VIDEO: 2016 Gathering of Neighbors @ Youngstown Cultural Arts Center

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10:14 AM: In the hallway at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the Gathering of Neighbors is under way, starting with a resource fair – tablers include:

*SWYFS
*West Seattle Food Bank
*Dept. of Education & Early Learning
*HALA
*West Seattle Time Bank
*SDOT
*DPCI
*West Seattle Helpline
*Seattle Subway

Opening ceremony is at 10:30. More to come.

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11 AM: First panel is under way in the theater.

11:37 AM: The theme today is ‘growing pains’ and this discussion with Councilmember Lorena González and the Junction Association‘s Susan Melrose, plus Ben Crowther from The Urbanist and the city’s HALA project manager Michelle Chen, has touched on many challenges and opportunities. We have it on video and will add later when the clip’s ready. West Seattle-residing broadcaster Brian Callanan moderated. (Added – here’s the video:)

12 PM: Breakout sessions now, from business development to light rail. Still time to get here for the concluding panel on homelessness, to be moderated by Councilmember Lisa Herbold, scheduled as an encore of the panel we covered at the 34th District Democrats in January.

ADDED SATURDAY EVENING … a few more photos. From the organizing group VieWS (Visualizing Increased Engagement in West Seattle), Pete Spalding showed off his T-shirt from the first GoN back in 2004:

petesshirt

The group that launched the GoN was Megawatt, which disbanded in 2007 but not before having a lasting effect on the local community, not just via this event but also by creating West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day in 2005 (after MW’s closure, we took it over in 2008 and beyond; we’ll be opening registration in early April for this year’s WSCGSD, which is nine weeks from today – Saturday, May 14th).

5 Replies to "VIDEO: 2016 Gathering of Neighbors @ Youngstown Cultural Arts Center"

  • Mark schletty March 12, 2016 (11:19 am)

    The agenda and “invited” participants looks much more like a sell-job for the cities urbanist agenda than a gathering of neighbors to discuss what is happening to us. And who invited Roger Valdez?  He is just a shill for the big developers who brings nothing to the gathering except blatant propaganda.

    • WSB March 12, 2016 (12:08 pm)

      He isn’t at the event. If you’re not here, you missed an interesting morning panel, which we recorded and will add to our coverage.

  • Junction guy March 12, 2016 (8:29 pm)

    Let’s not stick our heads in the sand and pretend growth isn’t happening! IMHO that is part of how we got in this predicament. Where would we be if people were being proactive on master planning and such 10,20,30,40 years ago? I like that there’s dialogue and we are trying to figure this out. 

  • AceMotel March 14, 2016 (12:31 am)

    Actually, there was planning 10 and 20 years ago, it was the whole point of the comp plan, urban villages, etc.   I don’t know anyone who is pretending growth isn’t happening !

  • CEA March 14, 2016 (11:11 am)

    I attended this event and found it very informative. Thanks very much to the organizers, the presenters and the panelists! I think everyone on the panels agreed that there are incredible opportunities and challenges facing our peninsula, and I welcomed the dialogue. I learned a few new things and began reconsidering some previously held opinions, and I think this is one of the goals of an event like this. The big message, of course, is to get involved. I was hoping to see many more people in attendance – perhaps more publicity would have helped? I was also bummed the panel on homelessness ran over. I had to leave before they were done and the speakers were outstanding. Thanks for the coverage, WSB!!

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