Community Cafe Bainbridge

In this 25-minute podcast conversation, Hilary Franz looks back to her favorite community accomplishments during her four years of service on the Bainbridge City Council, from 2008-11. She tells about the farm on the north end of the Island that attracted her to move here in 2000. And there's a story about sheep and roosters.

She explains that, even though her years on City Council were burdened by the severe national recession and a collapse of the local economy and local government funding, it was also a time of innovation and working for shared island values.

She discusses favorite memories of those years such as:

• improving the Winslow downtown by repairing the pipes of Winslow Way, widening sidewalks and creating bike lanes;
• protecting the harbor and Puget Sound from stormwater runoff;
• honoring the historic home in Eagle Harbor for the liveaboard community;
• creating incentives for greener building and more affordable housing;
• updating the zoning code to preserve local farming;
• taking action to resist climate change by working on home energy audits and energy efficiency refits;
• innovating with a public-private partnership to put solar panels on the City Hall roof; and
• looking for projects to allow community members and local government to be more effective together.

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters

In this 23-minute podcast, our new Superintendent of the Bainbridge Island School District, Peter Bang-Knudsen, responds to questions about his personal background -- such as his discovery of his passion for helping kids -- and his forwarding-looking goals and vision for our public schools, teachers and students.

Our elected School Board conducted a national search and chose Peter, who graduated from Bainbridge High School, has children in our schools, knows our community well, and has been serving as Assistant Superintendent since 2010. He was hired by our much-admired outgoing Superintendent Faith Chapel, who found Peter in a leadership role in the Bellevue school district.

Faith is retiring after a long career in education and about 8 years service to BISD as superintendent.

Peter officially takes on his new role on July 1st. In this conversation recorded on June 23rd, he responds to questions about:

• Experiences during this transition period
• How his interest in education arose
• Examples of early formative experiences in public education
• His professional career path
• Examples of his responsibilities as Assistant Superintendent in recent years
• His support for ongoing collaboration with our four other local government units (City, Fire, Parks and Library)
• His views on emerging policy issues and practical concerns
• His thoughts on the right balance in a small district between special options programs and more widely shared curriculum and approaches
• His views on the most important measures of success for our public schools
• What Peter's message might have been if he had spoken at the recent commencement for graduating seniors

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters

In this 28-minute conversation, Bainbridge residents Ellin Spenser, Alice Mendoza and Andre Kamber describe their personal experiences traveling overseas recently to care for refugee families arriving from war-torn Syria.

What can the rest of us do to help?

This Saturday, as Ellin and Alice explain, we can bring contributions of used clothing, shoes, bikes, sports equipment, baby carriers and strollers for refugee families, for donation to Salaam Cultural Museum, the organization that helped our 3 Bainbridge guests travel to comfort the fleeing refugees, as described on this podcast.

Please drop off donated items this Saturday, May 21st, between 9am and 4pm, at the garage of the home on 589 Grow Ave., Bainbridge.

In this podcast, Ellin describes how she went to the island of Lesbos in Greece -- the homeland of two grandparents -- and put her professional realty career on hold while she personally cared for refugee adults and children arriving in unseaworthy boats from Turkey.

Andre likewise paused his professional investment advising career after being inspired by the December 14th candlelight vigil at the Japanese Exclusion Memorial.

Alice, who is a retired Bainbridge teacher and winner of the 2008 Island Treasure award, cared for refugees in Greece and has since then been telling her stories in local schools and service club meetings.

Each of our guests describes the experience of feeling the desire to take some action to express compassion toward these families, especially in the context of the divisive and fear-mongering remarks of some of the US Presidential candidates.

There are additional ways for concerned Bainbridge residents to help:

• see what local congregations are doing by visiting the website of the Interfaith Council of Bainbridge and North Kitsap;
• write to political leaders urging compassionate responses by the US to the needs of refugees;
• communicate with other Islanders on the Facebook page for "Bainbridge Islanders for Inclusivity".

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.

In this 20-minute podcast, two Bainbridge retirees - David Harrison and Elaine Von Rosenstiel - explain how they and other islanders (most of them over 65) have created a nonprofit startup company that has an idea and an app to enable Seniors to express their generosity.

In the podcast, they tell stories and anecdotes about the fun they had developing this inventive idea. They describe their website and new smartphone app that enables a Senior to keep track of the dollar amount of senior discounts they receive from day to day. Then, the app allows the Senior to generously earmark those discounts to a nonprofit charitable organization of their choice.

So, if a Senior today receives a $4 discount for a ferry ride, track it in the Boomerang Giving app. If, tomorrow, you get a movie discount of $5, track it in the app. When it adds up to, say, $20, use the app to forward those discounts to your favorite charity that you can choose on the Boomerang Giving website.

The mission of this new startup is straightforward: To empower older Americans – including the 3.5 million who are turning 65 each year – by creating new opportunities to give back and join others in strengthening their communities.

As they say on their website, Boomerang Giving is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started in 2013 by 7 local people who were motivated to do something about the strong desire of older Americans to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways. They realized that the “aging of America” results in 10,000 folks turning 65 each day – 3.5 million baby boomers turning 65 each year.

Locally, for example, you can use the app to direct dollars to a nonprofit like Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN). However, the idea has gone national, and you can choose virtually any qualified 501c3 charitable organization by picking from a vast national database on their website.

Credits: BCB host and social media publisher: Barry Peters; BCB audio editor: Chris Walker.

In this 15-minute podcast, we meet the new Planning and Community Development Director of the City of Bainbridge Island, Gary Christensen. Gary started in his new leadership position with COBI in April.

