So I represent downtown Magnolia, Queen Anne, South Lake Union, among other neighborhoods, and also serve as the president of the Seattle Metropolitan Park District.
Can everybody hear me okay?
Just as, okay, great.
Everyone in the back is raising their thumbs.
We'll try to project, given that these mics will help pick us up on Seattle Channel, but they will not project within the room.
So just flagging that for when people come up to testify.
I'm really proud to be joined by two of my colleagues here this evening and wanna thank Council Member Morales for inviting us down to District Two to have this town hall.
I'm gonna turn it over to my colleagues for opening remarks, but before that, I just wanna give a quick run of what we're expecting to do tonight for this town hall and the Metropolitan Park District priorities for the upcoming six-year spending cycle.
Jacob Thorpe, my chief of staff, is going to give a presentation on the slide deck to just show a general baseline of what the Metropolitan Park District is, what the eligible priorities could be.
overview some of the basic process of how we've gotten to this point and what has been recommended in the initial recommendations from the Board of Parks and Rec Commissioners.
That presentation will be about seven to 10 minutes.
At that point, we'll take public comment, like a public meeting.
Folks can come up to the mic in the front of the room.
And again, that mic will not project in the room, but it'll allow your testimony to be recorded for the Seattle Channel, which is recording this meeting tonight.
And with that, I will hand it over to my colleagues for any opening remarks they would like to make, at which point we'll then hear from Jacob's slide deck, and then we will hear from you until everybody has presented.
So thank you all for coming, and I do apologize that we are starting late, given the improvisation to get the slide deck up.
So thank you for your patience and for sticking around.
Well, good evening, everybody.
Thanks so much for being here.
It's a beautiful, beautiful Monday night.
So we know there are other things you could be doing and really appreciate you being here to talk about parks.
I'm Tammy Morales.
I represent this district, this neighborhood on the Seattle City Council.
And I just wanted a chance to share with you some of the priorities I've been hearing from neighbors about what they would like to see.
I really appreciate Councilmember Lewis as the chair of the of the board bringing this meeting down here and want to thank Councilmember Herbold for joining us as well.
It's really important, I think, that part of our community engagement process include getting us out of City Hall and out here with you so that we don't have to ask you to come downtown and that you're able to actually engage with us in a way that's meaningful for you.
So thank you for being here.
And I do wanna thank Jacob for the presentation he's prepared that can provide kind of an overview of what we're trying to do here, including information, a little more information about the levy itself and You know how much what the tax rate is that we're considering what the options are but what I wanted to do is just share a little bit with you about what I've heard so far and Look forward to continuing this conversation as we identify other things so Priorities from this district include Lake Washington Boulevard improvements to allow people to walk and roll and and bike safely without having to worry about car traffic.
So there's lots of discussion happening.
I'm sure you know that SDOT is already engaging community in what kind of changes might be made along Lake Washington Boulevard.
We are very interested in making sure that Hutchinson Playground gets repaired.
We've heard a lot from neighbors around that playground that the equipment is old.
Kids who are playing out there are getting burned on slides and you know equipment's sort of falling apart so want to make sure that that's included.
Similarly, we're hearing from families with young kids that some of our parks are close to streets and they would like at least some part of playgrounds fenced off so that parents with toddlers or more than one small child don't have to worry about their kid running off into the street.
Rainier Beach Skate Park right out here at the parking lot is on our list.
We've got some improvements that are needed to complete the work that's happening at Be'er Sheva, so the Link to Lake folks are really interested in trying to add the public art component back into that project.
It was taken out because of budget constraints, so we're working to see what we can do there.
And then, you know, there's several recommendations that came out of the Parks District Board that we are sort of trying to elevate mostly around equity issues and trying to make sure that neighborhoods that have historically been kind of underinvested in rise to the top as we're talking about the kinds of things that are needed.
That's a little bit about what we're hearing so far.
As I said, really excited to have you all here and look forward to continuing the conversation with you as we move through this process so that we can see what else we need to be thinking about.
Thank you.
Anybody here from South Park or West Seattle?
Oh good, excellent.
