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A recent meeting of the City Neighborhood Council opened with a parody of the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
Community members sang “I can’t get no validation, I can’t get no validation, but I plan and I plan and I plan and I plan, I can’t get no….”
The song addressed a feeling among citizen activists that the neighborhood plans they drew up a decade ago aren’t getting the attention they deserve from city officials.
Seattle residents and members of the City Council attended the public forum on Sat., April 19, to discuss ways to update and implement 38 existing neighborhood plans.
Stella Chao, Director of Neighborhoods, says the title “Neighborhood Planning” means finding a vision for your neighborhood and getting the tools to help achieve that vision.
In order to put plans into action, approval from Mayor Greg Nickels is required. Some members of neighborhood committees don’t believe the mayor’s recent proposal is in their best interest. Nickels has proposed dividing the city into six sectors that would each update the plans of neighborhoods within their boundaries; the committees would prefer that each neighborhood create its own plan with government funding.
“The community must ‘own’ the plans, down to the final wording. When [city] staff writes the plans, there is a potential for misunderstanding or miscommunication between the community and the author/editor,” wrote Chris Leman and Irene Wall, neighborhood council chairs, in a letter to the mayor.
Jim Diers, author of Neighborhood Power: Building Community the Seattle Way, said it is important for neighborhoods to take control of their own plans. While thinking holistically, neighborhood plans are able to build a deeper sense of community by involving everyone versus being spectators in the changes the government might be making.
But to be effective, plans need proper funding.
“If we can put a lot of money into a tunnel that was never built, we can put it into our neighborhoods,” said Diers. “We need to build at a neighborhood level — from the bottom up. This is how we relate and build community.”
Seattle city councilmember Tom Rasmussen said the key to getting noticed and having plans implemented is strong, well-written plans. Unlike the grassroots preferences of the neighborhood activists, Rasmussen said planning starts at the top because the mayor makes the decisions.
Dennis Ross, developer of the Admiral Plan in West Seattle, says there are three steps to success. First, he said, complete the existing plans: Instead of developing new plans, the goals in existing plans still need to be implemented. Second is consistency. While affordable housing is being displaced, high-end housing is increasing. Last is commitment in fulfilling and implementing the plans.
“You have to take the ownership in your neighborhood,” said Cindi Barker, information coordinator for the Morgan Community Association. “New tools and new passions keep the city folks working. Energize your own neighborhood.”
City councilmembers have not yet voted on the mayor’s proposal, but members of the neighborhood council hope to influence this decision by stressing the importance of bottom-up planning.
Noelle Rivera is a student in the University of Washington News Lab. |
