A PLACE CALLED YOUNGSTOWN—NORTHWEST NEIGHBORHOOD HUB DRAWS NATIONAL ATTENTION

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center -- photo by Denny Sternstein

Sometimes we need to be reminded of what great things people can accomplish when they work together toward a goal. I recently had the opportunity to interview David Bestock, director of the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Seattle's Delridge Neighborhood, for a feature article in the online journal Neighborhood Life. The story of how a grassroots effort manifested as this amazing community asset is an inspiration to neighborhoods across the Northwest and all of America, so I want to share it with you through my Good Life Northwest blog. 

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center—

Grassroots Vision Manifests as Thriving Neighborhood Hub

By Candace Brown

As traffic rushes along busy Delridge Way in West Seattle, many drivers have no idea that a dominant brick building they pass symbolizes the power of vision, perseverance, and community spirit. A couple of decades ago it was nothing but an old, empty, and boarded up eyesore, a detriment, serving no purpose. Now, the beautifully renovated structure is home to the 18,000 square foot Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, a place vibrant with life since the day it opened in 2006. With an emphasis on serving youth, it offers enriching experiences, warm human connections, education, outreach, social services, housing, and more. The Center’s own website describes it best, as a place “… that incubates and inspires new arts participants, art-makers and organizations from our multicultural, intergenerational communities in order to engage in civic dialogue and meaningful community transformation.”

The surrounding area has always been working class and diverse, with the first non-native residents—many from other states or countries—arriving in 1905. The promise of jobs at a steel mill drew workers to a new settlement called Youngstown, named after Youngstown, Ohio, because of the mill connection. Life was often tough. Workers’ children could not even attend school that first year. In 1906, the mill owners dedicated a room in a mill building to be used for education, and 70 children filled it on the first day it opened. Later, a wooden structure arose where the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center now stands. In 1917, the brick Youngstown School was built to replace the wooden structure, on the same site. In 1929, it gained an addition, and during the 1930s the name changed to the Frank B. Cooper Elementary School. However, that school closed in 1989 and would stand dormant for 16 years until some dedicated and farsighted people turned it into the wonderful asset it is today.

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center’s Director David Bestock shared with Neighborhood Life the inspiring story of how the Center came to be, how it serves, how it sustains itself, and why it is now the beating heart of a still diverse, still working class, but thriving community.

Candace Brown for Neighborhood Life: What forces came into play to save this building during those dark years of its existence and to create the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center?

Please click here to continue to Neighborhood Life to read the rest of the article and see the photos. 

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AT CLEARWATER COMMONS, SPRING BURSTS FORTH IN DEEP GREEN

Spring had not yet arrived when I first visited the site of the Clearwater Commons. This deep green, low impact co-housing project sits alongside North Creek, near Bothell, Washington, and is considered by many to be the most comprehensive of its kind. I came as a reporter for the online journal Neighborhood Life on a chilly February morning, pulling onto a wooded road that would lead me to a great discovery, one well worth the drive from Tacoma.

  Clearwater Commons from across the wetland, while under construction.       
photo by Candace Brown

There in a meadow surrounded by wetlands stood the beginnings of a deliberately planned, eco-friendly neighborhood, complete with a restored salmon stream. I was about to meet a few members of the Clearwater Commons LLC and learn the fascinating story of how this project came to be. You can read the published article here: Clearwater Commons -- Co-housing Where Nature and Nurture Meet

Even though it was still officially winter when I visited in February, I could see signs of new green growth everywhere, in the form of housing under construction. Deep green construction was taking place all around me. I learned about new technologies that not only make homes more energy efficient, but also more comfortable, healthy, and better for the earth. I also learned a lot about determination and what it takes to stay true to your principles. The people involved with this project would never give up in spite of the downturn in the economy, countless regulations, and piles of paperwork. Now they can enjoy the reward.

photo by Candace Brown

Tom Campbell is a member of the LLC and also the project's manager. His background in urban planning, his dedication, and his perseverance, mattered most significantly in the six-year-long effort required to create a neighborhood from scratch in an environmentally sensitive area. It took the determination  and vision of all the members. (Please be sure to read the article on Neighborhood Life for the full background on this deep green development.)

"It's great to see how the unique story of the Clearwater Commons is providing lessons on how to create communities that blend values of green building, shared community design and decision-making, and environmental restoration," Campbell said. He and everyone else involved with the Clearwater Commons will celebrate their neighborhood's grand opening during the weekend of April 21-22, as part of the 2012 Green Home Tour, presented by the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild. It includes a home show style Expo on Saturday. 

