Building Community
I'm going to get off politics for a minute, and give some props to my dynamic and lovely wife, Mrs. Facade (formerly known as Mrs. Cracks). We had a big day in our Delridge neighborhood of Seattle with the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Cooper arts and cultural center, of which my wife is the project manager. Here's a bit of the write-up from the Seattle P-I:

Boosters are breaking ground today on a cultural arts center at the historic Cooper School, a surplus storage building that had become a graffiti magnet and symbol of the neglect that had infected Delridge.

It's part of a fund-raising effort led by longtime community advocates such as Vivien McLean, who recently turned 83. It has collected $6.1 million to provide three basic needs for West Seattle's low-income residents: food, shelter and self-identity.

The renovated elementary school will house arts organizations that nurture at-risk youth, and affordable live-work studios for artists, dancers or musicians.

Contributions also will be used to build a new West Seattle Food Bank on 35th Avenue Southwest, plus housing for nearly 50 low-income families and formerly homeless residents.

At the same time, young families and investors are capitalizing on new amenities in the Delridge corridor and the abundance of homes priced under $300,000.

Last month saw the opening of a Home Depot -- a beacon for people fixing up ramblers and neglected rental properties.

"People are getting excited about the neighborhood and actually asking about it as opposed to saying if we can't get anything else maybe we'll look there," said Jonathan French, who sells homes in West Seattle for Prudential Northwest Realty.
[...]
The shuttered Cooper School, used for storage since it closed in 1989, has long been a holy grail and missing link in the neighborhood's redevelopment plans.

The neighborhood development association recently purchased it from Seattle Public Schools for $490,000, Fischburg said.

By December it should house a community theater, recording studio, gallery and multimedia lab that children can use. Classrooms with high ceilings will be divided into 36 affordable live-work spaces for low-income artists.

There's already a long waiting list of hopefuls like Candace Street, a 57-year-old sculptor and printmaker who lost her Pioneer Square studio space in a fire.

"It's getting more and more expensive to hang on in the city," she said. "Many of the artist enclaves are high-end developments that people buy into and I've never earned enough money to get remotely close to them."

Along with serving as a hub for cultural and arts organizations, it will double the space for the Southwest Interagency School, an alternative public school that currently serves about 30 students who have been suspended or expelled.

You can learn more about it at three projects | one comunity capital campaign, where you can also join me in the honor roll of contributors.

Way to go, honey!

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Here's a graphic from the P-I showing and some of the improvements that are happening to our lil' neighborhood.