BH business district misses out on $thousands
At a community event in nearby Columbia City:
Today Mayor Greg Nickels presented funding awards totaling $128,384 to 22 Neighborhood Business District Associations throughout Seattle to continue the city’s investments in building healthy communities and supporting our local economy.
Some of the projects funded include the creation of new business organizations, business district promotion (branding, marketing campaigns, farmers market start-up), physical improvement and enhancement projects (leaf clean up, curb bulb landscaping and banners), etc.
The 2009 Neighborhood Business District Awards recipients were:
- African Business Association – $5,000
- Business Owners of Madrona – $3,500
- Capitol Hill Housing – $5,000
- Chinatown International District BIA – $7,000
- Columbia City Business Association – $11,880
- Georgetown Merchants Association – $5,000
- Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce – $6,000
- Greater Seattle Business Association – $15,000
- Greater University Chamber of Commerce – $2,000
- Greenwood Phinney Chamber of Commerce – $5,000
- Lake City Chamber of Commerce – $5,000
- Madison Valley Merchants Association – $4,200
- Magnolia Chamber of Commerce – $2,600
- Metropolitan Improvement District – $4,144
- Picture Perfect Queen Anne – $4,000
- Pioneer Square Community Association – $7,500
- Rainier Beach Merchants Association – $3,850
- Rainier Chamber of Commerce – $3,710
- SODO Business Association – $8,000
- South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce – $10,000
- West Seattle Chamber of Commerce – $5,000
- White Center Community Development Association – $5,000
Total Amount of Awards: $128,384
And what about Beacon Hill? How much money did our business associations receive?
- Beacon Hill Chamber of Commerce – $0
- Beacon Hill Business Association* – $0
- Beacon Hill Merchants Association* – $0
- Beacon Hill Community Development Association* – $0
Some of these (*) have never existed, but the Beacon Hill Chamber of Commerce did — don’t bother clicking that link, it’s as dead as the association.
What happened to the BHCoC? The P-I still mentions that they’re located at 3801 Beacon Ave S (the address of the Jefferson Community Center at Jefferson Park) and that they meet the second Wednesday of each month at 9 a.m., except for July and August, at Java Love. As the phone number listed is disconnected, I doubt they still do.
Do we need a neighborhood business association? What should their primary goals be? How can we promote and guide the growth and development of our neighborhood without one? Should we revive our old Chamber of Commerce, or start a new business association (or associations)? Please give us your opinions in the comments.
Neighborhood Business District funding awards release 5-21-09 (pdf)
Jason, I’m glad you posted this one because I was thinking about it too.
“business district promotion (branding, marketing campaigns, farmers market start-up)”
We do have some groups that exist up here to improve the neighborhood, like Beacon Hill Pedestrians, but nothing really that is able to get us some of the events and amenities other neighborhoods have.
Why don’t we have a Street Fair? A Seafair parade (even a little one, like a kiddies’ parade)? A Farmers’ Market?
I was wandering down Beacon last Saturday, when it was sunny and warm, and I saw a vending table set up outside of Spoons. I thought how nice it was to be able to stroll down the sidewalk and see samples of the goods from a Beacon Hill business — then wished that a few more of them would be out there, too, including some of the food vendors! Can you imagine a Bite of Beacon Hill? (If Culinary Communion were still around they could have been part of that, too.)
Anyway, our neighborhood doesn’t do those things, probably because there really isn’t any group who can pull it together at the moment. NBHC maybe, but I’m not sure if that is part of their mission or not.
I would like to be involved in bringing back the Beacon Hill Chamber of Commerce. Is anyone interested in helping? Why did it go dormant?
[...] this, so we have to thank the Rainier Valley Post for bringing it to our attention. Last year, Jason lamented that the 2009 Neighborhood Business District grant money passed our neighborhood by. Things have changed. The new Beacon Merchants Association recently received a 2010 Neighborhood [...]