Aug

23

Awesome Brownbag Today: Melrose Promenade, Outlaw Sandbox Kids and More

Filed Under Community, Design, Parks | Leave a Comment

Please join us for lunch at GGLO today as we welcome Nancy Bird, Sandy Fischer, and Mike Kent. Nancy, Sandy, and Mike will present neighborhood streetscape reinvention projects and participate in a Q&A about lessons learned and the potential for more creative thinking about how we use our rights of way. Our Streetscape 2.0 series continues in September; we’ll take a look at two exciting “green street” projects in development.

But first, here’s a bit more on Mike and the Melrose Promenade project he’ll be presenting today: 

Mike Kent Photo.jpgMike Kent has lived in Capitol Hill since 2009 and founded the Melrose Promenade project in 2010. He currently works as a Project Manager for Pastakia & Associates, and prior to that he worked for more than 10 years in the non-profit and public sector. His background is in urban planning, and he presently serves as chair for Leadership for Great Neighborhoods. Mike also served for two years as Vice President of the Capitol Hill Community Council.

Project Description:

The views from Capitol Hill’s Melrose Avenue are among the best in the city, but the poor quality of the street itself threatens the public enjoyment of them. Since 2010, a group of community members has been working to remedy this. The Melrose Promenade project aims to create a more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly street by widening and extending the sidewalk and adding benches, trees and other landscaping, pedestrian-oriented lighting, and public art. The project has earned the support of numerous community and civic organizations, property owners, businesses, and residents.

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May

4

Become an urban & environment advocate! Join AdvocacyCorps.

Filed Under Cities, Community, Conservation, Development, Environment, Food System, Fun stuff to do, Housing, Land Use, Policy, Sustainability, Transportation, Uncategorized, Zoning | Leave a Comment

Our friends at Futurewise are looking for a few good folks to join in the fight for our future.

Farms, forests and the families who love them will all benefit from the skills you’ll build working with this great organization.

AdvocacyCorps is an intensive ten-week summer bootcamp for aspiring urban & environment advocates. It is organized by Futurewise, Washington State’s premier advocacy group for saving farms and forests, protecting rivers and lakes, and building strong cities and towns for all.

AdvocacyCorps is exclusive to 12 outstanding young leaders between the ages of 19 and 26 who can dedicate their summer to leadership development and political organizing to make a difference for Washington State’s communities and environment.

The 2012 program will run from June 15 to August 24; the last week is optional for students returning to school. Participation is paid in serious experience, not in dollars.

Applications are due by May 15. Review and acceptance of applicants as applications are submitted.

Learn More via Futurewise.

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Aug

25

Public Libraries Morph to Serve New Needs

Filed Under Community | Leave a Comment

From the Seattle Times here’s evidence that libraries continue to open doors and serve a vital role in our communities.

America’s public libraries, fast turning themselves into “one-stop shops” for digital job searches, appear to be staging one of their great historic transformations.

Responding to a rush of recession-time visitors, 88 percent of our libraries now offer access to job databases. And at least two-thirds of library staffs are helping applicants complete online job applications, according to a national survey by the American Library Association and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As for access to free wireless services, 82 percent of libraries now provide it — up from just 37 percent four years ago. In two-thirds of cases, the libraries are the only source of free Internet service in their communities.  More…

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Mar

31

Join Us for “Drive To Work Day”, April 1

Filed Under Bicycling, Community, Fun stuff to do | 14 Comments

Cascade Bicycle Club, a leader in creating more livable communities through bicycle education, advocacy, events and commuting and riding programs, announces that Wednesday, April 1, 2009 is “Jurassic Petroleum” Drive to Work Day.

Cascade Bicycle Club invites regular non-drivers to join millions of car commuters for “Jurassic Petroleum” Drive to Work Day. While almost two thirds of Americans drive, 37 percent are pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and can’t or don’t get behind the wheel each day.

