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Monday, April 9, 2012

Education / City / Money Both Sides Are Right in Debate Over Building a Downtown Seattle Public School

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 8:58 AM

According to a report in this morning's Seattle Times, the school district is including a $32 million "placeholder" in the next capital levy for constructing a new 500-seat elementary school in the South Lake Union neighborhood, what would be the first downtown public school in decades. That's reportedly enough money to build the school, but not enough to acquire the land.

It's a proposal that's sparking an interesting debate. On the one hand:

"It's a priority for us to look at as we try to make downtown family- and kid-friendly," said Randy Hurlow, a spokesman for the Downtown Seattle Association. ... The downtown corridor is targeted for about half of Seattle's growth in the next few years, said Gary Johnson, a city planner who for years has pushed for a downtown school.

On the other hand:

Some parents are critical, believing the push for a downtown school is motivated by pressure from business and distracts from more pressing district issues, including deteriorating buildings and overcrowding. ... Melissa Westbrook, a local education blogger, said at a public meeting last week she thinks downtown-school efforts have been driven by businessmen such as Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of Vulcan.

My own take is that of course we need a downtown elementary school, especially during this era of overcrowding. Seattle has a remarkably family-unfriendly downtown, and as much as the Lesser Seattle advocates might resist the urge to fulfill the Denny Party's aspirations in originally naming their settlement "New York Alki," if we want to achieve the kind of urban densities that make a downtown work, we need to serve families with children.

But, yeah, the South Lake Union developers will profit handsomely from a spanking new elementary school in the neighborhood, so I say let the developers pay for it. The land is a given: private individuals and corporations donating land for use by public schools is an American tradition. But Bezos and Allen and the other developers who will surely profit from having a new school in the vicinity should also cough up much if not all of the cost of construction.

After all, local governments are constantly providing tax breaks and other incentives to attract new businesses, so it only seems fair that businesses in turn provide some incentives to attract valuable public services.

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That last paragraph is definitely the funniest thing I will read all day.

Sadly.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on April 9, 2012 at 9:09 AM

What a fucking boneheaded idea!! The last damn thing I want to deal with in Downtown Seattle is a bunch of snot nosed, badly behaved monsters and their offspring that would go to this school.

I say MORE high priced condos and apartments instead!!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on April 9, 2012 at 9:35 AM

Sadly, I fear that somehow even if "they" pay for it, "we" will still pay for it. Doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

Posted by imcarey on April 9, 2012 at 9:37 AM

This "lesser Seattle" chirp is a straw man and is misused in this case, and in most cases by anyone who cheers any kind of development in the face of any kind of opposition; to the point of cliche, which makes for terrible writing

. SLU was an industrial part of the city. It has nothing to do with tearing down old amenities in favor of glitzy new ones for out of towners. FWIW, consider this school the first target for a privatized "charter" school, once the paint dries.

Posted by Lacking an Element of Style on April 9, 2012 at 9:41 AM

elementary schools are fine, much better than middle schoolers. why do you think developers would ever want to do this for free? thats how they make money.

Posted by anal smith on April 9, 2012 at 9:43 AM

If they chip in even one penny, they will take that as all the reason they need to insist it be some sort of uber-charter-selective-students only school.

Posted by ScreenName on April 9, 2012 at 9:45 AM

Seems like it would be way more cost-effective to bus whatever elemenatry school age kids that live downtown to schools in other parts of the city, which must be what they are doing now.

Posted by WestSeven on April 9, 2012 at 9:51 AM

So now he should pay for a school too? Why is it that everyone seems to turn a blind eye to Paul Allen's motivation, after we gave him back the land. He wanted to gift it to the city and we voted it down, now he isn't allowed to turn a profit from it. I agree that taxes need to be higher, design could be more friendly, and "the system" is clearly broken, but we got what we voted for.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Dis…

"Paul Allen had loaned the Commons measure $20 million to buy land within the proposed park's boundary and promised late in the campaign that if the levy passed his loan would be forgiven."

Posted by tired of the one sided argument on April 9, 2012 at 10:20 AM

@2 Sweet. I see what you did there.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 9, 2012 at 10:24 AM

@6 Yes! The Gates finger-puppet astroturf organizations already yammer constantly about how they're the richies, so they know best and have to be constantly fellated by the school board.

(See Melissa Westbrook and Co's Save Seattle Schools blog for full details.)

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 9, 2012 at 10:27 AM

@9, subtlety is the heart of wit

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on April 9, 2012 at 10:38 AM

@11 That leaves me out. Half-subtle, maybe.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 9, 2012 at 10:42 AM

Actually downtown already has a public school. It's Center High School, operating out of the upper level of the Center House at Seattle Center.

Posted by Just Jeff

on April 9, 2012 at 10:58 AM

My kids have a choice of traveling either 1.8 or 1.9 miles to school on a bus in the north end of Seattle.
Are those imagined children of the future traveling further?
If that is the problem "we" are trying to solve then shouldn't "we" solve that in more than one neighborhood?

Posted by MrBaker

on April 9, 2012 at 11:27 AM

Do any of the professionals living in one bedroom condos in South Lake Union have any kids?

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on April 9, 2012 at 11:27 AM

Long overdue.

@15 yes. It's what happens when you have sex.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 9, 2012 at 11:30 AM

#16

Like I said...

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on April 9, 2012 at 11:33 AM

@16, unless Rick Santorum is President, you are making an assumption on the result, and in the case of procreation assuming that people continue to live in 1 bedroom homes.

Posted by MrBaker

on April 9, 2012 at 12:11 PM

Completely concur with Goldy. We should build a downtown elementary school, and the necessary land should be donated by the corporate beneficiaries. This is indeed the American way (think of all the Carnegie libraries).

If that can't be achieved, the next best thing would be to secure the $30 million or so necessary to convert the old Magnolia School into a magnet STEM elementary and run a circulator bus to South Lake Union and downtown.

Posted by the idiot formerly known as kk on April 9, 2012 at 1:05 PM

Now who will end up subsidizing the new Police precinct station house?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 9, 2012 at 1:53 PM

Better yet, have Vulcan or Amazon give over a couple of floors in one of their shiny new buildings for this effort and I'm sure the district will be happy to provide the infrastructure (principal, teachers, program, etc.)

But the thing that CAN'T happen is to hold up $32M of capital money for a new elementary that may or may not have enough students to open it. (You notice how that information is left out of every story.)

It can't happen because we have many buildings in SPS that are in poor condition or over-crowded or both. We need to help existing schools before we thinking about building for downtown interests.

In Feb. 2013 Seattle Schools will likely be asking for nearly $1B (that's billion) in taxes from Seattle voters. (This is between the capital levy and the operations levy.) They need everyone to support this vote for it to pass. It won't pass if they do not focus on getting done what needs to get done today rather than holding up money on a "maybe" elementary.

Posted by westello on April 9, 2012 at 1:54 PM

What do the population data show? How many children ages 0-7 live between Dearborn and Mercer streets and west of I-5?

Is there an upward trend in these numbers? If so, what future projections can be made?

Or is this all just wishful thinking based on a City Hall policy desire for children to be included in the downtown population some time in the future?

Posted by Citizen R on April 9, 2012 at 5:50 PM