So I'm Lisa Herbold, I represent District 1, South Park and West Seattle.
Really appreciate folks being here with us today.
In keeping with Council Member Morales' remarks, I too want to lift up some of the things that we've been hearing from District 1 residents.
In particular, there's a lot of interest in energy and a new dog park for District 1. And whereas the Parks Department has been working on a plan to develop more dog parks, I think the interest is using the MPD to sort of accelerate some of those plans.
In addition, I appreciate that the Park Board of Commissioners has included an equity fund in its recommendations and I am interested in seeing exactly how that will be operationalized as well as separately or perhaps linked to the equity fund, promoting a project in South Park that would certainly qualify for equity fund funding, but I think it would also merit some stand-alone funding, and that's phase two of the Mara Farms development, specifically a playground where the residents of the Neighborhood in Seattle with the highest per capita youth population has been told they need to to fundraise for a playground in in in Mar farms That is something I'm super interested in and then I think finally just want to lift up the interest in, well, there's actually two.
I want to make sure that the funding for seismic retrofitting of our community centers stays in the proposal as well as some of the ADA work that is being proposed.
We have some strong advocates in District 1 who use community center facilities for meetings and have some specific ideas about what kind of ADA improvements should be made to some of our community facilities, not just allowing for easy ability to enter the building and leave the building and So so much the physical space but more things like what we've recently in past years included in City Hall in some of our meeting spaces the chambers and the boards and commission rooms hearing loops for for people who have Differing abilities and to make those spaces more usable for for meeting spaces.
So those are the top of mind Priorities come out of district one right now
Oh yeah, of course.
Sorry, I neglected to mention, speaking of community centers, we are in one of four air-conditioned community centers in the city, thankfully, because it's pretty warm out there today.
But we've been talking with lots of advocates around the need to invest in resilience in our communities as we're dealing with repeated smoke events, repeated heat dome effects.
We need our community centers to be prepared to house people who are trying to escape those kinds of events.
You know here in Seattle we know that most apartment buildings are not being built with air conditioning.
Most older homes don't have air conditioning and so we really do need to make sure that there is someplace safe for people to go when those events are happening and so That kind of resilience hub idea is something we've been talking with many of you about and look forward to making sure that those ideas get incorporated into this as well.
All right.
Well, with that, why don't we get into the details of how we might accomplish all of these goals.
So, Jacob, go ahead.
Hello, does it on?
Hey, unlike your council members, I am not a professional public speaker, so I am going to use the mic.
My name is Jacob, I work in Council Member Lewis's office with my colleagues, Camila, Harper, and Malik.
And we are going to talk a little bit about the Seattle Park District Cycle 2 funding plan.
This is the second cycle of this levy.
It supplements parks, it is not meant to replace city funding on parks, which we're going to talk a little bit about.
And so I just wanted to give you some background on how it's funded, how it's affordably being used, and what we're gonna talk about doing next.
I apologize if I start to ramble, it just means I'm nervous, so bear with me.
Malik, next slide.
So what is the Levy-Fulton Park District?
Well, it was approved by the voters in August 2014, It's governed by a Park District Board, which you'll hear a lot about and you'll see it used interchangeably with Seattle City Council, that's because it's exactly the same people.
For ease, I'm just going to talk about the City of Seattle City Council because the council members sit on the Park District Board, but it is technically a new body.
It's governed by this interlocal agreement that was adopted in 2014 that establishes what the board is.
It also establishes a Board of Parks and Recreation Commission.
These are appointed citizen commissioners who do this sort of day-to-day oversight.
And currently, the proposal that you'll see in the newspaper for how cycle two should be spent, that comes from the Board of Parks and Recreation Commission.
That's not a proposal from the mayor.
It's not a proposal from the council members.
The Parks Department does play a role in both the selection of those commissioners and in sort of guiding that process.
So you could sort of take some hints there, but it's not the proposal and it's definitely not the city council's proposal.
That will come in September.
And what the Interlocal Agreement does, it requires the city by the Parks Department to carry out the activities of this district.
Importantly, it also requires minimum general fund support.
