Help revive the Capitol Hill Community Council

When both the P-I and KING-TV contacted me last week for comment on the New Year's Eve murder on 15th, I realized that the Capitol Hill Community Council was truly dead.

I'd like your help in reviving it, to provide a voice for Capitol Hill and as a way for residents on the Hill to interact with the City in as unified a way as we (herd of cats that we are) care to.

The Capitol Hill Community Council was (according to their, no longer updated, website) founded in 1968, and has worked on assorted public interest issues that would have been beyond the scope of individual neighbors or more local neighborhood groups (like Miller Park). Their website lists some ( eg the # 8 bus !) but was never updated to note a couple of their last successes:

• They successfully intervened in the dispute between the Walgreens Pharmacy on 15th and its neighbors to lessen the impact of the original "cookie cutter" design on the neighborhood. Don't see the free-standing readerboard in the parking lot, do you?
• They helped rally opposition to another free-standing cookie cutter Walgreens at Broadway & Pine, and convinced the developers to work with Capitol Hill Housing to instead build a low income apartment building on the site, with a Walgreens at street level (quite a departure for them). Dare I say "win, win"?
  

As I understand it (correct me, please) the driving forces in the Community Council put their all into opposing the Mayor's proposal to upzone Broadway, and then moved onto other things when they failed in that effort.

Given the changes happening in the commercial core of Captitol Hill (impending light rail, streetcar, massive redevelopment, revival of neighborhood plans, building code updates) it would be great to have a neighborhood group to help us interact with City government. Let's face it: I'm not Paul Allen - the Mayor or Councilmembers aren't going to come out to my living room to hear what my views are, but they will (and do) regularly come out to neighborhood groups to meet with people (even when they're not actively seeking votes!). I'm only aware of the history of the Council since the birth of MPNA, but I'm not aware of them ever advocating any of the NIMBYish things that so alarm the CHS blog.

So, how do we do revive the Community Council? José Cervantes write to offer City assistance (my comments are interspersed):

After talking to Crime Prevention Coordinator, Michael Yasutake and Thomas Withemore, Neighborhood Matching Fund, we would like to follow up on your suggestion to assist in the creation and or reactivation of the community council for the Hills.

For this we need your valuable assistance and input of the following:

-We would like to use the Blog (that would be CHS: Seattle) you identified at the recent public safety forum to advertise funding available through the Department of Neighborhoods/Neighborhood Matching Fund Outreach Grant (up to $750) for folks that would like to create or reactivate the mentioned needed community council for the Hills. The funding available can be used for this purpose.

-We need to know from Ann or other Elders of the previous Capitol Hill Community Council if they would like to participate on this or help us endorse the idea, everyone is welcome and the new group needs to develop the leadership responsibilities to accomplish the task. Can you help us with this? (Ann is Ann Donovan, who still runs the Community Council listserv and is, along with several of the previous officers, still living in the area)

-As you know, neighborhood organizations such as community councils are independently organized from the City, but once the core group initiates the organizing process DON and SPD can assist with funding applications, technical assistance, etc, as requested.

Jose Cervantes, Neighborhood District Coordinator
(206) 684-4574
jose.cervantes@seattle.gov

Some final thoughts:

• The listservs and blogs that we all use now make it easy to communicate speedily, but there's still value in occasional traditional neighborhood meetings.
• No need for kneejerk once-a-month meetings, but good to get together as needed: sitting down in a room sometimes just WORKS!
  
• Service projects, like the MADCAP cleanups, are one good way to get together and swap news.
• NO, I don't want to Chair the group! I'll come along to some meetings, but Miller Park is on the edge of Capitol Hill and somebody more central should be "in charge".
  

SO How do we proceed? You can contact me (tayles@jps.net) or José (jose.cervantes@seattle.gov) and, if there's enough interest, we'll take it from there.

Thanks for your time. I'll try and write soon about my (flawed) understanding of the various neighborhood groups that serve our assorted needs in working with local government.

Sonja Richter will be missed, we must insist on equally energetic and flexible successor

A neighbor with a business on Union writes:

Nice article on a decent, hard-working civil servant who throughout her career attempted to defy the Peter Principle and break Parkinson’s Law…
Thanks!

Capitol Hill Times article (5/3/07)

Sonja has been our crime prevention coordinator for most of the the time that the Miller Park Neighborhood Association has existed, except for when she spent a while working in Lake City. You'll find her mentioned in almost every copy of the Miller Times!

As far as I know, the City has not yet assigned a replacement for her!

Andrew

Waiting for the Mayor's visit
to Miller Park

Demonstrating an unsafe gate
at an apartment building: it's now been fixed, thanks to Sonja

Thursday Council Committee Meeting at Miller

Reminder that Councilmember Sally Clark's Economic Development and Neighborhoods City Council committee meets at Miller Community Center this Thursday (3/15/07, 6 PM).

The Committee's agenda is pretty full: you'll have a chance to talk to the committee at the start of the meeting ( and then a chance to comment on the appointment of Stella Chao as Director, Department of Neighborhoods). The meeting will feature a briefing on the Mayor's Nightlife Ordinance, so expect lots of people coming to comment on it.

The Miller neighborhood gets its 15 minutes of fame at the end of the meeting (nominally 7:45 PM, probably later, Center closes at 9 PM). I (Andrew) was asked to submit a panel of names (but you're welcome to join us). Here's who I nominated and what they may talk about:

Andrew Taylor (MPNA) - Brief history of neighborhood and its issues. Effects of bar closure. GOTS program. Madison Street redevelopment: time to revisit the Neighborhood Plan?

