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Come out and join your neighbors for a little community cleanup on Saturday, September 10, at 10am. Grabbers, bags, donuts and coffee provided. Bring your gloves if you have them. Enjoy some community time and help keep our neighborhood clean!

The next work party on the new Hazelnut Loop trail in Cheasty Greenspace at Mt. View will be this Saturday, Sept. 3, from 10am to noon-ish. The gravel surface is almost done and every helpful hand is wanted to be sure it’s complete and walkable by fall.

Meet at 2809 S Alaska Place. All tools, gloves and guidance are provided. Bring your own water and wear sturdy shoes.

For the seventh straight year, Seattle’s recycling rate has risen, hitting an all-time high of 53.7 percent overall and 70.3 percent for single households. The national recycling average is 32.1 percent. While each city calculates its diversion rates differently, Seattle is considered to be among the national leaders in municipal recycling, especially after the great strides we made in 2010.

Now Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is looking for your input to inform our decision-making as they update the long-term waste plan. Please take a moment to review the draft plan available at www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Garbage_System/Plans/Solid_Waste_Comprehensive_Plan/index.asp. Feel free to choose the section that most interests you:

• The Executive Summary, which gives an overview of the entire plan and summarizes all recommendations in the plan.
• A Breakdown of Recycling Recommendations shows when these recommendations would be implemented in the different sectors of single-family homes, apartments and condos (multi-family), and business (commercial).
• Chapters that contains recommendations:
  • Chapter 3 Waste Prevention, which covers strategies to prevent waste from being created. It also talks about product stewardship, which gets producers and retailers more involved in managing their products at end of life.
  • Chapter 4 Seattle’s MSW System, which goes into more depth about the recycling recommendations. It also talks about the steps in waste management, from collection, through transfer, to processing and landfill disposal.
  • Chapter 5 Other Solid Waste Streams, which contains recommendations to increase construction and demolition debris, as well as for graffiti, illegal dumping, litter, and community cleanup.
  • Chapter 6 Administration and Financing the Plan discusses solid waste education, as well as the financial impacts of the recycling recommendations.

After reading the section(s), please send a quick note to spusurveys@connectionsgroup.org specifying which section(s) you read and including any comments you have on the recommendations, the overall direction of the plan, the recycling goals, or anything else.

Here are a few questions to jumpstart your thinking.

1. Do you support the draft plan’s recycling goals to reach 60% by 2015, and the longer-term goal of 70% by 2022? Do you think Seattle should be more aggressive about recycling, or increase recycling more slowly?

2. SPU’s waste prevention programs include product stewardship activities, which seek increased producer responsibility for wastes. Do you agree producers and retailers should do more to reduce toxics in their products, and make their products more recyclable? Do you think they should pay for managing products at their end of life?

3. The recycling recommendations would be phased in over a number of years. Do you agree with the order and timing of the changes? Do you think customers will have time to get used to a change before the next one comes? Should the timing be more aggressive?

4. Do you support SPU inspectors increasing how often they look in garbage containers for materials that aren’t allowed?

5. Do you think the changes will go smoothly? Are there perhaps some problems SPU planners should take into account before starting a new program?

Lastly, SPU asks that you fill out a five-minute survey when you have a moment. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/spusolidwasteplan.

Thanks very much for your time. SPU appreciates your feedback!

Come join Rainier Valley Eats! this Friday, August 26th from 5:30 to 6:30pm for a free community dinner at the Rainier Community Center. Cooking starts at 3pm if you want to participate in the cooking.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Leika at pearblossom88@hotmail.com.

Come out and join your neighbors for the monthly neighborhood clean up. Meet in Central Park at 10am on Saturday, August 13. Bring gloves if you have them. Bags and grabbers provided. Coffee and donuts, too!

Looking for an outdoor space to host a meal or event? The Seattle Community Farm is offering the use of its Community Space free to any group, organization, or even family in neighborhood that wants to use it.

The Community Space consists of three large concrete tables and some seating along the wall, and is a great place to set up potlucks or other informal gatherings. We just ask that you make sure everyone stays out of the garden beds, and that you’re respectful of the farm’s neighbors by keeping noise down after dark.

If you’re interested in using the space, please contact Mariah Pepper at 206-387-6644 or urbanfarm@solid-ground.org.

Parking. Whether it’s on the street or in a garage, it’s something that many people do on a regular basis. While people certainly don’t drive for the sole purpose of parking, the act of finding a spot is inevitable. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) wants to hear about your experiences.

SDOT manages the on-street parking network – all those pay stations, meters, and related signs. Right now, they’re working on a project that outlines different strategies to make paid street parking in downtown and neighborhood business districts more available. The technical term is performance-based parking pricing. Other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. are testing out new strategies too.

SDOT would like to get a better sense for business owner needs, understand the customer parking experience, and look for ways to make it better. Take a survey! You can find the survey here (http://surveymonkey.com/s/seattleon-streetsurvey) – it should take about 10-15 minutes to complete.