Mayor Mike McGinn came to West Seattle and in a Town Hall meeting with a small but lively crowd of about 30 people at the Senior Center, heard primarily people's frustrations and issues with transportation to and from the peninsula.
NOTE: You can watch the full Town Hall on the Seattle Channel here:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=1031219
Prior to the meeting the Mayor took a tour of the Junction with local business leaders. He praised the Junction for its neighborhood feel and noted that this is part of the challenge with the West Seattle Triangle since it is less pedestrian friendly.
Addressing one of his top priorities, jobs McGinn said, "We lost about 35,000 jobs in Seattle from the top of the boom to the bottom. Since then we think we've regained about half, or 18,000 and we're gaining jobs faster than other areas." He noted that while tax revenues are increasing so is the cost of day to day operations.
The Mayor pointed to West Seattle as an example of a very walkable area and cited the data nationwide showing people from baby boomers to younger people all driving less. "The percentage of 16 year olds is dropping and the amount of miles being driven by 18 to 25 year olds is 30% lower than it was a decade ago."
He listed his priorities as:
Jobs - including neighborhood businesses, maritime and industrial, new technology, health care, education, and tourism employment.
Schools - "Too many kids are being left out," said McGinn. He also noted the disparity between jobs and no trained people to take them, against people with at least a high school education but no job. "We have a job program we're calling Pathways to Careers," in which they work with community colleges. He also mentioned after school programs and early learning efforts, and said, "We're focusing on the most at risk kids to help close the achievement gap in our schools."
Transportation -Transit meaning, "as we grow how do we move people in and out of downtown? How do we move people from neighborhood to neighborhood?" He commented on the results of the city's Transit Master Plan w he said showed that, "what we don't do so well is connect one neighborhood to another."
Public Safety - "I had a very interesting week this week," McGinn quipped in reference to the May 1 demonstrations which were marred by violence and property damage. "Our police did a magnificent job in responding to the May Day violence and vandalism."
The Q & A portion of the meeting was dominated by people's transportation concerns.
Richard Hurley asked about the loss of Local Improvement Districts which had been a mechanism by which neighbors could tax themselves to pay for repairs and upgrades to alleyways, sidewalks or things like curbs. McGinn said, " I didn't know we don't provide support for local improvement districts. I'll follow up on that." He noted that people tend to focus on "really big projects," pointing out that smaller projects often get squeezed out. He did point out that the city has been hard at work on potholes filling 30,000 of them saying, "I am blowing away pothole records established by prior administrations, Not because we love filling potholes (...) it's because our roads are wearing out."
McGinn said that the sale of the rail yard to the state for the tunnel project netting $20 million meant they could put "a big chunk of it into just street repair."
A question was posed about his salary which at $171,000 is "the most money I've ever been paid to do a job," asking why he doesn't do something more symbolic or take less money. McGinn said he donates $10,000 per year to local charities picked out by his family.
History teacher Jim Lockerbie (in his 49th year) rose and said, "I think West Seattle is as poorly served as any area of the city. No monorail, no light rail and buses, particularly in off peak hours are frequently five, 10, 15 minutes late if they show up. I've gone to Benaroya Hall on many occasions and convinced my self that's a foolish idea because I've waited so long in nice, cold wet weather."
Lockerbie said he "set a record" coming home a couple years ago from a Mariner's game leaving at 4:40pm and arriving in West Seattle at 7:10pm.
His other concerns were about downtown, with synchronized lights on 2nd and 4th and with the lights at 7th Ave. and Olive Way.
The Mayor said he had had a meeting the head of Metro Kevin Desmond on Thursday in which they talked about the loss of on and off ramps on SR 99 at Seneca and Columbia. "Buses will have to get off on 1st Ave, by the stadium and then reach 3rd Ave. (...) The leading choices are through Pioneer Square or up and down Columbia."
Describing herself as "Mom the worrier," an Alki resident inquired about earthquake preparedness and wondered if an aircraft carrier could be utilized if a major quake strikes. She pointed out they have de-salinization equipment, medical facilities, electricity and more. "The water is deep enough off of Alki Point." McGinn said he has met with the local Naval Commander and knows him but pointed out that he works regularly with Barb Graff, the Director of the Office of Emergency Management and that the city is constantly conducting drills on preparedness including one recently called "Sound Shake" practicing three days of response.
A questioner asked about the stadium in SODO and McGinn pointed out that a basketball arena, built to hold 17,000 would have far less traffic impact than Century Link or Safeco Fields. He noted it would be privately financed and would create a number of jobs for Seattle. The Mayor shared that "Bellingham wants to build a coal export facility (...) where they take coal from Montana and bring it on trains. What they're talking about is 18 two mile long trains a day going through SODO. It's open cars with coal. We have some real challenges facing mobility if that goes through."
A gentleman who said he is a big fan of light rail said, "the way it's set up is tough," noting that parking near the station is difficult. McGinn said he was "open to allowing longer term parking near station areas so long as it's not interfering with the local business needs." The question came back," Why not build a park and ride there?" McGinn cited the huge expense and said that the Pacific Place garage, owned by the city, loses $1.2 million a year. He prefers that the private sector build a parking facility.
Another suggestion came from "Charlene" about "beautification and transportation," suggesting the incoming and outgoing area at the base of Admiral Way needing improvement. "Grass, junk, chain link, but what about an beautification idea like the area when you get off at Ravenna?"
A bike rider said her concern was about Delridge asking, "What kind of plans do you have for fixing Delridge?" McGinn responded by noting that Delridge will be repaved partially this year. Bill Bryant of SDOT rose to clarify it further. "Delridge is going to be partially repaved in 2012 and the rest of it in 2013. The limits right now are between Orchard and Emerson Streets. Depending on what the costs start to look like as the project gets fully designed the paving could be extended all the way down to Roxbury. Where the street is repaved there will be bike facilities installed whether it's share rows or just qualifying where it's safe for bikes to ride." McGinn noted that where the buses go will not be asphalt but instead concrete slabs to avoid street deformation.
An Alki resident asked about parking near the water taxi, pointing out, "we have difficulty finding parking for a service person to come to our condo on Alki." McGinn said he spoke to King County Councilmember Joe McDermott about using the parking at the Don Armeni boat launch for water taxi parking.
The bus stop at 3rd and Pike was noted as a cause for concern for one questioner. McGinn acknowledged it is a problem but said, "We've made that a priority." He said they are using a work plan to address the issue but pointing to a "shocking statistic" said, "We asked the police officers to identify the most problematic individuals they started with 50 and found there had been over 2700 incidents of arrest associated with those 50 people. So something's really broken there. We're bringing the office of housing, our human services, our police department as well as SDOT and SPU to see what we can do about physical improvements."
The last statement was about income inequality. McGinn was asked about whether he feels it is "a dangerous trend." McGinn said, " I think the trend in income inequality is an extraordinarily dangerous trend. The reason it's dangerous is that people need to have hope. (...) People who are suffering this inequality who should be assets to our community, some of them are just struggling to hang on."
Pigeon Point resident Pete Spalding closed the meeting by adding that, "The Bridging the Gap levy will pay for a piece of it (the Delridge paving) but also the Delridge Neighborhood District Council has a committee right now that is looking at working with SDOT and city councilman Tom Rasmussen to come up with a plan for the entire Delridge Corridor. That includes the Greenways that will run perpendicular to Delridge Way. One is going to be funded this year."
