First Hill’s Jim Erickson writes,

“In a recent conversation with my son we recalled stupid things that we each did as young adults. There is something about an immature mind inhabiting an adult body. I said that my worst fear was that he would be arrested and be locked up as a lone innocent among hardened criminals. For the first time, now that his son entered college in August, he understands my fears.

In this morning’s Seattle Times there is a report that two men, age 20 and 21, purchased some spray paint in an Art Store and proceeded to paint the City blue. The two men were booked into King County Jail. I feel the pain of the families who are learning about these arrests.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021859427_spraypaintingxml.html?prmid=4939

“Yesterday, I was one of a hundred people who formed a circle in the Garfield Community Center and began to learn about Restorative Justice. This was an Experimental Workshop & Planning Session for an East Precinct Pilot Project. Our convening questions were: How will a community/police restorative justice program as an alternative approach to crime, conflict and accountability foster resilient, empowered, safe and connected communities? How can we co-create this in the East Precinct of Seattle? How do you want to play?

Tony Marshall explains that “Restorative justice is a process whereby the parties with a stake in a particular offense come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offense and its implications for the future.”

How can citizens of the East Precinct utilize the Restorative Justice practices?  Is it possible to establish and restore right relationships among a community harmed by crime and the person/s causing the harm?

Andrea Brenneke, East Precinct resident and Director of the newly established City of Seattle Restorative Justice Initiative, will be our guest presenter at this Thursday’s EastPAC (East Precinct Advisory Council) meeting. Plan to attend and hear about this practice.  It may be the solution you need to decrease the chronic nuisance crime on your neighborhood!

 East Precinct Advisory Council Community Meeting

Thursday, September 26^th, 6:30 to 8:00 PM

Seattle University, Chardin Hall, Room 144

1020 East Jefferson

Enter campus at 11^th and East Jefferson – Park free in the lot in front of the building

Thank you to Seattle University for their partnership

and generous donation of our meeting space!

Major Changes are Proposed for the some Central District Area Students.  Don’t be shy about offering suggestions to the district via the information below.

The Seattle School District staff presented the first draft of proposed boundary changes for student assignment on Tuesday, September 17 during a Board Work Session.  The draft will be updated again after a series of community meetings noted below.  The proposal will then be an introductory item on the Board agenda for October 16, and presented for a final vote at the November 20, 2013 Board Meeting.

Many families especially in  the Squire Park area  will be affected by the Seattle School District’s proposed changes to student assignment at both the elementary and middle school levels.  No students south of E. Madison will be allowed to attend Stevens Elementary and  a second middle school will mean major changes to those assignment patterns as well. So far the proposed boundaries have been presented with no data regarding the projected number of resident students or enrollment at the schools. Committees and parent groups are requesting that information.

Elementary students currently assigned to Stevens  west of  19th, between E. Madison and Cherry  would be assigned to Lowell and those east of 19th to Madrona.  A portion of the current Gatzert area will also be  reassigned and split between Thurgood Marshall and Madrona.  The Stevens boundary will be extended north just north of the school itself.

The new proposal would shift a  vast majority of all middle school student assignments in the Central District.   Students from Stevens, Lowell,  Gatzert, Madrona (K-8), McGilvra, and Montlake would be assigned to  Meany Middle School.  Currently, they all all feed into Washington Middle School.  Only Muir, Leschi and Thurgood Marshall would feed into  Washington.

The District encourages all to give feedback and not to be shy about making suggestions either online or at the community meetings.Email: [email protected]

The following Seattle Schools Community Meetings are from 6:30 to 8:00 PM:

• Monday, Sept. 23, Mercer Middle School, 1600 South Columbian Way;
• Tuesday, Sept. 24, Nathan Hale High School Commons, 10750 – 30th Ave NE;
• Wednesday, Sept. 25, West Seattle High School Commons, 3000 California Ave SW;
• Monday, Sept. 30, Meany Middle School, 300 – 20th Ave E;
• Tuesday, Oct. 1, Ballard High School Commons,1418 NW 65th St.

