At yesterday’s reception following his election as president of the City Council, I asked Richard Conlin what his biggest challenge was for the coming year. He cited renewal of the city’s Pro Parks Levy, first passed in November 2000. When I observed that the mayor had shown little interest in re-upping, Conlin said, “He doesn’t like the idea.” Conlin has made no secret of his desire to see more backbone from the Council, and now his undertaking has a hot-button issue.
You don’t have to look very far around Seattle to see the benefits of the $198.2 million levy. Virtually every city park has gotten some enhancement, whether it be murals, new bathrooms or a near-makeover such as daylighting Ravenna. But the process has been frequently contentious, with open-space advocates, civic activists and neighborhood groups butting heads with Parks Department officials over insidious commercialization, including plastic grass, leasing of public buildings to private entities and favoring money-making organized athletics over more traditional but non-revenue producing uses. Parks policies have proven a flash point for community controversy, including tree-cutting in Occidental Park, concerts in Gas Works Park, field lighting and warehouse-leasing in Magnuson Park, fake grass at Loyal Heights and the notorious Woodland Park Zoo parking garage, where Parks was the city’s partner with the non-profit, private Zoo Society.
In many cases, Parks ran roughshod over citizen opinion and was later found to have violated the law or public process. With the departure of longtime director Ken Bounds early last year and overhaul of the Parks Board, fresh air seems the rule of the day. Renewal of the levy, which Conlin expects to see on the November ballot, is a politically bold but risky move. When I mentioned the contentiousness around Parks, Conlin admitted, “It’s something we’re going to have to work with.” Whether the process heals some still-festering wounds, or merely rubs salt in them, will attest to Conlin’s and the Council’s political adeptness. No one wants to see parks fiscally hamstrung, but the levy could provide a negotiating wedge for the public to ensure a transparent and fair, even if rocky, process for determining parks policies.
The move also could highlight Conlin’s own generally underappreciated political skills. While not committing to any particular office, Conlin already has begun raising funds for a 2009 candidacy that his fans hope will be for the mayor’s office. Backing the levy is a brilliant move in that sense. It will provide a high-profile issue and political test-bed for Conlin. It puts the mayor in a tricky position: If he actively opposes the levy he’ll look anti-civic and hypocritical (“Mr. Green Opposes Public-Space Funding”). If he does a 180 all of a sudden he’ll look like he’s not only flip-flopping but merely following Conlin’s astute lead.
A co-founder of Sustainable Seattle first elected to the Council in 1997 on a strong environment/sustainability platform, Conlin also is in a position to challenge some of the mayor’s inconsistencies of promoting unbridled development while pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At nearly every level, from the cars he drives to the trees he cuts down (while announcing massive stick-tree plantings, natch), the Nickels persona is fraught with hypocrisy. A lapdog media airbrushes Nickels’ flim-flammery, but a resilient City Council led by its new president could embarrass the mayor when called for. Significantly, neither Nickels nor a mayoral proxy was evident at the going-away party for Peter Steinbrueck last month, or yesterday’s swearing-in reception.
Beyond any mayoral implications, though, there’s a sense that with global warming and green initiatives driving much of public policy, especially in Seattle, Conlin’s time has come. Over the year’s he’s been a consistent advocate for the environment and the little guy in city politics. He’s done far more behind-the-scenes maneuvering than he gets credit for. He’s shown an ability to work with a variety of constituencies, including downtown developers, in forging effective compromises. And when he’s been crossed, he hasn’t gotten arrogant or rattled. I’ve never seen Conlin get really mad. But I have seen him get even. In throwing down the gauntlet as Council president and coming to the game with certified green credentials, he’s daring the mayor to practice what he preaches. It’s going to be an interesting next two years.
Actually, my neighborhood has gotten absolutely shit from the parks levy.
Will… really? They’ve actually dumped shit in your neighborhood? Depending on the kind of shit, that can actually be a good thing.
