COMMUNITY RESPONSE
to proposed City Jail in Highland Park

BACKGROUND : What's all this about jail sites in Highland Park?

DOWNLOAD FLIER AND MAP

HPAC's JAIL RESPONSE MEETINGS
July 21: Minutes & photos   June 2: Minutes & photos   May 19: Minutes & photos    

6-26 CITY JAIL PUBLIC FORUM
Seattle Channel VIDEO   City's charts with COMMENTS

7-26 CITY JAIL PUBLIC FORUM
Seattle Channel VIDEO    City's Charts and COMMENTS

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

UPCOMING
  NEXT HPAC MEETING: Monday, August 25, 1116 SW Holden St.

MEDIA COVERAGE

 July 14: Seattle P-I, North Seattleites say: build your jail somewhere else
 July2: Real Change, New city jail?
 July2: The Stranger, Arrested Development by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee
 July 2: West Seattle Herald, Residents clash over two jail sites by Steve Shay

WEST SEATTLE BLOG: All posts related to the Jail issue are now under this topic:
  West Seattle Jail Sites.   Please post comments in support of our position.
  July 7: City Says County extention only partly helps
  June 26: Report & video, City Public Forum
  June 3: Report & video, 6-2 HPAC meeting
  May 20: Report of 5-19 meeting: City jail project: Highland Park plans to fight

  May 25: KING 5 News report on the Highland Park Jail opposition

CONTACT WITH CITY OFFICIALS
  • July 24-25: HPAC members met with City Councilmembers Bruce Harrell and Richard Conlin.
  • July 16: Chair Dorsol Plants and Co-chair Rory Denovan met with City Councilmember Richard McGiver.
  • July 12: Dan Mullins & Dina Johnson have met with three City Councilmembers and have meetings scheduled with three others.
  • July 4: Chair Dorsol Plants wrote the Mayor a letter of protest about the public forum format.
  • June 20: HPAC officers sent a formal statement to the Mayor, outlining our reasons for opposition to the Highland Park jail sites.
  • June 2: 34th District Rep. Sharon Nelson and King County Councilmember Dow Constantine have written letters of protest to the Mayor.
  • May 9: Carolyn Stauffer has written a detailed letter to city officials, copied below.
    Download the letter as a printable PDF to pass on to others. (Right-click to "save as".)
    She submitted a public disclosure request, copied below, and has received a response, which will be posted shortly. See Elected Officials Committee below.

COMMUNICATIONS
See our HP Google group. Email highland.park.action.committee@gmail.com to request membership. Then you can post announcements, participate in discussions, and use the many Google functions.
See Publicity & Outreach Committees below.

Highland Park Action Committee Jail Sites Action Plan

This plan is intended as a framework for the Highland Park neighborhood to create an effective response to the City of Seattle's proposed jail sites on Myers Way and at the bottom of Highland Park Way.

The Highland Park Action Committee has created committees to research and respond to the City's proposed jail sites. While there is considerable work outlined in this plan, if everyone participates HPAC will have a more effective voice and no one person will bear the brunt of the work involved.

COMMITTEES

HPAC Executive Committee - Chair, Dorsal Plant HPAC-chair@highlandpk.net
· Keep the meetings organized and moving along
· Immediately craft a written statement from the Highland Park Action Committee in   response to the City's proposals
· Research City Council review process and insure that HPAC input is included

Contact Elected Officials Committee -
Chair, Dan Mullins danieljmullins@comcast.net
· Email campaign
· Paper & electronic petitions
· In person lobbying (city & county councils)
· Phone calls to elected officials
· Voice our concerns at Democratic party meetings
· Contact challengers to incumbent officials that do not support Highland Park

Publicity Committee - Chair, Dina Johnson dina@highlandpk.net
· Create information packet explaining HPAC position
· Contact media (daily newspapers, weeklies, radio, television)
· Participate in blogs and other electronic formats
· Picket line at proposed locations to draw attention
· Create a massive door to door effort when the date is set for the public input   meetings to make sure everyone knows to show up to those meetings
· Keep HPAC website up-to-date

Community Outreach Committee
Chair, Nicole Mazza n.mazza@comcast.net
· Coordinate with neighbors of other two proposed sites & issue joint statements
· Contact other affected neighborhood groups (e.g. White Ctr. Chamber, Delridge Council, Georgetown, etc.)
· Communicate with the "community leaders" that the city has interviewed from our area to make sure that they know who we are — these are the city's "channels" to our community — who are they?
· Hand out flyers to all affected neighbors
· Post signage at key, visible locations

