As rents climb, can Ravenna-Bryant be diverse & welcoming?

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An older apartment building on NE 55th Street. This stretch of NE 55th Street is currently zoned Neighborhood Commercial and can include buildings up to 4 stories.

Rents in the area south of NE 65th Street in Ravenna-Bryant increased 10-14% between 2014-2015 according to a recent Seattle Times article. Rents in the neighboring University District rose by more than 16% in the same time period.

The article notes that communities like the U-District and parts of Ravenna-Bryant are desirable because of their density which tends to mean that there are amenities like restaurants and easily accessible transit. With the UW light rail station opening last month, and with the Roosevelt light rail station opening in 5 years, the area will become even more desirable.

As Ravenna-Bryant becomes a more desirable place to live,

Ravenna Present (Bryant Heights)
Rendering of new apartments being built on NE 65th Street.

rents will continue to increase, pricing many people out of our community. The RBCA board recently adopted a vision statement that puts in words what we want our community to be like in 10-20 years. “Welcoming” and “diverse” are two adjectives the RBCA board chose to include in our vision statement. If rents continue to increase as they have in the past few years, Ravenna-Bryant may not be very economically diverse nor welcoming to all.

 

To address these issues throughout Seattle, the Mayor released a Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, commonly known as HALA. HALA contains multiple policies with the common goal of increasing affordable housing options throughout Seattle and, at the same time, maintaining and creating a livable city.

The RBCA’s annual meeting this year will focus on HALA. The meeting is open to all community members who want to learn more about the policies contained in HALA.

RBCA Annual Meeting

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center

Agenda

  • Open House – Learn about HALA and get your questions answered one-on-one with city staff members.
  • RBCA Business: Electing 2016-17 board members
  • HALA Panel Presentation
  • Public Q&A
Michael Jacobson

I’m ok if we use “economically diverse” as a proxy/surrogate for other (including racial) diversity since keeping the neighborhood affordable, or at least having a variety of price points for housing options, will help allow more kinds of people to live here. Just be aware of the North End’s historical legacy of racial and religiously reatrictive covenants and red-lining for minorities in this discussion. Racial diversity might need to be explicitly called out since “diversity” can be used in many ways, including ways that further exclusion.