It’s time for our neighborhood to plant the trees and landscaping awarded by our successful 2014 Greening Grant applications. Devotees of Emerson-Garfield news and beautification efforts will recall that this is a rescheduling of the planting event that was cancelled last autumn on account of an early freeze.
This neighborhood-wide event will take place on Saturday, April4 from 9am to 1pm.
Please note that there are two simultaneous locations on either side of the neighborhood! Volunteers are needed for both. Anyone who wants to help beautify Emerson-Garfield is welcome to participate.
The first planting is on the east side of Garfield Elementary (222 W Knox) next to the playground. This is part of a larger “guerrilla” tree planting up and down the length of Atlantic and one block of Stevens — dubbed “guerrilla” because the original plan was to have volunteers plant a tree for anyone who wanted it right there on the spot. But Spokane Urban Forestry doesn’t work that way. Which is probably for the best, since the trees should be planted with professional care to ensure their longevity.
Roughly 15 volunteers will be needed here to plant the trees in the ground and distribute mulch. It will be light physical labor for all ages and abilities. Feel free to bring tools like a wheelbarrow, shovel or rake.
Social media fans can RSVP for the Garfield planting on Facebook or Nextdoor.
The second planting is on the west side of Emerson-Garfield at the median strip near 3114 N Maple. Approximately 15 volunteers will be needed to move ten yards of soil to the holes, then plant yuccas and horizontal junipers around the existing trees and along the soon-to-be-installed sidewalks. As above, feel free to bring basic garden tools to help the effort.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to wield a shovel or stay the full five hours to contribute. Bringing some cookies and drinks for the volunteers is as greatly appreciated as helping to put trees in the ground.
The March 11, 2015 meeting of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council (EGNC) featured Kelly Norwood of Avista, assisted by Casey Fielder, as its guest speaker. Kelly provided a printed slideshow with some background on the company, its infrastructure, as well as the rate regulations it is subject to.
Of the $2.5 billion investment in Avista, 48% is equity, owned by shareholders, and 52% is owned by bond holders and banks. Avista is asking for a 4.75% authorized return on equity, which, according to the statistics provided in the printed materials, is an average rate compared to other providers. While the cost of electricity has increased 41% over the past 10 years, natural gas has only increased 3%. Over time, the costs to the customers has matched inflation almost exactly.
Kelly took questions from the group and later remained after the meeting to speak with interested attendees individually.
Kelly Norwood of Avista speaks to the EGNC about rate increases.
Next, Alicia Powell spoke about the City’s Greening Grants. In 2014, twelve neighborhoods applied for projects, and there were 17 approved applications, including 117 street trees, five perennial plantings, and one riparian planting. Under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, 66 street trees were planted.
Under the Greening Grants program, each neighborhood in Spokane can apply for three grants each at up to $5,000 per grant. On April 17 and 18 of this year, 1,000 trees will be given away to residents for planting. Every resident can receive up to two trees. If residents would prefer to be supplied with larger, more established trees, a landscaping company can deliver and install up to two for $95 each. Vouchers for these trees and pickup locations will be provided to the neighborhood council at the next meeting on April 8.
The neighborhood Greening Grants planting for its successful 2014 applications will take place on Saturday, April 4. More info on that — including times, locations and scope of projects — will be available in a forthcoming blog post.
There were several volunteers for an ad hoc Greening Grants Committee, which will meet briefly over the next month to determine potential locations for plantings and landscaping and apply for one or more of the three possible grants. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please get in touch. You don’t have to be a voting member of the neighborhood council to participate.
Volunteering for the neighborhood council executive positions was encouraged, as elections are in April.
Megan Kennedy reported on the City-hosted open house for North Monroe business owners that she attended on the morning of March 10. She said that the City employees took the concerns of the business owners very seriously. One of the main concerns for owners was the length of the street closure. If a full closure, there would be 3 to 5 months of construction as opposed to 2 to 4 years if a partial closure. The City is also adjusting an additional levy source that could bring further improvements to the road surface.
Community Frameworks recently provided their architectural plans to the EGNC’s chair and vice-chair, requesting their opinions regarding the development of affordable housing at 315 West Mission.
The City is currently in negotiations for a site in Emerson-Garfield that would house an additional drinking water well. This well would provide a safe source of drinking water, especially in light of the risks associated with some of the current drinking water wells in industrial locations.
The neighborhood website was recently migrated to a new server, and is now (clearly) back online.