Site Review/Legal Committee -
Chair, Becca Fong pacificnaturetours@yahoo.com
· Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)
· Design Review
· Transportation issues
· Prepare comments for SEPA and insure that the comments are included at the appropriate time (especially about proximity to wetlands, drainage conditions, habitat, liquifaction, etc)
· Neighborhood Plan and Growth Management Act (there is nothing in Delridge Neighborhood Plan about a jail)
· Public Disclosure Request
· Recruit professional legal assistance
· File a state law public record request for city records reflecting how they narrowed down the jail sites from 35 to 4
· Request a copy of the Request for Proposals for the study done by the city to confirm it's assumption that a low rise jail is better- file a request for an objective study to be done as the proposed study is designed to "confirm their assumption" - in other words the conclusion is predetermined.
· Review City's process to date and insure that proper channels for community input have been followed
· Research legality of the public input process identified by the City

CONTACT INFO

LOCAL MEDIA
West Seattle Blog, West Seattle Herald, The Stranger, the Seattle Weekly,
the P-I, the Seattle Times, KIRO news, KOMO News

P-I and Times reporters who have written articles about the jail:
hectorcastro@seattlepi.com; jbrunner@seattletimes.com

ELECTED OFFICIALS: Contact city, county, and district officials.
Dow Constantine, County Councilmember
Sharon Nelson, Eileen Cody, 34th Legislative District Representatives
Joe McDermott, 34th Legislative District Senator
Seattle City Councilmembers
34th District Democrats
34th District Republicans

City website comment section: municipaljail@seattle.gov
Lee from The Keller Group- the marketing firm that is in charge of public relations for the jail: lee@thekellergroup.com

Kris Effertz, the City of Seattle's Business Advocate: kris.effertz@seattle.gov
Stella Chao, the Director of the Department of Neighborhoods: stella.chao@seattle.gov
Diane Sugimura, Director of Planning and Development: diane.sugimura@seattle.gov
Office of Sustainability & Environment: ose@seattle.gov

Carolyn Stauffer's letter to City Officials

Date: Fri, May 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Subject: A New Jail

I understand that finding a site for a jail is no easy task, as Seattle has a large 'Not In My Backyard' population. I am sure that you will hear a lot from those neighborhoods surrounding the Aurora and the Interbay sites. I would predict that you will hear less from the Highland Park Way and the Myer's Way sites.

I am writing as a resident of Highland Park to let you know that we are here! We are a viable, strong, quiet neighborhood full of working Seattleites that do not have the resources or time to be able to fight this sort of decision. We do not want a jail as the gateway to our community. The base of Highland Park Drive is our gateway- it is not an appropriate location for a jail. This site is less than a mile from our neighborhood. Of course nobody wants a jail so close to their house- so here are some thoughts on why the West Marginal Way site should be abandoned.

Geotechnical and Environmental Concerns

I have several huge environmental concerns. This site is in a liquefaction zone, to build a jail in a liquefaction zone seems like the most socially and economically irresponsible thing to do. It seems that having people locked up in small cells in a liquefaction zone during an earthquake is a huge disaster waiting to happen - not only because of the lives that will be impacted, but also because of the political and social fallout should such a disaster happen. It also seems that economically, it would take more taxpayer dollars to build a safe jail in a liquefaction zone.

There are also healthy, vibrant wetlands to the east. Though not part of an official "riparian corridor," I have seen all kinds of wildlife on this site, and quite a diversity of plant species as well. To build near this urban wetland site is environmentally irresponsible in a city that is trying to be a leader in green design. I would hope that a very thorough environmental assessment would take place to understand the impacts building on this site would have on wildlife and wetland degradation and impact both on and off the site.

This site is more than 6.5 miles from downtown- which, in Seattle, is a long way to go for a court hearing. The environmental impact of that commute is huge. Also, the commute would be on the degrading and soon to be defunct route of Highway 99. What will happen when the viaduct gets replaced, tunneled, or turned into surface streets? This is only a matter of time and there is no question it will impact the day to day viability of this location as a site for a jail.

Proximity to Services

When people get out of jail, or when people are visiting the jail, no amenities exist close by to help or cater to them. The only thing close by is our neighborhood- which doesn't even have a grocery store, restaurant (even fast food), coffee shops, banks, pawn shops, jail bond shops, etc... and there are no centers for social services to help people out. I fear that we will see an increase in strangers looking for such services in our neighborhood. The site is relatively isolated in that respect, which seems a bit irresponsible to our neighborhood. If a jail goes into this site, those properties zoned appropriately for such services will start catering to that need - and personally, I don't want my child growing up around the corner from jail bond stores, half way houses, or shelters. These types of services belong downtown. (not to mention the fall in property values that would accompany such developments.)

