First Creek Neighbors

Green Thumb Community GardenFeatured in South Sound Magazine

2011-06-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

There’s something special about taking an empty lot full of rocks, weeds and cigarette butts and turning it into something beautiful, useful and life sustaining. It takes time, energy and patience. But in the end, it’s about more than harvesting fresh fruits, veggies and herbs in community gardens — it’s about growing stronger, better neighborhoods.

In 2008, there were about eight community gardens in Tacoma. Now there are 42 in some stage of development, according to Kristen McIvor, community gardening coordinator for the City of Tacoma and Pierce County. Many of the gardens are on city and metro parks property and some are on private land. “People have a large desire to learn and connect with food,” she said. “They are interested in fresh organic food.”

Read more about the Green Thumb Community Garden in the magazine article, link is provide below.

http://southsoundmag.com/2011/06/01/growing-together

Also, we have another new garden in the neighborhood, the McKinley Hill Community Garden was completed last Saturday. It is located near East 34th and East M Streets, not far from the old Rogers Elementary School.

TEAM (Tacoma Eastside Action Membership) is looking for volunteers to help support their upcoming (July 16th event at Portland Avenue Park). And, be sure to talk to your neighbors and invite friendsand family to this summer event.
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Growing Our FutureTEAM Eastside Event

2011-06-21T08:55:00.001-07:00

Celebrate Summer In Tacoma on Saturday July 16th.
This is an annual event on the Eastside of Tacoma in the First Creek Neighborhood. It is sponsored and organized by TEAM (Tacoma Eastside Action Membership), a long standing community group in the Portland Avenue and McKinley Avenue areas.

Enjoy entertainment, try a variety of foods, find arts and crafts, shop, join in games, get a message and generally have a fun day.

Time is from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Location is the Portland Avenue Community Center and Park.

We still have room for addtional vendors, artists and music groups.
Call 253 627-5718 for additional information.
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First Creek NeighborsMay 2011 Meeting

2011-05-01T23:05:00.001-07:00

First Creek Neighbors

Invites You to Attend Our Monthly Meeting

6:30pm, Wednesday, May 4
The Portland Ave. Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

TOPIC

Preview of the presentation about First Creek Neighbors and the Green Thumb Garden that will be made at Neighborhoods USA Conference towards the end of May

http://www.nusa.org/

Find out about what's going on in the First Creek Neighborhood, meet your neighbors, learn about the First Creek Watershed and our Community Gardens

Please join us!

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The results are in! First Creek Neighbors came in Third Place nationally.
Very good showing for our community group and for Tacoma.

New Community Garden for the Eastside of Tacoma

2011-03-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

Good News for Tacoma! The "Good Medicine Community Garden" will be built this Spring at East 32nd and Portland Avenue. This is a wonderful community effort lead by the Puyallup Tribe, along with First Creek Neighbors, the City of Tacoma and many others working to build a better and healthier community.

We still need some funding to finish this garden project as planned, but we now have enough to get started building it. We'll be having work parties throughout the Spring, so keep your eyes and ears open to opportunities to help, we'll need your help, plus it's fun.

Future home of Good Medicine Community Garden

A special thanks goes to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for providing the land and a large portion of the funding. Sustainable Tacoma also provided a small grant for the project.

Learn more about how to get involved at our next garden meeting on Friday evening, April 1st, 6:30 at the Portland Avenue Community Center. Also, we'll talk about it at the First Creek Neighbors monthly meeting on April 6th, time 6:30 same location.

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News article from the Puyallup Tribal News, April 2011:

http://www.puyalluptribalnews.net/news/news/a_second_garden_sprouts_up_for_tribal_use/
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First Creek NeighborsFebruary 2011 Meeting

2011-01-25T22:55:00.000-08:00

First Creek Neighbors
Invites You to Attend Our Monthly Meeting

6:00pm, Wednesday February 2
at The Portland Ave. Community Center
3513 Portland Ave.

Fund Raiser for the Green Thumb Garden
6:00pm, Chili Feed, $2.00 per person, $5.00 per family. Proceeds from the fund raiser will be used to sponsor the $15.00 garden plots fee for needy gardeners.

Regular Meeting starts at 6:30

Main Topic of the evening:

Economic Development Plans of the Puyallup Tribe
It's always nice to hear from the Puyallup Tribe and to learn about the wonderful things they are doing for Tacoma.

Please join us for this important meeting.
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Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up

2011-01-25T22:50:00.000-08:00

Cascade Land Conservancy and the City of Tacoma invite you to a free evening workshop:

Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up:
How to make your neighborhoods safer, cleaner and greener!

Join us at the Portland Ave community center, Wednesday at 6pm to 8:30.

Share in a potluck meal and gathering (bring something to share with four if you can).

Hear from a panel of community members from South Tacoma and the Eastside who have made their neighborhoods healthier:

o Dan Fear & David Whited, First Creek Neighbors & Puyallup Tribe – neighborhood restoration and crime reduction
o Carol Ramm-Gramenz & students, McCarver Elementary – safe routes to school and the Zina Linnik Park
o Octavia Hathaway, Caffeteria Octavia – starting a local business

Learn from Cascade Land Conservancy and Tacoma’s Community-Based Services about how you can effectively make change.

Brainstorm and plan concrete actions in your neighborhoods.

WHEN: 6-8:30pm, Wednesday January 26th
WHERE: Portland Ave Community Center (3513 East Portland Ave)

More information? Skye Schell at (206) 905-6891

RSVP Online:
http://www.cascadeland.org/events/healthy
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Martin Luther King Day - Day of Service

2011-01-25T21:59:00.000-08:00

First Creek Watershed Cleanup, January 17, Tacoma, WA., Martin Luther King Day of Service - Participates: First Creek Middle School, University of Washington Tacoma (Environmental Sciences Dept), University of Puget Sound (Football Team), First Creek Church, Grace Methodist Church, TEAM (Tacoma Eastside Action Membership), First Creek Neighbors, Green Tacoma Partnership and Pierce County Stream Team, and other friends. This is a yearly event, join us next year and help make our environment better.

More than 125 volunteers participated on this Day of Service. Thank you everyone who helped make this day a success.

You'll find additional pictures on our First Creek Watershed Blog:
http://firstcreekwatershed.blogspot.com/

First Creek Neighbors - January Meeting

2011-01-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

First Creek Neighbors

Monthly meeting
6:30 - 8:00 pm, Wednesday January 5th
The Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

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Agenda for January 5, 2011

* Welcome and Introductions

* News from the Puyallup Tribe

* First Creek Restoration Work Party in celebration of MLK day which is planned for January 17th at Fairbanks and First Creek, from 10:00 - 1:00.

* New boards for the garden painted by First Creek Middle School Students

* News from the City

* News from the Community Garden and Garden Fund Raiser

* Other community business: Pot Holes and Swan Creek Library

* Announcements
Next Garden meeting will be February 4 at 6:30 at the Portland Ave. Community Center. A $15.00 fee to rent a plot is due on or before February 4th.

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Find information about our neighborhood as well as community resources by visiting our blog. This is the primary information site for our community garden.
http://firstcreek.blogspot.com/

First Creek Watershed blog features additional information primarily about the creek and habitat area. Contact Dan Fear at 253 304-2808 if you have any questions.
http://firstcreekwatershed.blogspot.com/

Green Thumb Community Garden now on Facebook, information and pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129893867033700

For more information call Edwina at 474-7083
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Swan Creek Library to CloseHow you Can Help

2011-01-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Tacoma Public Library Board voted to close the Swan Creek Library, located on Portland Avenue near Salishan. They (the board) feels that since we have Mottet Library located near McKinley Avenue and Division that we have enough.

Here's a link to the full article in the TNT:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/15/1466934/tacoma-board-votes-to-close-2.html

What do you think? How can we prevent public resource on the Eastside from being cut? Do you want to help? Can you Help? Do you have a library card? Just some thoughts to think about, because budgets are going through a tough times and services are getting cut.

Your voice does count. Be involved in your community and get your neighbors and friends involved too. You can send emails and or call board members and city council members to let them know your thoughts. You can send letters to the editors of the Tacoma News Tribune or other papers. You can speak up and attend community and city meetings.

Have you called recently about the POTHOLES on your street or in your neighborhood? Call them in: Street repair and Potholes, 591-5495 and have your neighbors call too.

If you want a safer neighborhood, you can add an alley light for less than $15.00
a month. You might also ask your neighbors to chip in, they probably will because it will be better for everyone around you. Call Alley Lighting at 502-8618 for additional information.
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Green Thumb Community GardenHarvest Celebration

2010-09-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Green Thumb Community Garden
Potluck and Harvest Celebration

September 25th Noon - 3:00 at the garden
Location: Portland Avenue and East Wright Avenue in Tacoma.

We are planning to start setting up around Noon and eating around 1:00. Mayor Strickland and a few others will be touring Tacoma Community Gardens and we're scheduled as her first stop at 1:00 or shortly after. It's the Mayor's birthday and we'll have a cake for her, come celebrate her birthday and our Community Garden. It's a Potluck so bring something to share.
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Compost Bines - Discounted Price & Sale

2010-09-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Compost bins discounted up to 60 percent, free workshops

With garden harvests winding down and fall leaves around the corner, now is the ideal time to start composting at home. City residents may take advantage of the last compost bin sale of the year featuring deeply discounted bins Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 at locations throughout Tacoma.

City of Tacoma Solid Waste Management, in partnership with Metro Parks Tacoma and Washington State Department of Ecology, encourage residents to compost at home to save resources while creating compost, a valuable soil amendment to use on lawns and gardens.

COMPOST BIN SALE (Tacoma residents) — Sept. 15-Oct. 15*

Discounted compost bins
· The Recycler Compost Bin: $35
· The Compost Wizard: $115

Purchase locations (call for hours and bin availability)
· Center at Norpoint: 4818 Nassau Ave NE, (253) 591-5504
· City of Tacoma EnviroHouse (Tacoma Landfill), 3510 S. Mullen St., (253) 573-2426
· Seymour Botanical Conservatory: 316 S. G St., (253) 591-5330
· South Park Community Center: 4851 South Tacoma Way, (253) 591-5299
· Tacoma Nature Center: 1919 S. Tyler St., (253) 591-6439

FREE COMPOSTING WORKSHOP (Tacoma and Pierce County residents)
· Oct. 9th, 11 a.m.-noon, location: City of Tacoma EnviroHouse (Tacoma Landfill), 3510 S. Mullen St., (253) 573-2426

For more information, visit www.cityoftacoma.org/composting or call Solid Waste Management, (253) 591-5543.

* Compost bin quantities limited, two bins per household, available only to residents residing within Tacoma city limits.
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Crime Busters - First Creek Neighbors

2010-07-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a positive story about some citizen crime fighting in the First Creek Neighborhood of Tacoma. It's about making a community safer and a better place to live. The story was featured Thursday evening July 15th at 9pm on MYQ2 (channel 10) and at 10 pm on Q13 (channel 13).

One very imporatant element missing from the story is the importance of the City of Tacoma, the Police Department and Code Inforcement Officers, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and their Police Department. All of them are working really hard with the community and we consider them our partners.

If you missed the story here's a video link:
http://www.q13fox.com/videobeta/6c7529b5-ac13-45b3-a8c6-5aac20c13c3d/News/CRIME-BUSTERS-FIRST-CREEK-PKG

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Also: here's a transcript of the text and story by Darren Dedo

CRIMEBUSTERS: Tacoma Residents Take On Crack Den And Drug Dealing Squatters
A dedicated group of First Creek neighbors have decided enough was enough, and became Crimebusters.

TACOMA - It used to be one of Tacoma's toughest neighborhoods where pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers ruled.

Now, a dedicated group of First Creek neighbors have decided enough was enough, and became Crimebusters.

It started when a group of addicts moved in next door to Ben Rimmele's home.

"I would let my dog out at night to use the restroom, I'd watch drug transactions go on, people breaking into cars all the time, I'd worry about my wife and daughter that, that stuff had happened," said Rimmele.

So, Ben and the rest of his First Creek neighbors decided to stand up to the bad guys.

"We started writing down license plates and descriptions," said Rimmele, "we took pictures, I (even) set up a camcorder on the top of my stairs to videotape the house."

The crack shack wasn't the only problem; Pimps and prostitutes were terrorizing their streets too.

Dan Fear says that when the First Creek folks decided to picket them.

"We literally went right up into their faces and said what are you doing?" said Fear, "it's a nice night, we're standing on the corner enjoying it, what are you doing?"

Ben and his good friend Martin Stokes also went mobile to fight crime and started patrolling under a neighborhood bridge.

Stokes says they see everything from crack pipes to beer, and the goal is to make sure squatters keep their open-air drug market away from kids.

"Now, we actually go to the park, go bike riding, go play basketball without worrying," said Stokes.

What a difference two years makes on Portland Avenue.

What used to be a vacant lot on the main strip that was a haven for criminal activity will soon become a community garden.

You can see and feel the renewed sense of community in First Creek.

It's thanks to Ben and his team of Crimebusters standing up for what's right.

"We stood our ground, said this is our neighborhood no one else's," said Rimmele, "all the neighbors together, we all came together."

Reporters final comments: The group says that at their last community crime meeting the Tacoma Policethe Tacoma Police told them that all of their efforts have made their First Creek area one of the least crime ridden areas of the city.

If you know of a Crimebuster in your neighborhood let us know about them, they could be featured in an upcoming story.

Link to online story but video link is difficult to find online:
http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-071510-cimebustersfirstcreek,0,6322782.story

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Future Events:

August 3rd
First Creek’s First National Night Out
Location: Green Thumb Community Garden (Wright Avenue and Portland Avenue) Time: 7-10 pm. National Night Out Against Crime is a national event dedicated to increasing crime awareness and strengthening neighborhood spirit. Why not come and meet some old/new neighbors? You and your family are invited to join us at our new community garden site (a work in progress) at Portland/Wright Ave on August 3, 2010 from 7-10pm. This is a potluck event so please bring a dish to share, if you can. You might also bring a garden chair. There will be a BBQ for grilling. The garden should be fully fenced in by that time; neighbors of all ages are invited to come. We are hoping to have police presence, games for kids, and an opportunity to personalize pickets for the community garden. Questions? Please contact Katja at 253-576-6900 or katjarimmele@hotmail.com

August 4th
Join First Creek Neighbors for "A Picnic at the Creek"
Wednesday August 4th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Location: In First Creek Meadow near the 32nd St. Bridge. What you should bring? Your favorite picnic pot luck dish, water, or pop to share. A blanket or folding chair to sit on. A big smile. Enter the canyon near 29th St. behind the Emerald Queen Casino and walk a 2 block trail to 32nd St. Bridge or walk in from East Wright Street. at T Street. Provisions will be made for elderly and disabled to drive in. For more information call Edwina at 474-7083
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The New Directions for Livable Communities Award

2010-07-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

Cascade Land Conservancy Board of Directors recently annouced "The New Directions for Livable Communities Award." The award “celebrates the innovation and cooperation required to create great communities and conserve great landscapes.”

This year the award is being given to First Creek Neighbors, The Puyallup Tribe of Indians and The City of Tacoma. The award is for the strong partnership and leadership in launching and implementing the First Creek Neighborhood transformation and engaging the broader community to make the First Creek Neighborhood safer, cleaner and more attractive.

Four other awards to other organizations and people (including our Lifetime Achievement Award to Congressman Norm Dicks) will be given during the Cascade Land Conservancy Pierce County Conservation Awards Lunch on Thursday, September 16, 2010, from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm at the Hotel Murano, Bicentennial Pavilion. This is an important event where over 500 community leaders come to celebrate conservation and building great communities – the largest conservation gathering in the South Sound.

Additional information will be posted soon on how you can attend the luncheon.