"We're very excited about the 2012 Green Home Tour," Campbell added, "because it will be the first time that we will be able to showcase the entire project, including stream restoration, completed new green homes, solar hot water, low impact development, and one of the first certified passive houses in the state!"

A duplex at Clearwater Commons       photo by Candace Brown

Home by Cascade Built at Clearwater Commons, using green building materials and techniques  
 photo by Candace Brown

The architectural firm that designed Clearwater Commons is Banyon Tree, and the builder creating all of these first exciting homes on the site is Sloan Ritchie, owner of a green building company called Cascade Built. During a phone interview, he taught me a great deal about green building practices and materials and revealed his enthusiasm for the Clearwater Commons project.

"We specialize in sustainable construction and we try to have as small of an impact on the environment as possible," he said. "So these houses fit perfectly with what we do. It’s an interesting and committed group of individuals and we share the same values, so it’s working out great."

Pin pier foundation.         photo by Candace Brown

Detail of foundation  photo by Candace Brown

One of many differences between Cascade Built houses and conventional construction is seen in the style of foundations used on this site. The houses at Clearwater Commons, in keeping with the low impact idea, sit on pin pier foundations, for the least interruption of natural ground water flow. Ritchie describe the situation this way:

"It’s in a very wet zone. It’s not so much that you’d have it free flowing under your house, but the sub-surface water could flow uninterrupted in the top couple of feet of topsoil, like it could have two years ago before there was any kind of development there.

"In normal construction, with foundations and footings systems, you just dig a hole and you to a strip footing, and put a stem wall on top of that. It’s solid concrete and there’s no more potential for any site water to be moving around under that footprint of the house. It’s completely blocked. Water could build up.

"That type of foundation system would be inappropriate for these soils. And we don’t have to bring big excavation equipment out there to dig these holes and put the cement in and back fill."



A home being built by Cascade Built, showing pin pier foundation.

Ritchie saw an important difference between members of Clearwater Commons and other clients he has worked with, in terms of how they prioritized green building standards. "When we were going through the process we said, 'Okay, how can we save tens of thousands of dollars on this house? What can we do, because it’s just too expensive?'" Ritchie recalled. "A lot of people say, 'Well, let’s just take away the green features.' But we didn’t do that. Instead, we made other things more streamlined. I think many of the things that can be done to make your house last longer and be more efficient are not very costly things, like insulation. Insulation is very cheap."

Ritchie no longer uses batting type insulation, going strictly with the blown-in type, as well as rigid foam, in which the entire house is wrapped, even underneath. He has some strong feelings on this subject.

"It’s almost criminal," he said, "that we’re still allowed to put batt insulation in, because it just can’t do a good job. The performance of your house is 25% less than your neighbors' who picked blown in insulation. It’s a thousand dollar upgrade, and after a year you’ve paid that thousand dollars because your heat bills are way more."


photo by Candace Brown

Obviously, moisture is a concern when you live in a wetland, in a wet climate, but Ritchie knows how to deal with that:

"Clearly, there’s bulk water and rain, but vapor is more challenging  to keep out of the house. So we create an air barrier and we build the house very tight. On the bottom of the house there’s a crawl space. In this case and that’s what you’d be concerned about. So we insulate that space, and we add rigged foam insulation all the way across the entire underside of the house.

"Then we put pressure-treated plywood sheets and we screw those up to the underside of the house. Then we caulk the seams. So we’ve created a pretty tight air barrier between the earth and the house itself. The plywood is graded for ground contact but it doesn’t touch anything. It’s about two feet off the ground. It’s probably more than we need to do but they wanted to be thorough, so that’s what we’re doing."

Everything sealed to the point that these homes are nearly air tight. They are amazingly efficient to heat or cool, but still have fresh air circulating to prevent indoor air pollution, thanks to heat recovery ventilators. Metal roofs and 100 series Anderson windows are just two more features that mean they are built to last. The houses come pre-piped for the addition of photovolatics in the future, if owners want to add that. They're even wired for electric cars.

But don't look for a garage. You won't find one anywhere. A permeable road runs through the houses for emergencies and other situations, but residents will use a communal parking lot on the property, also made with a permeable surface. That's part of the plan.

