Photo: SOPI Village groundbreaking event, Sept. 2010, taken by Patrick Robinson.
We are proud to share with you the accomplishments from last year and give a preview of our 2011 work. Next up is Neighborhood Revitalization. We will report out on our Community Building work tomorrow!
Neighborhood Revitalization: Our “Place” based work (the physical neighborhood)
Our Goal: The physical neighborhood supports families through diverse types of affordable housing, safe and walkable streets, vibrant and active businesses and improved public amenities.
In 2011, our work includes our Neighborhood business district program- focused on related strategies to market and develop local business and economic prosperity. Our Fresh Marketplace Initiative supports local produce markets and healthy eating and active living amongst diverse families. Spring Clean is a 400+volunteer, 20-project annual community event to clean up the neighborhood. And our Affordable Housing/community development work will see the grand opening of an affordable 30-unit rental project, Strength of Place Village, in Fall 2011, as well as the feasibility of a commercial/community real estate project. It will incorporate an affordable commercial space component, as well as the development of an equity policy agenda to underscore White Center’s changing needs.
2010 Successes:
Provided and/or connected 140 White Center businesses to technical assistance.
Healthy Food Gift Certificate program in partnership with the White Center Food Bank distributed $20,000 worth of produce at two White Center markets to clients in need.
Distributed 14 façade improvement matching grants to local businesses to improve look and safety of their business.
Facilitated business owners’ choice of “Growing a Global Village” as their business district brand.
Broke ground on a $10M new construction project, Strength of Place Village, with Capitol Hill Housing, Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association and the CDA.
Our series opens with a very timely topic: Perspectives on the Federal Budget: Implications for Affordable Housing and Homelessness. Meaghan McCarthy, Senate Appropriations staffer to the Transportation & Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee and Douglas Rice, Senior Policy Analyst for Housing at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, will be on the line with us for the lunch hour to share their insights and to answer your questions.
Watch for emails and updates on upcoming “Learn at Lunch” sessions. Possible topics include: Federal Advocacy 101, Sustainable Housing, the Low Income Tax Credit Program, Federal Homelessness Policy, Section 8 Voucher Reform, Transforming Rental Assistance, What does the Community Development Fund do for you?, Strategies for In-District Advocacy, and Making Social Media Work for Advocacy. And feel free to contact us with suggestions for additional topics or guests.
Please join us on the 31st for a lively and informative hour with the experts!
The “Women in the Green Economy” project aims to learn from women and their families in SE Seattle about what they need and want from the green movement. The project will survey low-income women and women of color around four issues: green jobs; green home; access to healthy and fresh foods; and public transportation.
The Strength of Place Village (SOPV) project is well underway at the corner of SW 100th Street and 13th Avenue SW in White Center and we are excited to announce that you can all view its progress via our new site construction camera (link below), courtesy of Absher Construction Company.
There are many features to the camera, including a live image, archived images by calendar day/month, and the ability to print and save photos/videos. The time lapse option allows users to see all the live images taken all at once, so we will post updated time lapse photos every two months. The photos are updated every 13-15 minutes.
SOPV’s projected construction completion is September, 2011.
We are currently about 25% complete and are about to begin the framing on all three buildings. This spring, as we are closer to 50% construction completion, we will be organizing various events for the community here including a site walkthrough and a pre-leasing intake meeting for future residents. We are also currently accepting applications for construction workers and a Resident Manager for the property. For more information on these positions, please contact Patty Julio at the White Center CDA at (206) 694-1082 or via e-mail at patricia@wccda.org.
For more information on the Strength of Place Village project, please see these previous White Center CDA blog entries:
The White Center CDA will be attending Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day in Olympia this Monday, February 14, and we want to give an opportunity for residents of White Center* to have a genuine, face to face opportunity to voice concerns about Housing and Homelessness to elected officials that represent our area. The White Center CDA will provide transportation to and from Olympia. More information here on this flyer:
More great news related to White Center continues in this article from The Seattle Times. Here is an excerpt:
ROGER TUCKER is in a booth at a White Center community summit, looking for votes. Not for himself, but for what color scheme people would like to see on an apartment complex going up nearby.
With a small dot, he records each person’s preference and asks them all why they chose what they did.
He’s especially impressed with the woman who likes the version where big sections of the buildings are dominated by different colors. If she lived there, she says, that would help her direct friends to her apartment. That’s a good thought, Tucker says, that no one else raised.
Most architects wouldn’t spend three hours on a Saturday talking paint with the public, but for Environmental Works, where Tucker is executive director, it’s part of the mission.
Read the rest of the article here, and make sure to check out the photos, the 5th one featuring our previous White Center CDA parent ambassadors, Patricia and Elisa!
THANK YOU to the 20+ volunteers (White Center residents and business owners, students and community partners) who showed up this morning to volunteer for the annual One Night Count of the homeless. We will connect this work to Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day in Olympia on Monday, February 14.
For more information on the One Night Count, please visit:
Subject: Powerful Neighborhoods Program Expanding to Southern Suburbs
For Immediate Release:
12/22/2010 8:56:00 AM For More Information Contact:
Scott Thomsen (206) 386-4233
Participants Get Free Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Installed
SEATTLE - Seattle City Light will expand its Powerful Neighborhoods program to install free compact fluorescent light bulbs in the areas of Burien, White Center, North Highlands, SeaTac Tukwila and Skyway served by Seattle City Light starting Jan. 3.
Powerful Neighborhoods started in South Seattle in April as a pilot program designed to reach out door-to-door to seniors, non-English speaking households, low-income residents and other customers who might not have participated in energy conservation programs.
“We want to remove any barriers that have kept people from taking steps to increase the energy efficiency of their homes so they can reduce their energy consumption and save money,” Interim Energy Conservation Director Glenn Atwood said.
Response from customers has been overwhelmingly positive with more than 96 percent of those who completed a satisfaction survey saying that they would definitely recommend the program to their neighbors and friends. According to one recent participant, “The representatives were courteous, considerate and very time efficient.”
In 2010, installers worked with more than 7,000 families to install nearly 140,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs. The energy savings adds up to more than 24 million kilowatt-hours and will save customers roughly $2.2 million over the lifetime of the bulbs. That’s about $60 a year for the average household.
Seattle City Light is working with Ecos Consulting , Cascadia Consulting, the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS), and Working Green to hire and train installers, schedule home visits, and deliver and install the products.
All installers have undergone background checks and drug-screening. Installers fluent in Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Amharic, Cantonese and other languages will be available to visit homes where those languages are primarily spoken. All staff will carry Seattle City Light identification.
Installers canvass neighborhoods door-to-door. If an interested resident is home, they install the energy efficient light bulbs and provide low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators or schedule a more convenient time to visit. If the resident is not home, installers leave a notice regarding how to contact the program to arrange a visit.
To qualify, a resident must live in a single-family home or 2-to-4-unit apartment or condo. To make an appointment, call 206-449-1132 or send an email to SCL_install@seattle.gov.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.
