Daily Plan It Office of Planning & Community Development

The Daily Plan It Blog

A OPCD Blog

One Seattle Plan Community Meeting Series

by

UPDATE: Our One Seattle Plan Community Meetings report shares what we’ve heard during our engagement events.

Seattle is updating its plan for growth and change over the next 20 years, and we need your feedback to help guide how the City will invest in our communities to shape the city’s future. We need your input to create a plan that will make Seattle a more affordable and equitable place to live, work, and visit. 

We invite you to participate in a series of community meetings for the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan! This will be an opportunity to learn about the plan and to talk with City staff and others from your community.

[Read more…]
Share Button

Urban Innovations Speakers Series Focuses on Equitable Development

by

The impacts of redlining, racially restrictive covenants and disinvestment are still felt in communities with higher risk of residential, commercial and cultural displacement. Long-term residents, non-profit organizations, locally owned small businesses, and cultural anchors are threatened by displacement as Seattle grows. How can we invest in organizations and individuals, so that all communities can thrive in place and build positive futures in their neighborhoods?

Urban Innovations Speakers Series:
How Can Equitable Development Shape More Inclusive Communities?
Wednesday, May 23, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Ethiopian Community of Seattle, 8323 Rainier Avenue South

Featured speakers:

  • Miriam Zuk – Urban Displacement Project, University of California, Berkeley
  • Senator Rebecca Saldana – Washington State Senate
  • Ubax Gardheere – Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative, Office of Planning and Community Development

Moderated by Marcus Green of the South Seattle Emerald

Admission is free. Please spread the word!

Share Button

Free Citizenship Clinic, Oct 21

by

Do you need help applying for U.S. citizenship? Come to a free citizenship clinic, organized by the Seattle New Citizenship Campaign. Their team of volunteer attorneys, paralegals, and interpreters will help you with your citizenship application. It’s FREE for all eligible legal permanent residents (green card holders).

Saturday, October 21, 10:00 a.m.
Beacon United Methodist Church
7301 BEACON AVE S SEATTLE, WA 98108
206-721-0243

Click here to view the brochure.

Share Button

Guest Bloggers: Our Summer Interns on Lake City’s Community Conversations event

by

Last month, our summer interns participated and attended a Community Conversation event at the Lake City Community Center. Sponsored by Lake City Future First and many other community advocacy organizations, the Community Conversation events bring residents together to discuss important issues, with stations for “Strengthing Community Partnerships”, “Building a Healthy Community”, “Enhancing Public Safety” and “Planning for the Future. Attendees also learned more about what their community has to offer, how to get involved, and more. Here are Allan and Winnie’s thoughts/observations as first time attendees.

Allan Duong:
The Lake City Community Conversation was an event I’ve never heard of or been to. I remember arriving to the event and seeing an elder who had everyone sign in. After signing in I entered the room and saw all different types of people, in terms of age and race.

They even had different booths talking about Lake City, as well as a poster related to the upcoming projects for Lake City. I remember walking up to one of the booths and heard a very passionate Lake City resident. The resident was very engaged in the conversation on the problems of Lake City. It’s good to see someone very passionate about their community.

I saw children at the event, though they weren’t very engaged into what was happening, it’s still good to expose children to events like the community conversation. The event had food for anyone who was hungry or thirsty. I also remember how nice everyone was, from when I entered to when I exited. The Community  Conversation gave me a pretty good experience of engaging with the Community.

Winnie Huang:
The Lake City community conversation was something that I’ve never attended before. There were local businesses, City representatives, neighbors, and community groups coming together to provide information/updates on projects in progress or being planned for the area.

I like seeing everyone gathered together. Even though the turn out wasn’t as big as I heard it could be, I feel that people still got to get the information they wanted or learn more about what’s going on and being planned. There were chairs out for people to sit of course, and it was nice how everyone just sat together and started talking like they’ve known each other forever. At community meetings I’ve seen before, everyone tends to sit by themselves or with people they know. Everyone was very nice and friendly, and easy to talk to.

Near the end of the event, one of the community members started putting chairs away. Allan and I offered to help. As we were helping him, more people began helping him put the chairs away as well. Lake City is a diverse place, and it seems like a welcoming community and neighborhood.

Share Button

Urban Innovations Speakers Series Guest Bio: Thatcher Bailey, Seattle Parks Foundation

by

Thatcher has served as executive director of Seattle Parks Foundation since 2010. The Foundation supports community groups dedicated to creating and enhancing parks and public spaces in neighborhoods across the city. He has founded and led various cultural and civic organizations and is currently the board president of Town Hall Seattle.

 

Meet Thatcher Bailey, Mami Hara (Seattle Public Utilities), and Uwe Brandes (Georgetown University) as our guest panelists at our next Urban Innovations Speakers Series event, titled “How can Seattle ‘Grow’ More Outdoor Space?” Click here for more information.

Share Button

Urban Innovations Speakers Series, March 7!

by


click on image to enlarge

Presented by OPCD and Seattle Office of Housing.

OPCD will be hosting Urban Innovations Speakers Series to increase public awareness of global best practices to achieve an integrated approach to planning for livable cities. Topics will include: affordable housing, urban design for community health, community-based resilience, new trends in urban development, and integrated land use, open space, transportation design and sustainability. The series will bring recognized experts to Seattle, joined by local and regional speakers to help ground the series in issues specific to Seattle and the region.

To kick off the series, Sam Assefa and Steve Walker will welcome fellow directors from Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco to discuss their efforts to support more affordable housing. West Coast cities continue to struggle with high housing costs. Low and moderate income housing is difficult to achieve given today’s methods of building and price of land. Yet innovations are under development and the presentations from West Coast cities followed by a panel discussion will identify intersecting strategies that create opportunities to address the challenge. Local experts will share their experiences with innovative public and private strategies being implemented here to address this need.

Are We Victims of Our Own Success? Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle
5:30pm, March 7th, Seattle Central Library

 

Share Button

Rainier Beach Town Hall Event, February 23

by

Click flyer to enlarge.

Share Button

Urban Innovations Speakers Series Begins March 7

by

OPCD will be hosting Urban Innovations to increase public awareness of global best practices to achieve an integrated approach to planning for livable cities.

Topics will include:

  • affordable housing
  • urban design for community health
  • community-based resilience
  • new trends in urban development
  • integrated land use, open space, transportation design and sustainability

 

The series will bring recognized experts to Seattle, joined by local and regional speakers to help ground the series in issues specific to Seattle and the region.

To kick off the series on March 7th, Sam Assefa will welcome his fellow planning directors from Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco to discuss their efforts to support more affordable housing. West Coast cities continue to struggle with high housing costs. Low and moderate-income housing is difficult to develop given today’s methods of building and price of land. Yet innovations are being pursued and this discussion will identify intersecting strategies that create opportunities to address the challenge. Local experts will share their experiences with innovative public and private strategies being implemented here to address this need.

Creating affordable housing: Lessons from Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle
March 7th, 5:30pm, Seattle Central Library

Share Button