Come this summer in Woodinville, it won’t just be wineries such as Chateau St. Michele reaping the fiscal harvest of concert crowds drawn by the unbeatable combination of smooth Syrah and samba, or Cabernet and cool jazz. The Woodinville City Council is set to give final approval Tuesday night to a resolution green-lighting beverage sales by local wineries and breweries at the city’s revamped summer concert series in its landmark Wilmot Gateway Park. Through it runs the Sammamish River Trail which is used by bikers, joggers and walkers and connects to the Burke-Gilman trail.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Woodinville to OK local wine, beer sales at city park concerts
by Matt Rosenberg April 2nd, 2012
Volunteers wanted for Stevens Pass clean-up, Mt. Baker trails
by Matt Rosenberg June 9th, 2011
Stevens Pass Clean-up
On July 12 from 9:30 am to 2 pm join dozens of volunteers from Seattle Parks and Recreation, First Nations Snowboard Team, Washington State University 4-H, and the other organizations to clean trash off the ski slopes at Stevens Pass. A barbeque lunch will follow.The event is organized by the National Forest Foundation. More information and a waiver form to be completed and brought to the event are here. Reserve your spot with Stella Torres, 425-783-6096, storres@national forests.org. Stevens Pass is 78 miles east of Seattle on beautiful State Route 2. Take I-405 north to exit 23 (Highway 522) and exit at SR 2 in Monroe, turning left/east off the exit ramp. Follow Route 2 for 50 miles to the Stevens Pass ski area and park in lot A.
Mount Baker Steward Volunteer Opportunities
Another outdoor volunteer opportunity this summer is to teach wilderness ethics, natural history and safety, as a mountain steward working on the Mount Baker trail system in the U.S. forest Service’s Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. You need to be 18 or older with experience in hiking and outdoor recreation; able to attend training July 16 and 23; and to volunteer a total of three weekend days between July 23 and September 11. Complete the application and return by June 24 to brichey@fs.fed.us, or fax to 360-856-1934. More information: 360-854-2615.
Nooksack River Salmon Talks and Walks
Saturday evenings at 6 pm from July 9 to September 3, the Nooksack River Stewards will present a “Wild About Salmon” campfire talk on salmon and stream ecology, at the Douglas Fir Campground picnic shelter, including snacks of smoked salmon, cream cheese and crackers. The campground is 2.5 miles east of Glacier, Wash. on State Route 542, on the west side of the road just after crossing the North Fork of the Nooksack River near mile post 35.
Sundays at 9 am from July 10 to September 4 the stewards will lead “Noisy Waters: A Nooksack River Walk” on the Horsehoe Bend Trail, on the east side of Highway 542 directly across from the Douglas Fir Campground entrance.
RELATED: Mount Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest.
Stevens Pass stewards, July, 2010/U.S. Forest Service
June 10 screening accents video storytelling, healthy communities
by Matt Rosenberg June 1st, 2011
Get an in-person look 6 p.m. June 10th in the Chinatown Community Center at grassroots videos by South Seattle residents on nutrition and health, which are featured in an innovative digital storytelling public health campaign that will utilize online mapping and collaboration with Seattle neighborhood groups. The videos feature stakeholders from The International District, Georgetown, West Seattle, White Center, South Park, and other South Seattle neighborhoods telling their own stories about starting community gardens, finding youth sports programs for low-income families, green space and exercise, smoking and other prevention and health topics. The June 10 screening coincides with an open house at the center, and refreshments will be provided. There will be Q & A with the video producers and organizers welcome suggestions from attendees on how and where to use the videos in their community outreach effort. Some of the videos are already posted to an interim Vimeo channel and in October 2011 will be available via an online map at the Mapping Our Voices for Equality (MOVE) web page. (It currently re-directs to the interim Vimeo channel).
MOVE is a digital media and health initiative staffed by several Seattle-area non-profits with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Public Health Seattle and King County. It’s part of a program in King County and 54 other locales nationwide called Communities Putting Prevention To Work, designed by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control, and aimed at obesity and tobacco use among low-income and minority populations. Following are several of the videos.
Mercer Island Urged To Re-Name Community Center
by Matt Rosenberg April 25th, 2011
SUMMARY: The Mercer Island City Council tonight will consider a proposal to change the name of the city’s Community Center at Mercer View to the Mercer Island Community and Event Center. A consultant hired by the city recommends the change, to make more clear to non-local potential renters the facility’s location and its availability for events such as weddings and bar mitzvahs. These play a large role in subsidizing low rental rates of the center for local residents.
Burgers, Shakes And Budget Decisions: Come To Douglass-Truth Library Oct. 16 For A Countywide Community Forum
by Matt Rosenberg October 12th, 2010
King County has a $5 billion annual budget, but to many people who live within its boundaries, it’s all but invisible. It shouldn’t be. The county provides courts, jails, law enforcement, tax collection, public health and human services; and runs elections, wastewater treatment and transit, to name just a few things. Part of the sales and property taxes we pay goes to King County. If you live, work, or go to school in King County you’re invited to the Douglass-Truth Library at 2300 E. Yesler Way in Seattle this Saturday Oct. 16 from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. to join in discussion with others about resolving King County’s $63 million budget deficit. Free burgers and milkshakes from Dick’s Drive-Ins will be provided. (RSVP info. below).