Ritchie on the lack of garages: "Correct. Not a single garage. It’s really not very far. Personally I kind of like walking anyway. You get to see the neighbors and say "Hi" and chit chat and get the mail, maybe stop at somebody’s porch and hang out instead of going all the way home. That’s sort of what I envision. It’s an intentional part of the community. They certainly could have put the parking by the houses but then you just pull into your garage and disappear into your house. But with this, I think it could have a good effect on the interaction between people."

Road leading from parking lot.         photo by Candace Brown

Maybe it isn't a "lack" as much as "luck" when it comes to Clearwater Commons. These folks like to meet and greet the neighbors. If you think you might like to be part of the neighborhood, come to the open house on April 21 and 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. I can hardly wait to visit again now that those first houses are nearly finished and painted. No matter how many different sites you visit on the Green Home Tour, don't miss this one. There's nothing else like it.



P.S. Don't miss my next blog post with more news about the
2012 Green Home Tour!

Restored salmon habitat on North Creek       photo by Candace Brown

Copyright 2012 Candace J. Brown

How the Safe Streets Campaign Impacts Lives in Tacoma

Citizens protest crime.    Photo courtesy of the Safe Streets Campaign

As much as I love the City of Destiny, I realize that my impression of life inTacoma might not be so positive if I had a different address. My neighborhood is nothing fancy, but it feels safe to me, and I hope it stays that way. But if problems with crime arose, I'm glad to know about the Safe Streets Campaign and the dedicated people who work with this organization.

I recently interviewed several of these good folks, including Deputy Director Steve Jewell, Officer Daniel Hensley, who has been a vital part of the "community policing" aspect of the effort, and Community Activation Specialist Kathy Martin. Before she officially became an employee of Safe Streets, Martin was a deeply involved activist in the fight to make her own neighborhood a safer, more pleasant place to live. She and all the others like her deserve the respect and gratitude of everyone in the city.

Martin didn't start out planning to become an activist. Here is how her story began, excerpted from my article recently published on Neighborhood Life, an online neighborhood improvement journal.

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from Neighborhood Life - Summer 2011 issue
SAFE STREETS CAMPAIGN EMPOWERS NEIGHBORHOODS

by Candace Brown

Kathy Martin knew five years ago, that her Larchmont neighborhood in Tacoma, Washington, had its problems, but she didn’t know how much they would impact her life. In the beginning, this mother of several children never expected to join a march, or carry a protest sign, or stand before a group of men who had been arrested for prostitution, look into their eyes, and speak to them “with a Mom’s heart,” she said. Yet she has done all those things, and more.

Likewise, Martin never expected to end up being hired by a non-profit organization called the Safe Streets Campaign, but that recently happened too. Now, Community Activation Specialist Martin thinks about how the family tragedies she hopes to prevent through her job could easily have been her own.

“I was taking my son to middle school,” Martin said, “and I started noticing that the middle school students who were walking to school were being approached by drug dealers and prostitutes.”

And that wasn’t all. Two men in a car approached her thirteen-year-old daughter and a friend. In another incident, her daughter was going to the neighborhood store just three houses down and around the corner, with her four-year-old sister along.

“There was a guy in a brown truck watching some kids, and he spoke to her, wanting her phone number,” Martin said. “When I heard about it, I asked her why she didn’t call me. I could have been there in a minute and gotten a license number. And she said she just didn’t think of it.” The potential for tragedy ate at Martin.

She began to ask other people what they were seeing. Prostitutes did their work right in people’s yards and left the filthy evidence behind. Drug dealers and pimps interfered with local stores and other businesses. One prostitute started yelling inside a restaurant filled with people, and then took off her shirt. Another assaulted a restaurant owner after being asked to leave the parking lot. Something had to be done. To read the full article, please click here: http://www.neighborhoodlife.net/features/index.php?id=100

Award-winning West Seattle Blog Featured on "Neighborhood Life" Online Journal



Alki Point

Here in Tacoma, news gets around pretty quickly, but not as quickly as in West Seattle. After interviewing Tracy Record, the woman who owns and operates the West Seattle Blog along with her husband Patrick Sand, I felt exhausted just thinking about the energy they expend to provide nearly instantaneous news reports on every little thing that affects residents, including the reason behind the sirens they hear, the latest on a burglary down the street, lost pets, traffic problems, and power outages. Need a good referral for a handyman, babysitter, or auto mechanic? You can find it there, along with a lot more.

