Accomplishments

The Northside Neighborhood Association (NNA) planted the activist seeds for establishing the NMCDC. The following are some neighborhood accomplishments throughout the 1990s:

• In 1995, as a neighborhood-initiated project, a 20-block "North Missoula Railroad Historic District" was included as a vernacular working class neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places.
• In 1996, St. Patrick Hospital supported neighborhood resurgence by establishing its "Healthy Neighborhood Project" (a 1999 American Hospital Association "NOVA Award" winning project).
• In 1996, the NMCDC incorporated.
• In 1996, the North Missoula Housing Partnership was established to promote affordable homeownership in the neighborhood (the NMCDC Board of Directors acted as the Resident Board for the Partnership).
• In 1996, the neighborhood initiated a neighborhood planning process which led to the adoption of the Joint Northside/Westside Neighborhood Plan in 2000 and a citizen review of the Plan in 2006. This document, ratified by the Missoula City Council, is a citizen-initiated, government-funded and democratically crafted plan for the neighborhood's future. It forms the central strategic document for NMCDC activities.
• In 1997, the NMCDC helped the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project found the Missoula Tool Library.
• The NMCDC helped the neighborhood construct "Project Playground" with all volunteer labor in 1998. This state of the art children's facility adjacent to Lowell School grew from public meetings associated with the development of the neighborhood plan. It has an estimated value of $120,000, and the NMCDC maintains a restricted long-term playground maintenance fund of $18,000.
• In 1999, the City of Missoula constructed the grassroots-initiated Northside Railroad Pedestrian Overpass. This structure is a 2.2 million dollar non-motorized infrastructure improvement and culmination of ten years of community activism. It was financed with tax-increment and Montana Rail Link funding (the NMCDC and the NNA organize and work with groups to clean and remove graffiti from the structure).
• In 1999, the City of Missoula constructed the neighborhood-initiated, federally-funded, California St. Bridge spanning the Clark Fork River. This is a non-motorized 1.8 million dollar infrastructure improvement.

Since 1999, the NMCDC has sponsored or partnered in the following programs and projects to build on the momentum of earlier neighborhood victories:

• In partnership with the City of Missoula, the NMCDC raised and contributed funds for development of the Northside Greenway. The Greenway, completed in 2002, is an eight-block "rails with trails" project with two associated pocket parks.
• The NMCDC established the Hill and Homestead Preservation Coalition (HHPC) in 1998 to advocate for continued city ownership and preservation of the 13-acre Moon-Randolph Homestead in Missoula’s North Hills. In 2000, the NMCDC signed a Preservation Services Cooperative Agreement with the City of Missoula, taking on responsibility for rehabilitating the site and developing education, agriculture, and youth advocacy programs. Since 2000 the NMCDC has established a year-round caretaker in a renovated dwelling on the site and raised over $90,000 for maintenance, building rehabilitation, and programming.
• The NMCDC initiated the School Nurse Health Aide Project in 1999. This was a collaborative effort with the Missoula City-County Health Department, Volunteer Montana (Americorps) and Missoula County School District #1. The project concentrated especially on problems of head lice infestation in low-income elementary students. The NMCDC and the NNA jointly received a "Year 2000 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation" from the Montana Preservation Alliance for the work of the HHPC and the neighborhood association's work in establishing the Northside Railroad Historic District.
• In May of 2000, the NMCDC received an award of Community Development Block Grant funds to establish its Land Stewardship Program (LSP) for the development of affordable housing. The program is based on the national Community Land Trust model and is receiving additional start-up support from the Institute for Community Economics. The LSP completed its Whittier Court Development in 2002 and Clark Fork Commons in 2006. A Burns Street development is scheduled for 2007.
• The NMCDC partners, as a facilitator and broker, with a variety of low-income advocacy agencies and groups on a variety of issues. The NMCDC worked with Women's Opportunity Resources and Development Organization (WORD) on public outreach and design for the Gold Dust apartments in the core area of the Northside Historic District.
• The NMCDC offered fiscal sponsorship to help the Clay Studio of Missoula and Home Resource get started with their valuable community work.
• The NMCDC worked with the Missoula Office of Planning and Grants to facilitate a neighborhood-resident survey in 1997 and helped conduct a follow-up survey in 2006. These documents are used by the City and the NMCDC as a "needs-assessment" tool.
• The NMCDC worked actively with the Missoula City-County Health Department and the Office of Planning and Grants to receive an EPA Brownfields Grant in 1999 to study the State of Montana Superfund cleanup at a former mill site the Northside neighborhood. The NMCDC is the lead neighborhood organization in monitoring environmental remediation and potential redevelopment of the siteand is currently helping broker a 3-acre playing field development on a portion of the site. The NMCDC and the Missoula City-County Health Department, through a grant from the National Association of City-County Health Organizations, conducted an environmental health education needs assessment project with neighborhood residents and former mill-site workers.
• In 2002 the NMCDC hosted the first season of Missoula Outdoor Cinema (MOC). MOC showcases classic films, shorts, animation, and local films with weekly projections on side of Whittier School.
• The Northwest Area Foundation awarded the NMCDC an inaugural “Great Strides Award” in 2005 for its innovative work in poverty mitigation and neighborhood revitalization.
• Since 2003 the NMCDC has provided financial resources and staff time to develop the Missoula Community Co-op, a cooperatively-owned consumer food co-op with related community food projects like the Homestead Buying Club, Real Meals community dinners for women, and program to offer access to healthy food to neighborhood children.
• In 2006 the NMCDC purchased a 1 ½ acre site in the Westside neighborhood to build 16 new land-trust homes and rehabilitate an old freight building for the Missoula Community Co-op, a commercial kitchen, and a restaurant with public meeting space. The Burns Street Community Center purchase was made possible with funds from the Northwest Area Foundation, City of Missoula Entitlement Funds, the USDA, a Missoula County Loan and donated local monies. The Center will become a commonwealth for Missoulians administered by the NMCDC’s Land Stewardship Program.