Last evening I met with Scott Bonjukian, John Feit, and other leaders of the Lid I-5 project.  I have known and worked with many on their board for over a decade – some were with me when we on the Allied Arts board created the Waterfront for All charettes, and look what has happened since! […]

  Thank you, everyone who volunteered during the 9th Annual Green Seattle Day this past Saturday! I joined almost 200 people to plant nearly 1000 native trees and shrubs in our Cheasty Forest. The Cheasty volunteers had  removed mountains of ivy and other invasives over the past year and Saturday was the fun part — planting […]

I have had many conversations this past week about the City’s new compost requirements.  Friends and strangers alike are asking, ” Why are we doing this?” The answer simply is that we are on the vanguard of recycling, and over two decades ago we set a goal for ourselves of recycling over 60% by 2015 and up to […]

The Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods (SPUN, like spoon) Committee held its first meeting on Tuesday, January 14th. Councilmember Bruce Harrell, Councilmember Kshama Sawant and I were at the table for two Directors’ reports, from the Department of Neighborhoods (DON) and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), and two presentations, a Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Program Update and the Urban […]

Today I had the pleasure of welcoming hundreds of gardeners from across the globe to Seattle via the 34th Annual American Community Gardening Association Conference. The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) was founded in 1979 and its mission is, “to build community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and […]

In honor of Seattle Aquarium Octopus Week, February 14-24, I want to give you an update on the effort to ban recreational harvest of giant Pacific octopus (GPO) off of Seacrest Park. You might remember that last Halloween a state-licensed SCUBA diver caught an octopus off of Seacrest Park and brought it out of the water at Cove 2. […]

We few, we hearty few, we band of neighbors.  Thanks to Linda Mitchell for organizing the event; thanks to everyone who showed up and picked up trash; thanks to Bob Donegan from Ivar’s Acres of Clams and Kyle Griffith from the Great Wheel and Sour Dough Bakery for the breakfast and lunch, and thanks, to […]

Today in the Parks and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, we did the following: Passed two pieces of legislation on to full council, Held a public hearing on the partial transfer of jurisidiction of two pieces of subterranean property from Parks to SPU, Heard from our wonderful Parks Trusts volunteers, and Got caught up on events and […]

At the upcoming special November 20, 11 a.m. Parks and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, we will discuss proposed legislation – a council bill and a resolution – that address the Sand Point Overlay. While the legislation is specific to Subarea C (see map), Building 9 will be discussed because it falls within this area. Building 9’s […]

I am pleased that after months of discussion, we are seriously considering a new arena for our SuperSonics and potentially an NHL team. I have moved from “Really? Spend public money on yet another sports arena?” to a qualified, “Yes.”  The proposed plan can work for the people and entities that concern me deeply: the City […]