By Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Projects, crime stats, and City Council candidates were on the agenda when the Morgan Community Association had its quarterly meeting this past Wednesday at West Seattle Church of the Nazarene. About a dozen people attended, both in person and online.

The big news to come out of the meeting was the cancellation of next year’s Morgan Junction Community Festival. The festival was usually one of the first of the summer, held in June, featuring local musicians, vendors, and a place for other local community groups to advocate to attendees. The reason given for its cancellation given was a combination of a lack of funding, issues with overall attendance, and a lack of variety in new groups to bring to the event. “We need new blood to bring the festival to life … In additional conversations, we determined those things had not occurred.” said Christopher Miller, MoCA secretary. (President Deb Barker could not attend, so board members led the meeting.) He also said, however, they were considering other opportunities for MoCA to present events: “We are looking at new ways to activate public space in one-off ways, looking at projects like that, and other directions we can try to go when the [Morgan Junction] park (addition) is open.”

The other big news was that the park addition site will be open to the public as soon as November as it transitions between phases of development. The site has been hydroseeded , meaning that a new blanket of grass will grow soon over the filled and leveled site, expedited by the rainy season.

Olivia Reed, a planner from Seattle Parks and Recreation, came to deliver a presentation on the status of the site, north of the existing park. “The [additional site] project will go into construction winter 2026 [as in, December of next year], so the fencing around the site will be removed in the next couple of months, and it’ll be open until construction begins.” she said. She also said that the addition site project progress is on pace, with the primary design consultants are under contract. They are working now on finalizing the design requirements for the project. She said there will be additional chances for the community to input feedback on the proposed design before construction begins. (The issue of how and whether it will include a skatable area has not yet been settled – here’s our recent update after a site meeting with Parks reps and community members including the group MJAWA that has long been working for the feature to be in the project.)

Community members were also curious about the status of the alleyway behind the addition site, which is currently overgrown and unusable. Reed said the Parks Department is currently in discussion with SDOT (who has primary jurisdiction over the alleyway) on how to improve it.

Other local business involved an update on zoning recommendations that MoCA has made to the city as part of the process of the city’s Comprehensive Plan Update. The association had supported an overall increase in zoning density for most of Morgan Junction, with the exception of some places near, or on, steep slopes (like Beveridge Place).

Also on Wednesday night, Crime Prevention Coordinator Matt Brown also made an appearance to update the community association on crime statistics in West Seattle. We’ve covered the overall crime statistics for West Seattle in reports on various recent community meetings, including the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council meeting earlier this month. New to this meeting, however, were the statistics Brown provided for the Morgan Junction vicinity: Morgan Junction has seen a decrease in crime by 41% year to date, with the total incidents going down from 378 in 2024, to 218 this year. For the month, only 10 incidents have been reported, in comparison to 47 in the same time frame in 2024. There have been two shots-fired calls in Morgan Junction this year, with no injuries.

The meeting concluded with brief statements by City Council candidates Dionne Foster, who is running for citywide Position 9, and Sara Nelson, incumbent in that position and current council president.

Foster spoke first. She shared her inspiration to run: “I am a mom to a 12-year-old, that’s the big reason I decided to run – 12 years ago, when I was in my early 20s working as a waitress, my partner and myself had to use Medicaid/Apple Health to make ends meet at the house. I learned the value of strong public investments – which has given us a chance to build good lives for ourselves.” She said her platform is targeting the affordability crisis and lack of subsidized housing as its main goals.

MoCA asked her about both her commitments to public safety, as well as what she might have to offer in regards to the Morgan Junction park project.

She spoke first on the issue of public safety. “[There are three main commitments I want to make in investing into public safety.] One: making sure we have sufficient police officers, and getting response times down. Making sure when you call you get a response. Two: I’m interested in things that help with community safety, [such as] investments in the local environment [to prevent drug use]. Three: investments into the behavioral health system, trying to get people before they are in our legal system or homeless.” she said.

Regarding the park, Foster said that the larger issues which have prevented work from occurring faster on the site and sites like it are budgeting issues and a lack of communication and oversight. “The big challenge is just that we don’t have enough money, and [proper] prioritization [of which sites to work on]. It’s hard for Parks to invest in those sites. We need to not have a breakdown in communication, which leads to uninvestment and inaction.” she said.

Nelson spoke second. In contrast to Foster, her platform focused more exclusively on the issue of public safety. She spoke about her background as a main qualifying point for re-election, being significantly more experienced than Foster, starting as a staffer for then-Councilmember Richard Conlin in 2002 until his defeat in 2013. She says her track record has been immensely positive for reducing crime in Seattle: “I am running to build on the results I have delivered. Under my leadership, there have been more officers hired – on track for an increase of 71 officers for the city. Investigators moved to patrol can now go back to their specialized units and we can look at getting guns off the streets and interrupting high-level drug dealing.” But she said there was even more action she wanted to take in a second term to improve public safety. “We must address the root causes of crime – fentanyl addiction. It’s not just a public safety issue, but a root cause of the homelessness problem.” She cited some of her recent and upcoming work in the council on this matter. She said she worked on a pilot program in 2023 which helped increase access to on-demand addiction treatment, and says she is working on a council resolution to identify homelessness recovery services and strengthen existing ones.

She also contended that experience is a core element when cities are facing issues of disagreement with federal government actions, such as sending the National Guard to cities like Portland and Chicago. “When there is so much Washington D.C. chaos, what Seattle needs is an experienced leader to deal with these things, who can take on tough fights and handle them.”

On the question about the status of the Morgan Junction Park addition and MoCA’s frustration with the pace of development. “It is inexcusable to lie to the public about the status of it. It must be added to to the list of priority projects … It is an asset that is being wasted right now.”

There were also two other key reminders from the meeting:

The Morgan Junction Emergency Hub has been working with Gatewood Elementary on parent-teacher reunification training, in case of emergencies either on or off the campus. This event will take place on November 6th, between 6 to 7:30 PM. The first half of the evening will be a presentation given by the principal of the school, and the second half will be the training itself. If you’d like to know more, you can visit their event page here.

There are also upcoming board elections for MoCA. They are very keen on having new applicants: “We would very much appreciate new blood. The four of us who are volunteers on the board collaborate well together, but cannot do everything we want to do, you can challenge us for our roles or just join as an at-large member.” said Conrad Cipoletti, board member. At their next quarterly meeting in January (7 pm January 15), candidates for the board will be presented, and in April, elections will take place. If you’re interested in running for election to the board, consider sending them a message via their contact form here.