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July 11 Planning Meeting Wrap-up

July 11 Planning Meeting Wrap-up

Here are the main points of yesterday evening’s neighborhood planning meeting. The lingering questions — feel free to leave answers in the comments below — are in bold.

The October issues/solutions workshop will be two hours in length. In those two hours, it has to fulfill four goals:

  • explain to the public what exactly neighborhood planning is (in under 15 minutes)
  • highlight areas of consideration such as traffic, demographics, parks, economics
  • describe what our planning ideas look like so far
  • elicit feedback from neighborhood residents and business owners

To that last end, the workshop will pose the following questions to participants:

  • What do you like about Emerson-Garfield that should be preserved or enhanced?
  • What would you like to see done differently?
  • Are there things in other neighborhoods that you’d like to see in ours?
  • What do you see as our neighborhood’s priorities?

The exact date of the workshop is still undecided. Should we hold the workshop on the regular planning meeting date (i.e., Wednesday, October 10) or later in the month? Put another way: What’s the optimal date for holding the October workshop?

Holding it on October 10 would likely mean combining the workshop with the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting. That would ensure attendance but might result in less time for the EGNC to conduct its regular business. There might also be city functions that our planning consultants have to attend instead. Holding it later in October would give us extra time to plan and announce the workshop, but it would mean asking people to reserve yet another evening for neighborhood affairs.

Once the date is decided, we will probably be able to reserve the Women and Children’s Free Restaurant as a venue. There’s ample parking there, being on Monroe it’s easy to find, and there’s plenty of open space inside.

There are pros and cons to addressing the workshop participants as a large group or breaking them up into smaller groups. Given the workshop goals and questions listed above, what is the best way to both inform participants and encourage their feedback? Handouts? Information and input stations? A giant group brainstorm session? A mix of all of them?

But even the smoothest-run workshop is of no use if no one is there. How do we spread the word and encourage public participation? We need to reach out to local churches and organizations and use a variety of media (e.g., mailings, our two websites, Twitter, Facebook) to notify residents and businesses alike. (Direct mailings via the city will cost between $1,000 and $2,000 depending on scope and quality.)

All that is easier suggested than done, which is why we will undoubtedly need volunteers to canvass the neighborhood with door flyers and/or get in touch with heads of neighborhood organizations to inform their members. Short notice and limited reach has been a problem in the past, so it’s extremely important that any notification is memorable and timely.

A copy of the board notes from the meeting is available for download here.

Oh, and there is no planning meeting in August. Stakeholders are encouraged to attend the neighborhood potluck on August 8 at Emerson Park and eat, drink, and be merry.

Several Headlines of Note

Several Headlines of Note

The city just issued several press releases that are of particular interest to Emerson-Garfield residents and businesses:

Spokane City Council Unanimously Approves Coal Train Resolution

This was a significant topic of discussion when councilman Steve Salvatori spoke at the June 13 EGNC meeting. Spokane could see up to 50 additional open-topped coal trains per day, creating dust, exhaust, noise, and halting traffic.

Traffic Calming Projects to Be Built Using Red Light Camera Dollars

Some of this money is funding new sidewalks on Post Street in Emerson-Garfield. The use of Photo Red money exclusively for traffic-calming measures was also a topic of discussion at the June 13 EGNC meeting; councilman Salvatori had proposed an exception to this rule in order to establish a COPS Shop in northern Spokane.

Cantwell, Murray, McMorris Rodgers Announce $10 million USDOT Grant for North Spokane Corridor

The North Spokane Corridor (or: WSDOT site) will be well east of Division but could potentially lead to less traffic on N. Monroe. Only after completion will we truly be able to gauge how it affects drivers’ habits and freight routes — but the possibility of fewer vehicles ought to have an impact on North Monroe Revitalization.

Upcoming Meetings Reminder

Upcoming Meetings Reminder

Just a brief reminder about upcoming meetings:

  • The North Monroe Business Association meets at 6pm on Wednesday, June 27 at Petunia’s Marketplace. We’ll detail what’s on the agenda closer to the date, although it will almost certainly include planning for the proposed July “classic cars” event.

  • There is no July meeting for the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council. The next time the EGNC will meet is at the neighborhood potluck on Wednesday, August 8 at 6pm. More info on the potluck will be posted in July.

  • The Neighborhood Planning stakeholders will meet on Wednesday, July 11 at 6pm at Corbin Senior Center. Although we’ll post more about the agenda as that meeting approaches, it will be dominated by prep work for the issues/solutions workshop in October. Please bring ideas and be ready to brainstorm.

If the difference between all these groups isn’t clear, don’t fret! We’ll have a post describing where they diverge and where they overlap in the near future.

Neighborhood Council Meeting Tomorrow

Neighborhood Council Meeting Tomorrow

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meets tomorrow (June 13) at the Corbin Senior Center [map] at 7pm.

What’s on the agenda for June? Among other things, we’re going to talk about this website and other grassroots communication efforts like Twitter and Facebook, issues with our parks and streets, and recap what happened at the Corbin Park Yard Sale last weekend as well as last night’s town hall meeting.

We’ll also hear from the ad hoc parks subcommittee and vote on how to allocate $21,000 in park funds. Repair cracks in Corbin’s tennis courts? Build a swing set in Emerson? Show up and become a voting member to have a say!

You can download the full agenda here as a PDF.

Also remember that the neighborhood planning meeting will take place one hour before the start of the EGNC meeting (i.e., at 6pm) in the same building.

The planning meeting has a hefty agenda of its own. We’ll be addressing how to use the demographic data provided by EWU, the results of our ongoing surveys, the October issues/solutions workshop (this will be a big event, so stay tuned), and shifting the planning meeting dates to avoid conflicts with EGNC meeting times.

That agenda is available for download here as a PDF.

Town Hall Meeting on June 11

Town Hall Meeting on June 11

There’s a town hall meeting on Monday, June 11 at 6pm at the West Central Community Center.

The town hall is an annual meeting where Spokane’s neighborhood councils present reports of their past and future activities to the city council and the mayor. It’s open to the general public and is televised.

Liorah Wichser, chair of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council, will be making the slideshow presentation on behalf of the neighborhood. It’s an opportunity to voice our concerns and also to tell the city council what we’ve achieved over the past year and what we plan to do in the the coming year.

We’d obviously like Emerson-Garfield to have as much representation as possible, so please stop by. The meeting is only scheduled to last about 90 minutes. In addition to offering a show of support for your neighborhood, it will also give you a chance to catch up on what Emerson-Garfield’s priorities were in 2011-12 and what they will be into 2013 and beyond.

You’ll also be able to see what other Spokane neighborhoods have been up to, and whether their activity can serve as inspiration or a template for what we envision in our own neighborhood.

We look forward to seeing you there!