22 Oct How the City’s proposed budget is going to affect Pioneer Square

Seattle City Council has already hosted two separate public hearings to get feedback from the public, and the third (and last) meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, October 26th.

According to PubliCola, here are City Council’s priorities:

• Protect human services and public safety;
• maintain the city’s commitment to neighborhood policing, even assuming the city doesn’t hire 21 additional officers needed to complete the plan next year;
• reduce costs without hurting direct services; and
• raise revenues where appropriate.

We really need people from the neighborhood who are willing to speak up about the needs of the Pioneer Square residents and businesses.

How the proposed budget will affect Pioneer Square:

Reducing Support for Center City Parks
This supports projects like ArtSparks, the Seattle Square, Comedy in the Park, Dancing Til Dusk (aka all of the park activation programs). Losing the maintenance and trash hauling will have a huge effect on the parks in Pioneer Square, including the draw of tourists. We need our parks to feel safe, clean, and be activated. Losing this support would have a huge negative effect on Pioneer Square, in particular, where we already have a dubious reputation.

Public Safety
SPD will not add the 21 officers a year for the next two years (as originally promised). Instead, we will lose on-the-ground Crime Prevention Coordinators, which will deteriorate critical relationships between neighborhood businesses + residents and the police department

Increased street parking rates + no more free Sunday parking
McGinn has suggested increasing street parking by over 2.5%, but we should be concerned about the research that went into how these changes will impact neighborhood businesses and residents. Local businesses in downtown Seattle (including Belltown, PSq, and the Int’l District) rely on after-work patrons to their restaurants and bars. Adding Sunday fees on parking in some metered neighborhoods, but not others may simply shift parking patterns.

Read more about the loss of free Sunday parking on game days. And click here to read about requesting resident zoned parking.

Cuts to historic preservation staff
McGinn’s budget cuts include reducing preservation meetings from twice a month to once a month. In addition, staff will no longer be able to meet with businesses. As the neighborhood works to fill empty storefronts and get businesses to move in, having direct coordination with preservation staff is really important. Losing the accessibility of the preservation staff and reducing their meetings will slow down projects, affecting the viaduct, seawall, and North Lot Development.

In addition to all of these, there are also recommendations to cut general services for the human services department (which includes programs that work to prevent domestic violence & sexual assault). Although it is obvious that cuts must be made, many of these programs are vital to the revitalization efforts that Pioneer Square is currently going through.

If you have an opinion on this and other budget items, please make time to stop by the meeting and make sure that they hear what you have to say!

For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/council/budget/ or call 206-684-8888 to request interpretation or translation assistance.

Tuesday, October 26
5 p.m. Sign-in
5:30 p.m. Public Hearing
Council Chambers, 2nd floor
Seattle City Hall
600 Fourth Avenue, 98104