Jon Vandemoortel, Chair, MaDCAP (Madison and Denny Community Action Program ) - Challenges of living near Madison. Cleanup efforts.

Heidi Ob'bayi, MPNA & MaDCAP: Continuing challenges and street issues in the area.

Chuck Weinstock, Executive Director, Capitol Hill Housing (CHHIP); Affordable housing in the area. Challenges and possibilities of including affordable and workforce housing in East Madison Street development projects.

Ellen O'Neill-Stephen, Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorney will describe her Madison Street taskforce, a coalition of neighbors, businesses and organizations dedicated to the improvement of the Madison Street area.

Feel free to offer suggestions for other topics we should cover: Click on "Comments" or "Post a Comment" below or E-mail Andrew.

Two City Councilmembers to visit neighborhood

1) Once a month Councilmember Sally Clark brings the City Council committee she chairs (Economic Development and Neighborhoods) out to a neighborhood.

This month it's our turn. The committee will meet at Miller Community Center (330 - 19th Ave. E.) at 6 PM, Thursday March 15th. The committee is working on the Mayor's proposed nightlife ordinance (here's their workplan, with details of the meeting, as a PDF, the text of the proposed ordinance and the Councilmember's press release).

There will be a public comment period at the start of the meeting, where you might care to share your observations on the state of our neighborhood before and after the recent bar closure, about the proposed nightlife ordinance, or about anything else that concerns you.

2) Councilmember Tom Rasmussen will join us on Wednesday March 21st, from 6 - 8 PM, for a walking tour of our neighborhood. Tentative plans are to start at the bus-stop at 21st & John (which he heard about, and helped clean up, on his previous walking tour in June 2005), tour neighborhood streets and visit with people, and finish up at McKinney Manor (Madison @ 19th-20th) to meet the seniors there and to discuss issues with us.

Please let me know if you'd like to meet with the Councilmember on his tour. It's possible that our previous public safety issues may indeed be history, but it's certain that the impacts of the redevelopment of E. Madison Street will be an ongoing issue, so let's make sure that he gets a good view of our successes and problems.

Council Committee to consider "Nightlife Ordinance"

Mayor Nickels, after hearing from a citizens/ business taskforce, proposed a "Nightlife Premises Ordinance" last Fall: here's the Mayor's Fact Sheet on the legislation. On Thursday March 1st (9:30 AM, Council Chambers), the City Council Economic Development and Neighborhoods Committee will be briefed on the proposed ordinance. Here's their agenda and a link to the proposed bill. The Council Committee will, in due course, vote on the bill and (if they approve it) it will go on the the full City Council (who seem to typically approve what their Committees send them).

The nightclub and music industry is campaigning about the legislation, and may well be testifying at the public comment period at the start of Thursday's Committee meeting.

Given our neighborhood's experience with bars on Madison, and the probability that new developments on Madison will contain both nightlife premises and apartments/condos, it would be great if people who live near the present bars could share their experiences with City Councilmembers. I don't expect many of us will make it to the Council Committee on Thursday morning, so I suggest that you E-mail Committee Chair Sally Clark, Vic-Chair Richard McIver, member Jan Drago and alternate member Peter Steinbrueck (or write to them).

From the media:

1) Seattle Times editorial endorses the ordinance. Seattle Times article about it and a Seattle P-I article (and a whole load of comments) about it.

2) A couple of Seattle Weekly blog postings about it (here and here).

3) The Stranger has a whole lot to say: see this page of links.

4) A (mainly) pro-nightclub post from the West Seattle blog

5) From the Seattle Nightlife and Music Association:

Their "talking points"
Their analysis

In summary, our neighborhood is mostly residential, and has many years experience of living next to a nightclub. Our thoughts will be of great value to City Council in their consideration of the Mayor's proposed nightlife ordinance. Please share your thoughts with them (and maybe post them as comments here).

Many thanks,
Andrew Taylor
Miller Park Neighborhood Association

Thoughts/questions about the survey

(arrived by E-mail)

Hi Andrew, looking at your survey results, I'm concerned that it has been
co-opted by developers/builders. I suggest you might have a vote on the
matter of 24th and check id's of all voters on issue- we've done this in
our neighborhood. You may be surprised.

Andrew's response:

I was concerned that one side or another might try to "stuff the ballot box". Survey answers come with the date/time and the IP address of the sender. Looking at those showed no signs of any worrying trends. The only multiple replies from a given IP address (3 each) were from the City of Seattle, Microsoft and Comcast and each cluster had differing responses to the questions. (Yes I might be fooled by dynamically assigned IP addresses). Looking at the timing of responses gave no concerns either.

So I believe that everyone was honest and aboveboard (many thanks, folks!) and hence that the results truly reflect the views of those Miller neighbors who care about these issues.

Thanks again, people.

Andrew

PS: I'm clearly new at surveying people, so guidance is always welcome.

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(comment to blog post)

Thanks for the info. Just wanted to mention that not all non-Miller Park people should be totally discounted! I used to live in Miller Park, but recently moved down the hill into Madison Valley. So I'm not an MP resident, but it's not like I'm some disinterested party voting from Ballard or something. :)

Andrew's response:

Good point. I didn't ask for names or addresses: didn't want to scare anyone away. Suggestions for next time?

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(From comment on a previous post)

So my question is, do we tell the Miller Greens developer, city, Frazier Park folks etc what our opinions are? It seems to me we should. I assume we were going to share our results with everyone if they were negative on Miller Greens; we should do the same since they are positive.

Andrew's response:

I shared the info with the developer and the Frazier Park folks before posting it here, and then sent copies to appropriate Councilmembers, DPD and the Mayor's Office.