West Seattle, Washington
26 Sunday
Two more overnight closures of the west end of the West Seattle Bridge have just been announced. SDOT says the Fauntleroy Expressway will be closed the nights of Wednesday and Thursday (July 20-21), 9 pm-5 am. All 674 earthquake-safety cushions have been re-replaced; now crews need to apply epoxy “to ensure the pads are providing thorough cushioning.”
Thanks to Paul Weatherman for sharing that aerial view from earlier this week! Before we get too much further into Friday, here are four things you should know about what’s happening on the ground in West Seattle today/tonight:
COLMAN POOL CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC FOR SWIM MEET: A texter asked a little while ago why so many parking spaces are full at Lincoln Park already this morning. Answer: Swim meet at Colman Pool. Today and tomorrow, the pool is closed to the public as a result, back open Sunday.
BLOOD DRIVE AT PCC: BloodWorks Northwest has put out a call for donations, and they just happen to have a mobile drive at PCC Natural Markets (WSB sponsor) in West Seattle today until 4 pm, with a break from noon-1 pm. (California SW/SW Stevens)
HIGHLAND PARK IMPROVEMENT CLUB MOVIE NIGHT: Doors open at HPIC at 6, children’s short at 6:15 pm, main feature at 7 – full details in our calendar listing. (12th SW/SW Holden)
WEST SEATTLE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE MOVIE IN THE PARK: “Cinderella” at dusk, around 9 pm, in the “park” area next to the church. Free hot dogs, popcorn, and soda. (42nd SW/SW Juneau)
10:09 AM: We’ve received multiple reports that West Seattle Water Taxi riders enjoyed a porpoise show this morning! The photos are from Bob Michaels (above) and from Nick Hesterberg (below). And we have details from Adam Aljets: “A great showing of half dozen porpoises on the 8:45 am water taxi. They swam directly up to our boat. We stopped and even circled back around to see them again.”
Identification help welcome; harbor porpoises are the ones most commonly seen in Puget Sound.
10:38 AM: Annika reports in comments that these are “common dolphins,” and the ID info online seems to correlate. They’re usually seen in warmer waters further south, but we’re finding online reports including this one from Port Angeles in June.
8:59 AM: Thanks for all the tips. SFD has a “fire in building” call in the 3000 block of SW Bataan [map]. More to come.
9:03 AM: SFD describes this as a “room fire” and says it’s “tapped.”
9:09 AM: Some of the responding units already are being dismissed. The huge initial response is standard for a fire in a residential building. SFD is calling out its fire investigator to determine how the fire started. No word of injuries but our crew will doublecheck on arrival.
9:26 AM: We’ve verified on site with the incident commander that no one is hurt. This is a multi-family residential building. After some light smoke was seen, firefighters are on the roof making sure there’s no “extension,” but otherwise they were awaiting the aforementioned investigator – who just arrived. We’ve added a photo atop the story.
(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)
(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:57 AM: No incidents in/from West Seattle so far this Friday morning. Looking ahead:
WEEKEND ALERTS: Thanks to the texter who pointed us to the City of Tukwila’s alert about something mentioned here previously without an official link – this weekend’s closure of a section of East Marginal Way near the Museum of Flight for the Boeing Centennial celebration – here it is. … If you’re heading south, note the southbound I-5 closures in South King County all weekend, detailed by WSDOT here … The White Center Jubilee Days street fair closes 17th SW between Roxbury and SW 100th all weekend, and 16th will be closed between 100th and 116th 10 am-1 pm Sunday for the Jubilee Days parade.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Light rail is coming to West Seattle.”
That’s how King County Executive and Sound Transit board chair Dow Constantine opened his speech to the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Thursday afternoon – his second pitch in the area in less than 24 hours for the transit megameasure known as ST3. He proclaimed it even more jubilantly in his first one, talking to the 34th District Democrats Wednesday night, as you can see and hear in our video:
Shortly after Constantine’s speech, the 34th DDs endorsed ST3 (as reported here earlier). His appearance before the Chamber – which did not involve an endorsement vote – was longer, and more educational; Constantine called it the “transit planner” or “nerd” version of the speech, rather than the “campaign” or “stemwinder” version.
