Thanks JeWalden.

Competing retail is a good reason not to come to a community. If Target goes there, they will not go anywhere near RV. They are not going to compete with themselves and other big players won’t want to compete with Target.

So now we’re driving our cars to shop again.

I see RV as a community starving for employment opportunities, a real commercial center with walkable villages and higher education opportunities. My real hope is to expand the South Seattle Community College around Othello as well as vocational training focused on “green collar jobs”.

SE Community leaders have a very forward-thinking vision that utilizes clean energy, job-creation, higher education and vocational job training, interesting development that provides competitive real estate product (competitive with other neighborhoods) addresses new industry needs and small businesses and that leverages the light rail, unique and interesting green spaces, connection between SE neighborhoods (especially east-west connections), shoring up public saftey issues, bringing additional shopping opportunities that don’t force us to drive to Renton or Tukwila for shopping and employment centers.

We also tend to be against top-down authoritative planning (HB 1490, Incentive zoning, residents paying for light rail permits), lack of transparency and a concentration of the City’s social services and supportive housing in the community which we believe is the entire City’s burden to distribute these resources equitably throughout all neighborhoods, not just SE Seattle’s.

For decades a handful of nonprofits have been the de-facto leaders in charge of the economic development of this community and frankly, its mediocre. I do not mean to discount the hard work and effort that they have produced; only the results. We really want to see progress towards creative and out-of-the-box solution to accelerate a positive vision. We’re demanding better solutions and visions from the establishment.

So what you may determine as “positive” vision can also be determined as rubberstamping an existing vision provided from the very folks who have not an ounce of creativity in their pinky.

A heads up could be given, say a week or two. We could all do some deep thinking about just what we’d want things to looks like ten years from now, along Rainier, MLK, other neighborhoods. Lurkers could be encouraged to jump in, maybe for the first time.

Sound possible? Useful?

(Is anyone else noticing the the code word verification is starting to throw out actual words instead of just random letters? I had “sperm” the other day.)

Neither.
I read the Bhagavad Gita and misunderstood it. Now I just watch the world go by, and grin nervously.

I though you were lamenting the fact that surrounding neighborhoods were developing and we weren’t. And I thought I was stating the obvious (to me) reason for that.

I don’t want to watch the sausage being made; that’s what activists and politicians are for. But the result of always saying “no” is that we have what we have.
Somebody in Renton has either been saying “yes”, or they need to borrow a few of our activists.

So JenWalden, what’s your vision? What should the RV look like in ten years?

This project met a lot of opposition which was fought tooth and nail and still being fought tooth and nail. The agreement came out of being a more committed squeaky wheel, people showing up at committee meetings, writing letters, having meetings, talking to people, etc…

What different process do they engage that we don’t? As far I can tell, its that people actually have gotten off their duff and done something about it rather than being a couch activist.

And if you’re not a paid nonprofit employee or a paid business leader, then you doing this stuff on your own time and for free. So volunteers are spending their time to hold the City and others to some level of accountability and what??? what is the complaint here.

I know, if I wanted something different I’d attend meetings myself, and make my own voice heard. But I’m not a meeting-goer.

I just give my weak voice on this forum because I’m too lazy to be more agressive. I’m not going to go to the meetings. If that means giving up control to those few, it’s my own fault.

The good thing is my life will be just fine, developement or not. I’m easy.