Pioneer Square Blog

Occidental Park Blowback

Citizens are already, well, doing passive-agressive Seattleish things in protest of the Occidental Park Deforestation

At Occidental Park in Pioneer Square over Presidents Day weekend, activists tied green ribbons to trees while Seattle Parks and Recreation fenced off the area, preparing to cut down most of the trees. [They] accuse the department, and particularly Superintendent Ken Bounds, of top-down decision-making that excludes neighborhoods from critical decisions and favors institutional and commercial interests.

Others feel the Mayor is to blame

The mayor, they say, hijacked [Pioneer Square activists'] process. After four years of community work, which grew out of the city neighborhood planning process completed in 1998, activists say the mayor simply dumped their plan and replaced it with one created by a New York consulting team...

The mayor's new plan for Occidental Park, [Pioneer Square business owner Bif] Brigman and others say, favors real estate developer Greg Smith and his plan to turn a parking lot he owns just east of the park into a mixed-used development that will house a new service shop for King County's waterfront streetcar.

Finally, in a typical Seattle fashion, this debate may be decided in court

The project was stalled by a still-pending lawsuit against the city in King County Superior Court. But the plaintiffs missed a Feb. 6 deadline to post a $120,000 bond necessary to stop construction, said Dewey Potter, Seattle Parks and Recreation spokeswoman.

posted by Joe Goldberg @ 6:54 AM