The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association (RNA) seeks to educate and empower those who live and work in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle and beyond its boundaries about issues of importance to the Roosevelt neighborhood and to advance general public awareness of such issues. The organization seeks to serve all residents and stakeholders through dissemination of useful information and representation of shared concerns.

The official boundaries of the neighborhood are I-5 on the West, 15th Ave NE on the East, Ravenna Blvd. NE on the South, and NE 75th from I-5 to Lake City Way thence Lake City Way to the North.

Membership in the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association is open to residents, businesses, employees and property owners in the neighborhood. The Board and Committee members of the RNA are all volunteers seeking to support the goals of the RNA. Your membership dues help support the activities we do to support those goals.

For more information about becoming a member, visit our Membership Request page.

For more information about becoming a volunteer to help support the RNA goals, visit our Activism page.

Organization history

As told by Tad Bigelow, written by Randall Weers

It’s not uncommon for a Neighborhood or Community to organize around a land use action that the City has approved while failing to understand local needs. And the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association - Seattle (RNA) is no exception. But to fully understand how the RNA was formed you have to look further back and view a wider community than just Roosevelt.

In the late 70’s Seattle Public Schools decided to vacate the Fairview School. The City’s grand plan for the use of that land was to provide low-income, scattered site housing; essentially the equivalent of what we now call “low-income housing”. Part of the plan was to convert the building into apartments. The Fairview Community didn’t consider this as the ideal use of the land and structures and formed the Fairview Community Council to evaluate the impact of the City’s proposed action. Among its founders were Bill Hamilton and Tad Bigelow.

The City of Seattle funded a study to evaluate whether the land and structures could be cost effectively redone for the City’s purpose. As it turned out, the only viable solution would be to build single family dwellings at the cost of $70,000 each. At the time, that would have meant that these “low-income” homes would have considerably more value than other homes in the neighborhood. Not an ideal situation for local land owners. Fortunately, the City listened and understood the situation and chose to offer the land and building for sale. Eventually the property was sold to the church that owns the property today.

When the Fairview Community Council first formed in the summer of 1979, the boundaries were 70^th to the South up to 85^th to the North. The Council later recognized that the Roosevelt neighborhood was not supported by any community leadership. The Council asked and was granted permission by the Department of Neighborhoods to include Roosevelt down to Ravenna Boulevard. Soon after, Maple Leaf extended its South boundary down to 80^th. This made the Fairview Community Council’s boundaries between Ravenna and 80^th.

Prior to 1979 there had been no formal group for the Roosevelt Neighborhood. However, an ad hoc committee formed to seek relief from speeding occuring on NE 70th between 12th and 15th. Their activities resulted in installing the chicanes that exist there today.

In the Mid-80s the City had granted a Master Use permit for the 6700 Roosevelt building. A fellow named Pat Strossel wanted the Fairview Community Council to get involved in that action. Unfortunately, once a Master Use permit is granted the City is not very responsive to community input. In fact it would have required legal action to do anything about the construction at that point. So the Council was not able to help Pat. Pat felt that Roosevelt would be better served by its own organization and the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association was formed.

When the RNA was formed, it established boundaries from Ravenna to NE 70^th Street. This left the Fairview Community Council with boundaries from 70^th to 80^th. Since that area was too small to have much influence, the Council chose to dissolve and split its territory. Maple leaf extended down to 75^th and RNA extended up to 75^th. However since Maple Leaf is supported by the North District Council and the triangle east of Lake City Way down to 75^th is supported by the Northeast District Council, Maple Leaf would not cross Lake City Way. This left two areas unsupported by any community leadership. Finally, in 2003 the RNA Bylaws were updated to include the triangle. And in 2007 the Bylaws were amended again to include the “Banner Loop”.

Fairview Community Council had developed a war-chest of funds to support the study on Fairview School. By law a non-profit like the Fairview Community Council must give up its funds to another non-profit upon dissolution. The remaining war chest was split between the Maple Leaf Community Council and the RNA.

Over the years the RNA has had a number of Presidents, including Sue Baker, Barney McClure, Sasha Gorney, Clariss Preston, Penny Eckert and David Eckert.

In 2004, under the pressure to help guide the Northlink Light Rail to a preferred destination in the Roosevelt Neighborhood Jim O’Halloran guided the neighborhood as President. Together with Vice President Andy Reay-Ellers, the RNA revised the Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan; its first revision since it was initially adopted by the City of Seattle in 1998. In 2005 this web site was developed on Microsoft Office Live to support communicating the Plan Revision process with team and the community. In 2006 after countless hours of revision work, the revised Neighborhood Plan was submitted to the City and was adopted by City Ordinance.

Following Jim and Andy’s efforts, C.J. Liu served as President for two terms ending April 2009. During this time the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were amended, while the organization diversified into Committees and groups each focused on one or more critical elements of the Neighborhood Plan.

The purpose of the RNA, as written in RNA’s non-profit Articles of Incorporation, is “to educate, engage, and empower those living in or in close proximity to the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle regarding issues of importance to the Roosevelt neighborhood and to fulfill and advocate on behalf of the vision of the neighborhood described in the Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan that was adopted by the Seattle City Council”.

The RNA hopes you will help achieve this purpose: become a member, join one of the neighborhood Committees or Groups or just attend the RNA Monthly meeting and keep yourself informed. It is only through community support and involvement that an organization like the RNA can make good things happen.