York Neighborhood Association General Meeting

The York Neighborhood Association general meeting was held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday Nov. 13, 2013 at the Garden Street Methodist Church.

The meeting informed mostly York neighborhood residents and a couple of students about ways in which they can interact with local species of birds in the wintertime and the Oct. 12 riot as well as other upcoming neighborhood functions.

The topic of the Oct. 12 riot brought in Bellingham police officers as well as official Western Washington University representatives to speak to the community. The speakers discussed closely the issue of what will happen next and how to address community and social issues to prevent a similar event happening again.

Vice President of University Relations Steve Swan talked about many ways in which Western Washington University is going to change their policies as a result of the event.

 As of next fall “[Bellingham Police] Chief Clifford Cook is going to be speaking in our new student freshman orientation sessions to help them understand who we are as a community and what our expectations are for our students as they come into our community, whether they are living on campus or off of campus,” Swan said.

In addition to this WWU is working with the city, police department and property owners to identify the properties that have the most calls to help both the greater Bellingham community and the student renter community understand who the problematic landlords are that don’t take care of their properties or control their tenants.

Officer Jon Knutsen said that the Bellingham Police Department is not blaming Western students for the event, but it is also important to realize that a new generation of students comes in every year and educating the new group consistently will help out the neighborhoods.

Knutsen also said that alcohol was a large factor in the riot. Coordinator Ann Russell, for the Campus Community Coalition that was started in 2009 to address the impacts of alcohol and other drug use on the community by the students in the community, talked about some of the programs that they are working on which pertain to many of the behaviors that were engaged in by the members of the riot and specifically the culture and behaviors associated with the bar scene downtown.

            The coalition has been talking about working with Western in implementing neighborhood student ambassadors who are actual students that can reach out to other students in the neighborhood and work towards better communication and knowing what their needs and issues are as well as and helping students with knowing their rights or working through rental issues in the communities.

“We’re continuing to work on positive social learning, which is reminding the community of all the good things that our student neighbors contribute, to create positive change [in the communities,]” Russell said.

Community members at the meeting spoke out in support of the students in the York neighborhood and students who attended denounced the actions of individuals during the riot.

 York neighborhood resident Natasha Schevlin said, “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 30 years and I am very proud to have students [here].”

Student and York neighborhood resident Andrew Eckels said that of his friends “everyone is pretty upset that it happened.”

Eckels, along with fellow club members James Leder and Ben Maki, talked about the Transition Western Club and how Western students are involving themselves with the community and environmentally friendly practices through the club such as asking to plant fruit trees on community members’ properties around the neighborhood and the York Farm.

Blog Post #3: York Neighborhood Association General Meeting

This Wednesday night, Nov. 13, the York Neighborhood Association (YNA) will be having a general neighborhood meeting at the Garden Street Methodist Church, 1326 N. Garden St., starting at 6:30 p.m.  

There will be a couple of different topics, but foremost among them is the Indian Street riot that happened on Oct. 12.

Anne Mackie is a board member on the YNA and she said that she hopes that this meeting will be an opportunity for neighbors and students to discuss and create positive feelings of community as everybody tries to heal from this recent event.
            Other items on the agenda include winter birding and bird boxes for the community and announcements for a couple of other upcoming YNA events.

For more information on the meeting visit http://www.yorkneighborhood.org/ and for more information on the Oct. 12 riot visit http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/10/13/3257033/hundreds-riot-on-high-street-in.html for the original Bellingham Herald article and http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/11/10/3303810/bellingham-riot-costs-exceed-6000.html for the most recent update on the riot.

Blog Post #2: Coworking

Coworking is a developing style of productivity in the working world that is being enhanced by businesses such as Next Space in the Bay Area or The Workspace in Bellingham. It involves sharing a work area with others even when they are not a part of your own business and it allows for smaller businesses and individuals to interact in ways that they usually would not be able to do in an office environment. Coworking takes the element of collaboration that many businesses want and need and makes it accessible to the smaller businesses that are still in starting phases or that are trying to expand often providing a platform for workshops and events to reach out and interact with people such as through TED talks and more. It is not necessarily a permanent place for businesses, physically or developmentally and even while they use them, but can be thought of as a hub for business growth.

The Workspace

            A new generation of office working has come to Bellingham.

Promoting community and business networking, Northwest Living Workspace, also known as The Workspace, is a new business that is being set up on the corner of Potter and Ellis streets by co-owners Mimi Osterdahl and John Eggers.

            The business is a “co-workspace, which is an office for freelance artists, web designers, anybody consulting,” Eggers said. “Those kinds of people who might be working from their home office or might be looking for some synergy in the community with other business owners or other freelancers, or even just to have a place that is kind of a professional office that they could use once or twice a week to meet clients or use the business center.”

            The idea arose in October of 2012 when Eggers and Osterdahl were looking into starting a real estate brokerage, but decided they were not ready for that venture and instead found the Bellingham Hearing Center for sale, Eggers said.

            The Workspace was inspired by a string of other co-workspaces throughout California under the name of Next Space, Eggers said.

            People are able to work from anywhere now because of the technologies available to us said Osterdahl. “People still need collaboration and all of those things you get from an office environment, but where do you go for that?”