This levy can't be used to sort of supplant other money that goes to parks.
They have to spend about $110 million a year from the general fund on parks.
This is all supposed to be adequate, except in case of an emergency.
And so every single year, this district the city has actually spent more on the general fund than the minimum required, with the exception of the last two years.
During COVID, kind of all hands-on diversity budgeting, also with so many community centers closing, with bathrooms you may have noticed being closed, not as much money came from the general fund to be spent on the Parks Department.
But historically, the city's done a pretty good job of exceeding that amount.
Next slide.
And as you can see here, this levy funds about 20% of the total parks budget.
The general fund is about 40%.
Real estate excise tax, whenever real estate is sold in the city, funds nearly as much as the parks district.
And then there are some other funds that contribute as well.
$55 million now.
When it started, it was about $47 million, and then they've added 2.5% every year for inflation.
If the Parks District is exactly the same going forward next year, it'll be about $58 million because of that inflation.
The first funding plan had about 30 different initiatives, all added to Parks Services, and like I said, it was about 20% of Parks' total budget over the last six years.
Next slide.
So what's the impact to the property taxpayer?
In the first year of the park district, the median homeowner paid $140 a year on top of their additional property taxes.
That is a chunk of change.
It's actually pretty low in this state compared to some other cities' park districts.
And that paid for $47 million of service.
As you can see, the amount of service has gone up by 2.5% every year to $56 million now, whereas the average impact, because it's based on property values and how much property we're raising every year, that kind of jumps around a little bit, but it's ended at $155 to the median amount per homeowner.
Next slide.
And so what we're sort of talking about today is trying to get your feedback and reaction to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners' proposal.
That proposal includes some new investments.
It includes some pre-commitment projects.
The pre-commitment projects, which you'll see in the next slide, those are projects that were meant to be paid in Cycle 1, but it didn't happen because of COVID and other things, and now the commissioners are proposing that they get funded right away in Cycle 2. Continue funding some of those Cycle 1 initiatives.
And then number four here is this COVID economic recovery funding.
You'll see in the media, there's a proposal from the commissioners to spend about $10 million of this park's proposal on just sort of general economic recovery, and that's to replace fees that were lost during COVID.
It's also some general support, not to speak for the other Councilmembers, but you can read in the paper Councilmember Lewis' reaction to that proposal, which is pretty negative.
He has publicly stated that he doesn't think that this is a good budgeting practice and that the money should be spent on the things that voters approved of before.
Next slide.
The BPRC, those Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, are responsible for holding public meetings.
They talk about a 90-day public process.
I want to tell you that was two public meetings.
Providing recommendations to the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, the Mayor, and the Park District Board.
uh, multiple subcommittee meetings and two meetings in which specific questions and comments were considered from the public, and then they adopted their recommendations on May 19th, and that's when we saw them in the Council, uh, Park District Board, the City Council, they've been meeting roughly every couple of weeks or so to talk about the new recess.
Uh, Louie, next slide.
Uh, My WebEx banner is covering number 38 here.
It's 38 new proposals are in the NJRC recommendations at an annual cost of $30 million.
So that would take that 58 we talked about here up to about $88 million.
And it also includes 84 and a quarter new full-time equivalent employees.
And we don't know exactly what those employees are supposed to be doing yet.
That's information we're trying to get.
But we know that they have 84 new FTEs in their proposal.
Next slide.
Pre-commitment projects.
I think the number is 10 there.
10 or 11. An estimated cost of 11 projects.
Estimated cost of $25 million a year in cash financing.
and then about $10 million a year in debt service financing.
That's to pay for the big capital projects, Green Lake Community Center, Lake City Community Center.
And you'll notice that that $10 million a year in debt service over six years would definitely not pay for $110 million, so that would be committed to the city post this cycle to pay for those bonds.
Next slide, please.
And here's what you would buy with that.
It's six land-based park development projects, Smith Cove, Westlake Junction, 48th and Charleston, Wedgwood, the A&E E-Tennis Center Renovation, these three big renovations of community centers in Will Heights, Lake City, and Green Lake.