The vote is still three-plus months away; ballots for the August primary hadn’t even arrived yet as he stood before the two local groups talking about ST3, which won’t be decided until November. But with an 11-digit price tag, this is no ordinary ballot measure. And supporters are pulling out the stops to avoid what happened with Sound Transit 2, a defeat, rewrite, and revote.
Thanks to West Seattle High School boys’ basketball head coach Keffrey Fazio for the photo – today, he reports, was the final day of this year’s Wildcat Summer Basketball Camp, hosted by his program. And it was a big camp – “70 kids, grades 4th – 9th.” What’s next for WSHS basketball after this? we asked; Coach Fazio says the annual WSHS Alumni basketball game is Saturday at 1 pm.
Just published on our partner site White Center Now: Seattle’s potential annexation of WC and vicinity has just moved a bit further down the road. One month after the King County Boundary Review Board‘s two-day hearing in White Center, board members just voted to finalize their approval of the prospective annexation. But there’s still a long road ahead – the Seattle City Council would have to vote to send the annexation proposal to voters in the potential annexation area; voters would have to approve it; and the city then would have to take steps to make it happen – they’ve said a yes vote in a 2017 election, for example, would result in the area becoming part of Seattle in 2019.
(WSB photo: Councilmember Herbold on May 12th community-group-reps tour she coordinated for Myers Way Parcels)
One day after Mayor Ed Murray announced that he plans to cut city support for neighborhood-district councils and come up with a different way of “engaging” neighborhoods, reaction continues to churn. As one of our followups, we asked our area’s City Councilmember Lisa Herbold for comment. Her reply ties into the other big mayoral announcement made two hours later – that the city will keep the Myers Way Parcels – which also cut short what was expected to be a longer process of discussion and decisionmaking.
The fact that this announcement came on the same day as the Myers Way announcement was interesting. The Myers Way decision is evidence that when Councilmembers, geographically-based neighborhood groups, and citywide issue-based groups all work collaboratively and effectively, we can potentially address items on our shared agenda. We have about 70 Boards and Commissions that are not geographically-based and are either subject matter based or demographically based – they are all appointments made by the Mayor and Council. We have 13 geographically-based, self-selected councils. Surely we have room for both.
One person writing to the Council said, when you look around your holiday dinner table and realize that you have the same people at the table every year, you don’t disinvite them, you invite more people. I like that analogy. The 2009 audit (attached) had numerous recommendations that had they been implemented any time up to now would have us in a very different conversation. I don’t believe that there is anything inherently undemocratic in a District Council system and that – in addition to identifying and implementing brand new methods of engagement – the improvements to our current system in diversity and representation could have instead been addressed by:
a. creating new expectations/metrics for outreach, membership, and involvement
b. city support to District Councils so that they can meet these new articulated expectations
c. consequences for failure to meet these expectations
Whether City Councilmembers plan to challenge the mayor’s plan remains to be seen; it will include legislation for them to consider, regarding formally cutting off city support for district councils (which are NOT the same as City Council districts, as explained in our story from yesterday, nor are they neighborhood-level community councils). The Myers Way Parcels work mentioned by Councilmember Herbold had included groups such as the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, White Center Community Development Association, Highland Park Action Committee, Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council, Seattle Green Spaces Coalition, TreePAC, and others.
Thanks to the texter who sent those photos of cars involved in a crash a short time ago on westbound SW Admiral Way just east of California SW. No major injuries reported – Seattle Fire has a one-engine response.
No other info but we are mentioning because with commute time approaching, might be backups here until the wrecked vehicles are cleared.
Congratulations to West Seattle’s Evan Smith for winning two titles on the Junior Bowlers Tour! The photos and report are from proud mom Bri’Anna Smith:
Evan Smith, an incoming 9th grader at WSHS, won the Junior Bowlers Tour (JBT) Touring Players Championship last weekend in Las Vegas! She bowled various JBT events throughout the Pacific NW to qualify for the end of season event in Nevada.
