Yours truly made it to a Ravenna-Bryant Community Association meeting at long last! Huge success.

The following is my report to you, the community-at-large, in three parts (which is why this is a Friday post and wasn’t a Thursday post).

Agenda

• There were two women from the Seattle Department of Transportation present to discuss an upcoming road project (15th Avenue NE Reconstruction + the 22nd/Ravenna Ave/55th “scramble”; all to be covered in a later post).
• There was an update on the SR 520 project from the Resident Expert on the subject (I seriously think she’s been to every meeting held for that bridge).
• A charming elder from Sustainable NE Seattle (read his blog here) read a piece he’d written about being old, the history of the downtown Ravenna area (NE 65th St), and changes he sees coming.
• A fairly distraught foot soldier of the 46th Legistlative District Democrats was there, asking for help before the main election. (Looking back, he could have used a group hug.)
• Ellen Stoecker, Chair of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s Sustainability Group was looking for the RBCA’s support in aligning the RNA’s Urban Village Design Guildlines (2000) with the Draft Citywide Design Guidelines (2010). She got it.
• Recruiting new board members for 2011, finding issue followers (ex. Sisleyville, 520, Children’s expansion), forming committees around issues as well – just general talk on these
• Planning for the BIG Fall Community Meeting in October – speakers on three or so topics, a big location (I offered to find that piece), and getting the word out

Impressions

As a member of the hyperlocal, hyper-plugged-in community, I have to say that — up to this point — I’ve found the group very frustrating.  The website’s been stagnant for years. Contact information had lead to dead ends or nothingness. I didn’t even know how many people served on the board until that night (5 officers, 5 at-large). And finding meeting information was merely serendipitous (I spied the about sign at the library last month, the day before July’s meeting).

Now that I’ve been to a meeting, I feel SO MUCH better.  These are passionate people — passionate about their neighborhood, passionate about issues affecting the neighborhood.  But they’ve been at this a while (some for a long while).  Issues come and go, interest wanes, board members get graduate degrees and their time is sucked away…it happens.  I’m certainly not blaming anybody — it’s the nature of the community association beast.

Next Steps

I’m a firm believer in “See a problem? Help fix it.” Some trash on the ground? I’ll pick it up! My new neighborhood doesn’t have a blog? I should start one! My neighborhood’s community association needs some energy? I’ll join up and help supply some!

The next RBCA meeting is September 15, at the NE Branch (6-7:45pm) again (agenda includes more discussion of the BIG Community Meeting in October).  I’m going to be there again. You should join me.

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YOUR TURN: What would it take to get YOU more involved in your neighborhood association?

This Wednesday, August 18th, from 6-7:45pm at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library (6801 35th Avenue NE), the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association is holding a meeting.

If you have ANY interest in becoming a more active member of your community (and perhaps even helping define what that means in the Ravenna-Bryant neighborhood), I urge you to come.

I will be there this time! And you can plan on reading a post about the meeting the next day. But I’d rather see you in a chair next to me.

Besides, we can’t let Roosevelt have all the fun!

Happened by the NE Branch of the library today where I saw a sandwich board advertising a meeting of the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association TONIGHT at 6pm!

And, as it turns out, today is my tenth wedding anniversary. Curses!

So now, a plea to you, dear reader: Can you go in my stead?

I would LOVE to write up a post about the meeting and/or get some current contact information on the group.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go to the meeting tonight, take some notes if you find it helpful, remembering-wise, and then debrief with me via email or at the coffee shop of your choice (coffee and doughnut/pastry on me!).

Here’s your chance to both represent AND support your ‘hood! And me. I really appreciate it.

Interested parties: Just email me here at the blog (rebecca at ravennablog.com) if you’re interested!

Our plea for submissions netted an email relating a strange event in the Bryant neighborhood last night. And since they are our near and dear (and, as yet, unblogged) neighbors, we are more than happy to represent them here.

The confounding occurrence is as follows:

I wonder if anyone else has mentioned a small plane that seemed to be flying very low over Ravenna-Bryant last night. Not sure exactly what time it was, maybe 11:30 or thereabouts. I wasn’t asleep yet so know I wasn’t dreaming, but I didn’t see any mention of it in the Times today and am wondering what the heck it was doing! It wasn’t a helicopter on the way to/from the hospital, I know what those sound like. It was so weird – it kept circling and coming back, low enough to shake the windows. I was about to call the police when it stopped.

Sounds kinda crazy, huh? It was pretty freaky!

If you have any info, I’d love to find out what was going on and what to do if it happens again. It was actually quite scary.

Thanks,
Karen (Bryant neighbor)

My guess is a combination of low cloud cover and seaplanes. But those don’t usually circle.

Anyone have any better ideas? Or who she might call if it happens again?

The truth is out there.

UPDATE: I did a little online sleuthing, and found out how to report aircraft noise and/or low flying aircraft: Contact our local Flight Standards District Offices in Renton. Their contact information (phone, email, fax and flare [just kidding]) is all right here.