15th Avenue East Community Workshop

In April 2018, approximately 85 community members met with Board & Vellum and Environmental Works to engage in a two-hour discussion about their hopes and dreams for 15th Avenue East. The discussion was divided into three events: a visioning exercise, a collaborative discussion, and an interactive design exercise.

We started off by agreeing on ground rules for the event. It was important to keep the conversation productive by focusing on the positive aspects of the inevitable changes happening to the area. Rules of engagement included speaking concisely, respectfully listening to and accepting other’s opinions, and focusing all efforts toward the highest good for the neighborhood.

After the ground rules were set, we embarked on the visioning exercise. Participants were asked to consider the question, “What are your best ideas for the future of 15th Avenue East?” Each person wrote three ideas on three separate notecards which were then gathered and posted for the other participants. Many of the ideas centered around common themes of safety, green space, preserving small businesses, supporting job development, and thoughtfully adding density. In the discussion that followed, attendees were able to elaborate on their ideas and seek out further commonalities between them. As facilitators, we worked with the group to identify all ideas so that we could prepare the most comprehensive list for future reference by those shaping the neighborhood.

Next, for the basis of the interactive design exercise, we posted street-view elevations and aerial views of 15th Avenue East from Denny to Mercer on parallel tables. Participants used markers, tracing paper, and cutouts, to mark up the elevations with their ideas for a better 15th Avenue East. With suggestions such as benches, kids' play spaces, exercise equipment, gazebos, P Patches, and more, attendees produced a bountiful range of ideas, including a farmer’s market, underground parking, and developing affordable housing.

Despite their many visions, common themes emerged. Most important to participants was creating and retaining affordable spaces for local and independent retail, a greater public street presence, and pedestrian friendliness. Finding similarities in the participant’s visions was inspiring – though everyone came in with their own ideas, our wishes and hopes for the neighborhood showed we had more in common than originally thought.

The event yielded a great deal of relevant and important information from 15th Avenue East’s community members. The result is a digital report detailing the results of the exercises and discussions of the day, available to the City, future developers, and community members to help shape the future of 15th Avenue East.