Her 6th-place finish for the season awarded her the title of 2015-2016 Pacific NW Conference Handicap Division Rookie of the Year. No other bowler has ever won Rookie of the Year and the Touring Players Championship in the same year! She bowled 10 games on Saturday and finished the day in 8th place. The top 60% advance to Sunday. On Sunday, the tournament cuts to the top 10 bowlers after 5 more games. She ended in 4th place after that cut. The top 10 bowlers then bowl 8 games of match play and again cut to the top 4 for step ladder finals.
Evan went into the finals in 2nd place. She bowled two more games to win the whole tournament! She bowled a total of 25 games and earned a total of $2,155 in scholarship money over the course of the weekend. It was back to back wins for female bowlers, the Pacific NW, AND West Seattle Bowl! (Zoe Mahn, 2016 Vashon Island High School graduate, won the event last year.) The championship match will be available for viewing soon on YouTube at JBT900.
A BIG thank you to Coach Tom Favre at West Seattle Bowl for all of his time and support! We are proud of Evan and all of the hard work she puts into practice and picking up spares year-round! She has had a fantastic year earning scholarship money doing what she loves! To learn more about JBT, please visit: www.bowljbt.com.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
At a full-house meeting at The Hall at Fauntleroy last night, the 34th District Democrats had an hour of Q&A with the mayor, plus a major endorsement:
34TH ENDORSES ST3: The group voted to endorse the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, shortly after the chair of the Sound Transit board, County Executive Dow Constantine, got up and told the 34th DDs that he never thought he’d be standing before the group and able to say, “Light rail is coming to West Seattle.” He gave a short, raucous speech – including his note as a UW alum that light rail would mean a ride to Husky Stadium – urging the group to give it their support. Constantine is scheduled to talk about ST3 at this afternoon’s lunch meeting of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and we’ll include his 34th DDs speech in that report.
MAYOR MURRAY: We recorded his entire appearance on video:
He started by saying he wants to keep his speech short, so he can answer more questions. But first – “the events of last week – in Minnesota, in Louisiana, in Dallas. … This is a pivotal moment in our history as a country. The unfinished business of racism is once again at the forefront of our discussion, and it’s a good thing if we are able to engage in that discussion.” He recapped local communities with whom he spoke in the past week – both “communities of color” and the “police community,” both experiencing pain and fear. He talked about his plans to change the Office of Police Accountability and auditor positions, which recently made citywide headlines. But, he warned, “We did not get here overnight and we are not going to get out of this overnight.” And he warned that this all must be dealt with in the context of the other issues with which police deal, including domestic violence and sexual assault. And the fact “there are bad police officers, the same way there are bad politicians.”
Next, he acknowledges “the growing homelessness crisis in this country,” and says other cities are dealing with it too, not just Seattle.
Just got word from Seattle Public Utilities that there’s room at this FREE event one week from Saturday at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor):
Oil and other automotive fluid leaks reduce the life of your engine and find their way to Puget Sound and other waterways where they pose a risk to wildlife and habitats. Seattle Public Utilities’ Automotive Maintenance Program wants to help you make sound choices.
Attend a FREE Auto Leaks Workshop to have your car inspected by a certified expert, learn how to find and fix leaks, and get a free Vehicle Maintenance Check Kit.
Upcoming class:
Saturday, July 23, 9 am-1 pmTo register go to www.seattle.gov/util/autoleaks
If you can’t make that date – check out a couple more (same link) later this year.
The U.S. Navy has announced which ships you’ll see sailing past West Seattle (and along the downtown waterfront) during this year’s Seafair Parade of Ships.
It’s set for Tuesday, August 2nd – the official time is 1 pm, but that’s usually the downtown sail-by, so you’ll be looking for the ships off West Seattle shores closer to noon. The U.S. Navy is sending the amphibious assault ship USS Somerset (LPD 25):
And the guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley (DDG 101), which was here last year (photo below is from our coverage of the 2015 Parade of Ships):
They’ll be joined by a Royal Canadian Navy ship and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. Free ship tours are planned Wednesday-Sunday:
The ship on Pier 66 will be open for public visitation Wednesday, August 3 – Sunday, August 7 from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The ship on Pier 90 will be open for public visitation Wednesday, August 3 – Thursday, August 4 from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.; on Friday, August, 5 from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.; and then Sunday, August 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be no ship tour at Pier 90 on Saturday, August 6. Times for tours may vary from day-to-day. More information will be released on exact times for each day as Fleet Week grows closer.
