Re-imagine Lake City Community Center meeting Wednesday night, Thursday at noon

UPDATE:  A second meeting will be held on Thursday, October 25th at noon in the Community Center. The format will be the same as the Wednesday night meeting. The meeting will be for folks that were unable to attend the previous meeting.

On Wednesday, October 24th at 7:00 p.m., the North Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hosting a public event to encourage our community to be actively involved in re-imagining the Lake City Community Center.

It was announced in late August that the North Seattle Chamber of Commerce will take over operation of the Lake City Community Center after the Chamber's Request For Proposal to operate the center was approved by the Seattle Parks Department. They will take over operation in 2013.


The meeting will be held at the Community Center, 12531 28th Ave NE.

Please stop by and provide some input on what kind of programming you would like to see in our Community Center.

DPC Block Party, Tuesday, August 7th, all are invited!

You’re invited to the Douglass Park Block Party!

Tuesday, August 7th, from 6pm to dusk
25th Ave NE, between 127th and 130th
(see invitation below)

We will need some help this year putting our block party together. If you would like to be involved please review the list and comment below or email coordinator Lina — linarose@earthlink.net — to let us know what you can do.

Even if you can’t volunteer we hope to see you there. This is a great time to eat, laugh and get to know your neighbors. There will be plenty of kids activities and we always close it down with a campfire and s'mores!

Parade

• We need a parade leader. Preferably someone who plays a drum or other instrument to lead us along

Eating and drinking

• Chairs — the more the better
• Grills — it's good to have at least 2
• Tables — the more the better
• Drinks —juices, soda, water, tea, etc.
• Cups — preferably paper so we can dump in compost
• S'mores — Lina will take care of this
• Plates, plastic-ware - Lina will also get this

Entertainment

• Music — we would love to have a band this year - any ideas?
• Kids play stuff —Lina, Josh
• Skateboard ramp/rails - Kevin, George
• Firepit — Lina, Josh
• Name tags— meet your neighbors, remember their names
• Firewood —Josh

Set up and Clean up

• Help setting up road closed signs, tables, chairs etc (5:00 or 5:30)
•  Trash cans — the more the better
•  Labels for trash/recycle/ compost
• Someone in charger of clean up

Can you think of something else we need?


We look forward to seeing you all! Feel free to invite a neighbor to join us!

See our flyer below the jump:

Highlights from Reclaiming Lake City Parks Meeting

Those attending Monday's meeting shared common concerns with Lake City parks: negative experiences, perceptions of drugs, inebriation,crime, feeling like the neighborhood is in crisis mode - which leads to planning around nuisance behaviors rather than planning for positive events.  Residents are driving outside of Lake City for community space, rather than staying here.  Much of the discussion was specific to Virgil Flaim Park, however, many of the safety and action items can be applied to other area parks & playgrounds.

SAFETY

According to city attorney liaison, Jana Jorgason, there were only nine 911calls from  Virgil Flaim Park in the last year.  Meeting participants immediately disagreed based on their own experiences making calls. Action items from the discussion include:

Call911 for any suspicious or criminal behavior. When you do:

• Ask for the event number & record it. (Incident numbers are only created if an officer responds and writes a report, but event numbers are recorded when a call is received.)
• Don’t be disappointed if officers don’t respond immediately; all calls are logged and that information is used to deploy future resources.
• Give the exact address of the park.  (Issues with inaccuracies in the number of logged 911 calls may be related to differing addresses being given.)

Virgil Flaim Park  2750 NE 125th St

Albert Davis Park  12526 27th Ave. NE

• Alcohol is not allowed in Seattle public parks - so any drinking can be called in.
• Meeting participants asked for a copy of the questions 911 operators ask  - this will make it easier for residents to anticipate & answer questions when calling.
• Do not be discouraged by laissez-faire police response. In fact, if you are treated discourteously, contact a supervisor.

Establish a community Block Watch in properties surrounding parks. (Seattle Neighborhood Group can help with this.)

CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) for Virgil Flaim Park

Changes to property can help address problems. For Virgil Flaim, this requires coordination with Lake City Prof.Center and Dept. of Parks &Rec.  Lorig Properties, which operates the Lake City Prof. Center noted their budget is currently on hold as they negotiate the sale of the property with Seattle Public Schools (read more about the history & ownership of the property here). Suggested changes:

• Cut back laurel hedge to improve sight lines and remove hiding areas.
• Thin trees on NE corner
• Improve lighting
• Adding a kiosk to promote park activities
• Temporarily removing BBQ’s to see if it alters behaviors

POSITIVE PROGRAMMING

Activating parks helps push out problem behaviors by providing positive opportunities. Partnerships with Lake City Community Center or Meadowbrook Community Center were suggested.  SmallSparks grants for up to $1,000 are also available to help with this, and community volunteer hours count as matching funds at a rate of $20/hr per person.

• Ice cream socials
• Kite-making at community center with kite-flying at park
• Health & fitness programming
• Outdoor movies
• Weekly neighborhood sporting events, such as volleyball, kickball, or badminton
• Music series
• Family potlucks
• Crafts

RESOURCE CONTACTS:

Katie Gray, Department of Parks & Recreation, North Manager, 206-684-4561

Katie.gray@seattle.gov

Peggy Pullen, Department of Parks & Recreation, Maintenance

Peggy.pullen@seattle.gov

Thomas Whittemore, Department of Neighborhoods, North District Coordinator, 206-684-4096

thomas.whittemore@seattle.gov

Kelly McKinney, Seattle Neighborhood Group, 206-323-9666

www.sngi.org

Seattle Police Department (SPD) representative was not able to attend.

