by Matt Mills McKnight (updated Aug 3 at 9:54am)
Community members, businesses and law enforcement gathered for events in Seattle’s South End for the National Night Out event on Tuesday evening, amid gatherings around the city and country. The space adjacent to the Safeway parking lot turned into a late afternoon party complete with burgers and hot dogs being cooked by Safeway employees and Seattle Police Department’s Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin playing chess with opponents of all ages.
In Skyway, the first ever National Night Out celebration took place organized by local business Studio Bourgeois and the West Hill Community Association. The festivities included an ice cream truck which served visitors tasty frozen treats, the Skyway Outdoor Cinema popcorn machine popped fresh kernels for snacking party goers giving them a taste of what’s in store come this Friday when the summer outdoor cinema series kicks off. Kids played ladder golf, made bracelets, and participated in face painting. Employees from non-profit Skyway Solutions represented the neighborhood with their shirts, and King County Sheriff deputies handed out junior badges and asked local kids to take an oath to support their community.
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that strives to gather law enforcement and community members together, with hopes of building partnerships and create neighborhood camaraderie.
While I love that Safeway and the merchants association is taking such an active role in bringing the community together, I’m also noticing a declining attendance at individual block parties during Night Out. I realize that overall, perhaps more people attend the Safeway event, but they also provide a strong disincentive for individuals to try to pull together their immediate neighbors for a party like this. After trying to organize block parties for several years, and seeing really low turnout in the last 2, I think it’s just not worth the effort to try to pull the block together anymore when we face such well funded competition. Perhaps this is appropriate if the greater benefit is that more people meet people in the neighborhood. I’m just not sure that another large community celebration put on by businesses is the purpose of Night Out.