February 22, 2006

By CYDNEY GILLIS
Staff Reporter

With the city moving to cut down 17 trees at Pioneer Square’s Occidental Park in the next two weeks, it’s now setting its sights on the old City Hall Park next to the King County Courthouse.

On Thursday, the Parks Department will hold its second public meeting on redesigning the park: a goal of Mayor Greg Nickels and his initiative to make downtown parks more inviting.

Often referred to as “Muscatel Meadows,” the grass and large shade trees at City Hall Park serve primarily as a front yard for disabled residents of the nearby Frye Apartments and for homeless people who are sheltered at the Morrison — something the Parks Department has been working to change in a process parallel to that at Occidental Park, with one exception.

In the wake of citizens suing the city last year to save the trees at Occidental — a battle that continues — the City Council cut the $400,000 in construction funds that the mayor had asked for this year to rebuild City Hall Park. Parks project manager David Goldberg says that means no construction until at least 2007, provided the council approves funding.

In the meantime, the Parks Department is still working to redesign Seattle’s old civic park using concepts set down by the mayor and Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds in a June 2005 planning document.

The concepts include turning City Hall Park into a city “gateway” that would draw both government workers and tourists with special features or activities — and be fenced, if needed, though Goldberg says that doesn’t mean a locked gate.

Last August, Bounds formed an advisory group of 11 people he chose from businesses and human services in the area to consider the concepts. In monthly meetings since then, the project advisory team, or PAT, has looked at how to connect the park and courthouse, which once opened to the park but had its south entrance turned into a loading dock in 1967.

Because of the expense (and a retrofit after the Nisqually earthquake), re-opening the old courthouse entrance is off the table, Goldberg says.

Others have called for having a playground or an off-leash dog area, while government officials on the team, including Jordan Royer of the mayor’s office, King County facilities staffer Bud Parker and Al Poole of the city’s Human Services Department, have pressed to remove some grass and trees, pave more of the park, and end meal programs.

The ideas have alarmed team member Tamara Menteer, program director at the low-income Frye Apartments. In a November letter she wrote to Goldberg, Menteer described homelessness as an “elephant in the closet” of the group’s discussions.

“ The question of ‘how to address the scary-looking indigents?’ seems to be a consistent subtext of the planning process,” Menteer wrote.

Advisory team members say the park is for everyone, but ideas such as getting rid of the grass so people can’t take naps, avoiding gardens because they will become toilet areas, and getting rid of feeding programs target the poor and homeless, she added.

“ Tearing up the park would be an absolute crime,” Menteer says. “There is nothing wrong with that park physically.”

Jim Brewer, a lawyer who attended the first public workshop and tour of City Hall Park in September, agrees with Menteer that capital improvements are not the answer. He advocates more operating funds to keep the park clean and hold events — and thinks cutting down trees, paving, and fencing the area are all bad ideas.

Doug Vann, a resident of the Tashiro-Kaplan Artists Lofts, said trees are expendable.

“ Trees are moveable furniture in urban spaces,” Vann said during the tour. “People here forget they have 1,000 trees if they drive a half-hour out of Seattle.”

A man who’d been sitting in the park walked over to voice his disagreement.

“ We don’t care what you think. The homeless have a right to live,” he said. “You’re not going to change shit in this park.” n

[Event]

A public workshop on the redesign of City Hall Park, including a first look at schematic designs, takes place Thurs., Feb. 16, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., in the community room of the Tashiro-Kaplan Artists Lofts, 115 Prefontaine Place, Seattle. E-mail or phone comments to cathy.tuttle@seattle.gov or (206) 684-7033.