New Directions for a Livable Communities Award Video on You Tube:
To view the video right click on link and open in a New Window

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1hkQyssO7A
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First Creek Neighbors News and Events

2010-07-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

News Stories

Last month, several First Creek Neighbors were interviewed for a "Crime Busters Story" that will air tonight (Thursday July 15) at 9 pm on MYQ2 (channel 10) and at 10 pm on Q13 (channel 13). It should be an interesting and positive story about a community working hard to make their neighborhood safer and a better place to live. If you miss the story tonight, it might be on the Q13 website tomorrow: http://www.q13fox.com/

Future Events

August 3rd
First Creek’s First National Night Out, Location: Green Thumb Community Garden (Wright Avenue and Portland Avenue) Time: 7-10 pm. National Night Out Against Crime is a national event dedicated to increasing crime awareness and strengthening neighborhood spirit. Why not come and meet some old/new neighbors? You and your family are invited to join us at our new community garden site (a work in progress) at Portland/Wright Ave on August 3, 2010 from 7-10pm. This is a potluck event so please bring a dish to share, if you can. You might also bring a garden chair. There will be a BBQ for grilling. The garden should be fully fenced in by that time; neighbors of all ages are invited to come. We are hoping to have police presence, games for kids, and an opportunity to personalize pickets for the community garden. Questions? Please contact Katja at 253-576-6900 or katjarimmele@hotmail.com

August 4th
Join First Creek Neighbors for "A Picnic at the Creek" Wednesday August 4th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Location: In First Creek Meadow near the 32nd St. Bridge. What you should bring? Your favorite picnic pot luck dish, water, or pop to share. A blanket or folding chair to sit on. A big smile. Enter the canyon near 29th St. behind the Emerald Queen Casino and walk a 2 block trail to 32nd St. Bridge or walk in from East Wright Street. at T Street. Provisions will be made for elderly and disabled to drive in. For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

Work Parties

July 17th
First Creek Cleanup, Saturday, July 17th, 2010 from 9:00 am to Noon. Location: East Fairbanks Street and First Creek. Join the First Creek Neighbors for a morning of trail maintenance with a little trash pickup and invasive plant removal. It will be easy and fun work and there will be an opportunity to do some exploring of the habitat area surrounding First Creek. If you have any questions please contact Dan Fear via phone at (253) 304-2808 or email at danfear@hotmail.com.

July 17th
Green Thumb Community Garden, Saturday, July 17th, from 9:00 - 2:00. Working on the garden on Saturday @ 9 am, by then we will have fence boards, stain, paint and more planks delivered, so bring all the appropriate tools that you think we could use. Perhaps: cordless screw guns, painting clothes, brushes (we will have some delivered along with the paint), saw horses for painting on..., and a lunch (Potluck). Soon we will be having weeknight work parties. For additional information contact Paul at (253) 678-5483 or email at stuthman@yahoo.com. On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129893867033700
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First Creek Neighbors - July Meeting

2010-07-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

First Creek Neighbors

Monthly meeting
6:30 - 8:00 pm, Wednesday July 7th
The Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Main Topics

* Twelve Easy Ways to Improve Our Community

* “Unity in the Community Kick Off” Saturday July 10th from 3-8 pm., at Portland Avenue Park. Hosted by Puyallup Tribe's Community Alliance Committee. Everyone in the community is invited, entertainment for all ages, food, raffles and fun.

* Green Thumb Community Garden (our new community garden located at Wright and Portland Avenues)

* August 4th First Creek Neighbors Community Picnic at the First Creek Meadow below 32nd Street bridge.

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Find information about our neighborhood as well as community resources by visiting our blog. This is the primary information site for our community garden.
http://firstcreek.blogspot.com/

First Creek Watershed blog features additional information primarily about the creek and habitat area. Contact Dan Fear at 253 304-2808 if you have any questions.
http://firstcreekwatershed.blogspot.com/

Green Thumb Community Garden now on Facebook, information and pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129893867033700

For more information call Edwina at 474-7083
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Eastside Community Garden Meeting

2010-05-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, May 8th, there was a meeting about our Eastside Community Gardens, here's a recap of what went on. Attendance was good, some 15 - 20 people showed up. Kristen McIvor representing the city was also on hand.

By-Laws and Garden Rules were discussed and Design of the Gardens, and each person had a chance to talk about there vision of the garden.

Small groups were formed to come up with garden designs and two designs were presented to the city for consideration. The Puyallup Tribal property was discussed and it was suggested that we do raised bed on the edges of 32nd Street and along Portland Avenue on the high spot. Basically not trying to do too much this first year.

Next Community Garden meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 15th at 8:30 a.m. the location will be the Portland Avenue Community Center. Please join us if you are interested in gardening or making our neighborhood better.
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First Creek Neighbors - May Meeting

2010-05-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

You are invited to attend the monthly meeting of First Creek Neighbors this Wednesday May 5th, from 6:30 - 8:00

Location
The Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Main Topics
* Youth /Adult Partnership Program
* The Community Gardens (two in our community)

Thank you, everyone who participated in our Community Clean-up. You make this community a great place to live. A special thanks goes out to the Puyallup Tribe, City of Tacoma, Burns Towing, Girl Scouts AmeriCorps, World Vision, Christ Community Baptist Church, and Peace Community Center Youth Group, thank you for stepping up to help our community.

Article in the Tacoma Weekly about the April 24th, Clean-up:
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/4342

For more information about our monthly meeting as well as other events and activities in our neighborhood call Edwina at 474-7083
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Eastside Community Garden Work Party

2010-04-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

Successful work party to clean-up the new Eastside Community Garden, April 27th. A Special thank you goes to Bellarmine High students and teachers, and to Habitat for Humanity for organizing the garden clean-up.

We have two community garden sites on Portland Avenue. For this work party we primarily worked on the property at 32nd Street, owned by the Puyallup Tribe. They're working with the community and neighbors to help make a successful garden.

This work was focused on removing blackberry roots as well as bricks and cement on the property. The tree planters along Portland Avenue were weeded and are ready for some beautiful plants. The grass was also cut in the parking area between our two gardens.

There's still work to be done, if you have time stop by the garden and grub out a blackberry root or two. No need to wait for a work party, however rumor has it that on Friday morning, May 7th, you might see some neighbors out working at the garden site.
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First Creek Neighborhood Clean-up

2010-04-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's Spring Clean-up time around First Creek. Join the fun and make our neighborhood better and cleaner on Saturday, April 24th, from 10-1. The City of Tacoma and the Puyallup Tribe are being dumpsters to us and you can drop-off stuff you want to get rid of. There are some rules like what you can and cannot bring, and you have to show ID that indicates you are from the First Creek area (lower Portland Avenue and Roosevelt Hieghts).

Also, if you want to join us at Fairbanks and First Creek we'll have numberous work parties picking up litter and removing invasive plants (Ivy) along the creek.

Come on out Saturday morning rain or shine, we'll be making improvements to the neighborhood. If you need to talk with someone or get lost, call Dan at (253) 304-2808
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Tacoma Garden Meeting

2010-04-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

Share ideas for Tacoma’s new community gardens at April 21 kickoff event

Citizens are invited to help mold the future of Tacoma’s new community garden program by attending the Community Gardens Kickoff from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, at the Evergreen Tacoma campus, 1210 Sixth Ave., Tacoma. Children are welcome to attend with their families.

More than 150 people participated in a Community Garden Summit on March 20, where Mayor Marilyn Strickland announced that the City of Tacoma is supporting the growing interest in community gardening in a very tangible way: by creating seven new community gardens.

“Community gardens are neighborhood spaces where people come together to grow both food and relationships with each other,” said Kristi Lynett, City of Tacoma sustainability manager.

The Community Gardens Kickoff on April 21 will be an opportunity for neighbors and community members to learn more about the new community garden efforts, as well as give input on the vision and management for each garden location. Each group of gardeners will be encouraged to create the type of gathering place they’d like to have in their neighborhoods.

Topics to be addressed:

Purpose/vision for each neighborhood’s garden
Garden design, including gathering spaces or other communal areas
Organizational structure
Timeline and plan for construction

The new community garden locations are:

1400 S. 85th & Sheridan
South 25th & Grant Avenue
57th Avenue Northeast and Norpoint Way
North 45th & Orchard Streets
South 48th & Yakima Avenue
South 12th & Stevens:
Portland Avenue & Wright Avenue

To learn more or RSVP for the Community Gardens Kickoff, go to www.cityoftacoma.org/gardens. For additional questions, call (253) 591-5414.

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Nice article about the East Side, our Community Gardens and the April 24th Clean-up activities. The Puyallup Tribe, City of Tacoma and East Side community groups are working together and creating a better community, in today's Tacoma News Tribune.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/04/14/1147046/east-side-neighborhoods-mobilize.html

Join the fun, get involved, help make a difference.
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Community Gardens in Tacoma

2010-04-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

The City of Tacoma is creating seven new community gardens for the 2010 growing season. This is terrific news for gardeners and neighborhoods throughout Tacoma.

Last week residents living near the gardens received a Public Notice about the gardens (yellow notice sent). Basically, it's part of the Land Use Permit Procedures and is a requirement to let citizens in the neighborhoods know about the city plans.

You can help by submitting written comments supporting the gardens before April 29th.

File Number: INT2010-40000143179
To allow the use of "community gardens" pursuant to Tacoma Municipal Code Section 13.05.030.E Permitted Uses - Uses Not Specifically Classified.

For further information regarding the proposal, log onto the website at http://govme.org/ and select "Permit Information" then "Land Use Notices. The case file may also be viewed in the Building and Land Use Services Division, 747 Market Street, room 345. Staff contact is Philip Kao, Associate Planner, 253 591-5378 or email at pkao@cityoftacoma.org

Also, related to the gardens, there will be a public meeting for anyone interested in gardening. Wednesday April 21st, 6:30pm, Evergreen College – Tacoma campus.

Thanks for your gardening interest.
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Pictures of Garden meeting 4 April 2010

2010-04-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Neighbors and Garden Experts gather to discuss our two new Community Gardens. It was a wet and cold day.

The gardens will be located on Portland Avenue at Wright Avenue and 32nd. At the meeting we discussed the upcoming Innovative Grants and what we might want to accomplish with one.

Important meeting on Wednesday April 21st, 6:30pm, Evergreen College – Tacoma campus. There will be a city and county wide meeting for anyone interested in gardening. The City of Tacoma is fast tracking the new community garden sites and community feedback is needed at this meeting. Please attend if you are hope to garden in any of the city sites.
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Eastside Community Garden / Pea Patch

2010-03-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

The Eastside of Tacoma has a new Community Garden / Pea Patch that will be planting this Spring. The Puyallup Tribe has given approval and is helping to create a large garden on their property located at 32nd and Portland Avenue. This will be a joint effort with the Neighbors on the Eastside and the Puyallup Tribe.

We need to get started soon. If you know of anyone wanting to garden on the Eastside, we need let them know so they can get involved. Also, we're looking for planning committee members and a garden leader.

The property is listed on http://govme.org as 0.30 acre with another section on Portland Avenue listed as 0.10 acre. The official addressese are: 1610 East 32nd and 3205 East Portland Avenue.

The garden space will be approximately 100' x 150'
There's also plenty of room for flowers and some fruit trees.

The Puyallup Tribe will be hooking up the water and paying for it. Plus we have a group of AmeriCorps volunteers to help with some of the initial clean-up. We need community members and gardeners to get involved right away.

We also, need to come up with a name for the garden, if you have any ideas please send them. Any ideas or interest would be appreciated.

Send email to danfear@hotmail.com and let him know about your interest. It's time to get started so don't delay.

Additional information will be provided at the April meeting of First Creek Neighbors at 6:30, Wednesday, April 7th, at the Portland Avenue Community Center, located at Portland Avenue Playfield.
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Neighborhood Improvement andEnvironmental Clean-up Day

2010-03-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars for April 24th. Our neighborhood and others on the Eastside of Tacoma are planning a major effort to clean-up our streets and open space areas to make our communities better.

Help us clean up your neighborhood!
What’s this clean up all about?
The City of Tacoma, The Puyallup Tribe and several neighborhood groups in your area are joining forces to clean up our community because clean neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods.

April 24, 2010 – 1 day only! 10 AM to 2 PM
Where you can bring your junk:
• Parking lot behind the Tribal Administration Building (behind 3009 Portland Avenue)

Who Can Participate?
Those who live in a single family home or duplex between I-5 and 38th Street between Thompson Avenue and the east City limits (bring a driver’s license or utility bill to show for proof of residence) and members of the Native American community of the Puyallup Reservation (please bring your Tribal ID).

Volunteers may be available to help you unload your items, but please be aware that you offload at your own risk. A flyer with additional information will most likely be delivered to your doorstep or you can read more about it in forthcoming issues of the Puyallup Tribal News and or Tacoma Weekly.

-------------------

Anyone interested in helping to make the lower portion of First Creek better, please join us on April 24th. We'll be meeting at First Creek and Fairbanks at 10:00 am and working until 1:00. The focus will be on removing non-native and invasive plants (mostly Ivy) in several key areas of the creek near Fairbanks. We'll also be doing some light clean-up. A variety of tasks will be available from easy to moderate so everyone can participate. Work boots required, dress for the weather, and if you have tools for removing Ivy please bring them. Some tools and gloves will be available if needed. Please join us in making First Creek, the environment and the community better, contact Dan Fear at 253 304-2808 or email him at danfear@hotmail.com if you can participate.

This event might be changed to another day. If it is and you want to remove Ivy, please attend the Clean-up event at McKinley Park, overlooking the Tacoma Dome. More on this later. Be sure to contact Dan Fear at 253 304-2808 if you are interested.

-------------------

The Environmental Science Club at First Creek Middle School and UWT, along with the Pierce County Stream Team will be planting 275 Native Plants behind the new middle school on the same day (April 24th). From 9-10 am there will educational information on display in the lunch room of First Creek Middle School, so you can learn more about the creek and your environment. If you want to help plant plants, you should plan on joining them. They will also be removing some Ivy from trees around the school.

-------------------

Please plan on joining one of the efforts to make our neighborhood and the environment around First Creek better. More information and additional contact numbers will be added soon.
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March First Creek Neighbors Meeting

2010-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

March Meeting Annoucement
First Creek Neighbors
Neighbors for a Better Eastside Community

Please join us at the monthly meeting of First Creek Neighbors. Learn about what's going on in your neighborhood, have dinner with your neighbors, and share your thoughts and concerns.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

For the month of March, we'll be talking about the plans for creating a Community Garden / Pea Patch for growing healthy food for your family, neighbors, or to donate to local food banks.

We'll also be talking about Spring Clean-up activities in the neighborhood. Mark your calendars, we need you support and energy for a big Spring Clean-up on April 24th. More about this at the Wednesday meeting.

The East Side Boys and Girls Club is planning to close and we'll have an update on what's going on with the club and how you can help save it.

Finally, we are having a POT-LUCK just before the meeting starts, so bring a dish to share, brigh two if you feel up to it. Who wants to bring a Costco Pizza or a bucket of Albertson's Chicken?

For more information call Dan at 253 305-2808
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First Creek Neighbors Meetingand Community Gardens

2010-02-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

First Creek Neighbors and Friends,

We're planning a Community Garden / Pea Patch for the Eastside of Tacoma. Learn more about this at the March 3rd meeting of First Creek Neighbors, 6:30 Portland Ave. Community Center.

For now, I would like to invite you to the following community gardening event: Space is limited, so I urge you to RSVP as soon as possible if you're interested. Also, if you know of others interested in growing food and gardening please let them know.

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Growing Community Gardeners!
Tacoma / Pierce County Community Garden Summit
March 20th at Manitou Community Center

Kick off Spring the right way:
Come learn from expert growers how to start a new community garden, or how
to garden on your own – and meet your neighbors who are gardening too!

Highlights
Keynote speakers:
Tacoma Mayor Strickland, Carrie Little & Terry Carkner

Expert panel:
How to start a new community garden

Hands-on Workshop:
Creating a spiral garden in a small space

Neighborhood networking
…and much more! (like a free healthy lunch)

Free and open to everyone interested in growing food!