And then we're gonna have a new community center on Mercer and 8th, that's a part of that Mercer Mega Block deal.
The developer is creating a community center the city is on the hook for about $10 to $15 million in tenant improvements, sort of filling out the guts of the community.
Next slide.
Based on what we've sort of heard from the mayor's office, we think that they also plan to include those Cycle 1 initiatives.
So $58 million just rolled over in Cycle 1. And then this estimated $10 million in 2023, the Parks Board is being asked to provide that money.
They will discuss whether or not it is a priority for them to supplant $10 million of Higgs to the general fund with this level of money.
And I think that's the last slide.
Yes, questions.
So now we're going to just turn it over.
We thank you for signing in.
If you haven't had a chance yet, you can sign in to provide public comment over by the water.
And I will hand the mic back to Mr. Lewis to take it from there.
I'm going to try to project through my mask and keep it on.
And I think everyone can still hear me if I do that, right?
If people can hear me in the back, that'll be good.
So, okay.
Now that we're through the presentation,
and Harris will take public testimony.
I think we did, for the audience, get an active microphone.
I think Parker has it and is holding it.
That's great.
So if folks want to come up to the podium to give public testimony on Metropolitan Park District priorities, remember that the mic on the podium is plugged into the Seattle channel.
So to record your remarks for posterity, it is important that you speak from the podium.
But maybe we can try to get for projection within the room, our mic mounted somehow as well, so everyone can also be broadly heard.
But we did have a sign-up sheet.
Yeah, Parker, can I see the sign-up sheet?
I'm happy to preside over the public comment period.
We have about 10 or so public commenters signed up.
The first public commenter will be Nicole Grant, followed by Renaissance, and then followed by Dakota.
Thank you, council members, Herbold, Lewis, Morales.
My name is Nicole Grant.
I use she, her pronouns, and I'm the executive director of 350 Seattle, and a lifetime user of this community center.
When I was a kid, my mom was the janitor here.
And this is where I learned how to swim.
And this place is very important to me.
And it is so nice on a hot day to be able to come somewhere that's in your comfort zone, where you can be safe from a heat wave, where you could be safe from smoke during wildfire.
And we're looking at this perks levy and we're seeing a lot of opportunities to have places like this and places that are the most modern and best all over the city for our communities.
It was really wonderful to hear everybody's priorities for the parks levy.
There's so much good stuff in there.
It's so exciting.
And we really hope that we can see as much resilience hub work as possible for the community centers in this parks levy.
With climate change happening right now, changing the way we survive in Seattle today, I think that this is an opportunity to do something that's lasting, that is iconic, that we can be proud of for generations, and that sadly, but necessarily, will save lives.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
And the next speaker will be Renaissance, followed by Dakota.
So I walk like I'm confident.
Is this thing on?
But I'm scared.
Because what if we fail?
What if I don't do enough to convince of why we're here talking?
What if we don't do enough?
So I come with a lot of fear and thinking.
And I didn't prepare a speech per se, as much as have a bunch of sensations, like growing up in Rainier Vista, and dealing with all of that, and living in Holly Park, and living down the street on Henderson, and thinking about when I needed places to go, and what it means today for people to have places to go.
And thinking about how our climate and our world is changing around us, and what that means in conditions.
um what that means as our environment warms up is that the clock that's tracking me oh no that's oh don't worry about that i don't even know what that is renaissance you just keep going you're doing fine and with earthquakes that can take down bridges and topple bridges and having worked with king county international airport community coalition And thinking about needing resilience hubs in the South Park area, very specifically, that has emergency preparedness so that there are escape routes and people know where to go when times are rough and they need a place to escape.
And in a lot of our conversations with community members and people who are working in the city and all over the place, we're finding out that not a lot of people patron the community centers to go for access to resources because it has not historically been one of those places.
In the black community, that used to be the churches, and now everything with gentrification has sort of, like, moved everything around.
So by doing what 350 Seattle and our partners Protect 17, Teamsters 117, Liuna 242, and IBEW 46, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Whose Streets Are Streets, that I'm also a member of, How's Our Neighbors, Stop the Sweeps, all of our folks that are out here working.
