Seattle Night Out

I loved our SoZoo block party!!

The musicians really had it together, basically 3 local bands, followed by a midnight acoustic jam...
the other activities were fun and well-intuited,
there was plenty of everything,
cool lighting...

Thanks to MarkeTime, our local mini grocer, we had over-abundant BBQ goodies and buns, (and free photocopies for the paper-airplane-survey explained below!)

Thanks to other local businesses, we have over $200 of incentives. I gathered these with the promise to give them to neighbors who jump in and cultivate a small monthly gathering.

Thanks to: Hunger tapas café,
Swingside Little Italian café, Fremont Abbey Arts Center,
Richard's Salon, Hansen's Florist,
Rialto pasta bar & grill,
Video Isle,
American Music,
Lighthouse coffee,
Caffé Vita,
our local Dry Cleaner,
and an Extra Special BIG thanks to the Zoo!!!!!!!!

...As a direct result of these enticing gifts, 3 new groups got started who will meet monthly! One will be crafting, one will be a book group, and one will organize more neighborhood parties... plus our holiday caroling group just
doubled in size and quintoupled in frequency, and might ACtually practice in advance this time (haha)! I wish much joy to the neighbors who are spearheading these efforts, and to those who responded on the sign-up sheets! I'm supporting them in getting up and going within 2 months.

I feel hugely supported as a community organizer/spearheader-support-person now. In the picture you can see some bright green surveys I handed out regarding 'How I would like neighbors to invite me to come together' ... they were filled out, folded into paper airplanes, and flown in!! We now have a poll of how a sample of our neighbors indicated they'd prefer to be kept abreast of neighbors' invitations. Half of the surveyed neighbors signed up for a conversation to help make at least one of these 'media' a reality!

Perhaps our private online social network will become much more active, or something else, the jury is still out on which mode of communication wins our attention first...

Oh, and in the middle of it all, the mayor McGinn popped by and asked me for my business card and some of my time to help his office - I'm in heaven. Sol Villirreal in his office is engaging Seattle's Neighbors, On Purpose!