Details
When: March 20, 2010, 10am¬–4pm. (Registration starts at 9am)
Where: Manitou Community Center, 4806 S. 66th St, Tacoma WA

Contact: Janet Bissell (253) 312-4458 or janetb@tacomaparks.comRSVP by March 13th: by phone or online: http://www.cascadeland.org/events/summit/

---------------------------------------

A major concern the we have on the Eastside, is the planned closing of the East Side Branch of the Boys and Girls Club located near 64th and McKinley Avenue. The club has been in our neighborhood for many years and we need to save it from closing. Here're links to articles in the Tacoma Weekly and Tacoma New Tribune:

http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/4077

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/02/15/1071007/east-side-branch-of-boys-girls.html

More about how you can help at our March meeting.

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First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
First Wednesday of each month:
6:30pm - 8:00pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue, Tacoma, 98404

We look forward to seeing you at the March meeting.

Dan Fear
First Creek Neighbors
425 260-4991
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February Meeting AnnoucementFirst Creek Neighbors

2010-02-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

WHAT KIND OF COMMUNITY DO YOU WANT?

Attend the monthly meeting of
First Creek Neighbors
and help shape the future of our community!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010
6:30pm - 8:00pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

The ideas and energy of both adults and youth are needed to create and achieve our vision for our community. Youth we look forward to seeing you and your parents at the meetings of First Creek Neighbors.

For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

----------------------------------------

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Our first Christmas float
• Our first candidates’ forum
• Our first picnic in the Creek
• New Middle School Named for First Creek
• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 16 Drug Houses
• Closed Marijuana Growing Operation
• Hauled 201 Tons of Junk
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek

Update from our January 6, 2010 meeting

At our January meeting we began to develop a vision for our community. We brainstormed answers to 4 questions. The questions and our responses are included with our February flyer. At our February meeting we will add to and refine the work from January. Students from First Creek Middle School have been brainstorming answers to these questions. Their responses will be added. We hope to have youth in attendance at our February meeting. We hope that you will hold meetings in your homes and have your neighbors answer these questions so that we can add additional ideas. After our vision is complete, we will identify resources and activities to achieve our vision. It is encouraging that January’s notes identify activities that we can accomplish with resources readily available in our community. We look forward to seeing you at our February meeting. Please read the notes from January prior to the meeting.

----------------------------------------

First Creek Neighbors Visioning Meeting
January 6, 2010

1. How can we build relationships in our community? Who is missing?

• Potlucks
• More follow-ups after meetings
• Sending out Thank You’s
• Promote our work w/other groups
• Drawings and prizes
• Cultural events and clean-ups
• Different groups to host meetings, events, etc…
• Market our group in news (media)
• Continue to invite city officials
• Invite athletes
• Fundraisers
• Send our info to groups who distribute newsletters
• Personal invites
• First Creek Neighbors day at the ball park
• Yard of the month
• Movie in the park
• Community Geo-tracking

2. How can we include kids?

• Reach out to middle & high schools, universities
• Court system (youth who offend and need to do community service)
• Incentives for youth
• Give kids opportunity to build and take ownership
• Have kids come and teach us
• Partnership w/newspaper and highlight things that the kids are doing
• Outreach to parents to help kids get involved
• Scholarships
• Joining PTA
• Reaching out to churches
• Forming a youth board

3. What do we want our community to look like?

• Litter free, nice yards, better lighting
• Green Eastside
• Safe and welcoming
• Play areas, walking areas, picnic areas
• Trees
• Better gateway off freeway, beauty, better sidewalks, roads, hiking trails
• Sense of identity
• Economic development, business district
• Proud community, walker friendly
• Landscaping
• Community center w/more activities
• We want our community to look like the North End

4. What more can be done?

• Begin grant writing
• Invite small businesses, churches, local organizations
• Logo (First Creek)
• 501c3
• More quality neighbors
• Solid mailing list (active list)
• Contact Bill Gates Foundation
• Visible reader board at Portland Ave Park and off the freeway
• Welcome door hangers
• Reach out to our neighbor, neighborhood councils
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January Meeting AnnouncementFirst Creek Neighbors

2009-12-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

Help your neighbors plan improvements for our community!
Attend the monthly meeting of

First Creek Neighbors

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Please join us at our January meeting to plan for the coming year.

Thanks to all of our neighbors who have made

the First Creek Neighborhood safer and cleaner in 2009.

For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

Puyallup Tribe Christmas Parade

2009-12-10T00:38:00.000-08:00

After a two-year hiatus, the annual Puyallup Tribe Christmas tree lighting and lighted float parade is back to kick-off the Tribe’s holiday festivities.

This year’s event is hosted by the Community Alliance, a group of representatives from across tribal departments who aim to provide healthy, sober and gang-free events and education for everyone in the local community.

The event begins at 6 p.m. outside of Kwawachee Counseling Center, where council members will flip the switch on the lights of the Takopid Christmas tree. From there, the parade of lighted floats, created by various groups and departments within the Tribe, will depart, going down East 32nd Street to Portland Avenue, over to East 29th St. and up to ‘R’ Street, and from ‘R’ to East 30th Street.

Following the parade, spectators can gather at the Old Polish Hall on East 29th Street for refreshments and hot cocoa to warm their hands and hearts on the chilly evening.

The above information is from the Puyallup Tribal News. To read the full article visit their website: http://puyalluptribalnews.net/article/738

First Creek Neighbors are invited to join the festivities. Look for Martin and his kids and have fun. Also, envite your neighbors and any families in you know about.
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First Creek Neighbors - November Meeting Notice

2009-10-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Find out how you can be part of the great things happening in our community!

Attend the monthly meeting of
First Creek Neighbors

Wednesday November 4, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Good News: Our September Clean-up was a great success. Our 92 participants got rid of 46 tons of junk and 333 tires. We had over 30 volunteers that helped with the event. Thank you to all participants and our sponsors, the City and the Puyallup Tribe.

Link to article in The Tacoma Weekly about the Clean-up:
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/3560/

We look forward to seeing you at our November meeting.
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

More good news.

Priorities for First Creek Neighbors in 2009:
* Reduce gang activity
* Clean-up the community and Creek
* Stop illegal dumping
* Suppress fireworks
* Make opportunities for community social gatherings
* Fill pot holes

Things All of Us Can Do to Have a Cleaner and Safer Community.
* Speak to your neighbors. Learn their names and their children’s names.
* Pick up trash from in front of your house even if you did not put it there. Also pick up trash in your neighborhood.
* Use your 2 free yearly call-2-hauls to get rid of household junk. To arrange for a pick-up call-573-2468 (Only available for residents of single family or duplex houses)
* Leave your porch light on all night

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:
* Cleaned up a Meth Lab
* Closed 16 Drug Houses
* Closed Marijuana Growing Operation
* Hauled 201 Tons of Junk
* Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
* Illegal Encampments Closed
* Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
* Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
* Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com/

Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek. The creek and open space area around it is becoming a community asset and the fall is a good time to visit and see the lovely colors.

Over 50 people attended our candidates forum in October.
Don't forget to Vote before November 3rd

Scheduled Events
Citizen’s Patrol-Ongoing
Winter Ivy Removal from trees in the First Creek Open Space. Email Dan Fear at firstcreekwatershed@gmail.com if you're interested in volunteering.
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Safety Tips from First Creek Neighbors

2009-10-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Just a few tips for your information and Safety:

1. It has been reported to us that the Dometop area has had several robberies or door kick-ins. Jeanie Peterson (Hilltop Action Coalition) can tell you how to easily make your doors kick-proof if you need that information. Alarms will help and keeping doors locked even when home.

2. Keeping our porch lights on all night deter criminal activity. It only costs about $5 per year to keep that light on.

3. If you see a crime in progress call 911 and Tribal Police 680-5656.

4. If you see something suspicious call non-emergency 798-4721. If you are not sure which to call 911 and they will sort it out by priority. FYI non-emergency and 911 calls are routed to the same call center. If you’ve never attended on of the Neighborhood Patrol Academies it is a great way to gain insight and understanding into how police calls are dispatched and followed-up on.

5. Unsightly yards let criminals know that we don’t care about the neighborhood and so they feel invited to move in or rob us so, please, if you see yards or alleys piled with junk or with overgrown grass or blackberries, trash strewn about, junk vehicles, or graffiti call Tacoma Cares 591-5001.

6) Rain Tips from the City of Tacoma:
a) Keep storm drains clear of leaves and debris by using a broom or rake. Drains near street corners and low areas of streets and parking lots usually need special attention. Remember to be safe; do not wade into flooded areas.

b) Dispose of fallen leaves and other yard debris properly. City of Tacoma single-family residents can place leaves and yard debris in their brown yard waste container, compost them in their garden or take them to the Tacoma Landfill. Please do not blow leaves into the street.

c) Direct downspouts at least 10 feet away from your home or business, and make sure your gutters are clear of any debris.

d) Use landscape barriers, such as rocks (or sandbags), to prevent bark, dirt and other landscape materials from washing into the streets and clogging drains.

e) If you’re in an area where flooding is known to occur, keep sandbags on hand and put valuables in a safe place.

6. Lastly, for now, please get to know your neighbors and their children. Know who belongs in the neighborhood and who does not. Don’t allow anyone to talk their way into your home unless you call to check them out first. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything suspicious and report it even if you are not sure if you should or not. Let the professionals determine the nature of the incident.

Be safe and be happy.

Thank you,

Lena Thompson
First Creek Neighbors

Tacoma Candidates’ ForumSponsored by First Creek Neighbors

2009-09-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited to Attend
A Candidates’ Forum

Sponsored by First Creek Neighbors

Wednesday October 7, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30 p.m.

Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?

* Candidates for Mayor
* Candidates for City Council Positions 4 and 6
* Candidates for School Board Positions 2 and 4

Come hear and meet the future leaders of our City and School District. For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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Big Community Clean-up, Saturday, September 19th, sponsored by The Puyallup Tribe , City of Tacoma and First Creek Neighbors. Time 10:00 - 2:00 p.m. Location behind Puyallup Tribal Headquarters near 30th and Portland Avenue. Hazardest waste will also be accepted. Sorry, no commercial businesses or appartments, must living in the lower Portland Avenue or Roosevelt Heights areas. For more information call Edwina at 474-7083.
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First Creek Neighbors - September Meeting Notice

2009-09-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited
to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting

First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday September 2, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
First Creek Neighbors
Tacoma Police Department
Puyallup Tribal Police
City Code Enforcement
Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
* The City of Tacoma's Nuisance Ordinance

* September 19th Clean-up

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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Priorities Identified at Feb. First Creek Neighbors Meeting

• Reduce gang activity
• Clean-up the community and Creek
• Stop illegal dumping
• Suppress fireworks
• Make opportunities for community social gatherings
• Fill pot holes and fix our streets

-----------------

Things All of Us Can Do to Have a Cleaner and Safer Community

• Speak to your neighbors. Learn their names and their children’s names.

• Pick up trash from in front of your house even if you did not put it there.

• Use your 2 free yearly call-2-hauls to get rid of household junk. To arrange for a pick-up call-573-2468 (Only available for residents of single family or duplex houses)

• Leave your porch light on all night

• Rent an Alley light from the City of Tacoma. These lights work really well and cost less than $15.00 a mongh, call Alley Lighting at 502-8618, leave a message and they will get back to you.

-----------------

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 16 Drug Houses
* Closed Marijuana Growing Operation
• Hauled 155 Tons of Junk
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Cleaned Fairbanks and painted the posts over First Creek
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek
• Held a Community picnic at First Creek meadow (below 32nd bridge)
* Hosted Home Ownership Fair and Tour of Vacant Easide Homes
* Participated in Foreclosure Intervention Fair

Just a few of our accomplishments so far.
The more active you are in your community the more that gets done.

-----------------

Scheduled Events:

• Big Community Clean-up, Saturday, September 19th, sponsored by The Puyallup Tribe , City of Tacoma and First Creek Neighbors

* Tour of the First Creek (the actual green belt and habitat area) September 26th, at Fairbanks and First Creek, 11:00, 11:30, Noon and 12:30

• Citizen’s Patrol - ongoing daily and nightly patrols.

For additional information about the monthly meeting
call Edwina at 474-7083

First Creek Neighbors - August Meeting Notice

2009-07-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited
to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting

First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday August 5, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
First Creek Neighbors
Tacoma Police Department
Puyallup Tribal Police
City Code Enforcement
Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
* The Puyallup Tribe’s Development Plans,
Presented by Peter Mills, Project Manager for the Tribe

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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Priorities Identified at Feb. First Creek Neighbors Meeting

• Reduce gang activity
• Clean-up the community and Creek
• Stop illegal dumping
• Suppress fireworks
• Make opportunities for community social gatherings
• Fill pot holes and fix our streets

-----------------

Things All of Us Can Do to Have a Cleaner and Safer Community

• Speak to your neighbors. Learn their names and their children’s names.

• Pick up trash from in front of your house even if you did not put it there.

• Use your 2 free yearly call-2-hauls to get rid of household junk. To arrange for a pick-up call-573-2468 (Only available for residents of single family or duplex houses)

• Leave your porch light on all night

• Rent an Alley light from the City of Tacoma. These lights work really well and cost less than $15.00 a mongh, call Alley Lighting at 502-8618, leave a message and they will get back to you.

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Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 16 Drug Houses
• 155 Tons of Junk and Garbage from First Creek & Neighborhood
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Cleaned Fairbanks and painted the posts over First Creek
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek
• Community picnic in First Creek (July meeting attended by 66 people).

Just a few of our accomplishments so far.
The more active you are in your community the more that gets done.

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Scheduled Events:

• School Supply Carnival-Saturday, Aug 8, 2:00pm-6:00pm at the Portland Ave. Community Center. Sponsored by World Vision.

• Monthly Community Street Clean-up: First Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at at Portland Avenue Community Center (3513 E Portland Avenue). August 1 and September TBD.

• Monthly Creek Clean-up: Second Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at 1801 E 34th, the church parking lot at East 34th and R Street. August 8 and September 12

• Citizen’s Patrol - ongoing daily and nightly patrols.

For additional information about the monthly meeting
call Edwina at 474-7083

July Meeting Notice & Pot Luck Picnic

2009-06-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited to Attend a Beach Blanket Pot Luck Picnic

Hosted by
First Creek Neighbors
Wednesday July 1, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm

Location:
First Creek Canyon near the 32nd Street Bridge*

What you should bring?

• Your favorite picnic pot luck dish, water, or pop to share.
(Eastside World Vision Program will furnish fried chicken)

• A blanket or folding chair to sit on (a few will be provided)

• A big smile

• Your ideas for the future of First Creek

* Enter the canyon near East 29th Street near the Emerald Queen Casino (North entrance)and walk a 2 block trail to 32nd Street Bridge. You can also enter at East Wright and East T Street.

Provisions will be made for elderly and disabled to shuttle them in to the picnic area.

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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First Creek Neighbors Priorities for 2009 addressed at this meeting:

• Clean-up the community and Creek

• Make opportunities for community social gatherings

Things All of Us Can Do to Have a Cleaner and Safer Community:

• Get to know your neighbors. Learn their names and their children’s names.

• Pick up litter and trash from in front of your house even if you did not put it there. Also, do the same in your alley.

• Use your 2 free yearly call-2-hauls to get rid of unwanted household stuff. To arrange for a pick-up call-573-2468 (Only available for residents of single family or duplex houses)

• Leave your porch light on all night

Visit our community blog at http://firstcreek.blogspot.com/

Scheduled Events:

• Home Buyers Fair and Tour of East Tacoma Homes - Portland Ave. Community Center-June 27th, 10:30am-4:00pm

• Technology Day Camps sponsored by WSU Extension Program throughout the summer - Portland Ave. Community Center (Free)

• Fitness Boot Camp for youth ages 12-18, Every Saturday, 10:00am-12:00, Portland Ave. Community Center. Register at the main desk of the Center (Free)

• Community Street Clean-up: First Saturday of each month, 9:00am-Noon. Meet at Portland Ave. Community Center

• Creek Clean-up: Second Saturday of each month, 9:00am-Noon. Meet at East 34th and R Street in the church lot

• Citizen’s Patrol - Ongoing

• Visit the new skateboard features 5 minutes away at McKinley Park. Take McKinley Ave. toward the Tacoma Dome. Park is on your right before you get to the Dome

• National Night Out-Tuesday, Aug. 4th. Do we want one big community party or do you want to hold smaller events on your own block? Who wants to do the planning?