Proximity to residential areas and parks

Riverview Playfield is less than a mile away at the top of the hill right above the greenbelt- this park is used heavily by kids, is currently considered safe, has basketball, a play area, restrooms, tennis courts, soccer, and baseball/softball fields, and woods. The Riverview neighborhood is right there, as well as the Highland Park neighborhood. These neighborhoods are considered the "last stand" of affordable houses left in Seattle. Young families are moving in and starting to breathe fresh life into the houses. Also close by are Highland Park Playfield, Highland Park Elementary School, and Westcrest Park. Please consider these families trying to make ends meet- it is already a questionable neighborhood as far as investing goes, why make it more so?

Transportation and Proximity to the City

When people get out of jail, where are they going to go? The public transportation serving this site is horrible, for people coming to visit the jail, but more importantly - for people getting out of jail. The bus stops near the site only go two ways- to downtown and up the hill to our neighborhood. There is a beautiful greenbelt separating Highland Park from West Marginal Way. Occasionally we will see people camping out in the woods there- my fear is that when people are released from jail with nowhere to go and no easy way to get anywhere if they have anywhere to go, that they will filter up the hill to our neighborhood, go to the Greenbelt , or make the longer trek over to the Georgetown neighborhood (which has its own history of the city dumping undesirable things in it). Also, as already mentioned, this site is more than 6.5 miles from downtown- which is a long way to go for a court hearing.

Other undesirable things in our neighborhood

Isn't it only fair to spread out the undesirable parts of a city instead of dumping a lot of these things in one neighborhood? Especially one that is demographically less white and economically less well off, and doesn't have the same amenities as other neighborhoods. This area already hosts a transfer station, hazardous waste disposal, and a Waste Management site. This site would be the perfect location for a grocery store, which is badly needed for Highland Park and Georgetown residence- and which has the potential to help define the entry to the neighborhood. Our neighborhood doesn't have the economic benefit of being able to hire lawyers to fight this or time to devote to intense community protests to help our case, or the techno-savvy population needed to rally everyone - please don't let that determine the outcome- please don't let this be a case of the richest and loudest neighborhood wins, again.

Something to consider is that perhaps the jail shouldn't go into any of these sites, less than a mile is just too close to any neighborhood. Instead of pitting our neighborhoods against each other, consider putting the jail in an area without neighbors or other neighborhood-related needs such as SODO.

Please, please, get to know our neighborhood- it is not as well known which has been a blessing thus far, but when something like this is proposed it is a detriment to not be as well known, or as well off. Contact Highland Park Improvement Club, the Highland Park Action Committee, get to know us...

Above letter in printable PDF format

Representative Sharon Nelson's Email, May 21st

Dear Dina,
Thanks for writing about the proposal to build a new city jail in Highland Park. I am strongly opposed to building a new jail at either of these sites. While I understand the need for Seattle to build a new municipal jail facility, the Highland Park Way and Myers Way locations are inappropriate places for the new jail due to their proximity to schools, playfields, parks, and residential neighborhoods.

Thanks also for letting me know about the public meeting at the Highland Park Improvement Club. I have added it to my calendar and I will plan on attending.

The Highland Park and White Center communities have been working hard to reduce crime and increase economic opportunities there, with significant assistance from King County, the State of Washington, and the federal government, which have respectively invested millions of dollars in the Greenbridge development. Placing a jail in this area would be counterproductive to these goals and would jeopardize these investments.

In addition, I have serious concerns about the wetlands that adjoin these sites. Already, a city firefighter training facility adjacent to the Myers Way site has had major negative impacts on the wetlands there, and Seattle has been forced to pay millions of dollars in mitigation for the impact of that project. It would not be responsible to continue with more development on that site, or any site with sensitive wetlands nearby, when the city, county, and state are working aggressively to try to clean up the Duwamish River and Puget Sound.

I am communicating my opposition to this project to Mayor Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council and will continue to do so. There are more suitable locations for this jail and I hope that Seattle will place it in a location where it would not have a major negative impact on its neighborhood and its watershed.

Let's stay in touch regarding the best ways to support each other's work on this issue. Thanks also for your hard work with the 34th District and the Highland Park Action Committee.

Sincerely,
Sharon Nelson

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