The Movin’ and Groovin’ Fair of the Corbin Senior Activity Center will be held on Saturday, March 14 from 8am to 2pm. There will be 75 vendors. Lunch will be served for $6. Corbin’s sound system, valued at $500, was stolen, and the Center is considering a new locking system.
Karen Colvin and Carol Anderson spoke on behalf of the Spokane Community Oriented Policing Services (C.O.P.S.) shops. The North Hill and North Central C.O.P.S. shops should be merging, with volunteers relocating to the North Central location (630 W Shannon). The North Central location is open Monday through Friday, 10am to 2pm.
As C.O.P.S. receives limited funding, there will be a flea-market fundraiser market on Saturday, May 9 from 9am to 3pm at Knox Presbyterian Church (806 W Knox). C.O.P.S. North Central and Knox Presbyterian will be collaborating with the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council to plan and augment the event.
Al Steuart briefly reported on the planning for composting demonstrations and other activities during the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market. There are currently additional volunteers for canning and dehydration/desiccation demos. If you would like to coordinate one of these events, please e-mail Al directly.
On the news that previous organizer Eline Helm was stepping down, Timothy Diko and Melissa Parker volunteered to organize this year’s Concerts in the Park. The date will depend on the availability of the band but could be timed, like last year, to coincide with Summer Parkways.
Karl Boldt reported on the Spring Cleanup scheduled for Saturday, April18 from 9am to 12:30pm, the annual dumpster roll-off event that allows residents to dispose of household and yard waste for free. Faith Bible Church will provide beverages and snacks to all those who participate, plus pizza for volunteers after the event. Unlike previous years, we will be unable to gather hazardous waste materials. This is a good opportunity to clean up alleys with your neighbors. Tires are acceptable at the roll-off event, but dump passes may be provided for construction materials that should be taken directly to the dump.
Barb Biles reported on the Land Use Committee, which is considering changes to bicycle lanes, rental properties regulations, and an easy-to-use outline for application processes.
Tim Musser reported on the Community Development meetings, which are working to determine how neighborhoods will receive and allocate CDBG funds in the coming years. The intent of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the source of the funds, is to improve the standard of living for lower-income residents, so the committee used that goal to formulate a proposal for a point-based system of resource allocation. Generally speaking, if a CDBG block has 75% or more of low-income households, it receives four points. With 60–75%, two points, and 50% to 60% receives one point. The Community Assembly is set to assess and vote on that proposal.
The February 11, 2015 meeting of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council began with a review of this year’s traffic-calming applications. Three residential applications and two arterial applications were submitted for the EGNC’s approval. The locations are shown below.
Each applicant, if in attendance, was given an opportunity to describe the traffic problem, its threats to safety and quality of life, and their proposed improvements. Later in the meeting, to facilitate the voting process, individual street views and an overview of the locations were displayed with a projector. Each voting member was allowed to cast one residential vote and one arterial vote.
For the residential improvements, the intersection of Alice and Cedar received 16 votes. Stevens and York received five. Another application regarding residential area improvements had been submitted by Shannon Lawson, the principal of Spokane Public Montessori; it received five votes. The neighborhood council determined that the Montessori application was still valuable, but it could be covered by one or two other funding mechanisms, such as Safe Routes to School, whereas the other residential projects would not.
For the arterial improvements, Lincoln and Indiana received no votes because this intersection is sandwiched between two other intersections with stoplights (Indiana and Post, and Indiana and Monroe). The only other arterial application, Adams and NW Boulevard, received all votes aside from five abstentions. That pedestrian crossing is very close to Spokane Public Montessori, which is expanding to K-7. It would also function as a seed for the larger improvements as mentioned above.
The sidewalk list that was approved in November was rendered invalid by shifting Community Development Block Grant eligibility. Therefore a revised sidewalk list was voted on and unanimously approved. Council member Candace Mumm also explained the possible funding sources that might help to improve the sidewalk project if CDBG funding will not cover a particular area.
New attendee Steven Anderson volunteered to be Emerson-Garfield’s dedicated representative on the Pedestrian Traffic and Transportation (PeTT) Committee. Tim Musser volunteered to serve as the E-G rep on the Community Assembly’s Community Development Committee, which will help to determine how these federal funds are allocated to the neighborhoods via the City of Spokane.
Laura Schlangen, who is now officially a resident, reported on Corbin Senior Activity Center. An elevator is to be installed in the Upper South classroom; the remodel will cost around $350,000. March 14 is the Movin’ and Groovin’ Fair, where a half-price membership to the CSAC will be offered.
