1. Most Significant Accomplishment

In the past year, Seattle Great City Initiative (SGCI) convened environmentalists, neighborhood activists and green business leaders to catalyze action on city-level decisions that are critical to a sustainable future.  Working with the support of Cascade Land Conservancy, SGCI established a board composed of respected urban leaders, influenced the course of community transportation and land use decisions, launched a campaign to support green infrastructure, initiated a campaign on urban housing and created its “neighborhood assistance program” to positively influence growth in neighborhoods.  The single greatest accomplishment of Seattle Great City Initiative in the past year is the creation of a platform for citizen action on key urban sustainability issues. 

2. Three Project Year Outcomes

The first projected outcome was for CLC to incubate SGCI, into either a new 501(c)(3) organization, an organization fiscally sponsored by CLC or a fully integrated program of The Cascade Agenda.  This has been substantially accomplished, with the current structure setting SGCI as an organization fiscally sponsored by CLC and working closely together on Cascade Agenda objectives (in particular, implementation of Transfers of Development Rights).  CLC and SGCI entered into a memorandum of understanding and CLC assisted SGCI with leadership, fundraising assistance and administrative support.

SGCI convened a strong leadership team which developed well-defined goals and objectives, crafted a compelling message and secured its first year’s budget.  SGCI set long term goals and established short term policy and organizational priorities and began acting on them.  It recruited volunteer subcommittees to support programs and priorities, produced a brochure, created a website and built its mailing list.  CLC and SGCI remain interested in determining the best long-term structure for SGCI and using the incubation experience to assist CLC in creating similar efforts in other cities in the Cascade Agenda region.

The second outcome was to build broad based support for a highly livable and sustainable city, which included support for parks and other public spaces, alternatives to automobiles, affordable housing and higher environmental standards for public and private construction.  These efforts are ongoing and the first year saw a number of notable successes.  SGCI:

• Worked with several community partners to win city support for Complete Streets, which requires that when streets undergo major maintenance, they are redesigned to accommodate all uses – transit, walking and biking – not just automobiles. 

• Supported sustainability initiatives within city government - including green infrastructure, Climate Action Plan and Restore Our Waters.

• Played a lead role in bringing together diverse stakeholders around the next steps in the Alaska Way Viaduct replacement.

• Catalyzed the creation of the Green Legacy Coalition to encourage increased spending on parks and green infrastructure.

• Developed rezone principles to allow for more housing, launched a housing campaign and participated in South Lake Union planning processes.

• Recruited 29 volunteers to join the Neighborhood Assistance Program, to provide consultations to neighborhood groups working on improving their communities and responding to growth. 

• Started a series of Brown Bag Lunch forums which had an average attendance of 25 people.

• Held a “Beyond Kickoff” event which had had over 100 attendees and received favorable press coverage.

• Presented SGCI’s mission and priorities at meetings of neighborhood and business groups.

The third outcome was for SGCI’s efforts to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pressure on regional sprawl.  While these outcomes are both long-term and difficult to evaluate quantitatively, transportation, land use and green building policy outcomes supported by SGCI will lead to this outcome.  Complete Streets is an example of an SGCI-supported program that will have a direct effect on reducing emissions by encouraging alternative transportation.  Looking ahead, Complete Streets implementation will be difficult given inertia around auto dependent patterns.  Another challenge that SGCI faces in the coming years is resistance to greater residential density in the city and inadequate funding sources for parks, open spaces and amenities.  SGCI will address this challenge by educating residents on the benefits of increased public amenities that are the result of well-planned, dense communities.  SGCI will continue to build a coalition of residents, businesses and community leaders who are willing to speak out in support of a sustainable future for our city.

3. Lessons Learned

Beyond creating a more sustainable future for Seattle, a central purpose of SGCI is to learn how to effectively address urban issues critical to The Cascade Agenda and sustainability so that we can apply those lessons in other communities.  To date, the messaging and objectives of SGCI have been incorporated into CLC’s regional Cascade Agenda Cities program, as well as policy suggestions such as Complete Streets.  A significant lesson learned is that a great deal of time is needed to bring together community leaders and find common goals.  SCGI has found this time well spent because it makes for a greater investment in the organization by volunteers.

4. Financial

In its first year, SGCI raised approximately $110,000 in cash and in-kind donations of office and conference space, materials, fundraising consulting and website design.   Although SGCI did not meet our initial goal of raising $150,000, Board and staff members were highly engaged in fundraising and feel we made significant progress as a young organization.  Spending was adjusted according to the level of funds secured and SGCI currently has approximately four months operating income in hand.  The first major donors have also agreed to renew their commitment to the organization, which is an encouraging sign for future fundraising.  CLC is also expanding its commitment to SGCI fundraising. 

5. Overall Health of the Organization

Volunteer enthusiasm for SGCI remains high.  The Steering Committee includes leading environmental, neighborhood and business leaders in the city.  Subcommittee meetings are well attended.   The most significant challenge is to expand staff to meet SGCI’s ambitious goals for the new year as we launch our Neighborhood Assistance Program, develop a public education campaign around housing and sustainable neighborhoods and continue our Green Infrastructure Campaign.  To meet this challenge, SGCI is currently advertising to add a full time project director.  SGCI does not currently have formal members but its listserv and individual donor base continue to grow.