By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Since West Seattle hasn’t been a city since 1907, it doesn’t have its own mayor.
But it does have civic champions. Few have worked more tirelessly in recent years than Lora Radford.
After five and a half years as executive director of the West Seattle Junction Association, she’s just announced that she’s moving on to serve the West Seattle community in a different role, as a community liaison in Sound Transit‘s next phase of light-rail planning.
Her Junction involvement actually goes back more than a decade before she moved into the Junction Association’s cozy office across from the Senior Center of West Seattle.
She was on the WSJA board for 13 years, as owner of one of The Junction’s distinctive small businesses. Hotwire Coffee.
(Riding in coffee cup as Hotwire entry in 2012 West Seattle Grand Parade)
As Hotwire’s proprietor, she was a civic champion too, founding the West Seattle Outdoor Movies series, which gathered crowds into the coffeehouse’s shared courtyard on Saturday nights for many summers. (As Hotwire proprietor, she also was the first entrepreneur to buy advertising on WSB when we started selling space in fall 2007 to see if this publication could be a business.)
To say her five and a half years of leading WSJA have been “eventful” would be an understatement, from growing events like Summer Fest, Harvest Fest, and Hometown Holidays, to steering the leased parking lots from unsustainably 100 percent merchant funded to community-cost-shared. But the biggest “event” of all was one no one could have foreseen – the pandemic.
“I have been in awe of how the West Seattle community showed up for the local businesses,” Radford said. “I remember the day we closed The Junction, in pouring rain, standing there thinking ‘we have to close the district down, what are we going to do?’ We started making signs, letting people know they could pick up food [restaurant takeout] … people just showed up, and it gave us hope to keep going.” It wasn’t just restaurants – retailers found ways to keep afloat too. “People delivered things to doorsteps … the way we were able to survive the pandemic and the bridge closure was that West Seattle knew they had to support us” – to ensure the “accidental island” didn’t lose its local businesses.
To supplement online/takeout/curbside sales, Radford started a relief fund for local businesses – “remember, this was before the PPP [federal Paycheck Protection Program loans] and city grants” – thinking maybe they could rustle up $25,000. “I thought if I could give those business owners hope through a small check, to be able to deliver those checks to see delight and hope in the faces of small business owners …” At this point in our conversation, Radford wiped away tears, recalling how she found herself having “to hold them when they cried because they didn’t know what was going to happen the next day.”
The community showed up big time: To date, community contributions to the relief fund have totaled $111,000 (the fund is still open for donations). “That was incredible … through it all, we’ve all not known what’s going to be next, but to be able to keep those doors open has been inspiring.” Another idea for supporting the merchants was to sell tote bags and boxes as part of the virtual/hybrid events such as Hometown Holidays, Harvest Fest, Valentine’s Day – “a way for us to bring The Junction to the doorsteps of our West Seattle community through those programs.” So far those have brought in $95,000 for the participating merchants. “We’ve been able to provide the joy of shopping in The Junction (without leaving home) … the excitement when a volunteer brings the tote bag to front door and people are grateful to receive things from The Junction.”
The volunteer program is another achievement of which Radford is proud – she’s been the WSJA’s only full-time staff member and so many of the events and programs have run on volunteer power. The Junction has aggressively recruited help, and people of all ages have responded. “I love to see the volunteers come together and create exciting events for West Seattle – I’m so appreciative of them, before and during the pandemic. Without them, we would not have been able to accomplish the things we have over the past 5 1/2 years.”
(Radford with the mayor, during a walking tour in 2018)
The job’s had challenges, too. Helping merchants deal with crime, vandalism, and street disorder has meant a lot of behind-the-scenes work with SPD, LEAD, and the city (with which she’s worked on many other issues). And then … there’s the parking lots, the highest-profile issue of all. The Junction Association leases the four lots; they’re owned by a consortium of shareholders called West Seattle Trusteed Properties. WSJA has to cover the property-tax bill, which has increased dramatically in recent years due to the value of the land as future development property. Early this year, after years of consideration, the lots changed from free to $2/hour. “The change in the parking from 100 percent merchant-funded to asking the community to help was important. It gave us some financial breathing room.” Left unresolved, the parcels’ future. WSJA worked with Community Roots Housing as that organization, which specializes in affordable housing, made a city-backed offer for the parcels. WSTP has not accepted it, Radford says, having sat in on the consortium’s recent shareholders eeeting, but hasn’t turned it down outright either.
What happens next will be up to somebody else. Radford has been interviewing potential candidates for her job but there’s no final decision yet on her successor. It was an “easy transition” when she took the job in 2016, while she was “in the middle of” selling Hotwire and also studying nonprofit management in a University of Washington program, but there’s no obvious successor this time. Good candidates, though, she says, and is hopeful to start turning over responsibilities later this month. As for her future, she lives in West Seattle and is expecting to work mostly from home in what’s envisioned as a long-term temporary gig – maybe a year and a half, helping the community through the Environmental Impact Statement process. “I feel public transportation is an important conversation to have.” She also notes that the EIS process “is critical to the final alignment of the expanded system, and to the final placement of the Junction station.”
Her time as WSJA executive director has included highlights like serving as Grand Marshal of the West Seattle Grand Parade and being chosen Westsider of the Year by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. But Radford says, “My favorite things are what we’ve accomplished together as a community – because it takes all of us in West Seattle to be successful. I just want to underscore my gratefulness in being a part of this ‘accidental island,’ and to let people know I’m not going to be far away.”
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