News roundup: Coffee, bridge lights, city funding, youth jobs, Library photo exhibit, Department of Neighborhoods information hub

Atlas Coffee Importers, at 201 N. 85th St. in Greenwood, is celebrating its 20th birthday with a residency at the La Marzocco Café in the KEXP Gathering Space at Seattle Center now through March 5. They’ll be highlighting coffee farmers, roasters, and local businesses. La Marzocco Café regularly provides residencies for roasters and retailers, but this is the café’s first residency for an importer.

You may have noticed that the Fremont Bridge is now permanently illuminated at night, thanks to the Bridge Lights art installation, which celebrates the centennial of Seattle’s historic bascule bridges. The Ballard Bridge will eventually be illuminated as well.

Community groups with ideas on how to renovate, expand or upgrade a Seattle Parks and Recreation facility or park can apply for the Major Project Challenge Fund through the Seattle Park District, which will provide a funding match to a community-initiated “major project” that is not otherwise covered by another Seattle Parks funding source. This fund will provide up to $1.6 million per year in matching funds.

To apply for the funding match, any community group may submit a four-page proposal letter that outlines their project and funding needs. Application letters are due on March 30, 2018. SPR encourages community groups that have a project and matching dollars to apply for funding from the 2018 MPCF. The application process will prioritize community-initiated projects that have a “parks and recreation” mission, encourage public access, leverage non-City funds, and are on SPR property and/or an SPR-owned facility. Click here to view complete 2018 funding criteria. The first round of the community-initiated projects, announced in December 2016, provided small awards for feasibility and preliminary design work to help define the scope of potential future projects and awards to two construction projects, Kubota Garden Ornamental Walls and Gates, and Amy Yee Tennis Center Improvements. The MPCF awards were based on screening criteria that included an equitable prioritization scoring matrix, and came recommended from the Seattle Park District Oversight Committee and confirmed by Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Superintendent.

The Phinney Neighborhood Association is looking for a Business Membership Coordinator. Funding for the position is coming from the city’s new Only in Seattle initiative, which is providing a total of $1.2 million for business districts to help small businesses.

Two University of Washington students in the Program on the Environment are conducting a survey on climate change outreach methods as part of their thesis now through March 9. Participants can opt to be entered into a drawing to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Applications are now being accepted for teens ages 14-17 to join the Ecology Youth Corps in picking up litter this summer. You can apply online. Applications are due by early April. Corps members earn $11.50 an hour for a four-week session, typically on a crew near their home.

Seattle Department of Neighborhoods now has an online portal of City resources, information, and tools to connect community members called the Community Resource Hub. The Hub features how-to documents, videos, websites, tip sheets, links to discounted City resources and more.

The portal is divided into three sections:

GET INFORMED provides the basics of government, along with information on City resources and opportunities. GET ENGAGED shares useful web tools to help people connect and engage with government and with each other. GET ORGANIZED provides City resources for those ready to organize their neighborhood or community.

Seattle Public Library has expanded its Living Cultures: Beyond the Frame exhibit to include 100-year-old images from photographer Edward S. Curtis’ “The North American Indian,” which recorded the culture of Native Americans, paired with images from present-day photographer Sharon Eva Grainger. The exhibit is at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 8. The exhibit is free and open during regular library hours.

The Curtis images are his attempt to document, preserve, and memorialize what he thought was a vanishing race because of drastic governmental policies. He wanted his viewers to see Native Americans as he thought they had lived for centuries.

The Grainger photographs bring us into a vibrant and robust Native American world filled with traditional culture in contemporary times.

Grainger will talk about her work at 7 p.m. this Wednesday (Feb. 28) at the Central Library in the Microsoft Auditorium. Then from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in the same location, Jim Thomas, Tlingit chief and statesman, will speak about current Native American issues.