, November
19. To request an application, call
(206) 684-0464, drop in at your favorite Neighborhood Service Center, or go to www.cityofseattle.net/don
on the Web. You can also send e-mail to
the Neighborhood Matching Fund staff person for your area: Northwest: laurie.ames@ci.seattle.wa.us Northeast: allynn.ruth@ci.seattle.wa.us West: shireen.deboo@ci.seattle.wa.us East: garry.owens@ci.seattle.wa.us Southwest: dave.bockmann@ci.seattle.wa.us Southeast: anne.takekawa@ci.seattle.wa.
COUNCIL APPROVES
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN OPPORTUNITY FUND PROJECTS On
Monday, July 2, the City Council approved Mayor Paul Schell's recommendation
for funding of five new time-sensitive projects that are high priorities in neighborhood
plans. The funding will support creation of a food bank in Lake City, planning
for business district development in Greenwood, pedestrian improvements in
North Broadway, improvements to help control Fauntleroy ferry traffic, and
creation of a pedestrian plaza at the head of the Mapes Creek Walkway in
Rainier Beach. For more information
about these projects, go to www.cityofseattle.net/news/detail.asp?ID=1849&Dept=30
on the Web. These projects are funded from the $509,000 Opportunity Fund in
the City's 2001 budget. The Fund was
created to support projects that could not be funded in a timely manner through
any other available fund source and is used only when immediate funding will
prevent loss of the opportunity to implement the project. Projects that are already included in a City
department Capital Improvement Program (CIP) or operating budget are not
eligible for Opportunity Fund dollars.
The balance remaining in the Opportunity Fund for 2001 is $189,332. The
next round of projects will be funded in October. For more information
regarding the neighborhood Opportunity Fund, call the Department of
Neighborhoods at (206) 684-0464 or send e-mail to the sector manager for your
area (see next item
PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
REPORTS AVAILABLE ON LINE If you missed seeing the
Neighborhood Plan Implementation report for your area, published this spring,
go to www.cityofseattle.net/npo/2001AnnualReport.htm on the Web. Six individual
sector reports summarize the progress made last year in carrying out recommendations
of 38 neighborhood plans. The plans, which
were completed by residents and business people during a five-year period
ending in 1999, comprise 5,000 recommendations that neighborhoods would like to
see carried out over a 20-year period.
In just 18 months, over 200 projects have been completed, 526 are well
underway, and hundreds more are in the planning stages. The
projects include transportation improvements, pedestrian lighting, affordable
housing, community gardens, neighborhood-specific design guidelines, public
art, human service programs, and public safety enhancements. City
departments, other agencies, the private sector, and the community have
collaborated on complex projects like the Ballard and Lake City civic centers, the
Wallingford and Yesler Terrace stairways, Belltown's "Growing Vine
Street," the Toshiro Kaplan artist housing, the West Seattle Junction
Streetscape, the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail, the Jefferson Park pathway, and
the Mt. Baker Hillside Garden. For a printed copy of a specific sector
report, call 684-0464 or send e-mail to the sector manager for your area: Northwest: phil.fujii@ci.seattle.wa.us Northeast: deirdre.grace@ci.seattle.wa.us West: john.eskelin@ci.seattle.wa.us East: darlene.flynn@ci.seattle.wa.us Southwest: roger.valdez@ci.seattle.wa.us Southeast: sally.clark@ci.seattle.wa.us
HISTORY OF SEATTLE'S
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICE CENTERS An
article on HistoryLink's Web site summarizes the history of the Neighborhood
Service Centers. Go to www.historylink.org
and search on Little City Halls to read all about it!
JULY NEWSLETTER NOW ON
LINE The July issue of Neighborhood News has been
posted at www.cityofseattle.net/don/news/nnews.htm on the Web. Neighborhood News is published six times a
year by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. If you would like a free subscription, please send e-mail to our editor
at irene.stewart@ci.seattle.wa.us. The newsletter
is available in both print and electronic formats. The Department of
Neighborhoods also maintains an on-line calendar of events that you can access
via www.cityofseattle.net/don/. These
and other events can be found at www.cityofseattle.net/events/, a site that is
also open to the public for posting events.
NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE
NEWS Recently the P-I ran two articles about the
Capitol Hill garden planted as a memorial to street youth who have died, a
Small Sparks project that got a lot of practical help from the P-Patch Program
as well: Homeless youth plant a garden in memory http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/26878_streetkids11.shtml Blossoms
for those who died too young http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/jamieson/26755_robert09.shtml
Sealth High School's Peace Forum and Festival, sponsored by the
Fund and extensively assisted by Ron Angeles, Delridge Neighborhood Service
Center Coordinator, was also covered in the P-I: West Seattle students make
peace their mission http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/26706_peace09.shtml
The Seattle P-I also reported on progress made by a group working
to move and restore the famous Hat 'N Boots, work that has been supported by
the Neighborhood Matching Fund: Trail's
end for Hat 'N Boots? Nope http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/jamieson/29182_robert28.shtml
The Seattle Times covered South Park's proposed César Chávez Park,
which received an award for preliminary design and will apply for another for
implementation, and which will fulfill South Park's plan recommendations for
open space and public art: South Park seeks to honor Chávez http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=chavez09m&date=20010609
Fund-sponsored projects that received coverage included Fremont's
topiary dinosaurs (The Seattle Times): Fremont redux http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=here19m&date=20010619&query=fremont+dinosaurs
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electronic newsletter, go to www.cityofseattle.net/lists.htm on the Web or send
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