You can watch this page on the Seafair website for details (including the tour rules). On Parade of Ships day, best place to watch is near Duwamish Head, as the ships get a little closer to shore while heading toward the downtown waterfront, but they’re visible from Alki Beach too.
From “the small garden of a botanist who was head gardener at Seattle Center for 20 years” to “a tranquil space for authentic connection to the land” to a garden at the home of the person who created the white-rocks ALKI sign on Admiral Way – that’s what you’ll see on this Sunday’s West Seattle Garden Tour. Your ticket gets you self-guided visits to 10 gardens between 9 am and 5 pm Sunday as well as the lunchtime lecture at The Kenney featuring Steve Hootman, curator of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way. With three days to go until tour day, you’ll want to buy your ticket book in advance, at Junction True Value or West Seattle Nursery. Or you can buy online – but you’ll have to pick up the book on tour day (the BrownPaperTickets.com page explains where and when).
(Cooper’s Hawk, photographed by Mark Wangerin)
From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
BALLOTS START ARRIVING: Watch your postal mail – ballots for the August 2nd “primary” election should start arriving today. We say “primary” because some things will be decided in this vote, including two ballot measures to be considered by Seattle voters: The Housing Levy (Seattle Prop 1) and the citizen initiative for an elevated park on the downtown waterfront. And remember that West Seattle now has a permanent ballot dropbox, on SW Raymond east of 35th SW alongside the High Point Library.
CURIOUS KIDS SCIENCE: 10 am drop-in event at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center. Today’s theme: “Amazing Animals.” Details here. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)
LIGHT RAIL @ WEST SEATTLE C OF C: 11:30 am at The Kenney, this month’s West Seattle Chamber of Commerce lunch features County Executive and Sound Transit board chair Dow Constantine talking about West Seattle light rail and what else is in the ST3 November ballot measure for this area. Call the Chamber office ASAP to see if there’s still room, if you’re not already registered. (7125 Fauntleroy Way SW)
DELRIDGE GROCERY FARMSTAND: 4-7 pm, fresh produce next to the Delridge P-Patch, presented farmstand-style by Delridge Grocery Co-op volunteers. (Delridge Way/Puget Boulevard)
POP-UP ART MARKET: 5-8 pm in the Luna Park business district. Since there’s no West Seattle Art Walk tonight (it was a week early for Summer Fest Eve), check this out instead! Details here. (2940 SW Avalon Way)
OPEN MICROPHONE AT C & P: 7-9 pm at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), it’s your time to show off to the world, in a cozy coffeehouse atmosphere. (5612 California SW)
RIPPIN CHICKEN: Get funky at Parliament Tavern with Rippin Chicken live, starting at 9 pm. No cover. (4210 SW Admiral Way)
(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)
(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:52 AM: Good morning! No major incidents in/from West Seattle so far. Now that it’s Thursday, it’s time to look ahead to the weekend, including:
ROAD CLOSURE FOR JUBILEE DAYS STREET FAIR: Saturday and Sunday, 17th SW between Roxbury and 100th will be closed for the White Center Jubilee Days street fair.
METRO 120 REROUTE FOR SUNDAY PARADE: The Jubilee Days parade on Sunday (July 17th) will bring a reroute of the 120 between 10 am and 1 pm, on 16th SW from SW 100th south to SW 116th – details here.
BOEING CENTENNIAL: In comments earlier this week, “Trickycoolj” mentioned signage for the East Marginal Way closure south of the South Park Bridge this weekend because of the Boeing Centennial festivities. Still haven’t found anything official, likely because the celebration is not a public event, but better forewarned than not.
8:01 AM: Still quiet. Checked the West Seattle-vicinity live video feeds from the SDOT “travelers’ information map” to verify.
8:35 AM: Trouble on the eastbound high bridge. Just in from SDOT:
Collision on West Seattle Bridge at Delridge Way blocking EB center lane. Use caution and expect delays. pic.twitter.com/7iQ3SRFLnL
— seattledot (@seattledot) July 14, 2016
(Thanks also to Matt and Mike for telling us about this crash.)
