Phinney Neighborhood Association: Sharing in Seattle

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A seed-lending library is part of the offerings from Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association.
A seed-lending library is part of the offerings from Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association.
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Cultural celebrations, such as this Cinco de Mayo class, are part of community life with Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association.
Cultural celebrations, such as this Cinco de Mayo class, are part of community life with Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association.
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A repair cafe is part of Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association's offerings.
A repair cafe is part of Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Association's offerings.

Many of Seattle’s Phinney Neighborhood Association’s programs and initiatives exemplify the kind of “greening in place” that could be a model for all urban neighborhoods. In the late 1970s, Phinney Ridge was a transitional neighborhood with an elderly population that was passing away or moving on. Young families were attracted to the area’s inexpensive housing — and so were developers who wanted to tear down the older homes to build big apartment buildings. Neighbors banded together to successfully push back the developers, and then they wondered how to have the most positive impact on their neighborhood.

Consensus arose quickly: A community center was essential. A local elementary school slated for closure fit the bill, and the newly minted Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) moved into the breach. Its first initiative was a program to build energy-efficient storm windows for the old, leaky Craftsman bungalows that characterized the neighborhood. Now, 34 years later, the community center is still vibrant and active — and many of those windows are still in place.

“The community sees a need and then we create a solution,” says Bill Fenimore, who became PNA’s facilities director in 2001. “Unlike the top-down model of many organizations, PNA evolves organically from ideas that arise from the people who live here.”

Offerings include a senior center, hot meal programs, daycare cooperatives, an art gallery, outdoor sculpture exhibits, a concert series, and various community-generated classes and events that enrich neighborhood life. The Well Home Program provides regular classes on sustainable home improvement and a library of resources for every imaginable home maintenance project, as well as a Fixers Collective where members employ their do-it-ourselves skills to fix broken stuff together. Plant-care clinics help green the thumbs of many residents, and a farmers market and CSA bring locally grown, organic food to those who don’t grow their own.

The nonprofit PNA relies on multiple revenue streams, including grants, capital campaigns, gifts and annual memberships. Regular online surveys ask members what’s important to them and which programs and projects they’d like to see next. The association recently collaborated with Solarize Washington to bring solar energy to homes in the community, and with Seattle City Light to host a large solar array at the PNA’s Phinney Center. Households and businesses can invest in the array, reaping the benefits of renewable energy without having to install a unit on their own properties.

  • Published on Aug 31, 2015
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