March 2, 2006

By CYDNEY GILLIS
Staff Reporter

They came from as far north as Haller Lake and as far south as Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill. They carried signs that read “Don’t Pave Our Zoo” and “Save the Trees in Pioneer Square.”

And, to a person, all of the 100 or so people who showed up last Saturday morning at the Woodland Park Zoo were hopping mad at the tricks they say Seattle Parks and Recreation has pulled on citizens in every neighborhood of the city under Mayor Greg Nickels and his parks superintendent, Ken Bounds.

That was the point of Saturday’s rally — to call attention to a pattern that participants say the department has developed: Parks staff call meetings and take public input, but already seem to have decided the issues at hand, whether it’s building a garage at the zoo or moving the Summer Nights concerts to Gas Works Park.

“ They hold meetings to inform us what decision they made,” says Pat Devine of the Loyal Heights Community Council.

Since last year, the council has been fighting a Parks plan to replace the grass at Loyal Heights Playfield with artificial turf. To push the deal through, says council member Jim Anderson, the department recruited soccer players to lobby for its plan.

“ Then they held a phony community meeting,” Anderson says, “where they basically said thank you for coming and shut up, the issue of synthetic grass has been decided.”

Residents from around the city tell a similar story about plans for Discovery Park, Magnuson, Occidental, and South Lake Union, where history buff Alice Winship says the city is trying to run off the Wawona, a schooner built in 1897 that a group is trying to raise money to restore.

Winship says the Wawona, which started out as a logging ship and was later used for fishing, would make a wonderful public amenity for people to tour at the upcoming South Lake Union Park, but plans she’s seen don’t show any wharf space for the ship.

The Friends of Magnuson Park has been fighting lighted sports fields that member Diana Kincaid says will disrupt the park’s shoreline and habitat. In Pioneer Square, a citizens’ group sued the city to stop it from taking out the pergola and cutting down trees that are about to come down in Occidental Park.

For the Friends of Gas Works Park, which has been fighting closing off a main portion of the park for private concerts, there’s been a reprieve. On Tuesday, One Reel, the series’ producer, announced it had abandoned the series this year, which will provide more time for the Parks Department to examine issues of traffic and noise.

In the meantime, says Cecile Andrews with Save Our Zoo, citizens have to fight the Parks Department labeling their objections as a “not-in-my-backyard” reaction when important environmental issues are on the table.

“ They have dismissed all our important concerns as being NIMBYism,” Andrews says. “It’s been a sham.” n