8:55 AM: Also a crash on the northbound 1st Avenue South Bridge.
8:58 AM: Just checked in on the camera. West Seattle Bridge crash still blocking the center eastbound lane right after the curve. Police and incident response are there.
… the White Center Jubilee Days show has just started, right before 10 pm.
10:22 PM UPDATE: Just ended.
P.S. Jubilee Days is a five-day festival, with a carnival continuing at Steve Cox Park through Sunday, street fair in WC on Saturday and Sunday, and more.
Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:
BUSINESS BREAK-IN: Emily reports this happened just south of The Junction:
The Northwest Association of Independent Schools was broken into at 3:07 am on the morning of July 13, 2016.
At that time a rock was thrown through a glass window of the storefront at 5001 California Ave.
The prowlers left through the front door after 8 minutes in the commercial unit of the Adelaide Building. They stole 5 laptops.
NWAIS is a nonprofit organization that serves and advocates for private, independent schools in WA, OR, NV, UT, WY, MT, AK, and British Columbia.
If you saw anything suspicious or have any information about the break in, please contact Julie McGuire at jmcguire@nwais.org.
PROWLER ON VIDEO: D “wanted to share this video of a house prowler I caught on our camera who was snooping around our front yard. We live in the Highland Park area near 14th SW and Cloverdale.” We haven’t been able to download the video for embedding so far, but just click that link to see it on Ring.
WESTWOOD VILLAGE SCARE: From Kate:
At about 5:30 or 5:40 this evening, I was leaving the Westwood Village QFC with my toddler. A tall white man with long hair and a large knife in a black holster followed us to our car. When I noticed he was following closely behind us midway through the parking lot, I looped back toward the store. He stopped briefly to look into the window of a parked extended cab truck, then followed again back toward the store (thankfully at more of a distance at that point). A security guard was standing outside so I told him what was happening. He escorted me back inside and notified the police. He then kindly helped me get safely back to my car when all was clear. He told me not to stay and wait for the police, so I left with my toddler thankfully safe and sound. I don’t know what happened after that. Hopefully they were able to find him and do something about it. He was easily identifiable because of the gigantic holstered knife.
Beware of that hazard on the 1st Avenue S. Bridge! That’s the warning from Aaron Goss, proprietor of Aaron’s Bicycle Repair in White Center, who sent the photo along with a CC on this note:
Dear SDOT,
Please fix this IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! (see attached photo)
Someone is going to get killed. This cannot wait another day!
The metal strip that covers the gap has been bent and jammed down in the gap.
Aaron got a reply at day’s end from SDOT – pointing out only that the bridge belongs to WSDOT and saying they would forward the concern.
(Photo by Cory Bagley – aerial view of western Myers Way Parcels land, from earlier this week)
FIRST REPORT, 4:44 PM: Another big announcement from Mayor Ed Murray this afternoon: The city will keep the southeastern West Seattle land known as the Myers Way Parcels, instead of selling some or most of it. The news release just in:
Following months of community input, Mayor Ed Murray today announced the planned usage for the Myers Way property in Southwest Seattle.
“Thank you to those who shared their input on the future of the Myers Way property,” said Murray. “The City will retain the land, dedicating the four-acre northernmost portion for important fire training needs and expanding the Joint Training Facility. The remainder of the property will be retained and designated for open space and/or recreation purposes, consistent with the community response provided through our outreach. At a future date, Seattle Parks and Recreation will conduct further public outreach to determine how best to use the property.”
Seattle Parks and Recreation does not currently have resources needed to immediately repurpose the site, but the Department will retain the property as one of its “land banked” sites. Holding such properties ensures that valuable open space is not lost, even if resources for repurposing the property are not immediately available.
The Myers Way property is one of the largest pieces of undeveloped City-owned land and is adjacent to the Seattle-White Center border.
A sale of some of the land was supposed to fund part of the city’s homelessness programs – to the tune of $5 million – so we’ll be asking a followup on where that money will come from instead. (Added: Mayoral spokesperson William Lemke tells WSB that will be addressed in the mayor’s budget proposal this fall.)