Wow, I ran the list of names and I forgot where I was going.
The campaign that we're working on, Healthy Through Heat and Smoke, the objectives are to create an institution where our people can begin to find our community centers as a place to go in the midst of an emergency.
And I know that it's not exactly inside of the proposal that's there, and that is why we are here, so that we can propose an amendment.
My understanding is that what we just looked at are recommendations and those recommendations are open to appeal and to revision.
And so we're advocating for revision by including twice the amount that was dedicated towards the climate justice element of the parks levy so that we can fund electronic heat pumps, HVAC solar, HVAC AC, microgrid solar, and to do it with local work hire.
I think I'm getting pretty good at saying all of those things and all of those demands.
With a community workforce agreement to make sure that our community centers are being built by folks in those communities, and with project labor agreements to make sure that the people that are working on it are not being abused by corporations who are taking advantage of people, and they have collective bargaining power.
Those are the kinds of things that we'd like to see, and we'd like to see them started in the most marginalized communities in our city, as we have already heard here, for the reasons that are stated.
So hopefully my fear doesn't become a reality, and hopefully we do enough in the short time that we have to make the changes that we need to make in order so that many more don't suffer.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Next speaker is Dakota followed by Jason.
Thank you.
Well, that doesn't amplify me to me at all.
That's fun.
Well, thank you all for taking the time to speak with us here today and to be in front of us in a little more of an informal setting.
I really enjoy coming to meetings like this.
And my name is Dakota Rash, by the way.
I don't think I said that at the beginning.
Because so much of what is on the table all feels positive, as opposed to being at other meetings where we talk about things that actively harm communities.
It's disappointing that we have to say, prioritize this thing, prioritize this thing, because we should be doing all of these things.
And so I'll echo what Renaissance said in the terms of trying to take as many resources as possible and putting it into projects like this.
Because that is how we are going to forward the incoming storm of the climate crisis, by investing in our communities, by strengthening them and giving us resources that connect us and enable us to be present throughout disaster in a safe way.
So a little bit of my story of why this is very personal to me.
I come from a family of teachers, and by coming from a family of teachers, it means that summer is the vacation time.
Both parents are off.
We all have time finally.
I'm out of school.
My siblings are out of school.
We reach out to extended family, and we talk about the hidden gem of Seattle that is summer, or at least it used to be.
When the smoke started creeping in, that hidden gem started to become a little less shiny.
And when the heat dome happened, we realized that our summers can take lives now.
They haven't in the past, but they're going to in the future, and we need to prepare for that.
When I'm out canvassing with 350 Seattle and I talk to people, who live in hotter areas, they all have things like cooled shelters, networks to check in on more at-risk populations who are pre-identified, so you can go in and say, how are you doing?
Are you doing okay?
We need to start preparing for something that the Pacific Northwest is going to be experiencing for the first time.
It's going to be our future.
There is no two ways about that.
so we need to build towards our communities and we need to build our communities towards being ready for this type of thing and Invest in all of these wonderful things that we have on the board that can help build us up Thank you Thank you Jason followed by Ben Jason
Good evening, Councilmembers and everyone here.
I really appreciate the time and opportunity to be able to speak to you about something that's important.
My name's Jason.
I use he, him pronouns.
And I'm a District 2 renter living with a chronic nerve disorder.
My condition causes miscommunication between my nerves and my brain, and it can result in severe pain and general discomfort, which is worsened by extreme temperatures.
And I recall last year during the heat dome how frankly excruciating it was as my disorder worsened and I struggled to escape from the heat.
Now in the end, my family members were able to offer, on the other side of the sound, were able to offer me a place to stay during the tail end of the heat wave, but that wasn't the case for our neighbors who are living unhoused.
For our unhoused neighbors and community members, they cannot escape these brutal temperatures turned into absolute furnace by the urban heat island effect that is already here and is just going to get worse.
But as you know, there are ways to address this, and one is to authorize the use of park levy funds to transform our community centers into climate-ready centers, cooled by heat pumps and systems powered by renewable energy based on microgrids.
and supplied by, excuse me, supplied with clean, why do we cover our mouths when we have masks on and we cough?
