Results of Port a Pot Survey

Below are the results of the Port a Pot survey. Thank you for taking the time to vote.

The results will be sent to the Department of Neighborhoods and we will follow up with them to work out an action plan from the city. Stay tuned.

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Survey - What should we do with the Mini Park Port a Pot?

Current location of Port a Pot at the Lake City Mini Park.

New property acquired by Seattle Parks and Rec on 33rd. 

The Lake City Mini Park sits in the heart of Lake City’s business district at the corner of 125th and Lake City Way. Visually, the park consists of a paved area, an archway and a Port a Pot.

Lake City businesses and property owners would like the Port a Pot to be removed. They cite ongoing health and safety issues associated with it, including public urination and defecation —despite the availability of the Port a Pot in the center of the Lake City business district.

Homeless advocates have said in the past that the Port-aPot is the only place some have to use during the night.

A survey is being conducted to find out what the Lake City public would like to see happen with the Port a Pot. Both the park and the Port a Pot have a storied history. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Port a Pot’s background before completing the survey. More info is below the survey.

Background 

Prior to 2003, the Lake City Mini Park included a water feature, plantings, and structural features. These provided quiet spaces at a busy intersection. However, they also provided limited visibility. Criminal and nuisance behaviors (drug use and dealing, public inebriation, urination and defecation) were a regular daily occurrence.

In 2003, the city spent $340,000 to redesign the park. During the redesign phase, the primary concern was how to reclaim the park from negative behaviors. The city’s solution was to remove all features that blocked visibility - hence the wide concrete open area that exists today. 

When the park’s redesign was completed, the negative behaviors returned to the park. Lake City businesses documented a significant increase of human feces and urine found on their business doorsteps daily. The business community requested a Port a Pot be installed at the Lake City Mini Park to help end this public defecation/urination.

Around the same time, the Mennonite Church (located one block away on 125th) welcomed homeless individuals to use their church property. The Mennonites installed a Port a Pot on their property, but later removed it. The Mennonite Church continued to expand their work with homeless, many with addiction issues. They opened a drop-in facility for homeless individuals near the corner of 125th and 33rd Ave and are currently working with Community Psychiatric Clinic to provide a new and enlarged homeless drop-in facility.

Today, the issue of public defecation and urination in Lake City’s business district continues, even as the Port a Pot sits available. Businesses adjacent to the park report routinely cleaning urine and feces from their properties. Eye witness accounts document open urination and defecation within yards of the Port a Pot, as well as drug dealing associated with the Port a Pot.

There are only three other permanent Port a Pots in Seattle, one of which is in a business district - Pioneer Square. The service contract on the Port a Pot costs the City of Seattle $7,800 per year.

'Harp to Heart' concert coming to Two Dog Yoga on Saturday, May 11th

Two Dog Yoga is rolling up the yoga mats and bringing in the harps this Saturday night (May 11th) for a concert at the Lake City yoga studio on Mother’s Day Eve!

Folk musician Martha Gallagher will collaborate with local harp players Seumas Gagne and Leslie McMichael during the Saturday evening concert at Two Dog Yoga Studio (12549 28th Ave NE).

Gallagher’s career includes solo national tours sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, performing with six-time Grammy winners The Chieftains, and teaching as a visiting artist at prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Describing the ebullient Gallagher’s personality and music, North Country Public Radio host Todd Moe summed her up by saying, “Martha Gallagher is Janis Joplin-Joan Baez-Jean Redpath all rolled into one. She's a treasure; her music lifts up the spirit and reminds us why we're here."

Seumas Gagne is a Scottish Gaelic teacher, singer and harp player with strong ties in both Seattle and Vancouver, B.C He is a frequent guest musician for local choirs such as Puget Sound Revels, City Cantabile Choir, the Vancouver Gaelic Choir, and others. Gagne’s debut album “Baile Ard” was released to acclaim in 2012, and when he is not playing his harp, he blogs about gay rights, polytheism, cooking and sewing.

Vashon Island harpist Leslie McMichael is well-known as a Suzuki teacher at Music Center of the Northwest and as a performer of original scores with vintage silent movie screenings. For the Mother’s Day weekend concert, she plans to share a sampling of her film scores, as well showcase her witty original songs on Celtic harp.  

What: Harp to Heart Concert 

When: Saturday, May 11th, 7 p.m. 

Where: Two Dog Yoga Studio (12549 28th Ave NE)

Tickets to the Harp to Heart concert are $15 general admission, or just $40 for a Friends & Family Four Pack. Brown Paper Tickets has advance tickets, and the link for the 7 pm Saturday event is http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/365552

Any questions, call Leslie Mouton at 206-661-5182 or Leslie McMichael at 206-898-4972.

Douglas Park Cooperative neighborhood garage sales scheduled for June 1st

One of the sales from 2012 on 25th Avenue NE.

Douglas Park Cooperative neighbors are again planning a coordinated neighborhood garage sale.