ADDED 5 PM: Just in from Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who (as shown in the photo above) toured the site with community members and city reps two months ago today:
I’m pleased to learn that the Executive will not be moving forward with the plan to sell the Myers Way parcels. This issue is important to many residents residing in Top Hat, Highland Park, South Park, Arbor Heights, as well as citywide environmental groups such as Seattle Green Spaces Coalition and TreePAC. This is a significant and important victory for the community who has worked so hard to bring the value of these properties to the attention of City decision-makers.
I had been contacted by various community stakeholders regarding the proposed sale of approximately 12 of the 33 acres known as “Myers Parcels,” owned by the City of Seattle and declared “Excess to the Department’s needs.” In May, I organized a tour of the properties with community stakeholders and City Staff. Community members had sought assurances the decision about selling this property will occur only after the entire community, specifically low income renters, people of color and non-English speaking residents are meaningfully engaged and that FAS apply the Racial and Social Justice Toolkit and follow the Equity and Environment Action Agenda before deciding what to do with this land.
In 2014, the White Center/Greater Duwamish area was identified as the fifth most highly impacted community in the Puget Sound Region “characterized by degraded air quality, whose residents face economic or historic barriers to participation in clean air decisions and solutions.” Due to the severity of air quality and contamination already present in this area, I had expressed my concern to the Executive that active use of these parcels might result in further air quality degradation.
Many organizations, such as the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, have worked diligently for many years to clean up our waterways and have expressed concerns about the implications of development on Hamm Creek and the watershed within these properties. In response to these concerns as well as those related to air quality, I’d requested the following from the Executive:
Multilingual communication, so that members of immigrant communities could take part in the decision making process.
Additional information to catalogue the geological and hydrological elements of the property, their ecosystem services, and their beneficial uses to the community prior to making a disposition recommendation to the Council.
A health impact assessment that addresses the air quality contributions made by these land parcels, vs. air quality degradation from further development prior to making a disposition recommendation to the Council, rather than based upon a particular proposed development.
We’ve been reporting for years on what’s been going on to try to determine the future of this ~33-acre site (which was even considered in 2008 for the never-built city jail project). You can browse our archived coverage by clicking MYERS WAY PARCELS beneath this story’s headline, and scrolling through the stories (including our coverage of the big community meeting June 30th).
(Added 8 pm, WSB video of this afternoon’s announcement, including Q&A, where we’d embedded Seattle Channel live stream during event)
As-it-happened coverage:
2:30 PM: We’re at City Hall downtown, where Mayor Ed Murray is about “to announce the formation of the Community Involvement Commission, which will replace the District Council system,” per the media advisory sent about this time yesterday. The live Seattle Channel stream should appear above, once the event begins, if you hit “play.”
QUICK PRIMER: For the purpose of interaction between city government and neighborhoods, Seattle was split into 13 “districts” more than a quarter century ago.
West Seattle has two – western WS comprises most of the Southwest District, while most of eastern West Seattle is in the Delridge Neighborhoods District. They, and the other 11, each have a “district council” made up of representatives from community councils and other organizations in their respective areas. District councils usually meet monthly; each of their member groups/organizations decides who to send as a representative. They are informal advisory councils, without governmental powers, without stipends or salaries; the city has supported them with neighborhood district coordinators, whose numbers have been reduced in the past five years.
When the City Council switched last year to being elected mostly by district – seven districts whose boundaries had nothing to do with the 13 pre-existing neighborhood districts – they issued a “statement of legislative intent” asking the Department of Neighborhoods to evaluate the neighborhood-district system and whether the community involvement might be realigned with the council districts.
The draft report on that review came out in May; the final report was expected at the end of this week – and suddenly, the mayor announced he was going to make a move.
2:36 PM: The mayor has entered the room. He says, “We should constantly be looking for ways to bring down barriers and open up dialogue. Our city has changed dramatically … since the district councils were created. We communicated by picking up a phone or putting a letter in the mail.”
He says communities have been created in the years since then. Going to an evening meeting doesn’t work for many people, he says. “The executive order I’m about to sign directs city departments to begin developing robust community engagement plans, and take steps toward dissolving the city’s ties to each of the 13 district councils. The district councils may still exist, but Department of Neighborhoods resources that previously supported the district councils will be redirected to support all City departments in these efforts.”
