Congratulations on deciding to start a Seattle Neighborhood Greenways group! Find friends, neighbors, and make new friends when you invite people from school groups, community clubs, business associations and more. Make your meetings, walks and events fun and a way to build great long-term relationships in the place you live, play, and work.
Get the word out first. Many new groups use a Google Group for sharing internal information and a Facebook site for public outreach. Your local blogs and papers, community council, church, and school newsletters, and Chamber of Commerce offices are usually excited to help you get out the word for your first meetings and events. This double-sided 1/2-page flyer describing Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is a very helpful recruiting tool!
Make sure you read:
- An 8-Step Resident’s Guide to Working with the City
- A great FAQ from Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
- Seattle’s Neighborhood Greenways Toolkit 2012 written by UW students
- What makes a great neighborhood greenway? by Portland blogger Mike Anderson
- Bands of Green: official report of connections between Seattle parks and streets
associations to learn with us together. Look at our Community Resources page for shareable handouts – and make sure you pass around a sign-in sheet! Libraries always have free space but are often booked far in advance. Here is a list of other community meetings rooms – and do think about meeting in living rooms, coffee shops, or business that you want to bring on board to support greenways. We often show this short video at the start of the first couple of meetings:Find streets that work well for walking and biking. Community groups often want to focus first on mapping the routes that feel safe and comfortable for walking and biking. We highly recommend actually walking on these routes as a great way to hold a community meeting and to learn about what is functioning well and what could use some design and engineering work.
- Read Seattle Neighborhood Route Scouting Guide for great local field-tested ideas that work!
- Read a Guide to Leading Community Walks and Rides on Future Greenways.
- A variety of Pedestrian Audit Tools and Bicycle Route Audit Tools from Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center and friendly how-to guides to Walking Workshops from Mark Fenton.
- Join the citywide Seattle Neighborhood Greenways group to find out about what is going on around Seattle and to get inspired by the work of other local groups.
