Don't approve park boulevard

(Editor's note: This letter is addressed to members of the Seattle City Council and was copied to this newspaper.)

(Editor's note: The Seattle City Council voted 9-0 on June 29 to spend $2.5 million of the 2008 voter-approved Parks and Green Spaces Levy for the Bell Street park boulevard project. It is scheduled to be completed in 2010, and would create 17,000 square feet of new green space.)

Dear Council members,

I am writing you today as a concerned citizen about the implications of Council Bill 116560 Bell Street Boulevard.

The proposed Park Boulevard raises several budget issues that I think the council needs to address before moving on this project.

As the former head of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce's Budget Task Force, I am well aware of the city's new fiscal state, one that I am afraid of will last a long time.  I had an office in Belltown for 10 years.

I do not want to fault the city council for included the Park Boulevard in the Park Levy.  The Park Levy was developed in a different financial era for this city.  Jobs in this region at that time were sill growing and it looked like the good times would roll for ever.

A year later the world has changed for Seattle.  The full weight of the recession has hit.  Seattle has empty office and condo buildings, and unfinished projects throughout the city.  The unemployment rate in the Seattle region has nearly doubled and is worsening.  We approaching the nation's unemployment rate.  Most economists forecast a very slow recovery for the foreseeable future.

Remember the council and mayor has had to reduce the budget several times in the last year and we are well aware of the major budget reductions that are coming later this year.  It is against this backdrop that I raise the following concerns.

1. Where is the additional funding for the maintenance for the Park Boulevard and upcoming planned Boulevards going to come from?  The Parks Department budget has already taken budget hits and will probably take more severe hits in the future.  Will the money come from the maintenance of existing parks?  Which parks will receive less maintenance? 

2. If the mayor and council are promising more maintenance and security for Park Boulevards in downtown, will this money will come out of the parks and police patrols in Seattle's neighborhoods.  A good example in downtown Ballard.  
Downtown Ballard has probably accepted more residential units than Belltown, Downtown and South Lake Union combined.  Yet, it is not seeing an increase in park maintenance and police patrol.  The city seems to be allocating its resources to downtown on the theory that that is where the growth is occurring.  Instead much of the city's growth is actually occurring such as Ballard, Lake City, West Seattle and Southeast Seattle.

3. The Park's Department has a very poor tract record of improving public security in parkings in urban centers and hub urban villages.  It is clear the Victor Steinbrueck Park is still a problem,  I do not know if Cal Anderson Park is a problem.  I am most familiar with are the Downtown Ballard Parks, Ballard Commons, Marvin Gardens and Bergen Place.  The Parks Department has not able to keep these parks secure after year's of citizens and business complaints.  Why would the Belltown community and the council have any faith that parks would be able to keep the proposed Park Boulevard secure.

4. I have more than 20 years experience working on neighborhood crime issues with the Neighborhood Business Council and have had crime prevention through design training.  It is my belief that the Park Boulevard will only increase crime on Bell Street, not reduce it.  It is clear that the Park Department agrees with this assessment, since they had to promise the community increase park rangers and police patrols to deal with what the community views the potential of increased crime.  

The city's new financial situation dictates that the council take a new approach to these type of projects.  The council should not give its final approval for the construction of this project until; the Park's Department can demonstrate it can maintain secure parks in urban areas (a good place to start would be in the three parks in downtown Ballard), the Park Department and Police Department identify where the resources for security and maintenance of the Park Boulevard would be coming from and have an outside CPTED expert state whether the Park Boulevard design would increase or decrease crime along  Bell Street and the Belltown as a whole.

Eugene Wasserman
President of the North Seattle Industrial Association