The mayor says the city will be “more in touch with itself” once a number of steps are completed – civic engagement focus groups in August, and Department of Neighborhoods drafting “legislation for a new citywide community engagement framework and strategic plan” by September 26th. A “digital engagement plan” will have to be submitted by March 1st, with the city’s IT department working on that along with Department of Neighborhoods.
We asked the mayor how much of a budget cut would result – he said there will be no budget cut resulting, “the money will stay in the neighborhoods.” He says the spending had to change, though, to evolve to being offered to a “more diverse group of people” per the city’s race and social justice policies.
Kathy Nyland (at left in photo above) of the Department of Neighborhoods says the current eight district coordinators will keep their jobs – the descriptions will be updated, and hasn’t been updated in 15 years.
The mayor also says the timing of this – as we mentioned in the “primer” above, sooner than expected – does not have anything to do with an upcoming possible “backlash against HALA,” as one reporter asked.
We asked who the people in the front of the room are, besides the University District renter and Ingraham High School student who have spoken. Evan Clifthorne from Belltown came up and spoke. DoN director Nyland then explains more, saying she has a “file of complaints” about existing community councils, and the people who were invited are those who” were in that file.
2:55 PM: In the FAQs, one question is “Will the District Councils and City Neighborhood Council be disbanded?” The answer is no – but “the level of staff support that is provided” is what this is about. They “can continue to participate/advocate/inform as they do now even if not formally supported by City. They don’t need to be formally recognized by statute to exist or to be valued.”
We ask about Neighborhood Matching Funds and how this will affect those. The mayor says basically, what will change is who decides who gets that money. (District councils have had some review responsibilities.)
Nyland says that the Statement of Legislative Intent final report IS still coming out on Friday – the mayor says he hasn’t seen it, but “doesn’t think these things will be in conflict with each other.”
And with that, the event is over. We never did hear who the rest of the people behind the mayor were. The news release isn’t online yet so far as we can tell, but another line of interest – #3 of the 5 action steps:
The Department of Neighborhoods, in partnership with the Seattle Office of Civil Rights and the City Budget Office will draft a resolution for City Council consideration detailing the community outreach and engagement principles and ending the City’s official ties to District Councils and the City Neighborhood Council.
So the city council does have a role in this, regarding whether the city formally breaks its ties with the DCs and CNC.
3:27 PM: We’re heading back to West Seattle now, and will add either the city’s archived video of the event or ours, whichever is ready first. Meantime, the “Community Involvement Commission” touted in the announcement of today’s event did not get much discussion; the printed materials say it will be created by January 2017, but that “details regarding the commission have not been worked out.”
Two West Seattle neighborhood advocates were here to observe, Cindi Barker from the Morgan Community Association – a veteran of many city-appointed committees and commissions – and David Whiting from the Admiral Neighborhood Association, current co-chair of the Southwest District Council. We talked with them briefly afterward; Barker said she was puzzled about why this wasn’t presented by the mayor and council with a unified front, since the latter was already engaged in a process of reviewing the district-council system. Whiting said the statement that the district councils could continue to exist really wouldn’t mean much without any city support.
3:44 PM: The FAQs about the mayor’s action are now on the city website, here. And the news release is here.
P.S. If you have a question for the mayor about this or something else – reminder, he’s due at the 34th District Democrats‘ meeting tonight at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW), around 8 pm (the meeting starts at 7).
12:30 PM: Thanks to Alice for the tip: Another West Seattle power outage, this time in an area that wasn’t affected by the big one overnight. The Seattle City Light map shows 110 customers in the Jefferson Square area of The Junction lost power around noon, and “equipment failure” is listed as the cause.
12:50 PM: We went to Jefferson Square to check on ground-level correlation with the outage map. The original tip (and also a note from Jonathan – thank you) were about the office building being out; our crew reports that the businesses on the north and east sides of inner JSq are out but Safeway tells us they never lost power. There’s an estimated restoration time just before 4 pm, but as we always warn, those are just guesstimates – this morning’s outage, for example, had an estimated restoration time of 10 am, but SCL got the power back on at 4:35 am.
3:23 PM: We just checked for the first time in a while … the outage is over.
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