Jackson Park Golf Course perimeter trail taking shape

Neighborhood website Families for Lake City has a good post on the new Jackson Park Golf Course perimeter trail. We decided to visit the new trail with our camera on Monday (photos above and below).

The new 2.2 mile trail is a perfect spot for an evening stroll, a place to walk your (leashed) dog or take the kiddos on an urban adventure. In fact, on Monday there were dozens of people, pets and children walking, running and exploring on the new path.

The Families for Lake City post says that area residents have been "so eager to utilize the trail that Dept. of Parks and Recreation (DPR) staff decided to implement a 'soft opening.'"

From FFLC:

Even though the trail is still being tweaked and finalized pedestrians are allowed access to the entire loop. Garrett Farrell, DPR’s manager for the trail project, said that a formal opening will be scheduled for late spring or early summer. The finished trail will also include an art component created by Celeste Cooning which has not been installed yet.

The trail is made of compacted gravel with steps to help get up steeper areas.

You can read more about the trail in the FFLC post, including information on how to become involved in helping maintain the new public asset by clicking here.

More photos of the wonderful new trail below.

The trail just east of the golf course parking lot. (LCL photo)

The trail just east of the golf course parking lot. (LCL photo)

A view of Thornton Creek near the trail on the south end of the golf course. (LCL photo)

The trail shown on the south side of the golf course. (LCL photo)

A golf ball in Thornton Creek. (LCL photo)

The trail passes over Thornton Creek. (LCL photo)

A forested area near 10th Ave. NE. (LCL photo)

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Hunger Intervention Program expanding service to feed low-income school kids on weekends

Aidan Cummings, 8, tries to keep cereal packages from toppling over during a “Healthy HIP Packs” packing party at Lake City Presbyterian Church. The food is packed by volunteers coordinated by the Hunger Intervention Program for low-income students that rely on free and reduced school lunches during the week, but on weekends do not have proper nutrition at home. (seattlepi.com photo used with permission)

Lake City's Hunger Intervention Program has expanded its much-needed service that provides food on weekends to low-income students that rely on in-school free and reduced meals.

The program has expanded from serving low-income students at John Rogers Elementary to include students at Olympic Hills Elementary and Viewlands Elementary in Greenwood. The two schools added to the program have some of the highest rates of students in the district on the in-school free and reduced meal program.

The group hosts monthly packing parties at its headquarters at Lake City Presbyterian Church, where volunteers assemble meals for students. The "Healthy Hip Packs" are then discreetly given to students that need the nutrition on weekends when they are not getting meals from the schools.

The group's efforts were profiled in the Seattle P-I on Wednesday.

From the P-I story:

When people think of low-income areas, they typically don't think of this part of Seattle, said Murphy, program manager for HIP, during a packing party at the group's headquarters at the Lake City Presbyterian Church. But Northeast Seattle, particularly Lake City, is home to many struggling and low-income families.

"This program is such an important resource for children when school meals are not available," said Murphy.

The most recent data from Seattle Public Schools lists Olympic Hills Elementary's free and reduced-cost students at 73 percent of the school's population, Viewlands in Greenwood at 60 percent and John Rogers at 35 percent...

...The food in the packs emphasizes whole grains, milk, high-quality proteins, fresh fruits and products with no added sugars. Under current funding, the program hopes to provide weekend meals to up to 20 students at each of the newly added schools. Their goal is to increase that to 40 students per school for the 2013-2014 school year.

You can read more in the P-I story here, which includes photos of one of the group's packing parties.

Update: KIRO/7 also featured the HIP Program in their Thursday newscast. You can see their story on HIP by clicking here.

Invitation to join Lake City Neighborhood Action Team

Below is a letter from Jerry DeGrieck at the Mayor's office regarding the newly formed Lake City Neighborhood Action Team.  They are looking for input from the community to identify problems in Lake City. They will then produce an Action Plan sometime in April / May. This is a great opportunity for people to get involved directly with our city government and make positive changes.

LCNA will be adding meeting dates to their public calendar as they become available. 

( document in a pdf format is available here for offline printing. )

Hello Lake City Neighborhood Stakeholders,

Late last year, Mayor McGinn asked me to lead a City-Neighborhood Action Team (NAT) to work with Lake City neighborhood stakeholders to address a range of issues and problems as part of our work to make Lake City a great neighborhood.  In December 2012, nearly 20 City staff members went on walking tours in Lake City led by members of the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance.  By bringing together multiple City departments and community members, we believe this Action Team can creatively approach problems, build on community strengths, and make progress to improve the neighborhood. 