Last year we had a handful of homes participate in the sales, which were advertised on message boards and with signs along NE 125th Street. At one point we had so many people stopping to look at items for sale on 25th Avenue NE that it wasn't possible to drive down the street.


On Saturday, June 1st 2013 we again plan to sponsor a community-wide garage sale. And you are invited to participate.

You can:

• Set up your own garage/yard/carport sale
• Partner with a neighbor for a bigger sale
• Set out free items in front of your home
• Have your kids set up a refreshment stand
• Visit your neighbors' sales

We will advertise the neighborhood sales on Craigslist, social media and other website. We will also set up signs on Lake City Way, NE 125th ST, 15th Ave NE, and other areas to point people in our direction.

You can email us the address of your sale, or just the nearest cross streets, and we can add it to a map we plan to create for the neighborhood sales.

Check back here on the Douglas Park Cooperative website for details as we get closer to the date.

Tell your neighbors! And pass along this information to anyone we missed.

Mayor McGinn looks to spend part of Spokane Street Viaduct savings in Lake City

Mayor McGinn after a recent bus tour of LC.

The City of Seattle's recently-completed Spokane Street Viaduct, a $163 million project in Sodo, came in under budget. In March Mayor Mike McGinn announced that part of the $11.75 million saved would be invested in other Seattle transportation, infrastructure and pedestrian-related projects.

McGinn, who in recent weeks participated in a bus tour of Lake City, has announced that he hopes to invest $1 million of that money in Lake City.

"This funding will allow the City to begin design work on pedestrian projects currently being identified through the Lake City Way Traffic Safety Corridor Project and other community processes, and additional pedestrian mobility improvements along the length of the corridor and intersecting streets," McGinn said to community members in a recent email.

The $1 million would be written into McGinn's proposed 1st Quarter Supplemental Budget. The City Council will likely be considering this proposed supplemental budget in May.

Community court offenders, volunteers work to clean up LCW

People sentenced by a judge to community service work to clean up Lake City's urban core.

The sidewalks in the business core of Lake City are often disgusting. Newspapers and trash left by commuters blow around near bus stops, gum and other foul-looking things are ground into the concrete, car parts ejected from vehicles passing by on 522, and beer cans left by our neighborhoods' chronic inebriates often litter the area.

The unsightly scene can leave a quick and lasting bad impression of the Lake City business core, an area supposedly looking for an identity.

Sidewalks guaranteed to always be unsightly include the stretch in front of Romios, the Lake City Hair Salon, Dollar Plus, and Pho An. On the west side of the street, the area in front of Public Health's Lake City Dental Clinic and near the Lake City Mini Park is often a mess. The litter problem around the bus stops, and in front of those businesses, has been discussed at many neighborhood meetings. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed.

But one group of people are working to change that —on orders from a judge.

The Seattle Municipal Community Court offenders program worked recently on the Lake City Way business core. They cleaned up trash and worked to beautify the neighborhood. They picked up bottles, cans, and gathered a number of used hypodermic needles from flower pots in the business core on Lake City Way. Future plans call for adding bark to trees and gardens.

Led by service workers from Americorps, who supervise the offenders, and longtime Lake City resident Chuck Dickey, the crew heads out every two weeks. They have gathered large bags of garbage, trimmed overgrown vegetation on public rights of way, picked up the dangerous mess left by drug users, and worked to clean up after people that may have missed the lesson in kindergarten about not littering.

Dickey, a member of the Lake City Lions Club, said that the courts are sending fewer offenders to participate in the program recently, but that they can almost always be guaranteed to be working around Lake City on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month.

Judges can sentence the offenders to complete the program for minor offenses like stealing and drug possession. The program works to keep these low-level offenders out of jail and also helps beautify an area that often struggles with an apparently messy population and apparent lack of stewardship from some business owners and property managers.

Dickey admitted that sometimes Lake City can look run down and neglected. And an increase in empty storefronts makes the problem worse.

The offenders, staff and volunteers from Community Court have painted out graffiti and have also painted murals around the Lake City Community Center.

Tracy Lamont of Americorp, who helps supervise people sentenced to community service, and longtime Lake City resident Chuck Dickey clean up alongside community court offenders in front of the shuttered Rimrock on LCW.

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Lake City Christian Church to host 'Safe Parking' program for homeless living in cars

Lake City Christian Church is planning to host Seattle's "Safe Parking" program, a pilot program that allows homeless people living in their cars a place to park for the night. The plan would allow for homeless campers to park and sleep in the church's parking lot at night.

The church is hosting a meeting to discuss the plans with community members on Tuesday (April 23rd) at 7 p.m., and you are invited to attend.

Safe Parking's goal is to get people living in their cars off the street and give them a safe and dependable place to park. Many times people living in their cars play a cat and mouse game with parking enforcement officers as they move their vehicles around to avoid citations. Many streets where groups of homeless car campers would gather have been signed to prevent them from gathering there.

