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City to City - Quality of Life by Patricia Dumas TUI is looking into ways that citizens can work with their cities to improve the quality of life in urban neighborhoods. Last month, we presented an overview of the various programs turned up by our research. Each month we will report on that research by focusing on a particular city. Our over-all aim is to encourage Troy citizens to initiate programs adapted to our city's needs. Our focus this month is on Seattle, Washington. Ten years ago that city developed a Neighborhood Matching Fund Program that has since served as a model for other cities. The city annually budgets money from its General Fund to start the yearly program. The neighborhood organizations help match the grant by raising money, offering professional services, donating materials, and/or making use of volunteer labor. Since the program began in 1988, more than 700 projects have been completed. Seattle's City Council, spurred by the interest and success of the projects, doubled the budgeted fund this year to $3 million. Other cities, working under much more limited funding, nonetheless have found that Seattle's action plan can work for them because it provides guidelines for eligibility, procedure, and evaluation. The Seattle projects fall under five separate funding categories: The Semi-Annual Fund, the Small and Simple Projects Fund, Neighborhood Membership Recruitment and Development Fund, Involving All Neighbors Fund, and Technology Matching Fund. Depending on the category, completion deadlines are set, spending limits are authorized, and money use is carefully specified. Eligible projects must provide a public benefit and neighborhood people must be involved in the project identification, planning, and execution. Individuals, institutions, government agencies, religious and fraternal organizations are excluded from eligibility. All applicants are required to submit a "Letter of Intent" prior to submitting an application. The Letter of Intent, which narrows down the screening process, may be submitted on-line through a special web site. Applications are evaluated differently according to their funding category. In the largest funding category, the Semi-Annual Fund, which involves projects with a twelve-month completion deadline and a $5,000-$100,000 grant ceiling, a city-wide review team examines the project proposal. The review team consists of representatives from each neighborhood district and from a City-Neighborhood Council. Their recommendation is forwarded to the City Council and Mayor for action. The other types of funded projects are reviewed by a Department of Neighborhoods which rates the application and accordingly recommends funding. Funded projects have included playground equipment for schools and parks, preservation of urban open space, market research for declining business districts, public art, programs for at-risk youth, community gardens, community education programs, crime prevention, and assessments of neighborhood needs and opportunities. In cooperation with Troy United Ink Corp., a not-for-profit corporation 
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