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Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question

Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question

The reconvened E-G Neighborhood Planning group will be meeting on Wednesday, January 9 at 6pm (an hour before the regular neighborhood council meeting) to discuss what planning manager Jay Cousins is billing as “Emerson-Garfield’s $20,000 Question.”

The amount refers to the money that is allocated to each of the neighborhoods that take part in the planning process. If the stakeholders opt not to continue, that funding naturally ends too.

In an e-mail to all stakeholders, Jay wrote:

We are facing a bit of a dilemma regarding neighborhood planning: The process has been started, so the clock is running (we have two years). After that time, results or not, the Planning department moves on.

Or, we can stop the process now and go to the back of the line, where we will wait about ten years before we could start again.

What to do? Continue planning or bag it? Something else?

We need to make the decision as a group.

Please attend a planning chat for about an hour.

We can hear folks’ thoughts and kick around some options.

Bring your opinions and options with you (maybe it helps if you drink heavily beforehand).

If you have thoughts on the matter but are unable to attend, please leave a comment or get in touch using the Contact page.

Materials for the Nov. 14 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Nov. 14 EGNC Meeting

We’ve just posted the minutes (often imitated, never duplicated) from the October 10 meeting as well as the agenda for the upcoming November 14 meeting. Get ’em here:

We’re still waiting on confirmation that this month’s Neighborhood Planning meeting will take place as usual. As stakeholders and attendees of last month’s neighborhood meetings will know, E.J. Iannelli has stepped down as planning manager for a variety of reasons (some of which are noted in the above minutes); Jay Cousins has stepped up to fill the role.

As always, the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting will start at 6pm at the Corbin Senior Center. We’ll be discussing how to allocate the approximately $57k in funding that the neighborhood will be receiving as part of the Community Development Block Grant in 2013. The process and stipulations for CDBG funding have changed this year, and there are a number of issues to address if we want to ensure that Emerson-Garfield sees the same (or greater) level of attention as in years past.

One of the big changes is that much of next year’s CD funding is designed to be used for capital projects (i.e., bricks and mortar). Some examples of what other neighborhoods have done — as well as some of the facts and figures behind 2013 CDBG funding — are outlined in the previous post.

And remember: the neighborhood council isn’t a cabal of insiders. It’s open to everyone and anyone who wants to attend. Please come to find out what’s going on and help shape Emerson-Garfield for the better.

Materials for Tonight’s Meetings

Materials for Tonight’s Meetings

The agendas for tonight’s Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council and planning stakeholder meetings are available for download. Save paper and grab your copy here:

Remember: the meetings start at 6pm (planning) and 7pm (neighborhood council) at the Corbin Senior Center.

As much as we wish everything was always sunshine and rainbows in the world of Spokane neighborhoods, there are some pressing issues to consider on both of these agendas. Many of those issues stem from decisions made by various departments within the city bureaucracy.

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.

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.