By Gwen Davis

The Delridge Action Plan Workshop, at the Delridge Community Center on Tuesday, asked participants: What would you like to see for yourself and others in the Delridge community?

Previous feedback from community members and organizations had been put together in detailed, colorful posters, which were displayed at six workstations. At each table, participants talked about two key topics. People had the opportunity to provide feedback, ask questions and add their two cents. Around 100 people attended.

Many of the participants were from city departments, as well as community members. All attendees were asked: What are your priorities? What does success look like? Who should we involve to make sure these plans happen?

Four main issues were addressed:

—>healthy food accessibility
—>transportation
—>economic development
—>supporting strong communities

At the beginning of the workshop, participants at each workstation received green dot stickers, and put them on respective posters to indicate what particular issues needed the most urgent improvements or addressing, in their opinion.

For healthy foods, a priority at the begining was opening a grocery store.

“The goal is to open the new grocery store,” said Jason Miller, who is actively working on this action item. He said he secured a building. “Right now we’re just trying to raise the funds for that. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for collaboration.”

Affordability is a key issue, he said. A store such as Whole Foods, for example, wouldn’t work in the neighborhood since most people couldn’t afford it.

The head of the event, David Goldberg from the Department of Planning and Development, briefly addressed the group at the beginning of the workshop.

“We’re here to work with the Delridge community to make it the best plan it could be,” Goldberg said. “We’ll have action plans, things that the city and community can do both individual and in partnership to make Delridge the place we want it to be.”

The project is three-quarters done. It began last August.

People in the community were surveyed: What do you love about your community? What do you want to work on?

“In June, we came up with a list of strategies where 70 community members came in and provided us with comments,” he said.

Certain places in West Seattle, such as Delridge are now called centers or junctions. These places are areas where development can take place.

“Delridge Way is a big public transportation area,” Goldberg said. “But over and over again we heard that people loved parks.”

Goldberg’s group therefore got a grant just for that.

But community members had other issues, he said.

“Delridge is a community that experiences health challenges.”

People have complained about exacerbated asthma and heart disease.

“All the things we do to improve the communities, we want to link that back to our health,” he said. “People are also very interested in improving transit, cultural programming, language classes and improving access to Camp Long."

People have said repeatedly, “We need a grocery store in Delridge,” Goldberg said. "In all, affordability and accessibility are important."