First Creek Neighbors - May Meeting

2009-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited
to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting

First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday May 6th, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
First Creek Neighbors
Tacoma Police Department
Puyallup Tribal Police
City Code Enforcement
Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
* How to get the best results from a call to 911
*Things We Can Do To Achieve our 2009 Priorities

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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Priorities Identified at Feb. First Creek Neighbors Meeting

• Reduce gang activity
• Clean-up the community and Creek
• Stop illegal dumping
• Suppress fireworks
• Make opportunities for community social gatherings
• Fill pot holes and fix our streets

-----------------

Things All of Us Can Do to Have a Cleaner and Safer Community

• Pick up trash from in front of your house even if you did not put it there.

• Use your 2 free yearly call-2-hauls to get rid of household junk. To arrange for a pick-up call-573-2468 (Only available for residents of single family or duplex houses)

• Leave your porch light on all night

-----------------

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 10 Drug Houses
• City of Tacoma 140 Tons of Junk and Garbage from First Creek
• First Creek Clean-up Removed 3 Tons of Garbage and Liter
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Cleaned Fairbanks where it passes over First Creek
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Media Attention
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek

-----------------

Scheduled Events:

• Monthly Community Street Clean-up: First Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at at Portland Avenue Community Center (3513 E Portland Avenue). Other dates are April 4, May 2, June 6, July 6 (will replace July 4 date), August 1 and September TBD.

• Monthly Creek Clean-up: Second Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at 1801 E 34th, the church parking lot at East 34th and R Street. April 4th will be replace the April 18 date. Other dates are May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8 and September 12.

• Physical Fitness Boot Camp: For youth ages 12-18. Location: Portland Avenue Community Center, 3513 East Portland Avenue. Saturday's from 10-Noon. Start Date: April 18, 2009. Pre-registration is required, space limited. Contact Ben at 253 310-7896 or Frieda at 253 591-5391 for more information and to sign up.

• Eastside Clean-Sweep - Date: Saturday, May 2 at 9:00am. Meet at the Eastside School of your choice. Parents, teachers and the community will be their to help students clean up the community.

• Citizen’s Patrol - ongoing daily and nightly patrols.

For additional information about the monthly meeting
call Edwina at 474-7083

First Creek Neighbors - April Meeting

2009-03-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited
to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting

First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday April 1st, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
First Creek Neighbors
Tacoma Police Department
Puyallup Tribal Police
City Code Enforcement
Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
* Needs of Eastside Youth
* Opportunities for Eastside Youth

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

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Priorities Identified at Feb. First Creek Neighbors Meeting

• Reduce gang activity
• Clean-up the community and Creek
• Stop illegal dumping
• Suppress fireworks
• Make opportunities for community social gatherings
• Fill pot holes and fix our streets

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Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 10 Drug Houses
• Hauled 25 Tons of Junk and 218 Tires
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Media Attention
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek

-----------------

Scheduled Events:

• April 4th, First Creek Spring Clean-up and Ivy Removal, plus Community Celebration, Meet at East 34th and R Street or Fairbanks and First Creek. Work party 9-Noon, Celebration and Barbeque Noon to 1:30pm. We're looking for teams and groups, also RSVP needed for food count. Contact Dan Fear at 425 260-4991 or email him at firstcreekwatershed@gmail.com

• Monthly Community Street Clean-up: First Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at at Portland Avenue Community Center (3513 E Portland Avenue). Other dates are April 4, May 2, June 6, July 11 (will replace July 4 date), August 1 and September TBD.

• Physical Fitness Boot Camp: For youth ages 12-18. Location: Portland Avenue Community Center, 3513 East Portland Avenue. Saturday's from 10-Noon. Start Date: April 18, 2009. Pre-registration is required, space limited. Contact Ben at 253 310-7896 or Frieda at 253 591-5391 for more information and to sign up.

• Monthly Creek Clean-up: Second Saturday of each month from 9:00-Noon. Meet at 1801 E 34th, the church parking lot at East 34th and R Street. April 4th will be replace the April 18 date. Other dates are May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8 and September 12.

• Eastside Clean-Sweep - Date: Saturday, May 2 at 9:00am. Meet at the Eastside School of your choice. Parents, teachers and the community will be their to help students clean up the community.

• Citizen’s Patrol - ongoing daily and nightly patrols.

For additional information about the monthly meeting
call Edwina at 474-7083

First Creek Neighbors - March Meeting

2009-02-26T23:01:00.000-08:00

You Are Invited
to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting

First Creek Neighbors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday March 4, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
First Creek Neighbors
Tacoma Police Department
Puyallup Tribal Police
City Code Enforcement
Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
* Priorities for 2009
* Strategies to achieve our priorities

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Edwina at 474-7083

-----------------

Priorities Identified at Feb. First Creek Neighbors Meeting

• Reduce gang activity
• Clean-up the community and Creek
• Stop illegal dumping
• Suppress fireworks
• Make opportunities for community social gatherings
• Fill pot holes

-----------------

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:

• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 10 Drug Houses
• Hauled 25 Tons of Junk and 218 Tires
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog – http://firstcreek.blogspot.com
• Media Attention
• Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe/community collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek

-----------------

Scheduled Events:

• March 14th, Foreclosure Prevention Workshop, Evergreen Community College - 1210 6th Avenue, Tacoma, 10:00am-6:00pm. For more information or to Register call: 1-800-368 1455

• April 4th, First Creek Spring Clean-up and Ivy Removal, plus Community Celebration, Meet at East 34th and R Street or Fairbanks and First Creek. Work party 9-Noon, Celebration and Barbeque Noon to 1:30pm. We're looking for teams and groups, also RSVP needed for food count. Contact Dan Fear at 425 260-4991 or email him at firstcreekwatershed@gmail.com

• Community Street Clean-up: First Saturday of each month, 9:00am-Noon. Meet at Portland Ave. Community Center

• Creek Clean-up: Third Saturday of each month, 9:00am-Noon. Meet at East 34th and R St. church lot

• Citizen’s Patrol

For more information about the monthly meeting
call Edwina at 474-7083

Foreclosure Intervention Workshop

2009-02-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

TACOMA/PIERCE COUNTY HOMEOWNERS:

FORECLOSURE INTERVENTION WORKSHOP

Learn how to stop foreclosure now!

SATURDAY
March 14th, 10:00am - 6:00pm
Registration begins at 9:00am

Evergreen College - Tacoma Campus
1210 6th Avenue, Tacoma

Are your mortgage payments increasing? Are you worried about losing your home? Did you get a loan you can’t afford or didn’t understand? Do you feel like you were misled by professionals who helped you get your loan? Has your income been reduced?

Come to this FREE seminar and learn about the foreclosure process, income tax issues in foreclosure, safe refinance products and more. Know your legal rights and options.

Bring your loan documents! Certified Mortgage Counselors and Loan modification representatives will be available to discuss options for your mortgage.

ORGANIZED BY:
City of Tacoma Safe and Clean Team; Improving Livability through Homeownership

Supporting Community Organizations;
HomeSight, United Way of Tacoma/Pierce County; Tacoma/Pierce County Asset Building Coalition; Tacoma and Pierce County Housing Authorities; Tacoma/Pierce County Association of Realtors; Consumer Counseling NW, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and numerous other businesses and organizations.

For more information or to Register call:
1-800-368-1455

First Creek Neighborhood Clean-UpSaturday, February 14th, 9-Noon

2009-02-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

FIRST CREEK NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN-UP

Please join us on Saturday February 14th, 9 to Noon as we help clean up First Creek.

We will be focusing our efforts on cleaning up the lower creek wetlands and hillside just below East 34th Street. It will be fun, some hard work and it will help make the neighborhood cleaner and safer. We’ll primarily be picking up small paper and trash that the city clean-up crews did not get. Recently, the city removed 53 tons of trash from the hillsides above First Creek. And, they will be removing more this week, so let’s support their efforts and show them we care about of neighborhood.

Bring heavy gloves (leather recommended)
Wear sturdy work boots.

When: Saturday morning February 14th, 9 to Noon
Where: Church Parking lot at 34th and East “R” Street.

Please call Dan Fear, 425 260-4991, if you need additional info.

Tour First Creek - Saturday Morning February 7th

2009-02-05T13:28:00.001-08:00

A tour of the First Creek will be held this Saturday, February 7th. Join us to learn about this historical creek/watershed and to discover its beauty. The tour will last approximately two hours, and we'll be exploring three areas of the creek. The lower wetlands between the Emerald Queen Casino and 34th, middle area near Fairbanks, and the upper creek area between Lister Elementary School and the new First Creek Middle School.

First Creek between Fairbanks and 34th

Tour starts at 10:00 a.m. Portland Avenue Community Center and we'll leave from there. Hiking boats are recommended but not required, you might also bring gloves and a camera.

What: Tour of First Creek
When: Saturday, February 7th, 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Where: Portland Avenue Community Center (3513 Portland AVE)

-------------------------

Also, the First Creek Neighbors community group has scheduled a clean-up of the lower creek area for Saturday, February 14th, 9:00 a.m. to Noon. The work party will meet at 34th and East "R" Street, bring your gloves and help the community to clean up this beautiful area.

-------------------------

Neighborhood Improvements - Working Together

2009-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning November 31st, a small group of First Creek Neighbors got together to help another neighbor. Two months later, the results are in and the property is much better. Neighbors helping neighbors to make our community better. Here're a few before and after pictures of the cleanup on East Wright. This is just one example of how changes are happening and our neighborhood is cleaner and safer.

To get more involved with First Creek Neighbors (lower Portland Avenue and Roosevelt Heights) join us at our monthly meeting. It's held the first Wednesday of the month, starts at 6:30, location the Portland Avenue Community Center.

We're planning several cleanup days over the next three months.
For more information call (253) 405-9007

First Creek Neighbors - February Meeting

2009-01-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

You Are Invited to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting of
First Creek Neighbors
Wednesday February 4th, 2008
6:30 pm-8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Avenue

Who will be there?
· First Creek Neighbors
· Tacoma Police Department
· Puyallup Tribal Police
· City Code Enforcement
· Many Others!!!

What Will We Discuss?
Eastside Gang Activity
Priorities for 2009*

2008 priorities and accomplishments.
Priorities Set At First Meeting In June 2008:
· Gang activity
· Illegal dumping
· Fireworks suppression
· Public defecation
· Overgrown vegetation
· Junk vehicles
· Pot holes

Should these priorities be revised? If so, what changes should we make? Be prepared with your suggestions.

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far:
· Cleaned up a Meth Lab
· Closed 8 Drug Houses
· Hauled 25 Tons of Junk and 218 Tires
· Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
· Illegal Encampments Closed
· Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
· Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
· Our Own Blog
· Media Attention
· Resolution passed by Tacoma City Council in support of City/Puyallup Tribe collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek
· Resolution passed by Puyallup Tribe in support of Puyallup Tribe/City collaboration to create a stewardship plan for First Creek

Current Projects:
· Blackberry Encampments
· Speed Racers
· Public Drunkenness
· Public Urination & Defecation
· Prostitution
· Drug Activity
· Gangs & Graffiti
· Stewardship Plan for First Creek

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call (253) 405-9007

December 2008 / Meeting Notes

2008-12-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

First Creek Neighborhood December Meeting Recap

What a ggggggggrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaatttttttt meeting!!!
Over 70 people poured in for the potluck but seemed more interested in what the various speakers had to say! We had our usual supporters such as T.E.A.M, Tribal Planner David Whited, Tacoma Police, Tribal Police, Audubon Society, Department of Corrections, Code Enforcement, Tacoma Housing Authority, Tribal Housing Authority, Tacoma Community College, Safe Streets, and many of our neighbors! Among our first-time visitors were from Jeff Thomas, from Tribal Cultural and Historical Resource Management, Nathan from KUOW Radio, Kevin Jones from Bank of America, etc. Many other folks could not make it but sent their greetings via email and phone calls prior to the meeting.

Some of the highlights were Chris Ott’s update on the First Creek Community Stewardship Plan which was approved this past month by Tacoma City Council. This means we have agreement between the community, the tribe, and the city!!! Chris brought celebratory cake which was delicious. I need to get his recipe!

We will be giving a tour of the creek area for the Council Members very soon! You are welcome to join us if you like.

Jeanie Peterson, Hilltop Block Leader, fielded questions from the audience again and gave us renditions of her unique ways of dealing with knuckleheads. She asked everyone to give one hour a month in support of our neighborhood Did you know Tacoma was in the Top Ten for Most Litter? Yikes!!! So why not take charge of your block and pick up litter on your block?

Also in attendance and fielding questions was our much-respected and appreciated Community Liaison Officer, Bert Hayes who told us about the last tag and tow day. They tagged 80 cars and towed 6 so people are getting the message that we are raising the bar and anything sub-standard will not be tolerated….We thought you should know something about Bert--despite being so very busy, the day after the meeting he went out and had two couches hauled away that a knucklehead left out in front of her house on the side walk for over a month. He didn’t have to do that, but he cares about our neighborhood!! Thanks Bert!!

Guy and Martin, Citizen Patrol Leaders, gave us an update on our recent descent on Portland Avenue. We had an overwhelming response from the public that took the form of people coming out to walk with us and carry a sign, honking horns, thumbs up, shouts of “Thank You!!!”, and even hot chocolate! We were like the postal service…neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor hail, stopped us in our pursuit of criminal activity. We were safe and non-confrontational and had kids from 2 to 92 out there making the point that the streets and this neighborhood belong to us and not to the criminal element! We have taken a big bite out of their illegal businesses and we are unrelenting. Just when they think they have us figured out they see us out at the odd hour of the day or night on foot or in our vehicles. And just when they think they can relax and go back to business as “usual” they find one of OUR TWO police departments pulling up to arrest them! Yes, we have had some great successes! By the way, if you don’t see us walking out there, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a citizens’ patrol vehicle parked down the street watching with binoculars.

Yes, We have the unique privilege of having two police departments at our disposal and they have both been extremely responsive and supportive. They care! Just as much as we care!!!

Bob Wistoski, Forester, told us about the upcoming opportunity for us all to get Free Trees from the city for our planting strips. There are many beautiful choices of mature trees. Volunteers can plant them and D.O.C. can provide the hole-diggers. All it takes to water them is about 5 gallons a month…..that’s ONE flush of the toilet!!! If you are worried about leaves know that we are looking at getting our own equipment and/or resources for dealing with that so let’s beautify our neighborhood and bring up our property values and make First Creek Beautiful!

Next Meeting January 7th. Hope to see you there!

Submitted by Lena

First Creek Middle School - Neighborhood School

2008-12-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

New Tacoma school will be called First Creek,
KRIS SHERMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: December 12th, 2008

When students enter Tacoma’s newest school next fall, they’ll walk through the doors of history. And – School Board members hope – they’ll be invigorated with a new sense of community.

The board unanimously picked the name First Creek Middle School on Thursday night for the $50 million, 850-student building rising along Portland Avenue near East 56th Street. It will combine the students of McIlvaigh and Gault middle schools when it opens in September.

The name derives from the salmon-bearing stream that was the first creek on the Puyallup River and home to a tribal village, according to information from a committee that submitted suggestions. Community members have been working with the city, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and the Tacoma Housing Authority to clean up the once waste-strewn T Street Gulch, drive out crack houses and renew pride in a wide swath of the East Side.

The message in naming a multimillion-dollar school First Creek “is that our community is worth working on,” said Natalie Dam, a member of a number of neighborhood action groups who also served on the naming committee.

--------------------------

To read the full article please visit the following Tacoma News Tribune link:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/education/story/565336.html

It can also be read in the newpaper dated: Sat 12/12/2008

Logo Design for First Creek Neighbors

2008-12-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

First Creek Neighbors logo ideas. This is also a chance for you to voice your opions and let us know which you like best. To see a larger version click on the image, then click back to return to this page.