Several follow-up questions will be addressed to SPD & we will report back the answers.

People participate in the meeting at the Lake City branch of the Public Library

Meeting summary courtesy Families for Lake City. If you don't follow them you should, they are a fantastic neighborhood source of information. You can find them on Facebook here.

Notes from DPC April 9th meeting

Below is a PDF  with notes from the April 9th meeting with Sally Bagshaw regarding Parks & Recreation in Lake City.

A few things to note:

- The major recent Parks expenditures in our area are:

1)  ~$800k for the purchase of the Varsity Building on 33rd, which will be torn down to make a park / open space. The land area is 10,000 sf. This was funded through the Parks and Greenspace Levy.
2) $500k is earmarked for improvements to the Cedar Park Playfield using funds from the Parks and Greenspace Levy. 

- It was emphasized that if we want a community center or any other major acquisition / development that we need to be able to clearly say what we want and say it with a unified community voice. This applies to sidewalks and greenways as well.

- To get programmed events up here at our current center, the best way to match the programming to what the community wants is to set up a Lake City Community Center Advisory Council with ARC and work with them. They can also act as a fiscal sponsor and accept donations for projects that we are working on getting matching funds for.

- The "Greenways" concept is very interesting and CM Sally Bagshaw  is very supportive of this. There are online tool kits for communities to use in developing a Greenway and funding is available from many sources.

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. opening Monday, DPC raising a pint

After what seemed like a long wait for anxious members of the Lake City community, Elliott Bay Brewing Co. has announced that they will open for business on Monday, March 26th at 11 a.m. And that night, members of Douglas Park Cooperative plan to raise a pint to our neighborhood after our Monday night walk.

The much anticipated business has been the talk of many neighbors that have been hoping for a family-friendly establishment like the brewery in Lake City.

Some got excited Thursday night when they passed the new business and saw a full parking lot and dozens of people inside the building. Turns out it was a private event.

After our weekly walk on Monday night, Douglas Park Cooperative members will stop by and raise a pint to the new neighborhood restaurant. Our walk starts at 7 p.m. at Virgil Flaim Park, SE corner of 26th Avenue NE and NE 125th Street. After the walk we will gather at the Brewery at 8 p.m. to raise a pint to our community. Please join us.

A sign on the window of Elliott Bay Brewing Co. announces the opening.

Pilot program to assist neighborhood with Chronic Public Inebriates may be coming to Lake City

Deputy Seattle Mayor Darryl Smith speaks to neighborhood residents at a meeting.

Recently Deputy Seattle Mayor Darryl Smith met with members of Douglas Park Cooperative and other Lake City community members where he revealed that the City of Seattle is working on a pilot program to limit the supply of high-octane beer to chronic public inebriates. Chronic street drunks are known to be a fixture of our commercial and civic core and have long been an issue of concern for many neighbors.

Mayor Mike McGinn's Office is working with three distributors to create a voluntary plan that would prohibit sales of some alcohol products between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Lake City. The products included would be fortified beers and wines, drinks known for their consumption by chronic alcoholics.

Douglas Park Cooperative has been pursuing an Alcohol Impact Area, or AIA, designation for Lake City, but the Mayor's office sees the pilot program as potentially being more successful that an AIA.

The pilot program would be enforced seven days a week but would not include bars and restaurants.

The program is still in the planning stages but could begin as early as May.

"We want these businesses to be successful in a number of ways, just not basing your whole business model on these products," Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith said of the establishments that sell these fortified products.

You can read more about the proposed program in this Seattle P-I story.

DPC Meeting Reminder

Douglas Park Cooperative Meeting 

Thursday March 15th, 2012

Time: 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Location: KaffeeKlatcsh  (12513 Lake City Way )

Guest Speaker: Darryl Smith - Deputy Mayor 

The topic of Thursday's meeting is the off premises sale of certain alcoholic beverages. Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith has been invited to speak on this topic, and has said that he will be announcing a proposed policy change from the Mayor’s office regarding this subject. 

There are many strong emotions in regards to this issue and other issues surrounding it in our neighborhood. Due to this, we will be taking written questions prior to the meeting to present to Darryl. No direct questions from the audience as we want to try our best to keep the meeting focused on the Alcohol Impact Area. Feel free to email questions to us in advance to present to Deputy Mayor Smith: douglasparkcooperative@gmail.com

The meeting will be jointly led by Janet Arkill from Families for Lake City and Dave Morris from Douglas Park Cooperative. We will ask as many questions as possible. The remaining questions will be given to Darryl to take with him.

Our goal is to create a community where we can all develop our full potential and help others realize theirs. We want to increase our “social capital” and “self determination." The request to the city for an Alcohol Impact Area is in this context. It provides a restriction on a product that is an impediment to the successful recovery of people suffering from Chronic Public Intoxication. 

We will also be making an additional request to Darryl and other City representatives in the coming months to help us with bringing more civic space and programmed, positive communal activities to this area. These positive communal activities are needed to replace the empty, passive activities that lead to the destructive behaviors that break down the potential of the individual and the community. 

In addition to your questions, we will be accepting food donations to North Helpline in honor of Jeff Inman, the homeless vet that passed away on our streets last week. Please bring your food donations to the meeting. We will have a box there for collection. A list of the items need by the food bank can be found here: http://www.northhelpline.org/howcanyouhelp_foodmoney.html

Meeting Agenda:

7:00 - Call to order. Introductory remarks

7:05 - Darryl Smith

7:20 - Q&A

7:45 - Closing remarks / Meeting adjourned. Help clean up. 

8:00 - Closing time.