Squire Park Community Newsletter

Use City Dollars to Put Your Ideas into Action

The City’s Neighborhood Matching Fund provides over $3 million per year to Seattle neighborhood groups and organizations for improvement, organizing, or planning projects. Some examples of projects funded recently in Central Area neighborhoods:

* The Friends of Madrona Park Woods received $66,000 to continue the restoration of Madrona Park Woods by removing invasive plants and revegetating the park with native plants, and using the woods for environmental education.

* The 911 Media Arts Center and the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center were awarded $18,000 to offer a video production program to high school students who will produce videos about issues of race relations in our county as perceived by young people.

* The Friends of TT Minor School and CAAP-IT were awarded $100,000 to turn 2.5 acres of asphalt into a useful play and green space.

* The Madrona Playfield Improvement Project received $100,000 to renovate the Madrona Playfield.

* The Madrona Community Council was awarded $6,289 to install a water pipe into Nora’s Woods Park at 29th and East Columbia.

* The Central Area Development Association (CADA) received $10,000 for a community effort to commission art for the public spaces in the mixed-use development to be built at 23rd Avenue and East Jackson Street.

* The Filipino American National Historical Society was awarded $10,000 to document the history of the Central Area through oral histories, photographs, and research. Products will include postcards of historic sites, a photo exhibit, and walking-tour brochures.

These are just a few of the many projects; they illustrate the wide variety of efforts that are potentially eligible for funding. Another special fund provides trees—not money—to neighborhood-based groups. Up to 40 trees per project will be available in October for planting in parking strips on residential streets or in selected Parks Department sites.

The Squire Park Community Council wants to hear from people with ideas for our neighborhood that might be funded by the City. Come to the April meeting with your ideas, or call an SPCC board member. Together, we may be able to put some of our tax dollars to work to make a better Squire Park. —Bill Zosel