Update: City Council votes to send new parks levy to voters
Though Mayor Nickels has publicly expressed opposition to sending a new parks levy to Seattle voters before 2010, a majority of City Council members just voted to ask you to vote on the Parks and Green Spaces Levy this November, which is when the current Pro Parks Levy expires – a unanimous vote by all 7 councilmembers (with Sally Clark and Richard McIver absent). The current version, which has undergone a tweak here and a tweak there since the Citizens’ Advisory Committee approved it a few weeks back, totals $145 million over six years, which reportedly will cost the average homeowner about $70 a year. “The reason we’re doing this is is that parks are the affordable place to go in renewing our spirits,” said Council President Richard Conlin. West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the Parks Committee, thanked the many people who took the time to attend public hearings and offer comments, saying, “It’s been a very good public process,” even if it didn’t “take as long as the usual Seattle process” and, in looking ahead to what a new park levy might accomplish, reflected on the excitement that surrounds the opening of a new park – just nine days ago, he was at the dedication of Ercolini Park west of The Junction (below left, with Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher):
Back to the pre-vote speeches: “This is a very deliberative process we’ve gone through (with public hearings and a citizens’ advisory committee),” said Councilmember Tim Burgess. “Some of the greatest public works projects in our country have been done during tough economic times.” Councilmember Nick Licata said, “There’s been some criticism our citizens have become overburdened with levies … (but) this was not created by council alone.” Councilmember Jean Godden said, “Everybody cares about parks … parks touch everyone.” Councilmember Jan Drago said, “I have reservations about placing this on the ballot … because of (a) lack of prioritization, I believe we will have three competing ballot issues,” but she added, “I have decided to let the voters decide.” Councilmember Bruce Harrell said he has “faith” voters will make the right decision after “scrutinizing” everything on the ballot. The council already approved the mayor’s proposal to put a Pike Place Market renovation-money levy on the same ballot, November 4th; the other one to which Drago referred is a likely Sound Transit levy. The mayor could veto the levy, but only six councilmembers’ votes would be needed to override (and as we mentioned, seven voted “yes” today).
Jail-sites fight: City says county extension only partly helps
Latest in the process of deciding where the city might build a new jail for misdemeanor offenders – with “final four” potential sites including two in southeastern West Seattle: City Councilmember Sally Clark made this point while speaking to the Delridge District Council last month (WSB coverage here) – the city contends that even if the county extends its jail-space agreement with Seattle and other cities – as the County Council wants to do — that doesn’t stop the city’s jail-planning process. Here’s the news release just issued by the city, in which officials explain why: (ADDED 5:02 PM – following the city news release, we’ve added the one the county just sent, which notes toward the end that the county is currently below once-projected jail population)Read More
Government stuff you should know, Monday edition
-The proposal for King County to reopen talks with cities regarding extending the agreement for jail services – potentially pre-empting the need for the Seattle city jail that might wind up sited in West Seattle – moved out of the county council Committee of the Whole today and goes next to the full council. (Dow Constantine represents you there; here’s how to contact him.)
-We’re watching the Seattle City Council meeting (live on cable 21 or online here) and they’ve just passed the somewhat-controversial Multi-Family Tax Exemption for developers, 7-1 (Licata, no) and a bill on condo conversions, 8-0. Will add links shortly. P.S. The council’s Viaduct briefing is finally about to start (4:05 or so).
-The environmental assessment on the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s South End project – the reason for the upcoming July 15 hearing at Madison Middle School – has just been published online. Find it here.
-If you have something to say about whether a new parks levy should be on this fall’s ballot, and whether what’s in the levy proposal is what you’d want to pay for, another hearing has just been set – July 10 (a week from Thursday), 5:30 pm, City Hall, before the city council’s Parks Committee (chaired by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen).
From two of tonight’s other events …
The jail forum (much more to come) was tonight’s biggest event but not tonight’s only event. At Youngstown Arts Center, area Democrats gathered to help West Seattle’s three state legislators kick off their re-election campaigns: left to right, it’s State Sen. Joe McDermott, State. Reps. Sharon Nelson and Eileen Cody.
And on the other end of Delridge, at Cafe Rozella, that’s Branden Born and Alon Bassok from the University of Washington, who will be there for the next few Thursday nights to chat with anyone and everyone about how the Delridge and White Center areas could be even more livable, framed in the issues central to the King County Food and Fitness Initiative. (6:30 pm next Thursday, join ’em there!)
Mayor proposes gun ban on all city-owned property
You’ll hear about this in citywide media but with so much park land and other city property in West Seattle, it seems important to link here too — Mayor Nickels just announced a proposal “to prohibit firearms on all property owned by the city of Seattle, including parks and community centers,” according to the official city news release; read it here. The announcement says a public hearing is planned, but also notes that City Council approval is not required for the rules the mayor wants to put in place. You can send comments to the mayor’s office here.