Logo Design 1

Logo Design 2

Logo Design 3

Leave a comment below and let us know which is your favorite.
Also, if anyone has an idea for one line community slogan, let us know by leaving a comment.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

2008-12-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning November 31st, a small group of First Creek Neighbors got together to help another neighbor clean-up some out of control blackberry bushes. Four pick-up loads of brush was removed and taken to the transfer station. In addision one truck full of garbage was picked up around the neighborhood and along Portland Avenue. Neighbors helping to make our neighborhood better. Here're a few before and after pictures of the clean-up

Our next community clean-up day is scheduled for Saturday, December 13th. If you would like to help out, join us at 9:00 am at the Portland Avenue Community Center.

First Creek - Fairbanks to Emerald Queen Casino

2008-12-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

Photographs of First Creek Watershed, between Fairbanks and Emerald Queen Casino, December 1st, 2008

First Creek Neighbors - December Meeting

2008-11-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

You Are Invited to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting of
First Creek Neighbors
December 3, 2008
6:30 pm-8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Ave.

Who will be there?
• First Creek Neighbors
• Tacoma Police Department
• Puyallup Tribal Police
• City Code Enforcement
• Safe Streets
• Many Others!!!

Why Do We Meet?
City Manager Eric Anderson’s challenge to clean up Tacoma and cut crime by 50 %
How we are making that happen!!!

What Do We Discuss?
Creative Ways to Solve Our Problems and Work Together to Make our Neighborhood a Nice Place to Live

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call 405-9007

Announcements
Put $250IN your pocket if towed at the owner’s request BEFORE
TAG & TOW DAY
Coming Soon!!!

Junk Vehicles & Cars parked illegally on the streets or in yards will be tagged and towed at the owner’s expense.

For More Info http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/columnists/merryman/story/502413.html

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NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN-UP DAY
December 13rd, 9 AM TO 12 NOON
Join us in picking up trash and hauling it away. If you have something you need help with give us a call.

******************************************************************************

Free Energy-Saving Light Bulbs
Courtesy of Tacoma Power. Keeping Porch Lights on at Night Cuts Crime for Only Pennies a Month

******************************************************************************

Sign Up for Our Phone Tree & Email List
Stay In Touch and Be Informed. Things are HAPPENING Quickly as We Gain Momentum!!!

******************************************************************************

Our Neighborhood Belongs to Us NOT Drug Dealers, Pimps, & Gangs
Join us as we make our presence known on Portland Ave starting Nov 8th

******************************************************************************

Neighborhood Accomplishments So Far
• Cleaned up a Meth Lab
• Closed 4 Drug Houses
• Hauled 25 Tons of Junk and 218 Tires
• Lights Restored in Portland Avenue Park
• Illegal Encampments Closed
• Organized an Active Neighborhood Patrol
• Cleaned up Numerous Problem Houses
• Our Own Blog
• Media Attention

Current Projects
• Blackberry Encampments
• Speed Racers
• Public Drunkenness
• Public Urination & Defecation
• Prostitution
• Drug Activity
• Gangs & Graffiti

-----------------------

Click link to download a printable flyer to hand out to your neighbors:
First Creek Neighbors December Meeting Flyer.doc

City of Tacoma / Safe and Clean Initiative
Handout from November First Creek Neighbors meeting
Safe and Clean Intiatives.doc

-----------------------

First Creek Watershed Tacoma Daily Index

2008-11-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

Online article in Tacoma Daily Index
By Todd Matthews

A partnership between the City of Tacoma, the Puyallup Tribe, and a citizens group could create a stewardship plan for First Creek and a sprawling watershed located on Tacoma's East Side.

On Tuesday morning, Tacoma City Council's environment and public works committee was briefed on a plan to increase public safety of the watershed, as well as restore, protect, and recognize the area's cultural significance. "This is an opportunity to reclaim this area," said City staff liaison Alisa O'Hanlon. "It is an asset to the community."

O'Hanlon presented a resolution aimed to "make a statement" that the city and the tribe were committed to working together on long-term care of the area.

Indeed, the resolution states a stewardship plan would assist the city in protecting infrastructure in the area, contribute to the city's open space planning and environmental preservation efforts, recognize the cultural significance of the area, and allow the area to contribute to the quality of life in the area.

--------------------------

Chris Ott, David Whitehead and Edwina Magrum are mentioned in the article.

To read more of this article please visit the following Tacoma Daily Index link:
http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=88&cat=23&id=1421591&more=0

News about First Creek NeighborsTacoma News Tribune

2008-11-20T09:37:00.000-08:00

Neighbors want better life for East Side kids
KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: November 15th, 2008 12:05 AM

I thought the girl was dead. I thought that on the most ordinary of nights, she’d made the last, worst choice of her life. It was Thursday, and First Creek Neighbors had invited me to join a walkabout on Portland Avenue near 32nd Street East.

They looked like people you’d see in a grocery checkout line, except for the anti-drug, anti-prostitution, anti-gang signs they carried.

Every night at 7 the neighbors meet at Portland Avenue Community Center, then stroll toward spots where they’ve noticed shady activity. Somewhere in the background, there’s always a Tacoma Police Department or Puyallup Tribal Police squad car ready to respond if they run into trouble.

Jeanie Peterson, Hilltop Action Coalition’s queen of the walkabout, taught them how to take back their street: Be nice. Be firm. Wear white hats. Bring a high-beam flashlight. Let the women do the talking.

--------------------------

To read more of this article please visit the following Tacoma News Tribune link:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/columnists/merryman/story/538454.html

It can also be read in the newpaper dated: Sat 11/15/2008, page B1

Crime Prevention Month / City of Tacoma

2008-11-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

News Release
From the City of Tacoma, Washington
www.cityoftacoma.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 8, 2008

MEDIA CONTACTS
Karrie Spitzer, Community Relations, karrie.spitzer@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 591-5790Lisa Copp, Human Rights and Human Services, lisa.copp@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 591-5277Take part in Crime Prevention Month The City of Tacoma is joining with the National Crime Prevention Council to observe Crime Prevention Month during October.Crime prevention and safety takes a community to be successful; it is being aware that a crime can occur, anticipating how, when, where and who might be the victim, and taking action to reduce the chances of it happening. Crime prevention is using instinct, common sense, and action to eliminate or greatly reduce the criminal’s opportunity.

As part of a citywide Safe and Clean initiative, the City would like to encourage you to join your community in the effort to reduce crime in Tacoma by 50 percent, within 14 months, and to clean up the city. The Tacoma City Council and city staff are working hard to make Tacoma safe, clean and attractive, and your contributions to the effort will make the difference.
You can get started now by:

Turning on your front porch light
Picking up litter around the block where you live

Together we can have safer and cleaner neighborhoods. Read more about the Safe and Clean effort and find out how to get involved at www.cityoftacoma.org/safeandclean or by calling 591-5130. For more information about National Crime Prevention Month, visit www.ncpc.org.

---------------------------------------

This is a late blog posting that got lost in my emails. However, every month should be crime prevention month. Keep an eye out, turn on those porch lights, and clean up your neighborhood.

October 2008 / Meeting Notes

2008-10-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Neighbors,

Another amazing meeting last Wednesday! We had the Kohut boys helping to set up chairs. They are in their 70’s, have lived in the neighborhood all their lives and haven’t given up on the neighborhood! Girl Scouts provided refreshments and took care of the sign-in desk. We had some very enthusiastic newcomers who are fired up and ready to make some noise!

Our BACKUP (Blight And Crime Kept Under Patrol) is getting off to a great start. They are becoming increasingly familiar with the neighborhood and the pockets of iniquity within. They are compiling evidence that will no doubt be crucial in ridding our neighborhood of the crime and grime that has too often been overlooked or ignored. There is no room for complacency anymore. They are out morning, afternoon, evening, and late night….yes, they give up Letterman to be out there and will even tell you it is more fun!! The patrol should be getting its equipment from Metro Parks very soon so be on the lookout for them because they will be on the lookout for your well-being! Please call in anything you see so it can add to our mounting body of evidence! Jeanie Peterson from HAC has offered to mentor our patrol. (by the way check out the article on Jeanie and video on what they achieved on Hilltop….they actually had an 80% reduction in crime!!!) Here’s the link… http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/tacoma/story/372098.html

David Whited, Planner for the Puyallup Tribe, fielded questions from attendees and gave us much valuable insight into the history and future plans of the tribe. It is very exciting to be part of such an historic partnership! In case you haven’t seen the show on Channel 12 about the creek clean up…you really should see just how beautiful it is down there! We are sure to rival Point Defiance or Chambers Creek once the First Creek project is brought to fruition. Our neighborhood will be on the map!!! And in the tourist guides!!! And an area to be proud to live in….

John Reeves, Tacoma Code Enforcement, helped us see how reasonable he is in dealing with the abatement issues. Many people are simply not aware of the resources available to them. Time and again folks say they are concerned with the welfare of the homeless in the area or are worried about the senior citizens or the disabled or those lacking the financial means to tend to their properties properly. Resources are available and we are all working hard to get the word out there. Volunteers are available and funds are available and other resources are available….for those who are “in the know”. So, please, help us in getting the word out….

Chris Ott, who also works for the city in many capacities, helped us to see the bright, shiny future we have ahead if we all pitch together. His first love is the environment but he realizes that it encompasses much more than trees and animals. He is an optimist but a realist and I am so glad we got to meet with him more extensively after the meeting. He is in our corner, as it were, in this boxing match against the crime and grime. You can also see Chris on the Channel 12 program about the creek. (also starring our very own Edwin Magrum)

There’s another program starring our awesome CLO, Bert Hayes, that was very insightful….so check out channel 12 when you get a chance!!!

Pitching together is what really happened at that meeting. Folks volunteered to take on leadership roles to oversee various tasks like flyers, block watches, phone trees, problem properties, and the like. Those folks won’t be alone in their efforts because there are others who have a burning desire to help but who may be shy or otherwise reluctant to step forward for fear that the entire burden will be laid upon them. Not the case here. We are a team!

Have you seen our blog yet???? Dan Fear stepped up and created it that same evening…a task beyond my comprehension. It is http://firstcreek.blogspot.com/

Check it out!!!

Did we have a special visitor to this meeting? Of course! Kathleen Merryman of the Tacoma News Tribune was in attendance and spent the next day touring the neighborhood with Guy and me. We showed her all the problems we have, told her of the efforts we are all , and of the hopes (dare we dream?) we all have for our community. Read her take on things at

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/columnists/merryman/story/500503.html First Creek Neighbors you are getting attention!!!

Things are happening so quickly…Next on the agenda for us is dealing with our blackberry encampment issue. We have folks who are either squatting on vacant properties and defecating in public or are living in the blackberries and also carrying on other illegal and/or unsanitary behaviors. We are working on a “committee” to address how to make a concerted effort at eliminating this problem in a way that is a win-win for all. The issue is complicated but not unsolvable.

We have another problem that is being looked into and that is the vacant properties themselves. Many are being foreclosed upon or are bank-owned or otherwise abandoned. Those properties present an issue in that they are unkempt, unsightly, unsafe….you get the picture…in fact, if we just take off the blinders we have convinced ourselves to wear, we can really see the picture for what it is.

We have flowers, plants and trees available to us…free…we just have to pick them up and/or get homeowner permission to plant! Have you ever driven through Bellevue? We may never look as colorful as that but we have an awesome chance here! Can you imagine driving down a street and seeing beautiful flowers and trees…like liquid amber….instead of abandoned, junk vehicles or RV’s that are falling apart or mattresses tossed out on the curb? Or roses splashed against the wall instead of graffiti??? It can happen…ask how??? We need someone to go pick them up in behalf of the group? Anyone going to be in Puyallup????

I still have more free light bulbs from TPU so that you can keep your porch lights on at night….one of the most cost-effective ways to curb crime!!! It is only PENNIES a month!!!!! Contact me and I will be sure you get one! Or if your next door neighbor has a dark yard and could use one, let me know and we can be sure they get one!!! We must make this neighborhood less desirable for the undesirables!!!!

If you haven’t been in touch with me previously, let me know if you enjoy receiving these updates so I will be sure to keep you in the loop. Knowledge is power and I want you to be empowered! First Creek Neighbors are becoming a force to be reckoned with so come on board with us or, at least, let me know to keep you in the loop.

Specific ways you can help?
Call in any suspicious behavior! Then call us!
Report street lights that are out
Report stop signs that are missing
Report Graffiti immediately
Keep your Porch Lights on at Night
Plant a flower or two!!!

Email for more easy ways you can be part of the solution!!!
Lena

Just One of Many of First Creek’s Neighbors
J

p.s. next meeting is November 5th

Important Telephone Numbers

2008-10-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Where to call for help!

911 Supervisor / 798-4721
Abandoned Vehicles / 591-5926
Adolescent Services, Pierce Co. / 502-5470
Adult Protective Services (State) / 475-7212
AIDS Foundation / 383-2565
Alcoholics Anonymous / 474-8897
Alley Grading / 591-5496
Alley Lighting / 502-8618
Animal Care & Control / 627-7387 (PETS)
Building Inspector / 573-2320
Catholic Community Services / 383-5526
Call-2-Haul (Trash Pick-up) / 573-2468
Cart Recovery (Grocery Stores) / 1-866-906-CART
Centro Latino SER / 572-7717
Child Abuse Hotline / 1-800-363-4276
Child Care Referral / 591-2025
Child Protective Services / 983-6100
Child Reconciliation Services (teens) / 983-6100+2

Community Centers
Portland Ave Community Center / 591-5391
South End Community Center / 591-5098

Comprehensive Mental Health / 756-9960
Consumer Protection, State / 593-2904
Crime-Free Housing / 591-5160
Crisis Line, Pierce County (24 Hrs) / 1-800-576-7764
Disability Employment – TACID / 565-9000 X25
Dispute Resolution, Center for / 572-3657

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Crisis Line (24-Hours) / 475-9010
YWCA Hot Line (24-Hour) / 383-2593
Domestic Violence Help Line / 798-4166
(Good Referral Service)
Protection Order / 591-7455

Dump (Landfill), City / 591-5543
Earthquake Preparedness / 798-7470
East Side Boys and Girls Club / 474-2266
Election Office / 798-7430

EMPLOYMENT
Private Industry Council / 591-5450
Job Corps / 572-7140
Work Source (Placement—+3or4) / 593-7300
EORC (Education/Jobs) / 572-5960

Energy Conservation Office / 582-8363
Garbage Violations / 591-5543
Gardening / 472-7264
Grandparents Raising Children / 565-4484
Grief, Acquainted with / 272-5558
Hate Crimes / 594-7843
Hazardous Waste Disposal / 591-5418
Health Department, Pierce Co. / 798-6440
Hilltop Action Coalition / 383-3056 X112
Homeownership Center of Tacoma / 627-6560
Human Rights / 591-5151
Humane Society /383-2733
Indo-Chinese Cultural Service Center / 473-5666
Junk Vehicles / 591-5015
HEROS (Outreach to Seniors) / 445-8120

LEGAL SERVICES
Columbia Legal Services / 572-6000
CLEAR Legal Advice / 1-888-201-1014

Library, Main (Quick Info) / 591-5666
MLK Housing Development / 627-1099

MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCIES
Comprehensive Mental Health / 756-9960
Crisis Line, Pierce Co. (24 Hrs) / 1-800-576-7764
Suicide – Crisis Line / 1-800-576-7764

Narcotics Anonymous / 531-8792
PAAYS / 572-1129
Power outage, fallen wires / 502-8602
Property Owner (Taxpayer) Info / 798-6111
Puyallup Tribe of Indians / 597-6200
Recycling / 565-5955
Refuse (Garbage) / 591-5543
Restraining Order / 591-7455
Safe Streets / 272-6824

SCHOOLS
Birney ES / 571-4600
Blix ES / 571-1380
Boze ES / 571-4688
Fawcett ES / 571-4700
Fern Hill ES / 571-3888
Larchmont ES / 571-2092
Lister ES / 571-2900
Lyon ES / 571-2090
McKinley ES / 571-2070
Mann ES / 571-6300
Roosevelt ES / 571-4400
Sheridan ES / 571-2076
Stafford ES / 571-4300
Whitman ES / 571-2077
Baker MS / 571-5000
Gault MS / 571-1405
Stewart MS / 571-4200
McIlvaigh MS / 571-2080
Lincoln HS / 571-6700