For example, if it’s horse shit, now’s the time to dig a hot bed in your garden. Double dig your bed to about 2 feet deep, fill the bottom foot of the bed with fresh horse shit, and then pile the rest of the soil back on top, mixing in compost as needed. As the horse shit composts underground it generates heat and releases nutrients, making this bed an ideal spot to grow an early lettuce crop. Cover with a cloche, and you can pretty much start planting right away.
If it’s people shit, well, I suppose you could use it to fling back at the monkeys in our comment threads.
No, not literally shit. But we’re still waiting for our community center and an proposed new park on 3rd.
And we’ve got to get lectured from folks from all over the city about how cleaning up a piss-smelling park in Pioneer Square is a BAD ting because they removed some trees.
Yeah, we got shit.
The kind of people who love Richard Conlin are the same types of people who fought the Sand Point sports fields, i.e., narrow-minded older folks, mostly landowners. I remember the City Council hearing wherein these oldster Subaru liberals proceeded to lecture the young folks who were advocating for more fields. “You should try walking”, one old lady chirped.
Although you’re knocking synthetic fields, the reason they’re good is that they hold up so much better in our inclement weather. Less damage means less downtime, which means more usage. (Which is why some folks don’t like fake turf. More people will play longer hours!)
Those DiscNW folks just LOVE Richard Conlin, as do most youth sports teams who love the shitty, ankle-breaking sports fields in Seattle that are always full.
Just for the record, the Subaru was my wife’s idea.
Anyhow, we were, and still are, all in favor of sports fields.
Hey I played soccer on the new plastic grass (as you call it) at Loyal Heights last Friday night.
It (the “Field Turf”) was none the worse for wear despite the non stop rain and the cleated pounding of 22 people who probably ought to face the facts and join the over 30 league.
Back in the day when my youth team played on real grass at Miller Field and Broadway Playfield (pre-Cal Anderson) the non-stop rain eroded little canyons of mud (on both fields these inch-deep gullies ran from North to South) and the grass simply didn’t grow in the center circle or goal boxes. The City’s response back then was to rip out the grass and replace it with “syntrex”. That’s crushed brick. the days of the slide tackle were quickly over and the days of infected abrasions on the legs of ten year olds was ushered in. Lately fields have been sand.
you can derisively call it plastic grass, but these turf fields get used seven days a week. They drain well, they require very little maintenance. They’re totally sweet to play on. Obviously not every park is a heavily used sports field, but those that are might as well be usable.
“In many cases, Parks ran roughshod over citizen opinion”
That’s not the only thing they ran roughshod over. Can you imagine — IMAGINE — trapping cute little bunny rabbits, imprisoning them in horrid wire cages, transporting them far from their homes, never to be seen by their loved ones again, and flinging them into a concentration camp in the empty frozen wastes of Redmond?! Beyond heartless. It’s “species cleansing.” Thank God the Parks Department fascists are gone and normalcy is returning to the verdant swales of Green Lake Park. By next spring, GLP should be fully repopulated.
I think a portion of Green Lake and Woodland parks should be carved out as a sovereign state and permanent refuge for rabbits! If you humans can do it for Israel, you can also do it for the unwanted Easter pets you dumped out of your cars while zipping down Aurora Avenue.
I’m going to start a petition drive for a popular referendum to create a Rabbit Kingdom in north Seattle! You’d better sign or else! From now on, we rabbits are going to urinate on your walking paths and bike paths in the park until we get what we want!
It doesn’t matter who gets in any park south of Capital Hill will eithe remain unkempt or some stooge committee apointed by Parks will tell Parks what they scripted them to say.
Example, look at the tennis courts on the I-90 Lid. The ones on the Mount Baker (White) side have, an emergency phone, benches and a decent court finsh. The one on the Judkins Parks side (minority neighborhood) has no emergency phone, no benches, no court finish and is unkempt. Why don’t they keep up false pretenses and just label them white and colored and admit they are raceist.
10 Racist or class-ist? Seems a lot of resources to make things nicey-nicey get funneled into the Mt Baker/Leschi area, where curiously enough a lot of our civic leaders happen to live.
They get funneled through the parks maintenance budget for the minority side of the hill and spent on the white side. Classic racist 50’s behavior in progressive Seattle.