Neighborhood planning coffee talks begin this week, local biz first topic

February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In the coming months, as a part of the community-led planning process for the 35th Avenue NE business district, the Wedgwood Community Council is hosting a series of coffee chats related to neighborhood planning.

Eight talks are planned. The first of which, “Creating the Conditions to Support Neighborhood Businesses,” is this Thursday, February 23, from 7-8:30 PM, at the Wedgwood Presbyterian Church (8008 35th Ave NE). Speakers include Theresa Barerras from the Office of Economic Development, Beth Dufek from Impact Capital, and Wendy Schwartz, the owner of the late Fresh Boutique.

Probable topics of the remaining seven talks are:

  • Density and its benefits
  • Making a neighborhood walkable and the importance of proximity
  • Design at a human scale. A primer on architectural design concepts and “design guidelines with teeth”
  • Place-making and successful streetscape features
  • Financial realities of development.  Incentivizing successful development
  • The trade offs of land use planning (e.g, up-zoning increases property taxes, increased traffic/parking, etc.
  • Incorporating affordable housing and economic diversity into land use planning

We’ll include the dates and locations of these future talks here, once they are scheduled.

Although these talks are being put on by the Wedgwood Community Council, anyone in Northeast Seattle is welcome to attend.

Filed Under: Businesses, Civic Envolvement, Meeting, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Wedgwood Community Council

Family Walking Group starts at Magnuson Park this Thursday

February 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Nursing students at the University of Washington are working with the American Heart Association this quarter, and bringing a Family Walking Group to Northeast Seattle.

The kickoff walk takes place this Thursday, February 23, at 2 PM (coinciding with Seattle Public School’s mid-winter break). Meeting place is Picnic Shelter #3 at Magnuson Park (7400 Sand Point Way NE; north side of soccer fields).

Sign up your family at the Magnuson Park Meetup page. You can find the day’s walking route map there as well.

Thank you to Jessica Fosse for sharing the event information with us.

Filed Under: Families, Kids, Magnuson Park, Meeting, Northeast Seattle, University of Washington

Eckstein Bikes, 35th Ave NE planning – Ravenna Blog Sunday Edition

February 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Bryant, Eckstein Middle School, Green Lake, Meeting, Ravenna, Seattle Fire Department, Sunday Edition, University District, University of Washington, Wedgwood Community Council

Wedgwood discusses the 35th Avenue NE business district tonight

January 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Our neighbors in Wedgwood are holding a meeting tonight that has quite a few points of interests for Ravennians, too.

Here’s the agenda for tonight’s general meeting of the Wedgwood Community Council (via the WCC website):

  • CleanScapes will share the fantastic news about the $50,000 the Tuesday collection area won towards a community project!
  • We’ll share a bit about what the next steps are for the $13,000 grant the WCC, Sustainable NE Seattle, and others won for emergency preparedness.
  • We’ll describe the “Donut Hole” and where both “Wedgwood” and “Ravenna-Bryant” begins.
  • We’ll present the land use planning process the WLUC [Wedgwood Land Use Committee] is proposing and describe how you can get involved in shaping the future of 35th Ave NE.

The Wedgwood Community Council meets at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church (8008 35th Ave NE) from 7-9 PM.

Filed Under: Civic Envolvement, Meeting, Ravenna, Wedgwood Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Coffee chats with Wedgwood Elementary’s principal scheduled

January 11, 2012 by 2 Comments

Wedgwood Elementary School’s principal, Chris Cronas, is holding a series of informal meetings for parents in January and February. The meetings look to be taking place in the neighborhood (vs. at the school) in both mornings and evenings.

Wedgwood Elementary’s PTA president and vice-president will also be attending the chats.

From the Wedgwood Weekly (about page):

Over the next several weeks, I will be hosting a series of informal coffee meetings for parents, the first of which will be on Tuesday, January 17th from 9:00 to 10:00 am.  The purpose of these meetings is to give parents a chance to come and ask questions about any issues they are thinking about, and discuss these issues with others in the community.  In addition to myself, Katie Traverse and/or John Piccola, our PTA President and Vice President will be there to chat with folks and answer any questions about the PTA.

I want to make it possible for everyone who wants to attend one of these coffees to do so.  For that reason, they will be offered at two different times – one in the morning right after the school day begins, and one in the evening off campus.

The morning coffees will be held in the library from 9:00 to 10:00 on the following dates:

Tuesday, January 17th

Thursday, January 26th

Tuesday January 31th

Monday February 6th

The evening coffees will be held off campus from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.  The first meeting will be at Café Javasti on 35th, which has graciously offered to stay open late just for us.  The location for the remaining meetings will be announced soon.  The dates of the meetings are as follows:

Monday, January 23rd, Café Javasti

Thursday February 9th, location TBA

Thursday February 16th, location TBA

If none of these times work for you and you are interested in attending, please let me know.  I look forward to meeting with many of you in the following weeks.

