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.