It just caught me out.
I was like, why am I doing this?
Sorry.
And as I was saying, HVAC systems to handle the particulate matter of wildfires.
So we need your help to bring this community healthily through heat and smoke.
So thank you for your time.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Ben followed by Rich.
So Rich is on deck.
Yeah, yeah, Ben.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Hey everyone.
My name is Ben Osterlin.
I use he, him pronouns.
I'm a renter and a voter in district six, and I'm here with the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.
I've gotten to do some public comments before, even though the stage always makes me a little bit nervous.
So I won't hit you with the emotional appeal I've used in past comments.
What I want to talk to you about today is what I've been hearing and what I've been feeling.
I'll start with what I've been hearing when I've been canvassing with 350 Seattle.
Canvassing in Green Lake, in Lake City, in SLU, in U District, and all throughout the city.
I've talked to hundreds, if not thousands, of Seattle residents and voters at this point.
And like anything, when you're canvassing, people don't want to be disrupted in their normal routines.
You get a lot of people who are gruff or they'll brush you off.
But when I had these conversations and I asked the question, do you remember where you were during last summer's heat wave?
And are you aware that there were people that died that didn't have access to AC?
I always see eyes widen and a look of recognition, a look sometimes even of determination on people's faces.
That they want to know that their city is doing something to address it.
That's what gets people to sign supporter cards.
That's what gets people to join this campaign and be a part of this movement that we want to see happen.
That's what I've been hearing.
But I'll tell you also about what I've been feeling.
I've been feeling a lot, as someone who's 25, a great sense of anxiety about our climate future.
We see all these news reports of, you know, all these different things happening in our environment.
And it's scary to know that my family and potential generations forward of my family might not live on a safe planet.
But what I want to feel is hope.
And there are things that give me hope.
There are bills that are being passed.
There are people that are working really hard on this.
And this city, in a lot of ways, has given me hope.
I know that this council is hearing what we're bringing forward.
I know that this council is hearing residents when they speak up.
Councilman Morales, I love that you brought up to us that you're hearing these messages about resiliency hubs.
And I love the fact that the Miller microgrid project and other projects are already ongoing.
But what I would love to see this council, this city do is to truly invest in the aims of the healthy through heat and smoke campaign.
And that is ensuring that all of our community centers, all 21, are equipped with the heating and cooling that they need to be safe when there are situations of emergency, that they run on 100% renewable energy, and that they are built and transitioned by the work of local hire and union jobs.
Seeing this would really give me hope and feeling a sense of pride about the city that I live in.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
So, Rich, followed by, and I'm having trouble, Herman is the last name.
What's the first name?
Apologies, I can't read the first name.
Asalia.
Okay, you're on deck.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Rich.
Hi, my name's Rich Vogut, and I support the 350 full demands of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.
One demand is to prioritize investments in communities already most impacted by heat waves, pollution, displacement, and other environmental injustices.
Now, a basic tenet of politics, unfortunately, is to ignore people who have no political power.
when there isn't enough money to go around.
And I think we're becoming aware that that's really due to systemic racism.
And it's time to get past that.
We just can't tolerate that anymore.
This is an opportunity to implement the city's own equity goals.
by getting resilience centers, which Council Member Morales was talking about, getting these resilience centers set up in communities most impacted by pollution.
Shifting over to climate change, we're now in a climate emergency, driven by the laws of physics and chemistry, which don't care about politics or economics.
They're just increasing the climate temperature.
Denny Wesny wrote a snarky comment a few years ago at the end of his column saying, Seattle, where the city is always green, meaning, you know, We're real good at planning what we're gonna do for climate change, but the follow through isn't there.
He started with Mayor Nichols and then Durkin, and I'm sure Harold is gonna be rolling out his plan here in another year.
So one thing that you can do is, and now I'm hearing that the, The green future for the city is the city's made commitments to move off of fossil fuels, but lacks a credible plan.
So I know it takes money.
You need more staff to be able to execute the plan.
And you've got to find the money.