Chris Cronas
Principal

While Wedgwood Elementary School itself (2720 NE 85th Street) is located in the Wedgwood neighborhood, a chunk of northern Ravenna is within the school’s attendance boundary (which you can see here; 421 KB PDF).
Filed Under: Meeting, Ravenna, Wedgwood, Wedgwood Elementary School Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Committee vote on the Roosevelt Rezone likely this Wednesday (LIVE COVERAGE)

December 13, 2011 by 1 Comment

UPDATE (1:57 PM): Today’s Committee on the Built Environment meeting footage has now been archived by the Seattle Channel, and we include it here.

UPDATE (12:18 PM): The Councilmembers present at today’s meeting of the Committee on the Built Environment have voted to move the Roosevelt Rezone (with the 65-foot-heights on the blocks just south of Roosevelt High School) forward to a full council vote. Full council vote likely to take place on January 17, 2012.

For more details about the vote and today’s COBE meeting in general, read our archived coverage of the meeting below.

____________________

Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 14, the Seattle City Council’s Committee on the Built Environment meets to discuss and possibly vote on the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone (Council Bill 117379).

The meeting starts at 10:30 AM in the Council Chambers of City Hall (600 Fourth Avenue) with the Chair’s Report, then moves into 10 minutes* of public comment before the briefing on the bill begins.

We will be covering the event LIVE, right here, starting around 10:30 AM. Our notes will be archived here after the meeting, as well.

Recent Background Information

Just last week at another COBE meeting, the Committee discussed four different rough design options for the three blocks south of Roosevelt High School, before showing a preference (five of the eight councilmembers in attendance) for Option 2: A zoning designation of NC2-65 with over 25,000-square-feet of open space at street level.

You can download the entire design presentation by GGLO, “Development Standards for the High School Blocks,” in PDF format (5.03 MB) here.

An image of Option 2 from the GGLO design presentation. The view is from NE 65th Street, facing north toward the high school.

The next day, COBE Chair, Councilmember Sally Clark, summed up the rezone process so far and clarified her position on it on her blog.

Councilmember Bruce Harrell weighed in as well, on his personal blog. While he states his prefererence for design Option 2 at 65-feet, it was his “understanding that throughout the long process of neighborhood planning, the surrounding communities consistently made it clear that these three blocks should be protected from 65 foot heights.” Councilmember Harrell did not state specifically how he would vote, he did say that “[W]hat matters most to me…is that communities are ensured that their local government is truly listening to them when deciding how this city should look in the future.”

Then, today, a curve ball

Only yesterday, Publicola teased that Councilmember Nick Licata would be adding an amendment to the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone bill which would leave the three most contested blocks out of the rezone altogether. Today, Licata shared his position on the rezone on his Urban Politics blog.

____________________

*Ha!

Filed Under: City Council, Live Coverage, Meeting, Roosevelt, Roosevelt Rezone, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

New Year forecast: A flurry of high school information meetings and tours

December 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

“The days are long, but the years are short.”

Some of Roosevelt High School’s Class of 2011 | Photo by Roosevelt Neighborhood Blog. Used with permission.

First, there’s the wait list for preschool. Then, before you know it, you’re taking the kid off to kindergarten.

Parents of current eighth graders: It’s time to choose a high school.

The following list of high school information nights was taken from today’s Eckstein Middle School Bulletin for Responsible Scholars:

Roosevelt High School 2012 High School Information Night: Thursday, February 2, 2012
1410 Northeast 66th Street

This event will give potential 9th grade families and other families new to the RHS community a chance to listen to a student panel talk about life at Roosevelt, to meet with department heads about curriculum, tour the school, and visit with club and sports representatives. The event will start at 7 PM in the Roosevelt Theatre. Contact the Counseling Office (206-252-4827) or the Main Office (206-252-4810) with questions.

Nathan Hale High School Information Evening: Tuesday, February 7, 2012
10750 30TH Avenue NE

For students and parents/guardians

6:00-7:00 PM – Table Fair in Performing Arts Entry will include information about activities & parent groups
6:30-7:00 PM – Building Tours (meet in the Performing Arts Entry)
7:00-8:30 PM – NHHS Presentation and Q&A in the Performing Arts Center.

Garfield High School Prospective Tours and Evening Tour: Monday, January 9 and Tuesday, January 10, 8 AM-noon
400 23rd Avenue

Contact Kelley Butler (klbutler@seattleschools.org). Space is limited; mail to reserve a spot if interested. Open House (evening tour) is on Thursday, January 12, 6-7:30 PM for any parent/guardian and students that are considering Garfield High School.

