Opinion: Service Center should become community information space

The Neighborhood Service Center in the Library is closing -- but could it continue to be a neighborhood resource? Photo by go-team in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
As the saying goes, “When one door closes, another opens.”

As part of budget cuts within the Department of Neighborhoods, North Beacon Hill is losing our Community Service Center in the Beacon Hill Library. Steve Louie is moving to the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center. He will work in coordination with three other District Coordinators to serve the Southeast, Greater Duwamish, Delridge, and Southwest Districts as a team.

The North Beacon Hill Neighborhood Council voted unanimously last Wednesday to request that the recently vacated office become a volunteer-run information sharing space. The location is accessible, highly visible, and already identified as a gathering/information space in the community. A community audit showed strong interest in maintaining a space for information sharing, meetings, assistance with grant applications, and general liaisons between neighbors and city programs.

The space would be shared with staff from City agencies such as the Department of Neighborhoods, Department of Planning and Development, etc. Volunteers from a variety of community organizations (including the NBHC, Beacon Arts, Beacon Merchants Association, and others) would staff the space.

Please contact the Mayor’s office and city council members to support the idea of maintaining a publicly accessible space to share information and stay connected with what’s happening in Beacon Hill and the rest of the city.

You can write, call, email, tweet, or post on facebook. Our elected officials are accessible—access them and let them know that Beacon Hill wants to use this space!