Candace Mumm gave a report on the City Council. There might be a slight increase in water bills, and the power bill is about to increase as well. The City of Spokane is committed to charging the lowest rate possible. However, the water pipes are so old that the system loses approximately 20% of the water that is available.
Barb Biles briefly reported on the Land Use Committee, which addresses issues such as cell-phone towers being out of place. There were no urgent matters. Like the E-G Neighborhood Council, there is generally less activity than usual during the winter months.
Karl Boldt also reported on the Spring Cleanup and explained it to the new attendees. Saturday, April 18 has been proposed as this year’s roll-off dumpster date. Karl would like to have an assistant to help with managing this popular event (please get in touch if you’re interested).
This year the cleanup crews will be unable to dispose of household hazardous waste; E-G was the only neighborhood to make use of that cleanup funding. At the first Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market of each month in June, July and August, a handful of dump passes (approximately 10) will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis. Each pass is valued at $20. Unfortunately, much of what was brought to the dump last year using the pass was valued at only $5, so $15 was wasted by those dump runs.
The council moved on to discussion items. John and Rusty Vlahovich have moved out of the neighborhood and will be missed. John served on the West Quadrant Tax Increment Financing (WQ TIF) Committee and helped secure funding for N Monroe improvements. Megan Kennedy will leave her position as EGNC vice chair in April and fill John’s shoes on the WQ TIF Committee. With her experience in the neighborhood planning projects, and the relocation of her business onto N Monroe, this position will be a good fit. This means the EGNC vice chair position will be available in April (please get in touch if you’re interested in running for the position).
There have already been seven applications for the 2015 E-G Farmers’ Market. Al Steuart has been very active with ideas for various events, which have traditionally drawn a larger crowd to the market. He shared several event ideas, such as a composting and vermiculture; water conservation; student art; reading for children; cooking; canning and food preservation; high-tech gardening gadgets; and do-it-yourself dehydrators and ovens. (Please get in touch if you’d like to organize one or more of these events.) There is consideration for relocating the market onto N Monroe in front of the new Modern Monk microbrewery.
Stacy Blowers with Petunia’s Marketplace explained a seed library that will be provided in the store. The other two libraries in the area are in Hillyard and Otis Orchards. You would sign up for a library card and check out seeds for no cost. They are hoping to benefit collaborations with Project Hope Spokane and Second Harvest through this. The capacity for checkout, still to be determined, might be four seeds of each variety.
In January, an application for $3.8 million which had been submitted by City engineers for N Monroe renovations was approved (please see our previous blog post for more info). There was much discussion about benefits and drawbacks, with insights provided by those who had been involved with Emerson-Garfield’s Neighborhood Planning Committee. All attendees, irrespective of opinion, were encouraged to research road diets and look at case studies locally and nationally.
Jackie Caro from the Office of Neighborhood Services applauded the neighborhood’s tree planting efforts, and explained a ballot for a $5,000 greening grant, which anyone can apply for. In 2014, eight new trees were planted on N Maple, and 64 perennials will be planted this April. All voting members agreed to request an additional $5,000 grant. There were no objections to receiving additional funding.
Fresh in: The 2014 Code Enforcement Summary with some new data for the statistically minded folks in our neighborhood.
Code enforcement is the process that deals with things like abandoned cars, people living in RVs, derelict houses, and structures such as outbuildings and fences.
Emerson-Garfield had a total of 294 code enforcement complaints in 2014. Compare that to 4,990 for the whole city — which means E-G accounted for 5.9% of code enforcement complaints across Spokane last year. Maps showing the locations and nature of the reports for 2013 and 2014 are provided below.
2013 E-G code violations (reported) by location
2014 E-G code violations (reported) by location
The report cites abandoned vehicle complaints (120 of them) as the primary issue — or rather, the most visible issue, since there are many code violations that go unspotted or unreported — in 2014. Solid waste (52) and zoning-related complaints (24) come in a distant second and third, but these are still substantial compared to other Spokane neighborhoods.
Abandoned vehicle complaints rose 2000% between 2013 and 2014. Yes, you read that correctly: 2000%. There were only 6 reported in 2013. However, this massive increase comes down to the fact that abandoned vehicles — along with right-of-way violations and graffiti — are relatively new code enforcement categories that were introduced late in 2013.
Speaking of graffiti, there were only 12 code enforcement complaints in that category in 2014. Either there’s not as much graffiti as folks tend to think, or they’re not reporting it.
The summary also has the following to say:
Illegal dump complaints on the right-of-way rose significantly to 21, which may indicate a problem for this neighborhood in education on proper disposal of refuse.
