Highland Park Action Committee

March 23rd, 2011 Meeting Notes

Westcrest Park Park progress: 
Virginia Hassinger from Seattle Park reported that it doesn't look like construction will start this year as Design Development is still underway for the park.
Our neighbor Kay Kirkpatrick was successful at convincing the city that Cloverdale needed to be looked at to asses the pedestrian safety especially when the new park is built. Douglas Cox from SDOT said that the south side of SW Cloverdale between 8th and 9th will get a 6-foot concrete sidewalk, with an estimated cost of nearly $100,000 (for 275 feet of sidewalk) being funded by some Bridging the Gap money.
It was noted by attendees that more improvements are necessary for traffic and pedestrian safety in the area, and HPAC was encouraged to fight for that by contacting city leaders.
HPAC had some more great neighbors step up and form a committee called "Cloverdale Pedestrian Safety Committee" that will address HPAC's concerns with the city.
We were encouraged to report potholes to the SDOT by calling 684-ROAD.
When asked about the possible P-Patch/community garden on the park site, Hassinger explained that’s not currently funded – the neighborhood would have to get together and seek funding to make it happen. This could be a role for HPAC.

Announcements:
Community Acupuncture will start at HPIC in April - see www.hpic1919.org for more information.
Ground Birds are nesting now in our parks - please keep your dogs on a leash
APRIL 16: There is a big work party for Westcrest Park - planting as many as 500 native trees and plants. sign up at http://www.earthcorps.org/volunteer.php?dateId=887
MARCH 26: Congressmember Jim McDermott coffee hour with constituents in West Seattle, 10 am, C & P Coffee
APRIL 9: Grand reopening of West Seattle Tool Library in its new location at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center
West Seattle Blog has some great links for local ways to help earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan. Some other websites that have been shown to be getting aid in to Japan include: www.redcross.org, www.internationalmedicalcorps.org, www.shelterbox.org, www.2hj.org
The community present expressed support for our monthly pre-meeting potluck, it will resume next month.

Name Change:
It was reported that 78% of those responding the the on-line survey were in favor of a name change. The top 5 as well as one more proposed at the meeting were brought up for a vote: No Name Change, HP Community Group, HP Alliance of Communities, HP Community Association, HP Neighborhood Association, HP Alliance of Neighbors, and HP Area Connection.
A vote was taken at the meeting, with a clear majority voting for No Name Change. It was subsequently declared that HPAC would remain Highland Park Action Committee.

Coming Up:
Next month's meeting will focus on the goals of HPAC for 2011. It was requested for members to bring their ideas to the table for a discussion, including ideas that need funding, big and small, so that we can get ahead of the deadlines for those applications.
A lot of ideas were expressed for community outreach, and members were encouraged to bring those ideas back next month for discussion.