Cleveland High School School Tours
5511 15th Avenue S

Wednesday mornings on 12/14, 1/18, 2/15, and 3/21. All tours will start at 8 AM and end at 10 AM, and begin in the main office. Contact Tina Camero at ticamero@seattleschools.org to reserve your space.

Ingraham High School Open House Information
1819 North 135th Street

No need to RSVP. Questions? 206-252-3888

Wednesday, February 1, 7 PM – Open House for parents and students
Wednesday, February 8, 7 PM – IB Information Night for parents and students
Wednesday, February 15, 8:15-9:45 AM – Daytime tour for parents and students
Wednesday, March 7, 8:15-9:45 AM – Daytime tour for parents and students

Filed Under: Meeting, Nathan Hale High School, Northeast Seattle, Public Schools, Roosevelt High School Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Ravenna-Bryant Community Association Meeting, this Wednesday

September 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Ravenna-Bryant Community Association is holding their monthly meeting this Wednesday, September 15th. It will once again be held at the Northeast Library (6801 35th Ave NE) from 6-7:45pm.

I don’t know the precise agenda at this time, BUT I know that the big community meeting in October will be discussed.

And if you need further reason to attend, I’ll be bringing HOMEMADE COOKIES. And they are VERY TASTY.

Filed Under: Bryant, Civic Envolvement, Meeting, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Roosevelt Tagged With: , , ,

Last Wednesday’s RBCA Meeting – Agenda, Impressions, Next Steps

August 20, 2010 by 5 Comments

Yours truly made it to a Ravenna-Bryant Community Association meeting at long last! Huge success.

The following is my report to you, the community-at-large, in three parts (which is why this is a Friday post and wasn’t a Thursday post).

Agenda

  • There were two women from the Seattle Department of Transportation present to discuss an upcoming road project (15th Avenue NE Reconstruction + the 22nd/Ravenna Ave/55th “scramble”; all to be covered in a later post).
  • There was an update on the SR 520 project from the Resident Expert on the subject (I seriously think she’s been to every meeting held for that bridge).
  • A charming elder from Sustainable NE Seattle (read his blog here) read a piece he’d written about being old, the history of the downtown Ravenna area (NE 65th St), and changes he sees coming.
  • A fairly distraught foot soldier of the 46th Legistlative District Democrats was there, asking for help before the main election. (Looking back, he could have used a group hug.)
  • Ellen Stoecker, Chair of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s Sustainability Group was looking for the RBCA’s support in aligning the RNA’s Urban Village Design Guildlines (2000) with the Draft Citywide Design Guidelines (2010). She got it.
  • Recruiting new board members for 2011, finding issue followers (ex. Sisleyville, 520, Children’s expansion), forming committees around issues as well – just general talk on these
  • Planning for the BIG Fall Community Meeting in October – speakers on three or so topics, a big location (I offered to find that piece), and getting the word out

Impressions

As a member of the hyperlocal, hyper-plugged-in community, I have to say that — up to this point — I’ve found the group very frustrating.  The website’s been stagnant for years. Contact information had lead to dead ends or nothingness. I didn’t even know how many people served on the board until that night (5 officers, 5 at-large). And finding meeting information was merely serendipitous (I spied the about sign at the library last month, the day before July’s meeting).

Now that I’ve been to a meeting, I feel SO MUCH better.  These are passionate people — passionate about their neighborhood, passionate about issues affecting the neighborhood.  But they’ve been at this a while (some for a long while).  Issues come and go, interest wanes, board members get graduate degrees and their time is sucked away…it happens.  I’m certainly not blaming anybody — it’s the nature of the community association beast.

Next Steps

I’m a firm believer in “See a problem? Help fix it.” Some trash on the ground? I’ll pick it up! My new neighborhood doesn’t have a blog? I should start one! My neighborhood’s community association needs some energy? I’ll join up and help supply some!

The next RBCA meeting is September 15, at the NE Branch (6-7:45pm) again (agenda includes more discussion of the BIG Community Meeting in October).  I’m going to be there again. You should join me.

________________

YOUR TURN: What would it take to get YOU more involved in your neighborhood association?

Filed Under: Civic Envolvement, Events, Meeting, Ravenna, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association

Ravenna-Bryant Community Association meeting TOMORROW night

August 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This Wednesday, August 18th, from 6-7:45pm at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library (6801 35th Avenue NE), the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association is holding a meeting.

If you have ANY interest in becoming a more active member of your community (and perhaps even helping define what that means in the Ravenna-Bryant neighborhood), I urge you to come.

I will be there this time! And you can plan on reading a post about the meeting the next day. But I’d rather see you in a chair next to me.

Besides, we can’t let Roosevelt have all the fun!

Filed Under: Meeting, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association Tagged With: , ,
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