You've got to do it, because we're in an emergency.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Asalia and I use she, her pronouns.
Seattle has long led the way in working to address and fight climate change.
With the passage of the Climate Commitment Act as an example, we all have a responsibility to keep pushing to remain ahead of the curve.
For the city of Seattle and the latest community greenhouse gas emissions inventory report, Greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector have increased 8.3% since the last report, citing that this was largely a result of growing fossil gas use specifically linked to gas that was used for cooking and space and water heating in buildings.
Based on past weather events like colder winters and hotter summers and a growing population, we only expect to see an increase in fossil gas use.
It's time for Seattle to be bold, not only in meeting our climate goals, but paving the way to exceed them.
Support for this campaign and continuously pushing for the transition to clean energy is one of the many ways that the Seattle city can meet the moment.
We can start with upgrading Seattle's community centers to be climate resilience hubs that are powered by clean energy.
We have the data that shows cutting carbon pollution produces health and economic benefits for communities that are already overburdened by climate change, air pollution, and environmental degradation.
This is why I asked for support for the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.
Thank you.
And then we have Keith followed by, is it Aiden?
Aiden McCall?
Okay, great.
Excellent.
Keith, you're up.
Thank you very much for being here on this listening session and for all your work.
As a park user, I know there's so many competing needs.
And as a hiker, just seeing the work that has to be done to remove the fallen trees, replace the rotting steps.
And Seattle's doing a pretty good job of it.
I'm a member of two groups that have endorsed Healthy Through Smoke and Heat, or Heat and Smoke, People for Climate Action Seattle and Green Buildings Now.
And Green Buildings Now is very much focused on building electrification and creating resilience hubs.
And we have done it through really raising funds from private donors to help our partners on Beacon Hill create a South Beacon Hill Resilience Hub.
But, you know, it's really the public sector that needs to do the heavy lifting here.
There's no two ways about it.
This use of parks dollars would be an excellent down payment on the really hundreds of millions of dollars of work that needs to be done.
We have to get to a city where everyone is safe, where you're not safe just because you're wealthy enough to buy a heat pump or an air conditioner.
I'm privileged enough to be able to have a heat pump in my home.
I was able to take in a lot of our relatives during that week when the temperatures went up to 108 degrees.
I really look forward to much more equity where we can create safe places and then move on to the next step of helping people in their apartments and houses to have heat pumps and fossil-free buildings.
We know we need to get to zero emissions, and this is one small but necessary.
It's not small.
It's an important step, and it's small compared to the total need of totally decarbonizing our buildings.
So thank you for considering this, and I look forward to seeing the proposal.
Thank you.
Aidan and then Francesca.
Everyone hear me okay?
All right.
My name's Aiden, and I've grown up in the Seattle area.
I've studied at University of Washington.
Graduated at the beginning of June this year.
And every year since 2020, I think I noticed, even inside doing studies completely online, that the smoke had made it impossible to go outside.
And I was lucky.
I could just, you know, stay home, keep studying, no problem.
But as many as the folks before me have said, not everyone was that lucky.
And I think it's important that we prepare and in the city of Seattle especially, meet the commitments that have been made in sort of getting off of fossil fuel usage for all public buildings by 2035. And I think this is a great first step.
I think on top of that, This is another opportunity to show that, you know, once we get this first step out of the way, the future steps we can tackle even bigger problems.
So that by the time 2035 comes around, there's no scrambling for sort of really rushed projects and there's an opportunity for, well, I guess Seattle as a city and the greater Seattle area will be fully climate resilient instead of, you know, a rushed plan.
And my final remark is that I just want to celebrate the comments that everyone's offered up to this point, and also to show and offer my full support to the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.
Pretty much every organization who has co-signed on that campaign has my support as well, doing really exciting stuff, looking forward to what's next.
Thank you.
Thank you, Francesca.
And then, I think, is it Jim Bernthal?
Oh, OK.
Thank you, Francesca.
Hi, thank you all so much for being here and for this opportunity.
My name is Francesca Holm, and I also support the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.
I want our parks district to invest in converting our community centers into climate resiliency hubs, powered by green energy where all Seattle residents can take shelter when they need to.