The program is called Countywide Community Forums, or CCF. It’s privately funded by the Spady family of Dick’s. The forums work like this: There will be an informational video, small group discussions, and a written survey. The results are gathered into a final report that is closely considered by the King County Council, County Executive and county staff, and is promoted widely to the public, media and CCF participants. This event is being hosted by African-American community activist and journalist Charlie James. Here’s a column Mr. James had published recently in several Seattle newspapers about why to tune into King County government, and attend the forum at Douglass-Truth. He writes:
In Praise Of Bridges And Bowling
by Carrie Shaw March 29th, 2010
In this ever-expanding conversation of all things “social” with “capital,” it is time for me to talk about bridges and bowling. In Robert Putnam’s groundbreaking and influential book, Bowling Alone, he identifies two kinds of social capital: bonding vs. bridging. Social bonding occurs between people who share cultural or political similarities — your family, church congregation, political club, etc. Bridging happens when people from different backgrounds, culture or ideology get together to share in an activity like, you guessed it, a bowling league.
Putnam and other social scientists have been documenting the decline of our participation in social institutions and what it means for individuals, communities, governments, and our society at large. According to Putnam, there has been a 58% drop in attending club meetings over the past couple of generations. The downside, argues Putnam, is that…
“Bridging builds trust and where people are trusting and trustworthy, and where they are subject to repeated interactions with fellow citizens, everyday business and social transactions are less costly.”
While Countywide Community Forums hasn’t formed an official bowling league, the program does have a track record in the bridge building area of social capital.
One of the main goals of the program is to build social capital and help strengthen community. Since participants are given a chance to gather in small groups, watch an informational video, and discuss topics at length, the CCF model creates the environment and opportunity for bridge building. In fact, 57% of participants in Round 2 and 65% of participants in Round 4 said that the forum discussion changed their views on the topic.
Almost half of respondents said that they answered some questions differently because they gained a new perspective during the discussion time.
From City Hall to the Unincorporated Areas of King County, the buzz is about how to better connect individuals to the welfare and long-term health of their communities. While participation in formal social institutions maybe on the decline, we can still harness new technology and the need for human interaction to increase civic engagement.
Forums begin May 1 and run through June 13. Come and build a bridge! Sign up here to join Countywide Community Forums.
Open Gov Conference Should Make Government More Of An Open Book
by Administrator March 15th, 2010
By Sarah Schacht
OPEN Government, or “Open Gov,” is the developing civic idea of the moment. The discussion is about promoting democratic applications of technology to make government accessible and accountable. Buzzwords like “Gov 2.0″ or “sunlight as disinfectant” are bouncing around government circles.
There’s still a distance between the ideal and reality. From local to federal levels, some government agencies have begun opening their databases of government information via data.gov sites and “apps” competitions. But so far this is often more window dressing than useful tools for citizens who want to become informed and empowered within government. Too many of these early experiments publish already available government data, not new sets of data like legislation or tax statistics. In the rush to hop on the “open gov” bandwagon, emphasis can easily fall on providing data for data’s sake, rather than information that is accessible, easy to understand and empowering.
Given this newfound interest in sharing information, there’s an opportunity to adopt standardized, efficient technology across governments. Essentially, it’s an opportunity to get our governments to speak the same data “language.” This would enable easy information sharing across governments and with the public, saving taxpayer money and increasing efficiency.
The importance of this was exemplified by the recent tsunami warning that went out to 58 countries around the globe, each with individual formats for tidal-warning information.
On the morning the news reported that a tsunami might reach as far as the Pacific Northwest, I was concerned about my family’s home on Whidbey Island, just 5 feet from the beach. Checking the Internet and wondering if we should board up our windows and evacuate, I found different sources were giving various projections of the likelihood of tidal surges. The best information I found wasn’t from local news or NOAA, but from Canada, giving tidal surge information for Vancouver Island.
I had the knowledge and networks to find information across borders, but what if all this data from different sources had been able to “talk to each other” and extrapolate predictions? More citizens could have made critical decisions more quickly.
Whether in emergency response or day-to-day operations, we could be working more efficiently across borders, bringing down costs and engaging more citizens. Now is the time to get government and nongovernmental agencies from around our region working together, using a common data language from city to county to state to the national level.
That’s why I’m delighted that Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn seems to be signaling a commitment to a new era by sponsoring a conference on making “Web 2.0″ and government work together. On March 26-27, Open Gov West will host decision makers, citizen activists and government technology managers from across the greater Pacific Northwest and British Columbia to discuss strategies for regional collaboration and opening government.
Conference topics include developing common data standards, shared code via a “code bank,” and implementing “open gov” laws. Open Gov West will produce regionwide recommendations, and give attendees a larger network of colleagues to work with.
Seattle government has had some controversies over lack of transparency in the past, and needs to modernize its information and policies. Opening data through data.seattle.gov and support of Open Gov West by the mayor and city council members are important steps toward a more open style of city government.
Seattle is famous for innovations in information technology. What more appropriate place to determine the next stage of development? Not just in new applications of technology, but in new models for citizenship and civic life.
Sarah Schacht is director of Knowledge As Power, a nonprofit that provides online legislation tracking and citizen-to-legislator communications tools. KAP currently covers the Washington State Legislature and will soon launch a service for the Seattle City Council. www.knowledgeaspower.org