Sex Offender Releases pso.co.pierce.wa.us
Sexual Assault Hotline / 474-7273
Sexual Assault Crisis Center / 597-6424
Shared Housing / 272-1532
Sidewalks hazardous / 591-5270
Speed Reduction Applications / 591-5269
Street Sweeping, Pot-Holes / 591-5495
Streetlighting, Burned-Out / 591-5287
Streetlighting, Upgrading / 591-5278
Suicide – Crisis Line / 1-800-576-7764
Tacoma CARES / 591-5001
Tacoma Community House / 383-3951
Tacoma Housing Authority / 207-4400
Teen-agers in trouble / 1-800-422-7556
Traffic Engineering / 591-5269
Traffic Infractions (leave message) / 594-7873+0
Trash, Curbside Pick-Up (Call-2-Haul) / 573-2468
Trees in Planting Strip, Recommendations / 591-5495
Truancy Center / 571-2123

Urban League, Tacoma / 383-2006
Urban League Academy / 597-6436
Skills Training / 272-8288
School-to-Work/MASAI / 597-6435

Unemployment Info (Work Source) / 593-7300
United Way HELP Line / 572-4357
Voter Registration / 798-7430
Water out, leaks (after hours 502-8344) / 502-8384
WSU Coop. Extension County Office / 798-7180
Master Gardener / 798-7170
Youth-At-Risk (Becca Law) / 798-7944
Youth Outreach (Campfire) / 597-6234
Y.M.C.A. / 597-6444

ELECTED OFFICIALS

TACOMA
Mayor, Bill Baarsma / 591-5100
City Council Member Rick Talbert / 591-5100 (office)

PIERCE COUNTY
County Executive
John Ladenburg / 798-7477

County Council Member
Tim Farrell / 798-7590
Barbara Gelman / 798-6653
Dick Muri / 798-3308

Assessor-Treasurer
Ken Madsen / 798-6111

Auditor
Pat McCarthy / 798-3189

Prosecutor
Gerald Horne / 798-7400

STATE OF WASHINGTON
Governor Christine Gregoire / (360)753-6780

State Representatives - 29th Leg. District
Representative Steve Conway
(Olympia) / (360)786-7906

Legislative Hot-Line / 1-800-562-6000

Representative Steve Kirby
(Olympia) / (360) 786-7996

State Senator
Senator Rosa Franklin / 253-759-9674
(Olympia) / (360) 786-7656

Attorney-General
Rob McKenna / (360)753-6200

NATIONAL -- U.S. Representative
Norm Dicks / 593-6536
(Washington, DC) / (202)225-5916

NATIONAL -- U.S. Senators
Maria Cantwell / (206)220-6400
(Washington, DC) / (202)224-3441

Patty Murray / (206)553-5545
(Washington, DC) / (202)224-2621

TACOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Emergencies / 911
Non-Emergency Line / 798-4722
Chief of Police / 591-5901

Sector 4 Substation / 594-7947
Commander Lt. Shawn Stringer / 594-7948
sstringe@cityoftacoma.org

Community Liaison Officers (CLO)
Officer Robert Luke / 573-2562
rluke@ci.tacoma.wa.us

Officer Don Williams / 594-7945
dwilliam@cityoftacoma.org

Officer Diana Judge / 573-2556
djudge@cityoftacoma.org

Community Based Service (CBS) Officer:
Officer Roland "Bert" Hayes / 594-7877
rhayes@cityoftacoma.org

Sex-Offender Violation (TPD detective) / 591-5937
Traffic Infractions (lv. message) / 594-7873+0
C.R.A.K. Hotline / 475-2725
Crime Stopper / 591-5959
Drug House Elimination Team Officer Greg Hopkins / 591-5883

Detective Follow-up
Crimes against Persons / 591-9940
Juvenile Crimes / 591-5933
Property Crimes / 591-5934

Tip-Line / 594-7867
Gang Activity, Vehicle thefts, etc. (Confidential recording)

Complaint about an officer / 591-5990

Community Based Service's / Metting Notice

2008-10-02T13:14:00.001-07:00

Eastside what do you need done on your block?

This meeting is very important for you and your neighbors.
The Community Based Service's Group is getting together with only our neighbors to ask us what improvements are needed on our streets. We are now the new CBS area. (Community Based Services)

The city has put together this group of city workers to get rid of the ugliness.
Areas covered are: Follow West I-5 around to I-5 South to Portland Ave. up to 38th St.

What concerns do you have? They can now be taken care of . Potholes, overgrown vegetation, too many cars in a yard, need more street lighting, how about a new play area for kids, garbage cans on corners so the garbage is contained? Neighbor gang or drug problems?

Tell as many neighbors as you can. I can not stress this enough. You must be at this meeting to get your problems on the list or someone else will get their streets cleaned up first. If you have not been involved in your community before now, this is the time to do it.

Let's work together to clean up our neighborhoods. You hear about all the other neighborhoods and their success stories, let's create our own. How would it feel to be able to walk the streets without fear and look around and say 'We did this, It is now a safer, cleaner neighborhood'. It takes all of us.

Look around your neighborhood, make your list and bring it with you to: Lincoln High School on the 22nd of Sept. 7 PM.

Print out the attached postcard and hand it out. Let's do this together. The resources are here. Don't sit back and think someone else will get the job done. It doesn't work like that. We can do this together.

* A reminder: Dometop Alliance meeting: Sat. the 20th of Sept. 3:30 at the Mottett Library. (behind Sector 4)

Speakers: Delores Beason ( The new Portland Ave Middle School Principal) and Officer Don Williams (Gangs in our area, what to look for and the latest Sector 4 Statistics on what crime is happening in our area.

Together we can accomplish 1 task, then 2 ......

Submitted September 17, 2008 by Lynnette Scheidt for the Dometop Alliance.

Problem Solving Ideas

2008-10-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Ideas about how to deal with problem properties in your neighborhood

below is a compilation of a recent training, and many years of experience, it's a lesson I have to work on almost every time I use it, because my first reaction is to REACT appropriately to a situation with the seriousness of it on my life, my family's lives and the neighborhood's lives, it's a good lesson to learn and keep practicing (also attached for those who want to print it out)

Jeanie Peterson
Director of Community Initiatives
Hilltop Action Coalition
1224 S. I St.
Tacoma WA 98405
253-383-3056 ext 112
also hilltopactioncoalition@yahoo.com

----------------------

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead

Problem-solving as the Lowest Level

I rec’d the following message from a community member:
Jeanie, any suggestions regarding how to approach my neighbor about his dogs getting loud every night between 1 AM-3 AM? I wanted to talk to him when I dropped off the neighborhood stuff, but he is never at home when I am. I want to start off on the right foot, and would rather talk to him first before Animal Control gets involved.

The ideal plan is to meet a neighbor before you approach them with an issue, so you have a name, etc. to use when you talk about other things, and have a few facts you can include in your next conversation (i.e. “John, how is your wife’s schooling going?”, etc.). Somewhere in your first or second conversation with a neighbor, you should have the “you-can-contact-me-if-there-are-issues” talk. This can be done by saying, “what we try to do in this neighborhood is to contact each other directly if there are issues, it’s one of the best ways to remain neighborly and address things at the lowest level. So, tell them: “if my dog is ever barking (or my kids are a problem, etc.) feel free to come to me directly”. IF they don’t reply the same way, you can then ask if that would be okay with them if you contact them directly, also.

If that conversation has happened you can contact them and remind them that you had that talk and then discuss the dog, although even then it’s best to do it in a friendly, non-accusatory fashion.

On general principal I usually use the "I'm concerned about you approach", in which you find a chance to talk to him (or leave him a note if you can’t talk directly) with an expression of concern. [Handwrite the note if your penmanship is readable].

"Has there been something happening at your house that would have disturbed the dog last night?”

“I hope everyone is fine. When the dog woke me up, I thought about checking on you, but I looked out the window and didn’t see any lights on…etc.”

This takes them off the defensive (usually) because you are making it about their welfare while at the same time letting them know that the barking woke you up. Most people will say something apologetic back, like: “no, the dog was barking and I should have gotten up,” or “I’m sorry, I was so tired I must have slept right thru it”, etc.

If you want you can include something about the other nights, like:

"The previous two nights the dog was barking during this same time period, (you could ask him if his shift has changed, or if there was something happening in the alley [etc.] over the past 3 nights that might have alerted the dog), this way you are giving him a valid excuse for why the dog HAD been barking, and letting him know that you are aware of the issue.

You can offer your assistance, if he has the dog out for security reasons, you could help him with security tips that would help him secure his house a little better [use the sheet we distribute about making your house more burglar-proof]. But you also need to ask yourself, why the dog is just barking the past 3 nights. IS SOMETHING GOING ON IN THE ALLEY? Did he just get the dog?

Also, while you are awake, you might notice which direction the dog is barking in. Maybe there is criminal activity on the other side of their house that the dog can see but you can’t, the dog may be witnessing something you and your neighbor need to report. But other ideas include: You said you don’t see him when you are home, does he work a strange shift, and could the dog be barking when he comes home [in that case, you could mention something about calming dog anxiety after a master comes home, etc.] Is it a new dog? You could talk about how to quiet down new dogs, and share that with him (again in a helpful way). If you don’t know about any of this you could check out something on the web or do some research and find out what’s suggested by experts, if money is not an issue, you could buy a book on the subject, and offer to let him borrow it/have it, etc..

One of the things I do [and I know it's annoying that we should have to do this (but if a dog is going to keep me awake anyway…)] is that I get up and find out what the dog is barking at. That way the wasted sleep accomplishes something. The same would apply to other things that wake you up: people often say "a [noise] woke me up" (loud party, people on the street, booming car, etc.) or something like that, and they “couldn't get back to sleep”. If you can’t get back to sleep you might as well make the time productive. I always ask if they checked out the ‘thing’ that woke them up, if they called 911 or the non-emergency number, etc. It may be a small issue, like the car, etc. but if it woke you up, it might have woke others. If officers are doing nothing, and happen to be in the area, at least they have something to respond to, and who knows the people in the car could be wanted for something, etc. You may even describe a car they have been looking for, and end up getting a know thug off the streets, etc.

Either way, keep track of the time the dogs barked, I always try to have a pad and paper near my bed, that way I record the exact time, and any details. Then, as that last straw, I use the animal control ordinance and I have the required details:

· 15 minutes of continuous barking in a 1 hour time period
· 3 times in a 7 day period of time

This same principal can apply to most neighborhood situations, the important thing is if possible ‘connect’ with the neighbor, if they are a difficult person, at the very least you can connect on the basis of “wouldn’t you rather have me talk to you and you address this than for me to call the authorities.”

I’m glad you asked this question, I myself need to be reminded that a friendly conversation should always be my first response, today I met the new neighbors who moved in behind me, and as I’m introducing myself, and giving them the “feel free to contact me if there are issues” talk, I also couldn’t stop myself from reminding them that we have several ordinances that will deal with many, and we’d hate to involve the authorities. I felt bad afterwards, and am going to work on that.

A *John Campbell story…
At the training on Saturday (*John Campbell, who is SO KNOWLEDGEABLE about how to handle things of a neighborhood nature) we talked about ‘that problem house on the block’:

He explained there was a house that was trouble, the kids were terrible, the parents didn’t seem to know anything about parenting, and their activity was consistently negatively impacting the block. He decided he needed to do something…the only problem was that they had lived in the neighborhood for over a year and he hadn’t even introduced himself, yet.

And even though he was fuming inside and wanted to talk about all the bad behavior he had been witnessing, he went over, and just introduced himself and apologized for not introducing himself before (he had gotten in the habit, and his kids were so accustomed to it, that when new neighbors moved in they’d automatically bake brownies for him to take over to the new person’s house). The parents introduced themselves, and he left it at that. He went home and wrote down the names immediately (he’s bad with names) so he’d remember them.

The next day and in the days that followed when he’d see them outside he’d ALWAYS say hello and used their names, and greeted them kindly.

A few days later their kids were raising hell on the block, and the following day he saw the parents, and talked to them about children (I think he said he talked about his kids, but it doesn’t really matter, he kept the short conversation friendly and said nothing about the issues that were still VERY FRESH in his mind) during which he learned the names of their children. Over the next few weeks he made a point of talking to the kids and addressing them by name, as well as continuing to speak to the parents every chance he got, always friendly.

Then one night they kids were exceptionally bad, and he saw the parents the next day, he mentioned something about kids being kids and the parents said that if he ever had problems with them he could talk to the parents about it, and though he wanted to unload a whole years worth of issues he didn’t, instead he said okay, and left it at that.

But as the weeks/months went on he began to talk to the parents about the behaviors, a little at a time and always kindly.

A few years later every house on the block got burglarized except his.

I questioned that though this made it better for him, in effect, all he had done was made friends with felons, and though that saved his house, things didn’t get better for the neighbors. As an individual you did a good job of protecting you, but many of us think as Block Leaders and we need to also help the rest of the block, so on houses like this I usually try to find the biggest hammers I can and then use them on a house like this. John agreed. He said that there was much more to the story, that things did get better on the block for him and the rest of the neighbors, but that eventually it led to them suing the family; they lost the house over it, etc.

Problem-solvers:
John talked more about problem-solving. Normally, if we have a problem, we think about police, because police ARE supposed to help solve problems, but police aren’t the ONLY problem-solvers, in fact, they shouldn’t be the first people we think about when there’s a problem (unless it’s a major crime).

Sometimes you and your neighbors are the best problems solvers:

Honking Horns:
John is great, he talked about how some people think that the thing in the center of you steering wheel is a door bell, they pull up in front of a house and honk the horn. So, if it keeps happening treat it accordingly. Normally (if we weren’t SO AWARE of knuckleheads and their behaviors), if someone were repeatedly honking like that, people would assume it’s an emergency, so treat it that way. Arrange with your neighbors to have as many of them as can (and can do it sincerely) come out to the car, and say “Are you okay? We thought something was terribly wrong because you were honking like that, are you okay?” It usually will stop them from doing it again, but if it doesn’t do it again. These types of methods work with most cases. But make sure that participants can pull it off, or it could turn into a worse situation.

Sometimes it’s someone you wouldn’t normally think about:
John is from Portland OR, and their equivalent of our Community Liaison Officer (Police, chronic-issue specialist) had called a landlord about a house that had been suspected of being a drug house. Before he was even done telling the landlord what had been witnessed the landlord cut him off and said that he resented the officer’s assumptions about his tenants, and that the officer was never to call him again. So, the officer thought, who else is a problem-solver in this situation, and he checked the tax rolls and learned that the house was mortgaged. So, he called the mortgage company and talked to a person there about the issue.

He told them the house’s location, and the name of the landlord, he said “isn’t there a clause in the mortgage contract that says that the house has to be used for ‘legal purposes’. And asked them if they “wanted to be known as the Mortgage Company that finances drug houses.” After he hung up, within 30 minutes he received a phone call from the landlord, “I’m sorry, officer, we must have had a bad connection during that last phone call…” and they worked together to get the tenants out. Turns out the landlord didn’t know about the crime-free housing program, and many other things he could do to insure that he didn’t end up with these types of tenants. They never had trouble with his house again.

There are other problem-solvers, just think of EVERYONE involved in a situation. “Break it down” was the term John uses, take a situation and break it down into it's many parts and look at each part to see who/what else is involved/could be involved.

One of the lady’s (older, grandmother-looking) from the East Side of Tacoma, who lives near an area that’s experienced prostitution goes out and talks to the prostitutes herself:

“I’m sorry, are you okay?” She’ll asks in all sincerity. “People say this is an area of prostitution, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” “Can you imagine people having sex on this corner? Are you okay?” etc. It helps encourage them to move along.

Submitted September 16, 2008 by Edwina

Tacoma Nuisance Ordinance

2008-10-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

City of Tacoma Nuisance Ordinance

In January 2007 the City Council voted to strengthen and enforce the revised nuisance codes by abating (cleaning up) nuisances that property owners do not clean up on their own. The nuisance code amendments include, but are not limited to, the following features:

• A call is placed to report a code violation

• Once the call is taken, a code enforcement officer will drive to the address, take a picture of the violation and post a notice with the picture on the violator’s front door.

