Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 6, Issue 12, December 2002

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Little City Hall coordinator to retire

By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Yolanda R. Martinez has fought for equal rights for women and minorities, helped found community councils, and even made sure poor kids got presents on Christmas. Martinez, the Lake City Neighborhood Service Center coordinator, has announced her retirement, effective Jan. 3.

While the title may sound bureaucratic, many Lake City residents agree that Martinez's 17 years in the job have brought real benefits to the neighborhood. Martinez staffed community and district councils and helped organize the Northgate Chamber of Commerce. Less visibly, but perhaps more importantly, she's been the liaison between the neighborhood and City government making sure Lake City's concerns are heard.

In her free time, Martinez can be found working for one of the service groups she's involved in including the Lake City Rotary and Lake City Christmas Project a nonprofit group she founded that gave toys and food to 500 needy children last year.

"A lot of things would not have gotten done in Lake City without Yolanda," said Betty Bartholomew, a longtime member of Lake City community. "It's going to be very hard to replace her because she had a natural knack with people and she had a diplomatic way of dealing with the public and the City."

Martinez has worked nearly-30 years in the public sector through innumerable nonprofit groups. In the 1990s, Martinez co-founded an economic development organization called Activos Mexicans, worked for a King County Program which counseled parolees on reentry into life outside prison, and Though Martinez had taken Hawkins' name when she married, she decided to go back to her maiden name because it broke the ice in the Spanish-speaking communities she worked in.

She was also a founding member of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Hispanic Affairs, and lobbied the City to hire more minorities.

Former Mayor Charles Royer appointed Martinez to the Seattle Women's Commission in 1977. Several of the commissioners, including Martinez, investigated landlords who were suspected of discriminating against women and minorities.

Martinez had already been working for the City for several years before being transferred to the Lake City Community Service Center, also known as the Lake City Little City Hall, in 1984. When she got there, she found she had little to do. Not many people visited the center in those days, so Martinez got permission to close the office for a couple of hours each afternoon and walk the streets, talking to be people and seeing what needed to be done around town.

"If I saw two people standing at a bus stop, we had a meeting," Martinez said. She added that it was mentors such as Bartholomew, the longtime executive director of the Lake City Chamber of Commerce up until her retirement in 1999, who really got Martinez into the swing of things.

Although she had a fulfilling career in public service, personal hardships didn't cease for Martinez as the years wore on. Her husband passed away in 1996 after years of suffering from a kidney ailment.

"All of these experiences have made me a more sensitive, caring person (able) to help others," Martinez said.

Many in the Lake City community would agree with Martinez's self-assessment.

"She's the best," said Virgil Flair, director for the Lake City Community Center. "As far as I'm concerned, (Yolanda's) Miss Lake City."

And "Miss Lake City" can't really leave the neighborhood behind.

Martinez said she hopes to relax for a month or so. But, with tax season around the corner, an many Spanish-speaking families in the area who rely on her help for such things, Martinez knows what she can expect: "The phone's going to be ringing off the hook."

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There will be an open house to honor Martinez at the Lake City Neighborhood Service Center, located at 12707 30th Ave. NE, on Friday, Dec. 20, from 4-5:30 p.m. For details, call 684-7526.