In the fall, Spacing, Professor Pamela Robinson of Ryerson University, and the Metcalf Foundation presented two lectures by out-of-the-box thinkers from Portland: the City Club of Portland and the City Repair Club. While not a utopia, the Left Coast has become a fertile place to try out new ideas in city building. In today’s Globe and Mail, Spacing associate editor Shawn Micallef writes about Seattle’s department of neighbourhoods. It’s a partnership program established in 1988 that works with and supports neighbourhood associations in 13 districts spread across the city. Micallef writes:
The Department of Neighborhoods has also established storefront city halls, or “service centres,” in each community, where residents can pay bills, use free Internet terminals and hold community meetings. Collectively, 250,000 people per year use them. With a staff of 90 and an annual budget of $10-million, the department has even provided funds for each neighbourhood to hire its own planner, to make sure its needs and concerns are part of Seattle’s big-picture plan.