The Team has formed three City-Neighborhood workgroups:

·       Economic development; City Leads are Andres Mantilla (Office of Economic Development), 206-233-3868, Andres.mantilla@seattle.gov, and David Goldberg (Department of Planning and Development), 206-615-1447, DavidW.goldberg@seattle.gov

·       Public Safety, programming, health, and human services; City Leads are Rebecca Karlsen (Parks and Recreation), 206-684-7279, Rebecca.karlsen@seattle.gov, and June Beleford (Public Health – Seattle & King County), 206-263-8762, June.beleford@kingcounty.gov

·       Access and pedestrian and physical improvements; City Lead is Dongho Chang (Seattle Department of Transportation), 206-684-5106, Dongho.chang@seattle.gov

The work of the workgroups is primarily focused on the Lake City core/urban village geographic area.  The first task of each workgroup is to develop an Action Plan.  The purpose of developing an Action Plan is not just to have a plan; the City department staff members and neighborhood stakeholders on the team will implement the plan and take steps to improve the neighborhood.  Each work item on the Action Plan will have clear strategies, timelines, objectives, metrics, and designation of City and/or Community Leads.  We want to have a draft Action Plan ready by the end of April.  We will then widely distribute the draft Plan and invite comments and input from interested Lake City residents, businesses, service providers, and other neighborhood stakeholders.  We will invite you to a community meeting in mid-May to offer your comments and help shape the plan.  There will also be opportunities to provide input through online surveys. 

To be successful, we need and want the participation and involvement of all of the diverse stakeholders that comprise the Lake City neighborhood.  Representatives from the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance are participating on each of the workgroups and others are welcome to participate.  

There are a number of ways you can be involved with this effort:

·       You can contact the City Lead(s) for any of the three workgroups and provide your input on what you would like included in the Action Plan.

·       You can attend the meetings, become a member, and participate on any of the workgroups; again, contact the City Lead(s) and they can let you know when/where the meetings are.

·       You can contact the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance (LCNA), info@lcna-seattle.org, and participate through LCNA. 

·       By early May, you will receive a copy of the draft Action Plan and can comment and provide your feedback to help shape the final Plan; there will also be opportunities to provide input online.

·       You will be invited to community meeting in mid-May to review the draft Action Plan and provide your comments and input to shape the final Plan. 

In addition to the City workgroup leads listed above, the following City staff are participating on the team to develop and implement the Action Plan:

·       Mayor’s Office: Jerry DeGrieck and Aaron Fishbone

·       City Light: Rose Feliciano

·       Facilities and Administrative Services: Daniel Bretzke/Hillary Hamilton

·       Housing: Laurie Olson

·       Human Services: Mary Flowers

·       Library: Steve Delvecchio/Chance Hunt

·       Neighborhoods: Thomas Whittemore

·       Police: Lt. Ron Rasmussen

·       Public Health: Morgan Barry

·       Public Utilities: Shannon Kelleher/Sheryl Shapiro/Daniel Sims

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.  Thank you very much.

Jerry DeGrieck

Senior Policy Advisor to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

Human Services, Health, Education, Housing, and Financial Empowerment

206-684-4029 (Office)

206-321-7307 (Work Cell)

Jerry.degrieck@seattle.gov  

Coffee Talk Series - Lecture 1

When: Tuesday, March 26th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm
Where: Lake City Community Center ( just north of Library on 28th ) - Room 8
What: The first of a series of lectures on urban planning.
Who:

Kay Knapton ( former Seattle Planning Commissioner and West Seattle Junction Association Director )

Greg Easton ( an economist with Property Counselors )

This lecture series is open to the public. The intent is to help our community form a better understanding of urban planning. This will help with communicating our wants and needs to city planners and private developers. The city will be revising our local Comprehensive Plan soon. The more we know going in, the better the product coming out. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More coffee talk

Study of Little Brook by UW Public Health students

For those unfamiliar with Little Brook, it is the neighborhood just northeast of Douglas Park. There is a small park by the same name at NE 143rd and 32nd Ave NE.

It is named for Little Brook Creek, which starts in this neighborhood and flows intermittently above and below ground through Lake City, connecting with Thornton Creek at Meadowbrook Pond.

The neighborhood is an important yet often neglected part of the Lake City community, and Lake City Greenways and several Little Brook residents have recently sought to change that…..

Lake City Greenways is a project seeking to create safe, healthy streets throughout our Lake City community. Our goal is to provide a network of routes--comfortable for those on foot, bike, skateboard, with walker, and in all modes—to get us to the places we need and want to go. LC Greenways has strong community support, but has found it a challenge to connect with and engage our neighbors in Little Brook—the dense, diverse neighborhood between 30th Ave NE and Lake City Way, and between NE 135th and NE 145th. We have been particularly concerned because the area has many pedestrians and some of the very worst street conditions in North Seattle.

