(Images: Sean Balch by permission to CDN)
Mayor Mike McGinn was in the neighborhood last night to answer people’s questions during a town hall meeting at Garfield Community Center. Topics discussed ranged from police violence to the shape of the mayor’s garden.
Seattle Police “has betrayed our trust,” said the mayor during his introduction to the talk. However, he also pointed to recent figures showing that violent crime city-wide is down and praised the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.
(Images: Sean Balch by permission to CDN)
A neighbor of King County’s Youth Services Center at 12th Ave and Alder complained that the facility does not really fit into the neighborhood. Though he prefaced it by saying he was not proposing a new policy, McGinn suggested maybe a better location could be found elsewhere. The County, which operated the facility, could sell the land to private development to fund construction.
“It’s worth looking at what our options are,” he said. After voters failed last year to approve an initiative to fund replacement of the aging juvenile courthouse, the county has been exploring private options for replacement.
One Leschi resident complained about how hard it is to get from her home to downtown either by car or bus, saying it is easier for someone from Bainbridge to get to downtown than someone from Leschi. McGinn agreed that local transit needs improvement.
“We’re doing better at getting people far away than we are at getting them between our neighborhoods,” he said.
On the topic of transportation, another person asked for the mayor’s thoughts on a recent column by Danny Westneat at the Seattle Times suggesting we should simply close the viaduct now (I opined about the column at Seattle Bike Blog). Westneat was responding to statements the mayor had made on KUOW earlier this month.
“Let’s see what happens,” said McGinn. “If it turns out it’s not that bad, maybe we could save a billion or two.”
Oh, and as for the mayor’s home garden: “Frankly, I’ve been a little busy lately, and it’s gone to hell.”
Gotta admit, it’s kinda rough to get to Leschi. What’s the fastest way to connect them to the ETB system?
It’s hard to get to and from Leschi from anywhere. If you don’t care for that commute you can always move, or shall we just build a super highway from downtown to Lake Wa Blvd and Dearborn Streets?
I live in Leschi and work downtown. Ever since the entrance and exits to I90 closed on the East side of the tunnel the neighborhood has been a little bit more isolated. That was like decades ago. Those entrances aren’t coming back. We choose to live at the edge of the city so there isn’t going to be a super speedy arterial coming through and just stopping. It is also what makes the neighborhood a hidden gem. The city has bigger needs.
It was interesting to hear the range of concerns from the community. As always there is a lot to do in improving police-community relations and putting social and community services in place within under-served communities. There were many people calling for more youth outreach, relationship education, healthy eating and living education, and facilities and resources that support those goals. It’s obvious the police force here has a long way to go in supporting rougher neighborhoods rather than looking for opportunities to beat them down.
It’s really hard to give any weight to gripes well-to-do neighborhoods regarding petty things that should be handled themselves. Don’t like the ugly lot next to you? Do something about it. Not write a petition, get your overalls on and go pick up some trash. Form citizen patrols and work parties. Overall, I’m shocked there is not more call for citizens to do something for themselves and their neighborhoods rather than acting entitled to a government fix.
Why haven’t the people who care about the wading pools gotten together and fund-raised to re-open them? Why aren’t the people asking for libraries to be open 7 days a week organizing volunteer groups to help staff the extra hours in libraries? Why are the people asking for family/fatherhood education and mentoring not organizing programs and just doing it themselves.
We / you, the people, are the government. (to steal and rephrase a quote) Don’t just ask what the community can do for you, figure out what you can do for it. If you wait for the city to do something in this economy, you’ll never see it happen.
A bus straight down Yesler from lake to 1st Ave would suffice. And way to be a puke just because someone suggests that we who work in downtown would like to get there without ridiculously circuitous routes. I live in Mad Valley and drive rather than spend 45 minutes on the bus transferring on the hill just to get to the south end of downtown. I could literally walk in the time it takes me to bus. No one asked for a highway, just a bus down Yesler like Madison has. Again, way to go on the attack. Jeez. That’s honestly what I hate about this site. One expresses “Hey, I sure would like” and the response is “ATTACK!” Grow up.
Isn’t the 27 route pretty close to that?
Seriously?? Yesler doesn’t even go all the way to the lake. Would you like the city to build them a more direct road so people don’t have to go on all of those winding roads just to get to the lake? FYI, there is a bus that runs down Yesler and it even goes down a winding road at the end of Yesler, called Lake Dell Ave, and alas you are at the lake! It’s called the #27 (newly renamed the 17 once it reaches 3rd and Yesler) and it can get you from 3rd and Union to the lake in around 30 minutes during rush hour traffic. #27 has been getting folks to and from Leschi for a long time.
lol. Basically. :)
This is the second town hall type meeting that I have attended there recently in the same room. Please know that I would not want anyone to be louder. There is just such a lot of echo and noise in the room that it becomes unpleasant in very little time. The sound is terrible enough that it is distracting and irritating. The other room with windows is better for sound but smaller.
This should be taken into consideration if the meeting is intended to have any conversation that requires a sound system.
They tried to shove ramps through our neighborhood and build an arterial to Leshi years ago and we stopped them. Destroy a minority neighborhood for the convenience of a wealthy white neighborhood. This slimy racist thing better not raise it’s head again.
Old Timer – What ramps are you talking about? Where and what? Putting ramps back on eastt side of tunnel before I90? That would be great indeed. I am not sure how that would destroy any neighborhood – except really slow down i90 traffic.
“There were many people calling for more youth outreach, relationship education, healthy eating and living education, and facilities and resources that support those goals.”
Isn’t that what sensible people call ‘parenting’?