West Seattle jail-sites fight: Two updates
View Larger Map
First: The city has added more information to the “public outreach” page of the seattle.gov section focusing on the jail proposal. See it here; it includes this link to information gathered from 50 community leaders (including Pigeon Point’s Pete Spalding, who gave us the heads-up that this info is now online – thanks!) during the process that narrowed a list of potential sites down to four, including two in southeast West Seattle (see the map above). SECOND: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s has provided more information on the county ordinance officially proposed today, as first mentioned by Constantine during Monday night’s Highland Park meeting (WSB coverage here), to extend the contract the county has with cities for handling misdemeanor inmates, till a “regional solution” can be found rather than a patchwork of city jails like a prospective new one for Seattle. Councilmember Larry Gossett is the main sponsor, with all others joining as co-sponsors. It now moves to the Committee of the Whole, which Constantine chairs, where a committee hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 9:30 am June 16th. Read the first version of the ordinance here. After that hearing, the next meetings scheduled on the jail-sites issue are Highland Park’s meeting on June 23 (get the latest at the Highland Park Action Committee site) and the city-organized meetings – June 26 in South Park, July 26 at SSCC (full details here).
What should be in a new parks levy? Alki crowd has its say
Tonight’s meeting at the Alki Community Center on behalf of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizens’ Advisory Committee was all about public input — no votes were taken, no decisions were made; those are up to the City Council (and Mayor) eventually, but first, recommendations come from the 28 committee members, including West Seattle’s Bruce Bentley, Sharonn Meeks, and Pete Spalding, all of whom were on hand tonight (along with several others). Here’s some of what those on hand wanted the committee to consider when deciding what might go into a new parks levy this fall:Read More
“Townhomes: Can the patient be saved?”
Not our headline – that’s how the city slugged its announcement of two forums called by Councilmember Sally Clark (who toured The Junction a month ago at the invitation of resident Sue Scharff; WSB coverage here). Our only question: Why isn’t either forum happening here in West Seattle, where so much townhome construction is under way? Anyway, here’s the announcement:Read More
Another followup: The door-to-door Democrats
On Saturday, we told you that 34th District Democrats chair Ivan Weiss was looking into reports of West Seattle solicitors claiming to be seeking money for the Democratic National Committee. 
Tonight, they were making the rounds again — came to our door in Upper Fauntleroy, in fact, plus we got e-mail and phone calls from others who were visited — and we wanted to note that Weiss did confirm over the holiday weekend that the DNC does have solicitors out, dispatched from national HQ, and he’s not happy about it; he believes the most effective way for the party to raise money and awareness is locals-to-locals. (This is what we told tonight’s solicitors, by the way, who spent some time plotting solicitation strategy right outside our home-office window before they went door-knocking.) Nonetheless, just because the DNC apparently does have solicitors in the area, don’t take anyone’s word for it — ask for their ID.
Happening tonight: City Council in WS; Alki project meeting
Two highlights from the slate of events on tonight’s agenda (see the Events list page for more):
CITY COUNCIL IN WEST SEATTLE: Topic – the city budget and how you think city leaders should spend your money. Time/place – High Point Community Center (map), 5:30 pm. Tons of supplementary info here.
ALKI PROJECT MEETING: Neighbors gathered signatures to force an official city meeting to review the proposal to replace a house at 59th/Stevens, across from Alki Elementary and Playfield, with a five-unit development. As explained at the last Alki Community Council meeting (WSB coverage here), they are concerned the three-story buildings will put much of the playfield in shadows at key times of the day (our coverage included graphics they created). The meeting’s at the Admiral (West Seattle) Library branch, 6:30 pm.
Topline: Highland Park Action Committee jail-sites meeting
Just back from Highland Park, where more than 100 people gathered to declare themselves ready to fight the possibility that a city jail might be built on one of two sites in southeast West Seattle. They heard from a city project representative as well as a communications consultant assigned to the project, and one revelation that raised eyebrows was that the city apparently had not yet mapped out the proximity of schools to the four finalist sites (the other two are in the north end). We’ll be overlaying the location of the nearest schools onto our Google map of the two WS sites for the full report on this meeting coming up later tonight in a separate post.
SW District Council report #1: Park-money matters
The proposed West Seattle sites for a new city jail came up at tonight’s meeting of the Southwest District Council — representatives from neighborhood groups and other major organizations around the area of West Seattle that the city calls the “Southwest District” (map of all “districts” here) — but it didn’t attract as much discussion as the issue of money for parks. We’ll publish the jail update later; first, tonight’s park $ talk, plus your next chance to have a say on the future of West Seattle (and the rest of the city) parks:Read More
Quiet week for public meetings since it’s the end of the month (except for
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