Maps and further information, along with where  students can walk or can not walk to school can be found: http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=585edd3785215fed3ab8351025e32feb&pageid=294923&sessionid=585edd3785215fed3ab8351025e32feb

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Central District nonprofit Green Plate Special is moving its garden from its current location at MLK Jr. Way and E Union Street to a new spot at 2115 25^th Avenue South, at S. Walker Street.

Image via Green Plate Special

Green Plate Special teaches middle-school youth about the importance of growing, cooking, and eating healthy food. They’ve offered classroom and after-school programs since 2011.

The nonprofit’s new garden space was funded by The Mark and Susan Torrance Foundation and Thistledown LLC provided the property. A building on the property will serve as Green Plate Special’s kitchen classroom, though they’ll need to raise capital funds to outfit the space. Other new elements will include a shed and greenhouse, bees and chickens, an outdoor wood-burning oven, covered and uncovered gathering spaces, bird baths, fruit trees, raised beds, vertical growing space, lights, and irrigation. The move is scheduled for this fall.

Green Plate Special is hosting a party on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm to celebrate its next chapter. The party is open to the pubic; learn more here.

If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

The city’s Bridging the Gap Oversight Committee recently completed a review of 38 potential Neighborhood Street Fund projects. They’re passing 12 to Mayor McGinn and City Council for final approval, including two in the Central District.

The projects include $115,000 of multi-modal safety improvements at Dearborn & Rainier and $235,000 of pedestrian improvements at 19th Avenue at E Union Street and 19th Avenue at E Pike Street. Once approved, these projects will undergo a design phase in 2014 for construction in 2015.

According to project plans, “The proposed project will construct a pedestrian refuge island in the two-way left turn lane for the east crossing of E Union Street at 19th Avenue and provide striped crosswalk markings across E Union Street. Existing curb ramps will be upgraded at all four corners of this intersection.”

19th and Union plans

Further, “At the crossing location at 19th Avenue and the E Pike Street stairs curb bulbs will be constructed on both sides of 19th Avenue. At this time there are not sufficient existing pedestrian crossing volumes at this location to install crosswalk pavement markings at the crossing. To increase pedestrian visibility with the dense tree cover at the E Pike Street stairs, one pedestrian scale luminaire will be installed on the west curb bulb. This project will be required to implement Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) to the maximum extent feasible. GSI features will likely consist of tree retention and potentially a raingarden at the new curb bulbs adjacent to the E Pike Street Stairs.”

At Dearborn and Rainier, pedestrian improvements are slated for the northeast crosswalk and sidewalk area, including “widening the sidewalk on the east side of Rainier at the south end to at least the standard width at the north end, signage explaining how to trigger the westbound light as a bicyclist, and re-aligning the Rainier crossing.”

You can find more detailed plans for these sites on the Neighborhood Street Fund website.

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Just a quick post to remind everyone our subscriber drive expires at the end of the month — which is quickly approaching.

Subscribe to Central District News Today — $5/$10/$20 per month to support CD community news

We’re so close to reaching our goal of 100 subscribers by September 30, and we hope we can count on your support.

Your contribution will allow us to dedicate more time to the site, providing more thorough coverage of neighborhood happenings. Though we won’t restrict access to the site, the added income will help us grow. Our goal is to gather 100 subscribers (at levels of $5, $10, or $20 each month) by the end of September. We’ll keep CDN going even if we don’t make the goal — but our plans to continue the coverage you’ve come to depend on and grow it will have to be adjusted.
(Any information we collect when you subscribe will be kept confidential and used only to contact subscribers to thank them and keep them aware of any news related to the subscriber program.)

Continue reading →

If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

The Landmarks Preservation Board is considering a landmark nomination for the Judge Ronald House, at 421 30^th Ave S. (30th and Jackson). The board will hold a meeting to discuss the nomination on Wednesday, October 16 at 3:30 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5^th Avenue, 40th Floor in Room 4060.

Judge Ronald House, courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Board.

The Leschi home once belonged to James T. Ronald, a former Seattle mayor and King County Superior Court judge who retired from the bench in 1949. The home is already registered as a national historic landmark; placing it on the city’s list of landmark designations would protect it by city ordinance. The home was built in the 1880s in Neoclassical Revival style.

