Dear Friends of Freeway Park:
As you know Seattle Parks and Recreation has experienced dramatic budget cuts due to COVID-19. The cuts resonate in parks across our entire city. In Freeway Park, we’ve seen significant decreases in regular maintenance and staff presence as well as an uptick in trash, graffiti and other vandalism.
In light of this, a coalition of public space advocates across Seattle wrote a joint letter on Oct 26 to the Mayor and the City Council demanding efforts to address the problems and restore funding to SPR to meet the basic needs of our parks at this critical time when public spaces are more important than ever to our communities.
Since then, the Mayor’s office has established a new inter-departmental team to address the multitude of challenges presented by an increase in homelessness during a pandemic and how that affects, among other things, our management of public spaces. They also identified surplus general fund dollars in 2020 and 2021 that could be allocated to what they are calling the Clean Cities Initiative. Specifically, they are asking the City Council to support and fully fund the following proposals:
- Additional litter abatement routes to address illegal dumping along city streets
- A rapid response team to address trash and make key improvements in park spaces
- Funding for our local business districts to address trash accumulation in our neighborhoods
- Doubling of the purple bag program and sharps collection efforts
- Expansion of the graffiti ranger program
- An interdepartmental team that addresses trash and illegal dumping in other public spaces, business districts, and open spaces
- A reopening of volunteer opportunities to support litter pick-up on neighborhood streets and within parks.
As the Council edits and refines the Mayor’s proposal and Budget Chair Teresa Mosqueda’s proposed balancing package, they need to hear from community members about the importance of providing clean and safe public spaces for all and how this is a critical step to rebuilding our city.
Please consider writing your council member TODAY and ask them to fund the Clean Cities Initiative. Time is of the essence! The budget committee votes on amendments on Nov 18-19. Thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf of our beautiful city and its critical parks and public spaces!
– Riisa Conklin
FPA Executive Director