            Coffee shops provide places to meet with clients, but usually they are busy and do not enhance the kind of environment productivity needs to flourish. This space will be “more focused on business and not on coffee,” Eggers said.

            As well as providing a space for people to work, Osterdahl said she hopes to provide a safer environment for emerging small businesses. “What we hope to do is have small businesses launch out of here, plant themselves in the community and grow.”

            The space will provide many different kinds of areas for use in different situations according to Osterdahl. These areas include general “flex areas” that can be manipulated to the needs of the people using the space to work in groups or separately, a business center, phone booths, conference rooms, a micro-gym and even a café. The café have a walk up window to service the neighborhood, as well as the co-workers inside.

            Membership will be based upon daily or monthly fees, but rates have not been released yet. Members will also benefit from business building type workshops, Wi-Fi and Skype capabilities and can use the space as a business address with a mail slot, Osterdahl said.

            The ability to connect with other people and expand relationships that can help to grow businesses is a large goal of the space, Eggers said. There is also an idea for a visa program between workspaces in different areas that would allow for members of other co-workspaces to come in and utilize the space while on business trips. The idea would help to create a more connected system of co-working, he said.

            The Workspace will help to co-sponsor the TEDx Here By Choice event on Nov. 12 and will open for public use on Jan. 1.

Blog Post #1: York Farm Greenhouses

With new greenhouses in the York Farm being planned there are some ideas being thrown around to try to make the greenhouses more sustainable and self-sufficient. Mary Loquvam, who has been highly involved in the York Farm, said that they were possibly looking into outfitting the new greenhouses with Aquaponic and Hydroponic systems. Regardless of which systems are put in, the implementation of a greenhouse would include more water collection systems and allow for year round farming.

York Neighborhood Farm

This year the York Neighborhood added an urban farm on the 1400 block of James Street.

         The farm, cultivated by volunteers and interns, produces fresh fruits and vegetables for the York neighborhood community that are then distributed for free, according to Byron Bagwell, chair of the York Farm Committee.

         The farm has 19 fruit trees including cherries, apples, and figs and in the most recent growing season potatoes, acorn squash, and beans were all grown, which are winter crops.

         Unlike a community garden, the York Farm does not allow members of the community to come and grow whatever they please, said Mary Loquvam, a member of the York Farm Committee.

         “If someone in the neighborhood wants to grow lettuce, peppers, parsley, or whatever then we can get them in touch with resources like the Food Bank who will come out and help them set up a garden in their back yard for their own personal use, but the farm is focused on; How does a community really start producing enough winter storage crops so that people who are hungry in the middle of winter have some place to go to get something to eat?” Loquvam said. “And that’s the long term vision [of the farm].”

         The farm is funded by grants from many local organizations and resides on Department of Transportation land adjacent to Interstate 5.

         The DOT claimed the land that was previously zoned as residential housing space when they built the freeway wall. After the wall was built the land could no longer be used for housing so it just lay fallow for a while, Bagwell said.

“The idea [for the farm] was hatched in mid-January of 2013... and then we broke ground in March,” Bagwell said, although there was some discussion prior to the official pitching of the project. The DOT approved the plan for a farm, but had stipulations that it could not have livestock or bamboo.

          The farm not only helps the community by providing fresh produce, but was also able to start an internship program available to people coming from the ReEntry, homeless, and veterans communities.

There were two interns working three days a week from April until June on the farm.

         This internship helps to create resume building and job experience to try to integrate people back into the community and find a pathway to employment, Loquvam said.

         Loquvam’s goal is to have at least three internships next year during the spring, summer, and fall and to get enrollment up to six people per quarter, she said.

         Along with the interns, many people volunteer to help work on the farm. Ben Maki is a student at Western Washington University who lives across the street from the farm and he has attended some of the student work parties that help out there.

         “I think it is a pretty good idea to have a community farm that’s supported by the community, and run by the community, and funded by the community,” Maki said. “It’s cool to get everyone involved in a more sustainable food system that you’re really a part of.”

         In the most recent work party, volunteers put down mulch and worked to help set up more growing beds, Maki said.

         Phase one for the farm was to get the structures up, beds built, trees planted, and water catchment system installed that was donated by the city. Bagwell and Loquvam are working on acquiring grants for phase two.

“Phase two is to put two 600-foot greenhouse spaces so we can grow all year long and actually expand into tomatoes and peppers and make a solid effort to being an urban farm,” Bagwell said.

         With winter approaching Bagwell said that other than the continuing growth of the orchard, much of the farm will stay dormant. Coffee grounds and manure have been spread around the farm and will seep nutrients back into the soil for crops next year.

Welcome to York!

Welcome! My name is Ian Koppe and this news blog will cover some of the ongoings in the York neighborhood of Bellingham, WA. The York neighborhood is located right off of I-5 by the Lakeway exit in Bellingham and has a great community mixed with students from Western Washington University and families. If you're ever in the York neighborhood stop Nelson's Market and Marlin's Cafe for a cup of coffee and some great food!

You can check out more about the York neighborhood online at http://www.yorkneighborhood.org/