The application has more information on the home:

Judge J.T. Ronald purchased the house on Rainier Street, now called 30th Avenue South, in 1889 and then renovated and expanded it into the unique Neoclassical mansion that you see there today. Renovations were completed by 1904, in time for his daughter, Eva’s wedding in June of 1905. According to Ronald’s granddaughter (Eva Benson’s daughter), Betty Runstad,(1913 – 2008), this mansion was the hub of cultural and political events in Seattle’s early history, as the site of concerts, lectures and meetings.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the current owner has undertaken efforts to restore the house and a City of Seattle Landmark Designation would make it possible to further these efforts and better protect the house from future deterioration and historically detrimental alterations.

For more information on the home’s history and architecture, check out the full nomination application.

The nomination meeting is open to the public. Or, you can submit written comments to  the Landmarks Preservation Board by 5:00 p.m. on October 15 at the following address: Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 94649, Seattle WA, 98124-4649.

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Want to know what our local candidates think about human services and social justice issues?

Join us TONIGHT for a face-to-face opportunity with Seattle and King County candidates!

Seattle Human Services Coalition’s
2013 Candidates Forum

September 17^th
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Garfield Community Center
2323 East Cherry Street
Seattle, WA 98122
Metro Transit Routes 3, 4, 48, 84

Invitees include candidates for:
Seattle City Mayor, Seattle City Council, Seattle City Attorney,
King County Council Position 1 and King County Sheriff

Moderated by Professor David Domke from the University of Washington

Free and open to the public!
Voter registration on site
Light refreshments will be served
Sign language and language interpretation and
child care services available upon request.

For more information, visit:
http://shscoalition.org/2013electmenu.php

 DON’T FORGET TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5^TH!
A Special Thanks to our Forum Sponsors:
Alliance of People with disAbilities
Child Care Resources
One America
YWCA Seattle| King | Snohomish

 Church Council of Greater Seattle, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Lighthouse for the Blind, Non-Profit Anti-Racist Coalition, Real Change, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Senior Services, SOAR/Youth Development Network, Tenant’s Union of Washington State, Washington Low Income Housing Alliance

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Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Council recently announced six recipients of $465,000 in awards from the Neighborhood Matching Fund’s Large Projects Fund for community-initiated projects. Two are in the Central District.

The Central Area Urban Gardeners were awarded $67,330 from the fund with a community match of $71,138. The funding will go towards “equipment purchase and installation to support a new agricultural demonstration project designed to grow healthy, safe, affordable, organic vegetables indoors. It will involve year-round training and education in food production for youth in the community.”

Historic Seattle for the Get Lifted received $100,000 and a community match of $504,900 for “outreach, fund raising, and construction of an elevator and tower for this historic landmark to make Washington Hall accessible to the community.”

And in Madison Valley, the Madison Valley Community Council was awarded $41,250 and a community match of $100,000 for “construction of a neighborhood landmark sign located at East Madison St and 28th Ave East, the heart of the district. Plans include landscaping, a means to advertise seasonal events, and possible redesign of the intersection crosswalks.”

“The Neighborhood Matching Fund reflects the city’s commitment to providing concrete ways to help community members make Seattle a better place to live,” Mayor Mike McGinn said in a press release. “The fund serves as a resource and catalyst for community members to turn their creative ideas and energy into reality.”

Here’s more on the inner workings of the Neighborhood Matching Fund:

Recipients of the Neighborhood Matching Fund match their awards through a combination of cash, donated materials and expertise, and volunteer labor. This round of Large Projects Fund projects is matching the city’s $465,000 contribution with resources valued at $936,000.

The Neighborhood Matching Fund Large Projects Fund applications are reviewed by the Citywide Review Team (CRT) which recommends the projects to the Mayor and City Council. Made up of volunteers from each of the 13 neighborhood districts, plus four at-large community members, the CRT reviews applications, interviews applicants, and makes funding recommendations. The applications are also reviewed by members from District Councils.

Created to promote and support community-based, self-help projects, the Neighborhood Matching Fund is managed by Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Celebrating its 25^th anniversary, the Fund has awarded approximately $50 million with a community match of more than $71 million. The next opportunity to apply to the Neighborhood Matching Fund is through its Small and Simple Projects Fund. The deadline for applications is October 7. To learn more, visitwww.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/.

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