Last night’s community council revival was a good start.

1. Lots of people showed up from all sorts of communities on the Hill.
2. People got to speak their mind.
3. The group started forming committees and a framework to move forward in.

Here’s coverage from a few other bloggers in the ‘hood:

• Miller Park blog: “Definitely a critical mass of enthusiastic and capable people: I have every hope that a healthy and vigorous Community Council will be representing our needs again soon.”
• Seattle PI’s Capitol Hill blog: “Like a phoenix rising from the ashes”
• cap16 (now added to our Hill sites list in the sidebar, btw): “I see a ton of value in grassroots initiatives that will give a core group of people projects to rally around. Especially early in the life of this group. Those projects will contribute to the quality and character of the neighborhood and give the group an identity.”

Biggest challenges we see for the council:

• Communities within the community — balancing the interests of constituents as diverse as homeowners in the north with the apartment dwelling cool kids in the southwest will require flexibility, tact and a willingness to compromise.
• Focus on the achievable — a lot of voices last night were ready to fight the good fight against the modern evils of development and the corporate tide. We don’t want the council to surrender completely to those tides — but we also want to be part of a body that gets things — small and large — done.

All in all, an exciting start to something that will need support from the most important people in the neighborhood — the people who weren’t there and maybe won’t be part a formal part of the council, but will align with a smart group’s positions and feel a real community with its efforts. Next step is another meeting on Feb 21. If you have any questions or ideas, you can drop us a line for now until better lines of communication are put in place.