About
Robert is a native Houstonian who left the blue skies and hot sun of the Texas Gulf Coast for the misty clouds and perennial drizzle of the Pacific Northwest a few years back. He now resides in Seattle where he lives, works and attends school. When he’s not busy managing five-star service for the world’s tenth largest commercial bank, or buried in books at the UW, he enjoys making light social commentary on the peculiarities of Seattle metro living and exploring the Puget sound region.
August 7, 2007 at 12:07 pm
High Point Blog is being aggregated on SeattleIAM.com. The site will go live to the public in September and we’d like to show it to you before it does. There are many cool features on the site including:
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Blog Aggregation of 120 blogs into 18 categories of content about Seattle
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October 7, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I read with interest some of the issues discussed in this blog regarding problems in HIgh Point. While I don’t live in High Point, I do live near it and so have an interest in its success. In addition, I once restored an old house in a Los Anges barrio and saw mixed housing developed in Minnesota and upstate New York while growing up. While I currently am getting my Masters in education, I also have a strong back ground in real estate development. So I thought I would share some of things I learned while living in the LA barrio.
First off, its been my experience that the issues that bother good middle class people usually bother good low income people as well……..loud noise, gang wannabees, trashed cars sitting on lawns, etc. I point that out because some blog posters seem to feel their values are considerably different than those of the lower income people. Not true. You will be surprised that what’s unacceptable to you tends to be universally unacceptable.
Secondly, there are a number of very succesful mixed income communites in this country. That success is no longer unique. However, making them successful takes work. I recommend you find out what other mixed income communities have done so they could thrive and be a good place to live..
Thirdly, the good news is that mixed income communities where successful tend to have higher real estate values than surrounding communities. People are drawn to uniqueness and are willing to pay for it. About ten yearsa ago, the Wall Street Journal did an article on a Philadelphia suburb that had worked hard to become successfully integrated with Asians, whites, blacks and Latiños. That success not only made for a better community but made the suburb’s housing was more valuable.
Fourhly, there is nothing wrong with not wanting broken car windows, street brawls etc. No community likes that kind of behavior whether its a suburb, a small town or a city. I listen to KISS.FM while driving. However, if my neighbor stared playing it KISS loudly 24/7, I would get annoyed very quickly. That kind of behavior needs to be nipped in the bud.
Fifthly, for those who feel ‘trapped’, I strongly suggest you move even if you have to take a small loss. Your anger will only grow and every intrusion will become magnified. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and bite the bullet now before it really effects your well being.
Having said the above, there are some things I learned that helped to make where I lived in LA a better place.
1. Really get to know each other. Organize activies……like a Halloween party or a XMAS toy drive…..where you work together to accomplish a common goal. You will be surprised at the similarities that exist between people and not just put off by the differences.
2.Bring the police into the equation. Have them at your meetings. Work closely with them. Ultimately, your involvement means less work for them.
3. Meet with the SHA. Find out what rules they expect their tenants to live by. How they are expected to maintain their livng space and its exterior. It should be a part of their lease. Find out what they do when a tenant does not abide by those rules. In addition, find out what actiivities they have planned for the kids especially the teenagers. Many black and Latiño boys drop out of school by the 10th grade. They have nothing to occupy them. Are there any efforts to provide vocational training for them?
4. Set up neighborhood watch groups for each section of the community. In LA, we had a calling sheet…….when someone saw something bad…..like a break in….that person would call the polce and then the next person on the llst….that would continue until every person was call. Then we took action as a neighborhood rather than individually.
5. Do not……I repeat, do not make assumptions about the kids especially the low income kids. Those assumptions are what generate fear and kids are even more senstive to that fear than adults and will act accordingly. One time in LA, I was walking in my neighborhood to warm up before running. Two Latiño teenagers, boys, suddenly were walking behind me. I wasn’t so much scared as alert. However, I couldn’t lose them……if I speeded up, they would speed up. If I slowed down, they slowed down. I began to worry. While it was broad daylight, that meant nothing in LA. I was one of the few white people in a bad neighborhood. Adding to my concern, they were flashing gang colors and their heads were buzzed. Eventually, they broke
off and left and I was relieved .For the next year, whenever I would see one of these guys, he would do the same thing….speed up when I speeded up, slow down when I slowed down. Soon we would be laughing at the game we were playing. He turned out to be a bright, cool kid, not the Chicaño gang member I feared. Kids are kids whether they are black, white or brown. They are extremely sensitive and when they sense your fear, they will strike back.
6. Paint out graffiti whenever it occurs asap. If you do that regularly, the graffiti artist whether a gang member or just a someone playing will get tired and move on to someplace else.
7. Come up with a project that benefits the entire community. We did street lighting. We got the city to put in old fashioned stret lighting that reflected the housing. Naturally, we were taxed for it over 20 year period but it really enhanced the value of the homes and made the neighborhood considerably safer. Plus, we go to know each other better in the process.
There is more but that’s enough for starters. Just for the record……..HP seems to be a well planned community with some strong efforts to make it attractive. Infrastructure improvements like the new median they are putting on Morgan really gives the area a sense of permenance and success. Were mistakes made….probably. Its hard to meet all the needs of a lot of divergent people but they did make the effort in my estimation. In fact, I think the basics were pretty well covered and now its up to you all to make it a success as a mixed income, integrated community.
Good luck!
ted
October 26, 2007 at 10:04 am
I discovered The High Point Blog as a result of the Danny Westneat column in the Seattle Times and find it to be a potentially excellent forum for community building. It provides a welcome alternative to the scheduled meetings of the control driven Home Owners Association, not demanding questionable fees just to exist. So far, I have found it’s readership and responses limited to only a small number of users, and only hope that it will catch on quickly. As with all blogs and soundoffs, it would be nice if users would refrain from addressing and attacking the posts of others, going at it back and forth, and adding to the number of comments without providing any further constructive points.
Having been a responsible, private home owner for the last 30 years, in North Seattle, my greatest challenge with living in this planned community is the condescending attitude toward its residents from its associations and management companies. The CCR’s are what create the
almost surreal uniformity of this beautiful development, and set it apart from any place else in Seattle. Yet, at the same, too many rules stifle the elements of personal expression that define
each individual homeowner. It is truly a “Catch 22″. In no other neighborhood do individual property owners have a say in what their neighbors can or can’t do within their property. You never know who might move in next door and what offensive element they might introduce.
In a city, no matter where you reside, there is always a potential for a negative situatiion to develop right where you don’t want it - and, other than municiple code violations, there is nothing that can be done about it.
That said, still we must carry on, believing in the goodness, respect, and responsibility of our neighbors. Doing the right thing does not require rules. Life is never without challenges. Reality provides the stimulus, we provide the reaction - and, hopefully we can all respond constructively. Let’s do it!