LC Greenways had the great fortune to engage a class from the UW School of Public Health to do an intensive, month-long project in Little Brook to help us learn who lives there; what their challenges are; what they want for their neighborhood; what opportunities there are for building community; and what social structures are in place to help us connect.

The students’ findings are outlined in a 60-page, illustrated, and data-filled report on Little Brook that focuses on Crime and Road Safety; Public and Private Investment; and Social Cohesion.

It is fascinating and enlightening, and a great source for Lake City residents who want to know more about this pocket of our community. It will also be instrumental in helping LC Greenways and Lake City at large better connect with Little Brook.

You can view the Executive Summary below or here. You can download the full report here. 

More information about the study can be found at the Lake City Live post.

You  contact the Lake City Greenways here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More little brook

Winter Shelter Evaluation Meeting

When: Thursday, March 14th at 7pm
Where: Lake City Baptist ( SW corner of 125th and 25th )
What: A meeting to evaluate this year's rotating winter shelter.

Join representatives from the Seattle Mennonite Church and other churches that participated in this year's rotating Winter Shelter to evaluate what went well and what could be done differently next year. If you cannot attend the meeting, you can send comments to Melanie Neufeld by email.

Lake City Visioning Project Open House

Date and Time:  Saturday, March 30th from 2:30 to 5:30pm
Location:  Lake City Library conference room

The University of Washington students who have been working on the Lake City Visioning Project will be holding and open house to showcase their work to date. The students have been working on design concepts for the Pierre Properties and a "tool kit" to assist our community with urban planning.

In addition, a Landscape Architecture class at the UW is currently in progress. Students from that class will be at the Open House sharing their work as well. They are working on 16 different concepts for specific projects throughout the Lake City area. The  projects are looking at:

Improvements to specific parks, including but not limited to the Lake City Mini Park, Homewood Park, and Little Brook Park.

Right of Way improvements to specific streets to improve safety and usability.

Connecting our parks, trails, nature areas, business district, and other public assets with a unified and well marked trail system. Included would be public art to help create a sense of identity and place, a signage program unique to our neighborhood, interpretive exhibits describing unique features of the Thornton Creek Watershed, etc. 

Everyone is welcome to attend. It is informal, so drop in when you can and stay for as long as you like. This is still an ongoing process and the students are looking for more community feedback and ideas.

You can follow the Visioning Project on their blog.

North Helpline Upcoming Events

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

The dinner starts at 5:30 and goes until 8:30. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. You can order tickets for an Evening in Italy here.

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.

A calendar of other fundraising events for North Helpline is below:

Men 'selling magazines' raise suspicions of multiple neighbors

A pair of men have been visiting homes in our neighborhood the last few days, knocking on doors and engaging residents that answered with a magazine sales pitch.

We want to preface the following that these men may be completely innocent and actually selling magazine subscriptions.

However, a few things made a few DPC neighbors suspicious of the men.

First, the two men approached the homes in a suspicious manner. A third man was seen walking with them, appearing to stand watch nearby with a cell phone at the ready.

When met by neighbors, they said they were students selling magazine subscriptions with money going to a program to augment their educational fees via community outreach.

The materials provided were vague and unprofessional.

Also, a neighbor did a web search of their organization and were unable to come up with the name they gave for their organization.

One of the men was said to be someone that has been seen lingering at Virgil Flaim Park.

They are described as 2 African American men, ages 30 +, about 5'-6". One wore a blue down jacket and a baseball cap with a straight brim.

Again, and we stress, these men may be completely innocent and genuinely be selling magazines. However three community members found their actions and method suspicious.

Man discovered trapped overnight in wrecked car on edge of ravine

John Shearer came outside to an unusual sight in his yard just off Hiram Place NE, south of Virgil Flaim Park on Tuesday morning. There was a wrecked car in blackberrry bushes, on the edge of the ravine, pointing downward into Thornton Creek far below. When Shearer went to investigate, he discovered a man trapped in the car, laying under the dashboard. The man had been there all night.

Firefighters arrived after Shearer called 9-1-1. They had to cut the roof and steering wheel from the car to free the 67 year-old man.

Shearer said that cars often drive down the driveway, led astray by GPS devices that seem to be unable to make sense of streets around the ravine near Hiram Place NE. News crews using GPS devices even had a difficult time finding the location as some ended up on the southwest side of the ravine.

The man was transported to Harborview Medical Center in stable condition, according to Seattle Fire Department Spokesman Kyle Moore.

The Seattle P-I has a post with photos showing firefighters rescuing the man and showing the car after the rescue in their post here.

Update: Photo added (below) from other side of ravine, courtesy of a neighbor.