Due to the age of the structures, there is also a concern relating to substandard buildings. In this area there were 18 substandard building complaints, which is up from 14 complaints in 2013. Many of these are abandoned homes or undergoing foreclosure.
And that, particularly the illegal dumping, leaves the neighborhood council with a few discussion topics.
Feel free to download the full report (PDF) from which this info is taken. The maps above are included.
The state of North Monroe has been a point of concern for residents and businesses for a long time now. This poorly lit, five-lane, treeless thoroughfare physically and psychologically divides Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood. There have been pedestrian fatalities. The doors of parked cars have been ripped off by passing traffic. The current environment is downright hostile to anyone who wants to park and walk from shop to shop, and by the same token, it poses an additional challenge to all the businesses that lack dedicated parking. The number of vacant and decrepit buildings is a good indication of that.
Even this past November, when the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council was actively seeking to fund the installation an STA bus shelter so the growing ridership of the #24 didn’t have to stand in the rain, we could only identify one location with sufficient sidewalk in the stretch between Indiana and Grace.
For all these reasons, North Monroe featured heavily in the EGNC’s Neighborhood Action Plan, which had the support of residents, businesses and even the full City Council. And it’s been an ongoing focus of many parties outside of the neighborhood council — including the North Monroe Business Association, the West Quadrant Tax Increment Financing District (WQ TIF), several members of the City Council, the STA, and the City of Spokane.
Because the funding necessary to comprehensively overhaul North Monroe was so great, most everyone thought that the timeframe for this kind of project was about seven or ten years away. But that’s changed.
This past summer, engineers from the City applied for two ambitious grants with the goal of improving North Monroe. At the start of the year they got word that those applications were either successful or highly ranked for approval.
Image from WSDoT application: N. Monroe (Indiana to Kiernan) showing sidewalks and curb bump-outs.
The first comes from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDoT). It has awarded the City $3,773,200 through the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program, which, according to this overview, is to:
Convert to two lanes with a two-way left turn lane and wide curb lanes. Install curb extensions and pedestrian lighting and upgrade sidewalk and traffic signs and signals.
Images that accompanied this grant application are provided above and below. They show the current conditions — narrow parking insets, narrow travel lanes, sidewalks as narrow as 5′ — and sketches of the proposed improvements with wider sidewalks, wider travel lanes, wider parking insets, a wider center turn lane, improved lighting and better natural stormwater mitigation using trees.
The second grant is through the WSDoT’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program (this document has more info). The state legislature still needs to formally adopt and fund the list in their 2015 session, but this project ranks high on the shortlist. The remaining $326,800 of the anticipated $4.1 total to revitalize North Monroe would come from this program.
Incidentally, this funding comes in addition to the $300,000 $150,000 that the WQ TIF has allocated as “seed money” to attract large-scale grants for this stretch of North Monroe.
The project scope includes reducing North Monroe from five lanes to three — a “road diet” in urban planning lingo — from just north of Indiana to approximately Kiernan at the top of the North Hill. The existing parking insets will be filled in to make a consistent 12′-wide sidewalk with trees and/or planted swales in some places. Curb extensions will be added at all intersections. The existing outside travel lane will be turned into on-street parking. The traffic signal at Montgomery — the intersection where the Institute for Extended Learning and Caffe Delicio draw considerable pedestrian traffic — will be modified to make it a safer pedestrian crossing. Other marked crosswalks in the corridor will be enhanced with center refuge islands.
Image from WSDoT application: Proposed cross-section.
Pedestrian lighting is included to some extent. In line with their recently adopted Moving Forward initiative, the STA also intends to incorporate bus stop and other high-performance transit improvements into the project.
There are many modeling and case studies (see here, for example, or here, or here) that show these improvements will not only make North Monroe safer and more attractive to pedestrians, they will also improve traffic flow while increasing business visibility. That might seem counterintuitive, but the proof can even be seen locally in areas like East Sprague, South Perry and Market Street in Hillyard. More lanes does not necessarily equal better traffic flow and better business.
As for the timeline: This is no longer a seven- or ten-year pipe dream. Planning will likely take place throughout 2016, and the conditions of the funding stipulate that the construction contract must be out to ad by September 2017. This means construction will take place in 2018 — just three years from now. On the scale of construction projects, that’s just around the corner.
In due course the EGNC will be working with these City engineers, the City Council, the STA, the North Monroe Business Association and other organizations to ensure that the redevelopment of North Monroe takes place in a way that aligns with everyone’s priorities.