• A letter to the property and the property owner will be sent with details of the violation.

• Eighteen (18) days will be given the property owner to amend the violation.

• IF, after 18 days, the violation has not been addressed by the property owner, the City will send a crew to clean up the violation.

• The property owner will be charged for the clean up; which generally runs about $1,700.00 and up. (so far, the experience is that most property owners clean up on their own property once they get the notice.)

As of January only 3% of violations have been cleaned up by City staff.

The nuisance code amendments address issues related to the timely removal of nuisances such as (but not limited to):

--------------------------

Yard

• Animal waste/feces or parts which are improperly handled, contained, or removed from the premises; including bones, meats, hides, skins, or any part of any dead animal, fish, or foul.

• Animal manure or excreta in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements and which is likely to become putrid, offensive, and injurious to the public health.

• Overgrown, uncultivated, or unkempt vegetation of any type, including, but not limited to, shrubs, brush, trees, weeds, blackberries, and grasses over one foot in height or length.

• Where a single parcel is undeveloped and over one acre in area, elimination of the fire hazard presented by vegetation may be accomplished by removing the vegetation from the area within 20 feet of abutting, improved properties.

• Inappropriate disposal or accumulation of vegetation waste, including, but not limited to, grass clippings, cut brush, cut trees, and/or cut weeds.

• Weeds, foliage, grass, shrubs, or other vegetation which constitute a fire hazard, or encroaches on sidewalks, alleys or neighboring properties, is damaging public improvements, or subjects neighboring residential properties to weed growth.

• Storing of flammable junk on any real estate, including but not limited to old rags, rope, cordage, rubber, boxes, or paper.

• Storing outside a completely enclosed building items that constitute a threat to the public health, safety or welfare, including but not limited to: old or scrap rope, batteries, paper, trash, rubber debris, tires, waste, used lumber or salvaged wood, machinery or appliances or parts of such machinery or appliances, vehicular component parts, iron, steel, old or scrap household goods or hardware, medications, medical supplies, or medical devices, cut brush or wood including dead or decaying plant material except s contained in a compost pile or orderly stacked firewood if cut in lengths of four feet or less.

--------------------------

House

• The existence of any screening which is in a falling, decayed, dilapidated, or unsafe condition.

• Any unsightly, abandoned, or deteriorated building or structure, or any building or structure constructed with inappropriate materials or improperly fastened together of anchored against forces of nature.

• Any building or structure where construction was commenced and the building or structure was left unfinished.

• Missing and/or broken gutters; broken and/or missing windows; peeled, blistered paint; foundation has holes and cracks; railings and/or steps are broken; missing siding; chimney falling apart parts of roof is missing and has holes in it.

• Burning or disposal of refuse, sawdust, or other material in such a manner as to cause or permit ashes, sawdust, soot, or cinders to be cast upon the streets or alleys of the City, or to cause of permit the smoke, ashes, soot, or gases arising from such burning to become annoying or to injure or endanger the health, comfort, or repose of said persons.

--------------------------

Parking of vehicles on residential property

The primary function of yards on single-family residential lots is to provide access to light and air and to provide circulation, recreation, and landscaping around the primary single-family dwelling building, which are beneficial to the general health and welfare of the community. This section establishes standards by which parking vehicles on single-family residential lots are allowable.

• Vehicles parked in the side or rear yard area of single-family residential lots shall be limited to those lots which have legal access from the adjacent street or alley and shall be limited to four vehicles or to no more that 60 percent of the combined side and rear year area, whichever is less.

• Vehicles parked in the front yard of single-family residential lots, although discouraged where alley access is available, shall be limited to those lots which have legal access from the adjacent street or alley. Parking of vehicles in front yards shall be on a properly prepared and contained all-weather surface, including, but not limited to, concrete, asphalt, gravel, approved permeable paving materials, or other material approved in accordance with TMC 2.02.

• The total number of vehicles parked or stored in the open on a single-family residential lot shall be no more that six (6).

• Inoperable vehicles stored on single-family residential lots shall be limited to the rear yard area. Screening shall be provided between the inoperable vehicles and adjacent properties or rights-of-way.

• All private vehicles which are fully enclosed within a legally constructed garage or other structure are not considered as part of the allotted number of vehicles for purpose of this section.

--------------------------

Abandoned Autos
What is an abandoned vehicle?

Abandoned vehicles are ones that have been left on City street and may have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Dismantled

• In a state of disrepair (broken windows, sitting on blocks, etc.)

• Stripped of major parts

• Missing license plates

• Filled with garbage

• Sitting in the same sport for seven or more days and appears non-operational

• In front of a residence in which owners have moved away. Most abandoned vehicles are left by people unknown to those living in the neighborhood.

How do I get rid of abandoned vehicles in my neighborhood?

The City of Tacoma will help if the vehicle is considered an abandoned vehicle. Call the abandoned vehicle hotline at (253) 591-5926. The abandoned vehicle enforcement officer will not respond to neighborhood parking problems, including:

• Vehicles parked illegally

• Vehicles with expired licenses

• **Recreational vehicles parked on City rights of way.

Please call the Tacoma police Department non-emergency number (253) 798-4721 and choose option 1 (one) for those types of vehicle problems.

**City Ordnance (per Terry Rucker; road use compliance officer City of Tacoma) states that RVs, Trailers, Utility Trailers, and/or trucks w/trailers attached MUST be driven and/or used every 7 (seven) days and currently licensed.

It is a violation if any vehicle is parked on sidewalk, alley, etc.

--------------------------

Telephone Numbers
To report an unkempt property 591-5001

Dumpster and Disposal 591-5634
Household Debris Removal 573-2468
TAGRO Mix 502-2150
Abandoned Vehicle 591-5926
Neighborhood Parking Problem 798-4721 option 1 (one)
(Police Non-Emergency number)

Important City Telephone Numbers

2008-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Frequently Called Numbers
City of Tacoma Services

General Information: (253) 591-5000
8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday – Friday

[Deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled persons may contact us through Washington Relay Services 1-800-833-6388 (TTY or ASCII) 1-800-833-6386 (VCO) or 1-877-833-6341 (STS)]

Police (emergency)
911

Police (non-emergency)
798-4721

Abandoned vehicle (City streets)
591-5926

Abandoned vehicle complaints (Private Property)
591-5001

Call-2-Haul 573-2468
E-mail: Solid waste

Streetlights (burned out)
591-5287

Tacoma CARES
591-5001

Graffiti hotline
591-5001

Traffic signs
591-5276

Street repair and Potholes
591-5495

Street flooding
591-5585

Overgrown vegetation
591-5001

Alarm compliance
591-5252

Parking tickets
591-5357

Animal control
627-7387

TAGRO biosolids products
502-2150
E-mail: Tagro

Building & Land Use
591-5015

Police information (recording)
591-5950

Building inspections
591-5004

Building permits
591-5030

Power outages, fallen wires, etc.
502-8602

Business licenses
591-5252

Public Assembly Facilities(Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center)
830-6601

Public Works Information Center
594-7879

Child care referral
591-2025
E-mail: Child care

Recycling schedule
565-5955
E-mail: Solid waste

Beacon Senior Center
591-5083

Lighthouse Senior Center
591-5080

Sewer backups (24 hour)
591-5585

Clean Bay Car Wash kits
591-2246

Sidewalks (hazardous)
591-5270
E-mail: Sandra Guffey

Click! Network
502-8900

City Clerk's Office
591-5171

Community & Economic Development (Gen. Info)
591-5364

Construction drawings & maps
594-7879

Tacoma Dome 24-hour event line
572-3663

Tacoma Dome
272-3663

Fire (Gen. Info) (Emergency)
591-5737911

Traffic signals
591-5287

Garbage
591-5543
E-mail: Solid waste

govME Web site info.
594-7879

Tacoma Public Library
591-5666

Hazardous waste
591-5418
E-mail: Solid waste

Hearing Examiner (Gen. Info)
591-5195

Trees in right-of-way
591-5500

Housing discrimination
591-5151

Utilities customer service
502-8600

Human Resources (Gen. Info)
591-5400

Yard waste
591-5543
E-mail: Solid waste

Water outages. leaks, etc.
502-8384

Illegal parking
798-4721

Water outages, leaks, etc. After business hours)
502-8344

Neighborhood Councils
591-5229
E-mail: Elton Gatewood

Human Rights & Human Svcs. (TTY)
591-5151591-5153

Community Relations Office
591-5054
E-mail: Rob McNair-Huff

Long-range Planning
591-5373 or 591-5210

City Manager's Office
591-5130

Land use planners
591-5577

Mayor / City Council
591-5100
E-mail: Cindy DeGrosse

October Meeting Flyer

2008-10-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

------------------------------------------------------------------

You Are Invited to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting of
First Creek Neighbors

October 1, 2008
6:30 pm-8:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Ave.

Who will be there?
· First Creek Neighbors
· Tacoma Police Department
· Puyallup Tribal Police
· City Code Enforcement
· Many Others

What will we discuss?
· Your Ideas for Community Involvement
· Opportunities to Make a Difference
· Ways to work together even better to make neighborhood cleaner and safer
· Easy Ways You Can HELP
· How to get RESULTS

Free Energy Saving Light Bulbs
Courtesy of Tacoma Power

Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Tiffeny 405-9007

------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the flyer for anyone who wants to help distribute them or who can post them in their place of business or what have you….Please let me know if you plan to pass out flyers and where so that we don’t inundate some neighbors and forget others. We want to include everyone. Please take a partner. If you don’t have one let me know and I will go with you or find someone else who can. When passing out flyers feel free to give them my number below as an additional resource and if it seems appropriate ask for their number to add to our phone tree. These will hopefully also be distributed at a movie event at the park which is happening Friday evening. Sorry I don’t have the exact info but if you want to know more about that email Edwina.

Lena T.

Eastside Community Meeting Notes / September 2008

2008-10-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

More exciting news on the horizon!
Some of us went to the meeting at Lincoln High last night. Some of the highlights…..

Lt. Stringer told me we are going to be the next CBS area and expects that to happen in January, if I remember correctly. He also stressed how impressed with our energy and enthusiasm and assured us that he is there to support us.

Jeanie Peterson is looking at doing some mentoring for us and going on some patrols, too.

We also met a representative from the schools, Kate Frazier. She is the Liaison for the School, Family & Community Partnership Program. She’s the one who organized that major clean-up back in the spring. You may know her from that. Anyhow….it was exciting because they have that new school with no name…..kind of like the horse with no name but this isn’t a desert……dating myself..LOL….Well 3 names have been proposed….

1.Eastside Academy (in my opinion--- too generic and is not going to be something the students can be proud of)

2. Something in honor of the Delin family (my opinion---great idea and something to be proud of but not something the students can personally connect with unless they come from that family)

3. First Creek….(my opinion---that is the best of all and not because I am partial (although it would lend a lot of credibility to our efforts and give us more publicity) but because it creates a sense of community and collaboration with the tribe, gives students something to be proud of as they work with us to create a better community and is looking toward the future and the potential of each student to make a difference. Another reason for this name is to honor the students themselves. The school is going to be doing an environmental stewardship program which will get the students directly involved in the neighborhood…..helping to clean up, helping our elderly to take care of their yards, planting flowers and trees……and so forth….They are looking for sponsors for T-shirts to give to those students with the school name on it….

So, you can choose door #1, #2, or #3 tonight (Tuesday) at McIlvaigh at 6pm (1801 E. 56th St). ….go cast our vote…if you absolutely can’t make it tonight you can go To Gault on Thursday (1115 E. Division Ln.)

Edwina went home last night to write up a compelling rationale for the First Creek name….

Eventually I hope to see the students doing murals…..maybe a carwash at the park??? The possibilities are endless…

Next Citizens’ Patrol Class will be at Salishan Family Investment Center at 1724 E. 44th St. Participants learn how to safely combat crime in their neighborhoods. Training lasts three sessions -- Oct. 9, 16 and 23 -- from 7-9 p.m. To register, e-mail David Cantlin at choo_choo_dave@yahoo.com, call 253-272-6824 or visit safest.org.

Other business…..
Community Involvement Opportunity
We are going to be asked to measure our success and in by January we need a baseline from which to measure. We must know where we are now in order to see how far we will have come at that future date. So we need someone who likes compiling information and keeping records….perhaps in a spreadsheet…..We need to be able to document our successes because, as the Chief of Police said last night, people get motivated by results. We’ve also heard Officer Williams talk about the city being statistic-driven…..We are shutting down drug houses, arrests are being made, code violations are getting cleaned up, etc. Do any of you like doing this sort of thing?

We got free light bulbs again last night. I would like to contact the power company and ask if they can come to our next meeting and do that.

Joanne had the idea of announcing our meeting on Channel 12 since it is a public service announcement.

I am working on getting ready for the next meeting. Flyers will be ready by Friday since there is an event at the park where they can be distributed…..We could use some folks to get out over the weekend and hand these out…..The patrols can also do that while they are out. Anybody??? I will try my best to be available to anybody who needs a partner for foot patrol or handing out flyers. Just let me know.

Because of the new AIA (Alcohol Impact Area) we, as citizens, are going to be asked to keep an eye out at the neighborhood stores to monitor whether or not the stores are complying and not selling those certain types of alcohol. This starts October first.

A couple of our patrollers had an interesting experience yesterday. They told me about a certain suspected use for the black plastic bags that the liquor stores hand out so that is going to have to be addressed since it can be described as disgusting to civilized society.

More good news….Officer Hayes to make another two arrests at one of the closed-down meth house. Hoorah!

Guy came upon some more (pretty powerful---I mean POWERFUL) evidence against our meth ring that he turned over to Bert, as well.

Edwina, Please, pass this on to anyone else who needs to know this…Thank you!!

Lena

Submitted September 23, 2008 by Lena Thompson

September 2008 / Meeting Notes #2

2008-10-02T10:57:00.001-07:00

Hello First Creek Neighbors & Friends!

Another amazing turnout at the neighborhood meeting last week! We got updates on the latest code enforcement, the latest drug house closure, the tribal police, Metro Parks, World Vision, David Whited, Block Watch, Citizens’ Patrol, T.E.A.M., etc. It truly is a beautiful thing to see so many entities working together and accomplishing so much. We also had a surprise visitor of distinction….our City Manager, Eric Anderson himself!!!! How about that for results!!! He is truly impressed with our efforts and enthusiasm here in the First Creek Neighborhood. Liz Fortenbury from TCC told us of the Puget Sound college-level initiative to get students more involved in their neighborhoods. So we can look forward to more support from TCC, UW and others!!!

There are lots of ways to volunteer. Jeanie Peterson of the Hilltop Action Coalition says she asks her group for just one hour a month. What could you do for one hour? Or 15 minutes a week? Or two minutes a day? It all adds up and it is all beneficial. Upcoming and on-going opportunities abound and include such things as just being on the phone tree, keeping your porch light on at night, cleaning up around your house and block even if you didn’t make the mess, being a Block Watch Coordinator for your block, Designing a logo, making copies of flyers, reporting suspicious activity even if you think somebody else already called or even if you think it won’t matter---because the city keeps statistics if nothing else, planting flowers and trees, painting over graffiti, being a citizens’ patrol volunteer, tutoring at the park, etc. It’s all about being a good neighbor!

We also had an amazing presence at a special workshop by John Campbell on Saturday of last week. Folks from various Tacoma neighborhoods were there but we had the most people!!! John is a reknowned expert on solving neighborhood issues and overcoming challenges. His ideas are unique and useful. (If you’d like a recap of that, let me know and I will send out Jeanie’s version to you.) People from all over Tacoma were there, including Code Enforcement officials, CBS representatives, CLO’s, Assistant Chief Sheehan, and Eric Anderson. The food was great and it was a day well worth spending. If you ever get a chance to attend one of John’s trainings you should DEFINITELY Go!!! Did I say we got in for free?!?!?!

John suggested we each make it a goal to meet at least 6 neighbors and get to know them by name. We don’t have to be friends to be good neighbors. It makes it a lot easier to talk about a problem if you already know each other by name over a period of time.

