From tonight’s Sustainable West Seattle meeting: Featured speaker Paul Fischburg, founder of Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, looked back and looked ahead. WSB had only been around a year when we published this short blurb in late 2006 about his departure from DNDA after 11 years; he now works as a senior policy advisor in the city’s Office of Policy and Management. Fischburg recalled what happened at a retreat involving the mayor’s staff — including OPM — when the first forecasts of an economic downturn came in. The city’s chief economist pointed out at the time, Fischburg said, that while income hadn’t grown in a few years, corporate and personal debt had. In Fischburg’s view, “overconsumption” resulted from people trying to fill their lives with things instead of real relationships with people. His visit to Sustainable West Seattle tonight is part of his ongoing effort to work with groups reaching out to engage people. And that’s exactly what followed, for the rest of the meeting, with SWS attendees discussing how to create opportunities for interaction not only as a group at meetings, but also as individuals. A project list was created with activity ideas such as potlucks and edible-garden planting, to create chances for members to get to know each other better outside of meetings. One more SWS note from tonight: The group’s revamped website now offers podcasts, starting with highlights from the Sustainable West Seattle Festival two weeks ago; you’ll find the links on the left side of the SWS main page, and the podcast from tonight’s meeting is promised “shortly.”