As I worked on an article for the online neighborhood improvement journal "Neighborhood Life," I kept checking the blog, out of curiosity. Updates on a developing news story appeared every few minutes and included not only the latest details but also traffic routes to avoid and suggested alternatives. Even as I wrote about how the blog impacts life in our neighboring community across Puget Sound, I felt the tangible pulse of its energy and understood why so many people consider it vital to their everyday lives.

In the article, I quoted Record concerning the phenomenon she and her husband created:

 “The growth has been more heartening than surprising,” Record said. “Currently 30,000 homes/businesses check in at least once a week. We are getting more than 900,000 page views a month. WSB is the most-read news source in West Seattle.” Over 9,000 of those homes and businesses visit it at least once a day according to Quantcast, a service that provides publicly comparable statistics, including all those in her statements. WSB also stands out as the only local news source updated around the clock, sometimes as often as every few minutes.

Iconic theater in the Admiral District

You can read the entire story by clicking on this link for Neighborhood Life, the journal of a non-profit that began in Tacoma with the goal of improving neighborhoods across America. Now it enjoys a nationwide following. And while you look over this Spring 2011 issue, don't miss the photo feature on West Seattle. My trusty Canon and I happened to be there on a rare sunny day at the end of March. Enjoy!

near Fauntlerory

Shared Housing Services Makes "Home for the Holidays" More Than a Dream

     Lisa Conklin and I both love our work, but the tough decisions her job requires make me shiver as much as some of the people who need her help, many literally out in the cold. As a writer, I make decisions about things like which word to use in a certain place. As Program Assistant and Case Manager for the Transitional Family Housing branch of Shared Housing Services here in Tacoma, Conklin has to choose which families, from among the many worthy applicants, will end up with a temporary home and practical help in starting a more stable life. A word left out of a story feels no pain. A homeless child left without shelter does.
     "I currently have two, 'one-plus' bedroom units available," Conklin said. "However, I have about seven families that are looking for housing. The majority are living with friends, 'couch surfing.' One is staying in the car and motels when they can afford them."
     In addition to providing opportunities for home sharing through their Referral/Match service, SHS owns about a dozen housing units for their Transitional Family Housing program. It isn't a handout. The program offers a hand up, a chance for families to recuperate from whatever situation caused them to be homeless in the first place. The head of the family needs to at least be looking for a job and they do pay a modest amount for rent while receiving mentoring, counseling, and educational classes in life management skills and parenting.
      Have you ever tried to prepare for a job interview when you have no good clothes, no shower, no child care, and not even a good night's sleep because you spent it in a car? I can't think of anything more depressing, except not even having the car for shelter. Even people with homes, a wardrobe, and easy access to good hygiene can't find work these days, so imagine the courage it takes to even try when you have so many disadvantages. But by offering basic stability, SHS makes all the difference. They have permanently changed lives. You can read all about it in a feature article I wrote for a website called Neighborhood Life. The success stories told there will warm your heart, just as they do Conklin's.

SHS clients know the meaning of Thanksgiving

     That's all good, but in today's tough economy the need keeps growing. Each month Shared Housing Services meets 400 NEW individuals seeking alternative housing through their Referral/Match and Transitional Housing programs combined. That means 1,600 homeless people in this local community alone will desperately need the help of SHS between November 2010 and February 2011, the coldest months of the year.        
       "There is a tremendous need for affordable housing," Conklin said,"and with the holiday season fast approaching, a place to call 'home' is very important!" Your help could change the lives of people who are trying hard to get back on their feet. Please consider getting involved in this exercise in compassion. If you'd like to help, please click on this link.
         Many people in Tacoma have made a commitment to SHS. "A great big 'thank you' goes out to Auto Warehousing Company for supplying our TFH families and staff with Thanksgiving turkeys every year!" Conklin said. Her gratitude reflects that of all the familes she's met and helped.
     In the words of SHS Executive Director Byron Cregeur, "There is probably no other time of the year when a home is so much more than just a place to live. Home is where we invite friends and family to our house for a feast and they are greeted with the aroma of turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving! Home is where your Christmas tree comes alive with ornaments of memories..."
         I've met some of these kids and I hate to think of their memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas involving hunger and cold. Don't you? They are our fellow Americans, right here at home, and many more live only one missing paycheck away from the same situation. Think about it, please.



Remember that many victims of homelessness are children.
