3 things necessary for crime to occur:
1. Ravenous Wolves aka criminals
2. Sitting Ducks aka victims
3. Dens of Iniquity aka opportunities
We can decrease crime by educating would-be victims and helping them to feel safe and protected. (knowing our neighbors, block watches, phone tree, citizens’ patrol)
We can decrease crime by keeping the neighborhood and our homes clean, secure, and free of hiding places (shadows, overgrown bushes and blackberries, abandoned vehicles)
By doing these few things we make it less inviting for the wolves.

For more of John’s ideas go to www.cdri.com/Tacomacitizen.html

We also got free energy-saving light bulbs from the city so we can all keep our porch lights on at night. Criminals are like cockroaches…they don’t like light! It’s a great way to deter crime for only pennies a month! (Requires less than one minute a day to turn on at night and turn off in the morning)

Rumor has it that we will be the next CBS area so there is an upcoming opportunity to show our numbers and be heard. Here is an excerpt of an email I got:

What concerns do you have? They can now be taken care of . Potholes, overgrown vegetation, too many cars in a yard, need more street lighting, how about a new play area for kids, garbage cans on corners so the garbage is contained? Neighbor gang or drug problems? Tell as many neighbors as you can.I can not stress this enough. You must be at this meeting to get your problems on the list or someone else will get their streets cleaned up first. If you have not been involved in your community before now, this is the time to do it. Let's work together to clean up our neighborhoods.You hear about all the other neighborhoods and their success stories, let's create our own. How would it feel to be able to walk the streets without fear and look around and say 'We did this, It is now a safer, cleaner neighborhood'.It takes all of us. Look around your neighborhood, make your list and bring it with you to: Lincoln High School on the 22nd of Sept. 7 PM.

********************************************************************************
Our next First Creek Neighborhood meeting will be Wednesday, October 1st at 6:30 pm. We hope to see you there!

As recommended by John Campbell, the first fifteen minutes will be for discussion of new concerns, question, or suggestions. If there is an issue or project you want us to work on, bring your skills and be prepared to lead the project or volunteer to find others who can. It is each of our jobs to take on as much leadership as we can bear to address the issues at hand.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”—Edmund Burke

We all must be PART of the SOLUTION or we are part of the problem. Newcomers are welcome and we realize they may need some time to digest things before being ready to help out but we value each and every one who attends!

(Please spread the word to those who are not on my email list)

Submitted September 19, 2008 by Lena T.

September 2008 / Meeting Notes

2008-10-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

We had an awesome group of people last night, didn’t we? Thanks to everyone’s hard work! Special thanks to Annette & Jennifer who filled in at the last minute and did an awesome job explaining the importance of the phone tree and the block watch. It was really great that they stressed that these numbers will not be shared outside this group.

I’ve been asked to update the phone tree since many of you have been out talking to so many neighbors. I suppose we should get together and share notes on the goings-on in the neighborhood. Is everyone comfortable with that? What’s a good day/time? Place? That coffee shop up on 34th & McKinley???

If it’s easier we could do most or all of our block watch/phone tree updating by email. However, there are some of you who have not met yet and it would be good to put faces to names.

If you want to drop off or email me what you’ve got so far I can get the updated list ready before we meet. It’s great if we get emails, too, because we can send routine stuff that way.

Special thanks to Joanne and Theresa who helped out tons by calling people with no emails. It takes a lot of time to call all those people but they really came through.

For those of you who haven’t been to the Safe Streets Block Watch training you might want to go. (It’s totally different than the patrol training. Only one day for an hour or two.) It’s pretty much common sense but if you can glean even one thing from it, it would be time well-spent.

I was hoping someone would supply us with decals or signs to put in our windows that say block watch or neighborhood watch or whatever. We could make our own? What do you think? Anybody good at that sort of thing? That would be a good thing to pass out to the good guys….

What do you think about T-shirts….maybe neon orange??? With our logo so we look more official when we are out passing out flyers. Why should the patrol get all the cool stuff????

Eventually we hope to be so well organized that one or two people are going to call only the people on their block.

Submitted September 11, 2008 by Lena T.

September Meeting Flyer

2008-10-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

You Are Invited to Attend the Monthly Neighborhood Meeting of

First Creek Neighbors
September 10, 2008
6:30 pm-7:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 Portland Ave.

Who will be there?
· First Creek Neighbors
· Tacoma Police Department
· Puyallup Tribal Police
· City Code Enforcement
· Tacoma Cares

What will we discuss?
· Recent Successes Cleaning up Crime and Blight
· Ways to work together even better to make neighborhood cleaner and safer
· Ways you can help
· How to get RESULTS

Door Prize!!!!
Your Attendance Would Be Most Appreciated
For more information call Tiffeny 405-9007

--------------------------------------

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to remind you of the meeting this week on Wednesday. Thanks to all of you who have been helping pass out flyers. We should have an awesome turnout thanks to all your hard work!!! I’ve attached a copy in case you need to print out more. Continue to spread the word and let people know that if they can send at least one member of their household such as a teenager or if they can come late it is ok. Thanks again!

Submitted September 9, 2008 by Lena T.

Safe Streets / Community Event

2008-10-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood groups to march against crime

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: September 4th, 2008 01:00 AM

Twelve neighborhood groups will take to the streets Friday in what’s being billed as the biggest and most collaborative demonstration against crime in Tacoma. The purpose of the demonstration is to send criminals the message to get out and to enhance residents’ awareness of crime in their neighborhoods and the community, said Darren Pen of Safe Streets, which is organizing the event.

Participating will be:
• South Yakima Citizens Neighborhood Group.
• Fern Hill Neighborhood Watch Group.
• Larchmont Safe Streets Neighborhood Group.
• Upper Pacific Avenue Group.
• Wapato Group.
• Stewart Heights Neighborhood Watch Group.
• Park Avenue Neighborhood Group.
• Pacific Avenue Business District.
• Lincoln LAWGs.
• Lincoln South Neighbors.
• Lincoln West Neighborhood.
• Mann Neighborhood Group.

Each group will meet at its designated site at 5:30 p.m. to paint signs. Members will march from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Safe Streets will provide all the materials.
A map of the march locations is available at blogs.thenewstribune.com/street.
Stacey Mulick, The News Tribune

Information submitted September 5, 2008 by Lena T.

Phone Tree Information

2008-10-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about our phone tree. Its purpose is to enable us to contact one another in the case of an emergency or other urgent matters. Oftentimes the police will not respond to a low priority calls unless at least 3 people call in so that is another reason to have this in place. As Don mentioned at the meeting the city is statistic-driven so the more we all call the more attention we get, the more funding we get, the more effective we can be.

By the way, one of our block captains reported this week that a drug house got closed down on their block so we are getting results just by talking to one another, keeping our eyes and ears open, keeping records, and calling the appropriate authorities.

We Have Power in Numbers!
In case you do not know, this is how calls receive priority:

Critical-Immediate (Crimes in progress, serious threat to life---Stabbing, shooting, officer down, armed robbery, injured persons)

First Priority (Crimes in progress, Prevention of casualty, probability of apprehension---alarms, physical altercations, injury accidents, suspicious persons, vehicle prowlers)

Immediate Dispatch (threat of violence or injury---physical disturbances, verbal disputes, threats, some property crimes)

Prompt Dispatch (minor thefts, vandalism, violation of court orders, non-violent crime, suspicious activity)

Non-Emergency/Nuisance Complaints (Noise, parties, minor disturbances, disorderly conduct)

If someone on your block has already volunteered to work on the phone tree you could still help with another block. Or you could assist the person who has already started working on it.

When working on this phone tree (we need names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails), it is important to approach the people you know and feel comfortable talking to. Do not put yourself in danger by going alone to knock on doors of people you do not know. Always take a partner with you.

We want to be non-combative, non-confrontational, pro-active, and neighborly in our approach.

Another way to help (again if you feel comfortable) would be to pass out invitation flyers for the next meeting at the same time you work on the phone tree.

If you think about the concept of six degrees of separation, the impact you, as one individual, can have is tremendous!

(Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth.)

We are ALL busy, but by helping just as much or as little as you feel comfortable you have the ability to impact the synergy we are creating in our neighborhood.

syn·er·gy
1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

I also need help calling people on the phone who did not provide an email address but who came to the neighborhood meeting. We need to determine their level of interest and concern and ask if they are willing to help in any little way at all.

Please, let me know what you are willing to do. You are ALL VIP’s on this team and you are ALL the MVP’s. If we work cooperatively we can accomplish so much more.

Submitted August 16, 2008 by Lena T.

August 2008 / Meeting Notes

2008-10-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of you who were able to attend last night’s neighborhood meeting!!!! Just your very presence there meant a great deal.

Thank you also for all of you who volunteered to help Laura this weekend and Sam next Saturday and for those who expressed an interest in helping to organize their blocks and possibly being part of the citizen’s patrol. For those who didn’t sign up at this time, we know there is a place for everyone even if it is in being part of a phone tree for your block or taking note of suspicious activity when you are out walking your dog or driving home from work! Everyone is valuable and appreciated no matter how much or how little they are comfortable doing. I realize some are still skeptical and/or apprehensive but there is safety in numbers and united we stand!!! We are gaining momentum and seeing amazing results and it is only going to expand and increase.

We certainly had an unbelievable turn-out, didn’t we? 53 on the sign-in sheet and that doesn’t include our CLO’s and Tribal Police…I think I counted 4 or 5 of those! Thanks to them as well. It is so wonderful to be working in concert with so many of you!!!

For those who weren’t able to make it last night…..John impressed us all with before and after pictures of some of the code violations he’s gotten cleaned up!!! He is really working hard and deserves our support and cooperation. We have to get rid of the blight so that the bad guys we get rid of do not want to come back and so that any new bad guys don’t want to move in. Folks can get two free pick-ups a year from Call-2-Haul…spread the word! Next neighborhood clean-up is August 23rd…meet at 9am at the park….contact Samantha if you want to volunteer or if you need anything picked up….

Chris wowed us with slides of the First Creek (former) dumping site and METH lab clean up and shared a story of a couple of neighborhood children who were so thrilled that our environment is being restored. One of the slides showed a colorful canister that would be appealing to young kids but that is associated with meth. We are taking this neighborhood back!!!

David shared the vision the tribe has for cleaning up the entire creek and possibly putting in an interpretive center where young people (aren’t we all young?) could learn about the original settlement. There will hopefully soon be walking trails down there, too. David said that if good people are able to go down there and use the space then the not-so-good people will NOT want to be there!

Edwina reported that ____ tons of garbage were hauled off at our last clean-up and that ____hundred tires were taken as well. (sorry I don’t have the exact figures there) Edwina also reminded us of the importance of introducing ourselves to new neighbors (southern hospitality style) and the common sense of simply being good neighbors. She is awesome, isn’t she?

Don spoke about gangs and said there were around 50 in Tacoma and we have some problems here with a few rival gangs. The McKinley station has free paint and brushes to paint over graffiti and the tribe has a volunteer crew that goes out on Saturdays. WE really need to be quick about getting rid of those messages so that the gangs know we mean business! Unfortunately, homeowners can be fined if it isn’t taken care of promptly. Don encouraged us to call in the non-emergency number (798-4721) for any suspected gang activity we see. More on that later…..He stressed that we need to use the problem house forms to keep a record of suspicious activity in our area because the city uses the statistics to decide where to focus their efforts in order to be the most effective. It really helps them build a body of evidence that can be used to make arrests if necessary. Don’t despair if you call something in and don’t seem to get a response…..every call adds up and the statistics will eventually lead to solutions!

Our newly appointed but very experienced CLO was introduced to us. We are extremely happy to have our very own CLO now! She already took action on the Browning St. dumping! She prefers email if you need to relate anything to her. DJudge@ci.tacoma.wa.us She is so dedicated she even checks her email from home!

Guy was thrilled that several want to attend the training classes for citizens’ patrol and/or assist. He believes a proactive approach to increase awareness of the programs available (Call-2-Haul, Graffiti abatement, etc) can be an important part of what they do. He wanted to stress that you can be involved formally or informally. It is simply being the eyes and ears of our police force so if you are out and see anything suspicious make a record of it or call it in, please.

Of course, I am working on organizing every block so that we can support one another and so that we can identify ways to make our blocks less desirable to criminals and deadbeats. I am looking for block point persons and would like to create phone trees and email trees for everyone on the block. Don gave an example of an undesirable person walking down our block and every house he passes flips on the porch light some before the person even gets that far….it will make them want to leave!!

There is a place for all….we need volunteers to see, hear, write, phone, plant, paint, clean, haul, patrol, report, people to invite others to join us and to spread the word about our successes, and people to pass out flyers for the next meeting (Wednesday September 10th at 6:30pm at the park). Just tell me what your strengths are and what your comfort level is and we will find a place for you!

Anyone have an idea for a name for our group?

Email or call us anytime for more information or for copies of forms or flyers or whatever.

Meeting notes submitted August 8, 2007 by:

Guy T. & Lena T.

Tacoma CARES

2008-10-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

What is Tacoma CARES?

The power of partnership. . .YOU and Tacoma CARES
A cleaner neighborhood is a safer neighborhood—that's the spirit behind Tacoma CARES (Cleanup And Revitalization EffortS.) Since 1995 Tacoma CARES has worked with people like you to strengthen and preserve the livability of the City of Tacoma. What does Tacoma CARES do for you?

Community Activities
Cleanup and beautification projects
Whether it's cleaning up litter from a gulch or helping to arrange a beautification project, Tacoma CARES can help you. Solid Waste Management's "Blight Mobile" can help you dispose of litter and debris on streets, alleys and other public right-of-ways.

Code enforcement
The Tacoma CARES program enforces the following:

Nuisances (primarily litter and debris)
Junk vehicles on private property
Minimum Building and Structures Code (dealing with the condition or existing buildings)
Graffiti
Overgrown vegetation on private property
Abandoned Autos

To report any violations please call 591-5001. To report graffiti please call our 24-hour graffiti message line at 591-5691.

To read more about Tacoma CARES and how they can help you, visit their website:
http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?hid=1768

SECTOR FOUR MONTHLY REPORT – JULY

2008-10-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Community Based Services:

Jennie Reed - The group reached out to Safe Streets to help organize greater participation. The monthly community meeting is being held in Room 1210 of the Tacoma Police Department Headquarters’ Building on the second Wednesday of every month. Officer Don Williams has been assigned as the area Community Liaison Officer.

38th Street/Lincoln - Tacoma’s newest CBS area is working on community priorities. The area is much larger then previous CBS areas. The city is working with community members to establish strong lines of communication. As community priorities are established, the CBS Team is addressing them to make a stronger, safer, and cleaner community.

SIGNIFICANT SECTOR PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES APPLIED

Lower Portland Community - The Lower Portland Avenue Community has been meeting to reduce crime and blight. The neighborhood held a community clean-up that recovered several tons of garbage. This event also facilitated bringing members of the community together.

Pacific Avenue Prostitution - The reports of prostitution are down over 50% from 2007 to 2008. Tacoma Police officers have conducted dozens of high profile emphasis missions in that area to address the past prostitution problems that have occurred.

This is the monthly report, which was posted on:
http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?hid=2033

Safe Streets / Community Resource

2008-10-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

What does Safe Streets do?

The Safe Streets Campaign connects you with necessary community resources to tackle your community’s challenges. When you form a Safe Streets block group, you will become a part of a larger network that works, solves and prevents community problems together. As a part of Safe Streets, you’ll learn how to entice your neighbors to help and get out into the community. Together, we’ll create active and involved neighborhoods.

They have a very good website with information about getting involved, youth action, resources, and news and events. Be sure to look at the "Tips and Advice" section located under resources. In that area, you will find the following:

When to Call 9-1-1
How calls receive priority
Join a Community Group
Neighborhood Councils and Associations
Clean-ups
Blighted/Abandoned Properties
Abandoned and Junk vehicles
Vehicle Prowls
Mail and Identity Theft
Burglary

To learn more about this important community resource please visit the Safe Streets website: http://www.safest.org/