City jail in West Seattle? High-profile opposition

| Highland Park | West Seattle jail sites | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

As mentioned over the weekend, the two southeast West Seattle sites (mapped here) on the list of four possible locations for a new city misdemeanor-offender jail are on the agenda at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club at 11th/Holden; map). We just confirmed that West Seattle’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine and State Rep. Sharon Nelson will be writing letters to city leadership to express opposition to building the jail at either of those sites. (We’ll be checking with West Seattle’s other legislators too.)

Ken May 19, 2008 (6:11 pm)

Does anyone care to explain why either of these sites are not suitable?

I have been searching of any reason other than your basic NIMBY and I am coming up emnpty.

Anyone got something?

baumer May 19, 2008 (7:03 pm)

they should put it in south park since that is where all the crime is anyway. they aren’t close to where i live so I can’t get too NIMBY about it, but I don’t want a jail in west seattle. especially not that close to a couple of parks. just move them over into south park.

why do they have to build a jail in west seattle as opposed to one of those areas? just another example of the city of seattle giving west seattle the short end of the stick. i am all for building a jail in west seattle provided we declare our independence from those fat cats across the bay and become our own city. then we can also control the developers building these awful townhouses better too.

Bill Frank May 19, 2008 (8:01 pm)

I really do not consider the area W.Seattle.

Ken May 19, 2008 (8:40 pm)

Ok. One poorly articulated NIMBY.

Anyone else?

When I go to the map, add satellite view and zoom in enough to recognize both current buildings at those addresses, I see damn near perfectly suited areas for relatively cheap acquisition of under utilized buildings and vast tracts of land currently infested with Himalayan Blackberry. The city has to build one somewhere by 2012 since the County contract is running out then. You can’t get closer to the industrial part of the city unless you build them on the river bank several blocks east. Any further east and you hit Tukwila. (They annexed the land around the old Boeing field) If nothing else, someone should claim both sites will be underwater by 2050 at the rate the greenland ice sheet is melting, and therefore a bad investment for the city. (It’s even true, both sites are in the flood plain)

The state already ships short sentence prisoners to Arizona, New Mexico and Arkansas to corporate owned prisons. The city and the county rent jail space as far away as Yakima and tri-cities, (or they did, I am not sure where that data currently resides).

I want to hear a bit more than crickets and “Seattle is mean to WS”.

I might be willing to join in the protest, but not for the reasons I have heard so far. At this point I will have to follow up with my elected officials and see if they have any reasons why this is a bad idea.

Chris? Sharon? Dow? Does opposition to this building have a point? Or is it another pie in the fight with Greg and the Council.

Can we trade it for better bus service on the 21, 22 and the 56? Can we get free plastic bags for a year? A pony?

WSB May 19, 2008 (9:04 pm)

West Seattle goes from the Duwamish on the east, to the city limit line on the south (which is Roxbury except for a couple spots east and west where it stretches further south, such as the Myers Way area plus the Arbor Heights area), to Puget Sound on the west and north.

Danno May 19, 2008 (10:45 pm)

Ken-

We are tired of being treated like the redheaded stepchild. No jail dumped over here until we get light rail or streetcars, or some other sign of neighborly respect. Oh wait, we have the monorail?! Seriously, no jail over here, there is plenty of cheap real estate much nearer the courthouses where a jail should be.

denny May 19, 2008 (11:42 pm)

Broadmoor? Laurelhurst? Sandpoint? How about interbay?

We don’t need the Big House when we already have The House on the blog.

tpn May 20, 2008 (9:00 am)

How about questioning the conventional wisdom that we even need a new jail? 1 out of 100 Americans are in some form of jail or prison, and it seems that the problem is only space, to the extent that we refuse to look at the problem of “crime” both from the standpoint of legalizing victimless crimes, and early intervention. The more jails we build, the more we rely on the long unproven and debunked method that punitive measures reduce crime (they don’t), and the more we rely on the police to do two jobs–the one they have, and as social service points of contact, soon we will be unable to tell what we’re walling in and what we’re walling out. Perhaps then–at least as far as crime is concerned, we can get out of the business of NIMBYism.

BORN&RAISED WEST SEATTLEITE May 21, 2008 (9:03 pm)

Hey finally I read something good about this bad situation, Sharon Nelson understands the problem with Department of Corrections and the crappy justice system in this state and hopefully everyone will rally around her and finally listen about what needs to be done!! For too long everybody just does the time in jail and prisons and nobody cares until it in there back yard!!

Dina Johnson May 27, 2008 (6:31 pm)

To Ken,
Who is waiting for someone other than “one poorly articulated NIMBY” to speak up – Please see the reasoned arguments against a jail at the Highland Park locations written by Carolyn Stauffer and Rep. Sharon Nelson on this page:
http://highlandpk.net/noHPjail.htm