All right, hello, good afternoon to everybody.
Thank you so much for coming down to hear from my office and from some of the community leaders in the Pike Place Market, who I'm very excited to have join us this morning in the People's City Hall.
It's really great to come together to really center an urban gem that we have in the city of Seattle and in District 7, the district I'm proud to represent on the City Council in the Pike Place Market, a place that is fundamental to our identity as a city, a place that is as iconic and transformative as the Space Needle, as the World's Fair.
The Pike Place Market is really the center of gravity for what makes Seattle a very special place.
And we're here to make sure that we can keep it that way.
We're here to make sure that the Pike Place Market and the institutions that we have put in place to keep the market, that special place that we all depend on, rely on, that people travel thousands of miles to visit, stays that unique urban gem in the center of our city.
There's legislation that's in front of the council right now that I'm happy to talk more about at length, especially if there's follow-up questions, that would take some of the authority away from those institutions that protect and defend the institution of the Seattle Pike Place Market and put it in the hands of the Department of Neighborhoods.
That's something that's unacceptable.
It's something that the voters weighed in on when we created the Pike Place Market as a unique and special place that was going to be deserving of special protection to keep it independent from outside influences that might distort, might undermine the integrity of such a special place.
We need to vigilantly defend the strength and the power of those institutions.
We need to make sure that the Pike Place Market Historic Commission is the one that will decide what the alterations, what the changes are to the businesses, the buildings, the integrity of the market.
It has to stay within those institutions and not be given to the arbitrary decision-making power of some bureaucrat outside of the market.
And that is what we're here to protect.
And that is what we are here to make sure as we go into deliberating tomorrow in committee we send a strong message as a city council that the council is going to stand behind the institutions, the practices that keep the Pike Place Market this central urban gem that is a definitive institution of the city of Seattle.
So I'm going to open it up a little bit more to some of the folks that we have here from the market community to talk about the importance of this amendment that I'm bringing to this legislation.
And I'm going to start by introducing Sarah.
So Sarah, if you can come on up here.
And then after Sarah, we're going to hear from Duncan on the other end here.
So, Sarah, go ahead, please.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, my name's Sarah Patton.
I served on the Market Historical Commission from 2005 to 2014, and I started as a volunteer at Friends of the Market when I was 15 years old.
Back then, the mayor, the city council, and the Downtown Seattle Association wanted to replace the market with a high-rise parking garage.
Friends of the Market campaigned until 1971 to prevent that atrocity.
Finally, won a citizen's initiative that saved the market and established the Market Historical Commission.
uh...
today i'm here to cheer the work of councilmember uh...
andrew lewis whose amendment to the uh...
council bill one two oh four five six uh...
will preserve the full authority of the market historical commission uh...
to keep the market thriving and authentic the citizens initiative that saved the market insisted on solid public oversight of the uh...
market historical commission no surprise from a bunch of citizens Councilmember Lewis's amendment will, one, make sure the commission retains its jurisdiction, and two, ensure the public's ability to observe, comment on, and if necessary, appeal the decisions of the Market Historical Commission.
Without this amendment, Council Bill 120456 would allow the Department of Neighborhoods to make significant decisions about the market behind closed doors.
The Market Historical Commission has done an admirable job through renovations and all kinds of changes and controversies and even the pandemic And the market continues to thrive and maintain its authenticity of fish, flowers, and farmers.
So it ain't broke.
Don't fix it.
And thanks to Councilmember Lewis.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Duncan Thiem, and I'm a proud member of the Friends of the Market.
My real deep interaction with the market first started in 2006 when my architecture firm, SRG Partnership, was hired to design renovations to the market.
Our work for two years with the historic commission led directly to Proposition 1 in 2008, and I brought with me today a little memento.
This is the yard sign I had on my front lawn in 2008 in the run-up to that vote.
Our project became a $73 million voter-funded initiative to save the infrastructure and repair the infrastructure of the market.
I remember this fondly because the citizens of Seattle did not hesitate to open their wallets and support the market when it was time for them to do so.
And I'm here today to thank Councilmember Lewis for doing the same today.
Thank you for standing up for the market.
It's time again to make sure that we save it for posterity.
I'd like to emphasize that our project, this $73 million project, was entirely dedicated to infrastructure.
Exactly the kind of things that are proposed to be taken out of the purview of the Historical Commission.
We fixed the structures, we fixed the elevators, we fixed the pipes, we renovated all the electrical systems.
This work was highly invasive, over a five-year period of design and construction.
Three years of heavy construction that touched every part of the market.
It would have been impossible without the guidance of Sarah and her colleagues on the historic commission, and the place wouldn't be what it is today.
And one of my deepest points of pride is that people who go to the market, even longtime Seattleites, don't notice what we did.
And we owe a lot of thanks to Sarah and her colleagues for that.
So today I want to say thank you again to Council Member Lewis for your amendment.
I would call on every council member to support this.
Our message is very clear and very simple.
It ain't broke, don't fix it.
Thank you.
Duncan, Sarah, thank you so much for your remarks and I'm happy to take just a moment here to answer questions from the outlets that are present.
If there's any requests for clarification, anything that I can expand on, happy to take a moment.
For those who might not know, who owns the market?
Right, so it's a complicated question, but the market is organized under a public development authority, and the City of Seattle appoints members to that public development authority.
But it's our market, it's the people's market.
This is a market for all the people of Seattle, not just those who live here, but those who visit and take advantage of such a great, unique place.
Hey, excellent.
See, the clarity of our message is such that there's no additional follow-up questions from the media.
So, thank you so much everyone for coming out here and I really look forward to the consideration of this amendment tomorrow morning.
We're going to gavel in at 9.30 to the neighborhoods committee meeting and this will be discussed in length with myself and my colleagues and look forward to Making myself available for any follow-up and hope for successful passage of this amendment.
So thank you so much