The program is a pilot between the churches, social service agencies and the City of Seattle.

Lake City Christian Pastor Mary Olney-Loyd said details of the plan still need to be ironed out, such as the hours campers would be allowed on the property and what date the program would start. She said that campers would likely not be allowed in the building during hours that the preschool was open there.

Rev. Olney-Olyd also said the plan is for participants to be screened and to work with social service agencies to find housing while living in their cars.

You can read more about the program in this December 2012 story in the Seattle Times.

What: Safe Parking community meeting

When: Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m.

Where: Lake City Christian Church, 1933 NE 125th Street, Seattle WA, 98125

Who: Community members to discuss "Safe Parking" program coming to Lake City For more information about the meeting call 206-363-1438 or e-mail: office@lakecitychristianchurch.org  

Tonight (Friday), enjoy an Italian dinner and raise money for North Helpline

Don't have dinner plans and want to help the community?

The Lake City Lions are sponsoring an Italian dinner fundraiser for North Helpline tonight (Friday, April 19th) at the Lake City Community Center.

There will be live entertainment, a wine toss, desserts and, of course, a spaghetti dinner provided by the Lake City Lions.

The Night in Italy dinner starts at 5:30 and goes until 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children.

There are still plenty of tickets available for the fun family event.

You can order tickets for an Evening in Italy here or just show up tonight.

North Helpline is a service center that provides human services to over 1000 clients each week in an effort to reduce the impact of hunger and poverty in Greater North Seattle. You can learn more about them here.

Lost and found: A pirate and a wallet with $100

Over the last few days people in our community have been losing things. The owners of two items found on the streets in recent days might want their items back and we are here to reunite owner and item.

First, a helpful neighbor found 'tis passed out scurvy pirate on NE 125th Street 'n 25th Avenue NE. We assume thar be a young jim laddie that be missin' his bucko. Message in a bottle (email) us 'n we gunna attempt to reuinte.

'Tis wee sailor was found

Wallet and money found on the street.

Second, someone on NE 137th and 30th Ave NE seems to have lost some money.

A wallet with a $100 bill was found on the street and fortunately turned over to police by another helpful neighbor.

The wallet included enough information inside that police were able to leave a note on the owner's home.

If you lose something, or find something, such as a pet, pirate or $100 bill, email us and we may post to help you find your item.

Group offers guidance on future of Lake City. One suggestion: Find our identity

Kay Knapton, retired from the West Seattle Junction Association, talks about neighborhood identity, something arguably lacking in Lake City.

Lake City neighbors gathered at the Community Center Tuesday night during a "Coffee Talk" to hear from community planners in an event sponsored by the American Planning Association's Community Planning Team and the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance.

Featured speakers Kan Knapton and Greg Easton spoke to residents about planning the future of Lake City, considering the potential redevelopment of properties owned by the Pierre Family.

For those that don't keep up with neighborhood news, the Pierre family has approached members of the Lake City community to share ideas as they consider redeveloping some of their property in the neighborhood. The project is a long-term project, which is offering a significant and unique planning opportunity for Lake City. The opportunity seems to be attracting urban planners and others that recognize the potential of redeveloping a large swath of an urban community.

One particularly interesting item that was discussed by Kay Knapton, retired from the West Seattle Junction Association, was creating a neighborhood identity. We all know the identity that most pin on a map of Lake City. That unfortunate caricature of our neighborhood usually involves used car lots and strip clubs —instead of recognizing our parks, walkable neighborhood*, green belts, urban stream, diverse community or exploding population of young people.

"A unique image helps local residents identify with their neighborhood and attracts outside visitors. Identifying what is unique about community can create an identity around existing assets," said Knapton.

As examples she used Fremont, its funky art and the "Center of the Universe" theme, West Seattle and its murals, Ballard with its Scandinavian flags, shops and art, the U. District with its connection to the University of Washington.

An essay she wrote cited the Othello district and its work with ethnic businesses to develop a retail district with an international focus.

The examples of identity Knapton shared were all arts-oriented or population-oriented.

One idea mentioned was to highlight Lake City's cultural diversity and work to create an immigrant arts hub in Lake City. Lake City Greenways members have also proposed creating community street murals in Lake City to add a unique, identifying element to our neighborhood. Another suggestion was to embrace Lake City's ties to the automobile with art made from cars.

During the meeting other Seattle neighborhoods were used as examples of successful community planning. West Seattle and Columbia City were noted for their redevelopment, successful adoption of an image and results that have become favorable to the community.

The meeting was the first in a series of Coffee Talk meetings taking about the future of Lake City. Future meetings will discuss transportation, urban design and density and a final meeting is tentatively planned to discuss housing and diversity.

We will let you know about future meeting dates so you can attend.

*Even without the benefit of sidewalks our neighborhood consistently scores high as a walkable community.