In the state of Washington, over two million people do not participate in the act of driving an automobile. Alarmingly, this number may be increasing. The INRIX National Traffic Scorecard showed a three percent decline in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2008 from 2007. This resulted in a reduction of road congestion by 30 percent, meaning that our citizens spend much less time in their vehicles. Increases in the number of people who walk, bicycle and ride transit are contributing to a decline in driving that, if continued, would one day make cars scarce on our roads. Our citizens, as well, may shrink in size and become gradually healthier. Something must be done to curb excessive fitness, as increased life expectancies would further tax our broken Social Security system.

Cascade Bicycle Club would like to ask Americans to renew their commitment to driving by leaving their bus passes or bicycles at home. If the cost of parking or gas is a burden, employees may request that their employers help offset those costs by participating in Jurassic Petroleum’s Drive to Work Day.

For media inquiries or more information, click here.

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Mar

3

Comments needed for a safer Nickerson Street

Filed Under Bicycling, Community, Neighborhoods, Pedestrians | 2 Comments

A safer Nickerson Street is in the works to connect Seattle neighborhoods- but your comments are needed to make it happen. The City plans to add bike lanes and create better conditions at intersections that will create a far more comfortable – and less nerve-racking – ride for both commuters and recreational riders.  This is an important connection to the Fremont bridge and the Burke-Gilman, the new Chesiahud trail along Lake Union, Queen Anne, and points west in Interbay and beyond.

Please stop by the open house  this Wednesday, March 4 between 5 and 7 p.m. to comment in favor of a better Nickerson for bicycling, at Seattle Pacific University’s Demaray Hall, at 509 West Bertona St.

Thank you for your advocacy!

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Jan

23

shovel ready?

Filed Under Alaskan Way Viaduct, Community, Environment, From A to Green, Innovation, Neighborhoods, Parks, Pedestrians, Spokane St. Viaduct project, Streets For People, Transit, Transportation, Zoning | 3 Comments

Is anyone else sick of hearing the phrase ‘shovel ready’ in reference to stimulating the economy and rehabilitating our infrastructure? Most projects that are truly shovel ready (drawings, check. permits, check. fire up the bulldozer!) aren’t what will truly aid the regeneration of 21st century cities. They are very likely to be things like road widenings and interchanges that fuel sprawl and shred urban fabric. Some estimates suggest that three quarters of infrastructure stimulus funding will be for roads. The other quarter will be used to buy the silence of all us bike, tree, transit, urbanism, art, ped, waterfront, etc. advocates. We’ll all get in line and try to get a few good things done with the crumbs from the stimulus table, but can’t we HOPE for more?

Republicans are already rallying around giving more money to rich people instead because even the shovel ready projects can’t get started until 2010. I saw a CNN interviewer chew out a mayor that requested money for parks and trails in his city’s stimulus package. She asked him if he was ashamed of himself since everyone knows those aren’t ‘real’ infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. Frankly, i’d rather leave our economy a little less stimulated than waste the resources of many generations on the shovel ready road projects cluttering the shelves our our state highway departments.

Eighty years ago the united states stimulated itself out of a depression, but also made civic art of our public works. will a random-ass extra lane to redmond be viewed as such eighty years from now? And don’t forget that after this splurge funding of all types, perhaps for decades, will be diminished to pay for this bump. Whether we get it right or wrong now, we’ll be paying for it for a long time to come. So it is time for all urban and environmental minded folks to remind our politicians that great projects in this day and age-reconnecting seattle to a healthy puget sound, mass transit and mobility options, vibrant neighborhoods, and a robust network of green infrastructure-are complex in a good way. They will need talented artists, NGOs, designers, engineers, lawyers (yes, even them), inventors, community organizers, legislators, and developers to make sure the bulldozers and shovels are headed in the right direction on the right projects. If we want to strengthen the economic and environmental foundations of cities for the long-term, we don’t want to waste this opportunity on what happened to be shovel ready in the panic of 2008. we need pencil ready, people ready, carbon ready, future ready!

I’d be interested in your thoughts on how we can shift the messaging on this subject.

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