I won $50,000 for setting out my trash on Tuesday

I won. And so did several thousand of my Seattle North neighbors who also set their trash out on Tuesday. All of us have the opportunity to spend up to $50,000 on a capital improvement project in our neighborhoods. Any project. Anywhere in the area where we set out our recycle, yard waste or tiny bit of trash on Tuesday.

The deal is that the Cleanscapes project was set up to encourage all Seattleites to reduce the amount of waste we produce. Read the whole story at the Cleanscapes web site. http://www.cleanscapes.com/news/cleanscapes_announces_seattles_2011_waste_reduction_competition_winner

I can think of a lot of projects that would improve the Roosevelt neighborhood. For example, our Roosevelt Neighborhood plan calls for establishing a “neighborhood identity”. We’ve gone so far as to design the signs. Now all we need is a bit of money to get those signs made and installed.

Here are some others:

• Install plantings, probably large pots, in the core of Roosevelt.
• Replant the hillside south of the Roosevelt High School.
• Plant trees on 66^th Avenue NE south of the high school; the street that we expect to become part of the green streets project the neighborhood will have.
• Repair sidewalks that have buckled from tree roots.
• Temporarily create a park or natural habitat garden on the lot north of the QFC that will be overtaken by the Light Rail project soon to happen in our neighborhood.
• Build an enclosure that stores the trashcans on the north side of 65^th street by East West Books.
• Repaint the mural on the north side of Cloud 9.
• Build community kiosks in the Roosevelt core.

If live in the Tuesday North pickup area and you have an idea for a project or if you want to support one of the above projects, visit http://www.cleanscapes.com/seattle/community/neighborhood_waste_reduction_rewards to learn more.

The deadline for submitting your project is January 31, 2012.

If you need additional information about the above project ideas, please contact me at rna@rooseveltseattle.org.

The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association has been asked to provide one of its members for the project selection committee. If you’d like to participate on the selection committee, please contact Peter James or me at rnapeter@gmail.com or rna@rooseveltseattle.org.

This is a great opportunity for you to keep that New Year’s Resolution to participate more in your community. Let’s not let this opportunity slip away.