Gary is a listener and is reaching out to meet Bainbridge community members and hear their views and suggestions for the City. He walks to work from his new home in downtown Winslow. He's interested in encouraging citizen involvement in the ongoing 2-year project to update the City's long-term Comprehensive Plan.

Gary has 29 years of local government experience, most recently as the manager of the Skagit County planning and development department, and participated in that county's comp plan update and in administration of shoreline issues. Gary has a masters in regional planning from WSU.

City Manager Doug Schulze conducted a national search for a successor to Kathy Cook, a 20-year City staff veteran who looked back on her City career in a recent BCB podcast. Several citizen volunteers participated in the review of finalists, as noted by Jon Quitslund in our recent podcast with him.

Gary emphasizes that an important leadership quality is the ability to build strong relationships. Rather than solutions coming from one person, he says that an effective planning director understands that you need assistance from others: co-workers, elected officials, and the community. He feels that you need to believe in solving community issues through collaboration and communication, and by being transparent and incorporating effective public participation. He added that the best conceived plans are community inspired.

Credits: BCB host and social media publisher: Barry Peters; BCB audio editor: Tim Bird.

In this 25-minute podcast conversation, we meet Jason McLennan,

As Jason explains, a "living building" is one that is not only

Jason is in the midst of many ground-breaking projects. He is

Questions answered by Jason in this conversation include:

We conclude with a note of gratitude about the positive and

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher:

From BCB... http://bestofbcb.org/cafe-038-culture-and-climate-change/

Yes! Magazine Editor at Large Sarah van Gelder recently hosted University of Montana Professor George Price on Bainbridge, and they sat down with BCB host Reed Price for a discussion about climate and culture.

Sarah not long ago took a road trip to investigate how the efforts at creating positive futures that her magazine reports on are playing out in the field. Sarah focused not on big urban areas or the coasts, but on what she called ‘the edges,’ less populated, more gritty and often-overlooked regions of the country. She called it the “Edge of Change Road Trip,” and you can investigate her blog on the journey here: https://edgeofchange.yesmagazine.org/

One of the people she met was George Price, who lives in Northwest Montana. In this podcast, they talk about the kind of change George and the people he lives with have been a part of, and how that relates to some of the other things that Sarah experienced during her four-month long journey. (Here’s a link to her post about George: https://edgeofchange.yesmagazine.org/2015/08/28/)

This discussion took reactions to climate change as a focus, with an interest in actions people are taking in response to climate change. The answer to that question is not straightforward; as Sarah notes, climate change is a big slow process that people have a hard time responding to directly. However, there’s plenty of evidence that things are changing in communities around corporate decision-making and economics that do affect the way people would like to see non-renewable resources like fossil fuels used.

This wide-ranging conversation looks at new ways people are organizing, and how the ‘edges’ might affect those more publicized parts of our culture.

Credits: BCB host and audio editor: Reed Price; social media publisher: Diane Walker.

Long-time local residents Steve Johnson and Jane Lindley explain

Jane Lindley, a retired software company manager, explains that

Steve Johnson recently retired from more than 20 years as

This podcast also announced an open public information event on

BCB interview questioner Barry Peters discloses on

Credits: BCB host, editor and publisher: Barry Peters. Note: The

T&C's Sustainability Director Tony D'Onofrio explains the good news about the completely redesigned Town & Country Market in Bainbridge that earned a gold award for green features that make a difference for the environment and climate ... and for the enjoyment of the food shopping experience.

In this 21-minute podcast in BCB's "Going Greener" series, Tony explains how this award for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design follows from the company's values and commitment to sustainability.

Some highlights of T&C's rebuild achievements are:

Tony also mentions his prior career as a chef, before he came to Bainbridge 18 years ago and earned an MBA is Sustainable Business Practices from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now called Pinchot University).

The architect for the T&C store rebuild is Johnson Squared Architecture (of Winslow), and the construction was performed by Abbott Construction.

The LEED Gold award puts T&C in a comparable category with the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art which is in the running for a LEED Gold award for its building.

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.

In this 20-minute podcast, long-time island resident Jon Quitslund reflects on why he volunteers for public service roles like serving on the Planning Commission.

Jon describes his recent experience participating in the public process of selecting the new Community Development Director for the City of Bainbridge Island. He points to the cross-section of citizens who engaged in that interview and selection process, and describes why he's so pleased at the City Manager's selection of Gary Christensen. Christensen had been the unanimous first choice of all five members of the citizen panel of interviewers, including Jon.

During this podcast conversation, Jon says that he feels the new planning director is particularly attuned to listening to citizen visions and concerns, and has the skills and qualities to build trust in the City and its planning processes.

Jon also describes the importance of the ongoing public process to update the City's Comprehensive Plan, which was last updated in 2004. Jon describes the importance of the current focus on the adequacy of the island's fresh water resources and the relevance of the current review and modeling of the "carrying capacity" of our complex network of underground fresh water aquifers.

Jon encourages community members to attend the next meeting in the 2-year Comp Plan update series. The meeting is framed as a "Community Conversation on Bainbridge Island's Water Supply" and is set for 6pm to 7:30pm on Thursday March 17th at City Hall.

On a personal level, Jon describes how much he has always enjoyed walking in some of his favorite woodlands on the island, whether it's the Grand Forest or the vicinity of his family homestead off Torvanger Road.

Jon also serves the community as vice president and board member of nonprofit Sustainable Bainbridge, which is the 501c3 parent organization of BCB.

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters. Note: This podcast recording was edited for brevity and clarity.