By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“The Delridge Way” – pitching in to get something done, rather than waiting for it to be done for you – needs to be “the Seattle way,” Mayor Mike McGinn declared during his North Delridge walking tour, especially in this time of crunched civic budgets.

Our video above includes the perfect example. Steps away from where the mayor’s Saturday morning walking tour began at Delridge/Brandon, he was introduced to the North Delridge neighbors who have spent their Saturday mornings all summer long cleaning up a much-used but long-trashed alley.

That’s Patrick Baer in the video, explaining the project to the mayor (who you see using his smartphone to tweet this photo), while his fellow volunteers – not on behalf of any group, organization, or government agency, totally ad hoc – continue weeding and cleaning.

It was just part of what McGinn saw during a tour arranged by Neighborhood Services Coordinator Ron Angeles to help the mayor learn more about this part of West Seattle – and in the end, he spent two hours, starting with a sitdown chat at Pearls coffee/tea shop, which included not only the mayor but also Department of Neighborhoods director Stella Chao, and also led to this photo op:

From left with the mayor, that’s Ron Angeles, Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association executive director Derek Birnie, and too-many-involvements-to-list area advocate/leader Pete Spalding (who provided that photo; all others in this story were taken by us). Spalding told WSB that the sitdown included talk of the goals that Strategic Delridge (explained here) has been focusing on – and then, it was off to see the area in person – come along for more photos (think you’ve seen everything in Delridge? and the mayor’s comments on how all this may figure into the city’s big picture:

We’ll begin at the end, as the mayor offered a “few minutes” (which turned into more than a few) for Q/A when the tour ended at the Delridge P-Patch. He said new budget projections had come in on Friday, and without giving details, inferred they were even worse than what had previously been forecast.

Delridge District Council chair Mat McBride (at right in the photo above) suggested that when the mayor looks at how to close the gap, that he “look at the populace of the city as a general resource” so that the city can make specific requests, whether for money, or time, or both.

During the tour, the mayor certainly saw examples of how that can be done. He walked up from the chat at Pearls, first of many photo ops:

About a dozen people were waiting, and the crowd picked up a few more along the way. Outside the Delridge/Brandon building, which houses the Neighborhood Services Center as well as DNDA HQ and the Delridge Library, DNDA’s Birnie talked about its past and future, and his organization’s discussion of “repurposing” some of the space, perhaps as “an incubator to cultivate small organizations doing sustainable work.”

The building, developed by DNDA, with housing as well – Birnie spoke of residents’ rooftop gardening – remains home to the only city library branch in a mixed-use building. DNDA also figures into the Delridge Fresh Food Spot effort at Super 24, which is linked to the King County Food and Fitness Initiative work that’s been under way in Delridge. That store, at Delridge/Findlay, was stop #2:

The volunteers and others there were setting up for the now-regular Saturday produce stand with Clean Greens Market (10 am-6 pm Fridays and Saturdays this summer). Inside the Super 24, as we’ve reported before, healthy-food choices are featured as well; owner Bhim Singh came out to greet the mayor (and everyone else).

McGinn also heard about the new monthly Night Markets at the site (WSB coverage here). Then all on hand amassed for a photo op on the mural that graces the store’s south side:

As several of us snapped away, the mayor suggested everyone smile and “say ‘Radical Social Change’.” (By the way, at far right with the stroller is King County Council District 8 candidate Diana Toledo, who joined up there for the rest of the tour.)

“Radical change” describes what’s been happened in the mentioned-earlier alley, which was the next stop:

You’d hardly recognize it now from the not-so-distant past discussed by the volunteers, recalling items being dumped there from diapers to couches, and the tangled overgrowth of blackberries that were still being cleared. (McGinn joked, “You could start a goat farm back here.”)

Off to see more volunteers in action, along with Delridge’s most-treasured open space, the group walked westward into the residential neighborhoods, and then on to the Delridge Natural Area, and Longfellow Creek:

Leading the work party under way near the creekwas Jay Mirro (left), who in addition to being a conservation worker is also co-chair of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council.

Invasive-clearing and restoration work is under way here as well as at several other spots along Longfellow Creek. Volunteers this particular week included members of the Rat City Rollergirls, who engage in a lot of community-service projects as well as speeding around on skates. (That’s where the mayor tweeted the second of two photos he sent to Twitter during the tour:)

By the creek itself, the mayor heard about everything from salmon habitat to the proximity of Camp Long and the West Seattle Golf Course, including challenges that involve the fact multiple agencies are involved in some of what happens along the creek.

Continuing on through the greenbelt, the trail eventually led back out to Greg Davis Park, pausing at an information kiosk where Camp Long‘s Sheila Brown talked about trying to make east-side entrances to her park more visible:

And then the tour concluded at the P-Patch, where this sign illustrated the point of donating time and treasure:

“You affirmed for me what I have always known,” McGinn told those who gathered in a loose circle for the concluding Q/A, “that people step up to fix things … we take that very seriously, and we (the city) want to support that, to the extent we can. … This is a great neighborhood; there’s so much potential here.”

Tour participants would certainly agree – toward the beginning, District Council chair McBride spoke of a goal nothing less than turning Delridge Way into “one of Seattle’s great thoroughfares.”