Photos are the property of Shared Housing Services and cannot be used without permission. Text of this post is copyrighted by Candace J. Brown 2010















Writing Local History - a Pierce County author featured on website

We've all seen it happen. Year after year you drive by an old house or barn, still standing its ground as development encroaches, and then it one day it's gone and a strip mall takes its place. And what about that neighbor in his nineties who spent his entire life in your community and could tell a million stories, if anyone cared to listen? He'll be gone one day too, and with him the eyewitness account of maybe a century of experiences, changes, and perspectives. We all see it happen, but few of us do anything about it. I look around Tacoma and see history everywhere, much of it threatened, and I wonder how much will survive. The saddest part is that most of the time we don't even know what we've lost until it's too late.

An enthusiastic local historian named Lawrence "Andy" Anderson hates to see those kinds of things happen. He grew up in logging country, near Graham in rural Pierce County, Washington, surrounded by history. When he played in the woods as a boy he could still find what remained of pioneers' log cabins, and even as a boy he appreciated the what his older neighbors knew about the past. As a young man, Anderson realized the old folks who remembered would soon be gone so he began to seek them out and record their stories. They shared photos with him, opened up, and brought local history to life with their rich and vivid memories from those times.

The result was his book, "In the Shadow of the Mountain - A History of Early Graham, Kapowsin, Benston, Electron, and Vicinity." It's filled with photos, carefully researched and documented, well written and entertaining to read. I'm one of the lucky people with a copy because now even the second printing is sold out. I'm pestering him to publish a third. But every one of us is lucky that this important piece of Washington history exists at all. If Anderson hadn't decided to take on this project decades ago, when those interviewees were still alive, maybe no one else ever would have, the opportunity lost forever. To many of us Anderson is a hero.

Are you curious about your community's past? Did you ever have the urge to write about local history? Maybe your own family has been in one place for generations and your connection to that heritage inspires you to preserve it. If so, you might want to read an article I wrote based on an interview with Anderson, and recently published on a website called Neighborhood Life This website's growing number of readers appreciate it as an important source of helpful information, ideas, and discussion for anyone who wants to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood. My article, called "A Closer Look at Home - Thoughts on Writing Local History" can be found listed first on the "Features" page, and is also directly linked to from the Home page. It offers all kinds of good advice on writing local history. By reading it you can benefit from the experience Anderson gained through many years of work.

Quoting from the article, he says, "Writing good local history requires nothing less than total determination and passion in pursuit of the subject." If you think you can meet those requirements, consider this important endeavor. As in the case of Anderson's book, maybe if you don't do it, nobody else will. Please have a look:
Neighborhood Life

Note: The photo at the top of this page is a snapshot of my great-grandparents' homestead in Alberta, Canada and the photo in the still life below is of a huge tree stump on Vashon Island, taken by Albert Therkelsen. Neither exists today.

News in Blues: moussaka and mice

"Blues" aren't always songs, or even sad. Consider, for instance, the blue in the flag of Greece. It's the blue of the sea and sunny skies. Think of sitting at an outdoor table above the Mediterranean, with the person you love, enjoying great food,wine, and music.

I've never been in such a place, so far, but pretending is easy this weekend. About three years ago I first went to the annual Greek Festival at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma, and I've wanted to go back ever since. This year nothing can stop me. It won't have the ocean, but will have everything else. Who knows? You could even fall in love. I'm bringing my own love, from home.

Come for the tastes and aromas of amazing foods (more than just moussaka), traditional music, folk dancing, costumes, shopping, and blues everywhere. Leave with a new appreciation for life. Click on the link to get all the details, but don't be late. The baked goods sell out quickly.

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Some of my favorite "blues" in Tacoma can be seen frolicking in neon across the marquee of the Blue Mouse Theater on Proctor. Talk about the "Big Cheese..." This irreplaceable 1923 theater has operated continuously for over 85 years because of a group of investors who saved it. When so many historic buildings have already been lost, this is something to celebrate.

You can read my recently published article called "The Blue Mouse" on Neighborhood Life It's a great website that comes out of San Francisco, full of ideas, stories, solutions and inspiration for improving neighborhoods all over America. My article is at the top of the "Features" page, but is also shown when the site opens. Please check it out. And for those who love and value old theaters, be sure to also go to Cinema Treasures.

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As for the other "blues..."

If you happen to have a case of those I hope they're the kind of blues you can lose by going out and having some fun this weekend. Remember: Northwest life is good on Good Life Northwest. Please come back soon.