The Maple Leaf Community Council Executive Board meeting on Wednesday was the last for President Marc Phillips, right, who is moving next month to Durham, N.C., to take a new job with Relevance Inc.
The board’s new president is Joshua Newman, and the board also is actively seeking new officers, specifically a new treasurer with bookkeeping experience.
Interested in helping out? To be eligible to join the executive board and then become an officer, all Maple Leaf residents need to do is attend three consecutive board meetings, which are held the third Wednesday of every month starting at 7 p.m. at Olympic View Church, 425 N.E. 95th St.
Phillips has been on the board since 2006, and has been its president since 2008. You will get a chance to thank him for his service and to bid him a fond farewell at the Maple Leaf Community Council General Meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St. But in the meantime, here is a farewell from him to the Maple Leaf community:
One thing that I remember from when I first moved to Seattle in 1995 was buying a “Seattle Survival Guide” book to read about different neighborhoods and being struck by the passage about Maple Leaf on how the residents were known for being especially active in watching out for each other and improving their community. For some reason I ended up in Bellevue (let’s not talk about it), then Kirkland, then Wallingford (getting warmer), then bought a small house in Ravenna and finally a home in Maple Leaf in 2005 to start a family. As we signed the final papers the memory of that paragraph 10 years earlier flashed clearly in my mind. I was home. After settling in for a year and enjoying neighborhood events like the Summer Social I read in the (volunteer delivered) Maple Leaf Community Council Newsletter about an upcoming general meeting and the notice of an open seat on the Executive Board. After attending the packed event and meeting long time council members like Barbara Maxwell, David Miller, Mark Schoen, and Janice Camp I began attending the Executive Board meetings, eventually being invited to join as a Member-at-Large. After a time I was elected Vice President, and when then-president David Miller stepped down to run for City Council in 2008 became President of the council.
What makes me most proud of this organization is the two key principles to which it adheres most strongly – putting the concerns of the community over any personal opinions of Board members, and holding the members and representatives of Seattle City government accountable to deliver on their mandates and follow the rules and laws as written. There are also occasions where the Board has pushed (on behalf of concerned neighbors) to make changes to existing regulations or resist the addition or removal of others, and I believe it is important for any individual or organization to constantly look for ways to do things better and protect their interests lest they be diminished by the (sometimes not well thought out or selfish) desires of others. What has been interesting however has been that the “NIMBY” label has most frequently been applied by parties looking to take action harmful to “our backyard” that are patently illegal according to currently existing laws which they attempt to willfully ignore (often with implicit or depressingly explicit support from the very government officials responsible for protecting our city). The Maple Leaf Community Council absolutely supports growth in the neighborhood (it’s a great place to live after all), with the sole stipulation that it be *responsible* growth, meaning the laws currently on the books are actually enforced and the very qualities that attract people to the area are not wantonly destroyed. This means projects aiming to cut down groves of trees to put up 40 townhomes on a location without understanding and mitigating the obvious impacts to traffic, pedestrian safety, water pressure, flooding, air quality, and other factors will be vigorously opposed. This isn’t about “our backyard”, it’s about everybody’s backyard. Community council’s shouldn’t have to fight these issues, any reasonable enforcement of the rules governing responsible development would keep poorly planned projects from being attempted, freeing up the Council’s time to focus on *improvements* for their neighborhoods (crosswalks, playgrounds, community events, etc) rather than spending literally years trying to get City officials to do their jobs. Should citizens really have to go to court (spending months of their volunteer time and paying thousands in fees) to prevent the open air demolition of a toxic-laden building (lead, etc) 200 feet from an open reservoir? Seems like there is probably someone on salary somewhere whose job it is to prevent such things (there are several).
Fortunately Barbara, Janice, and David will continue to hold the City to its own high standards and along with the support and volunteered time of members Charles Harper, Tyler Letey, Meg and Matt Stockbridge, Joshua Newman, and several other active neighborhood residents Maple Leaf will continue to be a great place to live (new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park anyone?). I’m now off to Durham, NC for a new adventure and look forward to following the events of my favorite neighborhood from afar.
Maple Leaf Life wishes you the best of luck in your new adventure!
Editor’s note: The first paragraph has been changed because it previously listed an incorrect new position for Phillips.