I was born and raised in Seattle.
I live right here in District 2. And I have lived in South Seattle for most of my life.
And as you know, we are a community that is already living with the effects of climate change.
And we are here tonight standing up and saying that we need solutions.
I am also a public health professional.
During the June heat wave of 2021, I was lying awake at night.
Just with this pit of dread in my belly, just knowing that some of my fellow Seattle residents would lose their lives that night.
And indeed, that is what happened.
34 people died here in King County during the Gene Heat Wave.
I also knew that the people who would lose their lives would be more likely to be living in poverty or elderly or to have the kinds of underlying medical conditions that a lifetime of experiencing systemic racism can lead to.
I am also a mother.
I have a five-year-old daughter, and I want her to grow up in a city that says, no matter how much money you have, no matter what zip code you live in, no matter your race or ethnicity, you deserve to live a long and healthy life.
And I think that's what we believe here in Seattle.
I want her to grow up in that city that can proudly say, we knew that this was happening, we knew climate change was happening, and we acted to change the course of the crisis.
We decided to care for each other, no matter what.
So I ask you to please invest in converting our community centers into the safe, green places that we need for our future.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone who wants to speak on the Metropolitan Park District who did not get an opportunity to sign up?
Oh, go ahead, please.
This is the end of the folks who signed up, but happy to take additional folks.
So go ahead, please.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Okay, yes.
Go ahead, please.
My name is Jennifer Pritchard.
I live in Rainier Beach.
I've lived here for 15 years.
I wasn't going to speak, but I feel like the topic I want to talk about or I came here about really connects with what you all have been saying.
The urban forests in our community are really important for climate change and being resilient.
And one of the urban forests in our neighborhood is Dead Horse Canyon.
And there's currently a project that SPU is planning with parks to reduce sediment in Taylor Creek.
And their favorite option right now Would cut down over 100 trees in that forest.
So the friends of Dead Horse Canyon, which I'm part of.
We're really asking them to listen to the community to work with community to think of alternative ways to both reduce the sediment.
and save an important forest that is important for reducing carbon footprint.
So yeah, I would just ask that you all support that and you help us in our efforts to work with SPU and have a community-led process.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And then I thought I saw someone else out there who wanted, in the back there, sir?
Yeah, do you want to make a public comment?
Oh, yeah, please.
Yeah, thanks.
My name is Sam Edson.
I'm an urban forester.
A former resident just off 51st and Fletcher here.
And I can attest that the south end of Seattle is prone to natural disaster.
I was just living on a landslide, actually, before moving to West Seattle.
And yeah, I'm a contractor with the city.
I can personally speak to just today on Chinook Beach, a gentleman making his way down covered himself up, maybe trying to stay cool, was asking for water.
So I've kind of been on the fringes of the 350 Seattle campaign and the Climate Resiliency Centers.
Yeah, it's something.
I'm part of an active union drive with LIUNA Local 242. And I can attest to it.
organized labor is backing this project and it's meaningful to the community here and myself personally.
Yeah, hopefully this first contract can mean paying the bills out in West Seattle and hopefully with the backing of council members, we can see to it that good union jobs are making their way out to South Seattle.
Well, you know, that is probably the first time I've conducted a meeting like this without time limits, which was completely accidental.
But I appreciate everybody being really, really good at speaking for, you know, a concise, reasonable amount of time.
And this was a really good public meeting.
Just to digress for a moment, given that a lot of the public comment we received was about the retrofits for community centers and the healthy through heat and smoke campaign.
I can just say anecdotally, this is the third of these town halls we've had in community centers.
It makes a huge difference when there's air conditioning.
In late July, we had one at Queen Anne, last week we had one at Magnolia, and boy, you can really tell when it's a community center built in the 50s, completely uninsulated, no air conditioning, makes a really big difference.
You know, I can think of no better way beyond the very effective advocacy campaign that we're seeing here tonight to really drive that point across than experiencing it in a hot Seattle summer in these different community centers.
Thank you for showing up and thank you for continuing to make a strong case for climate resiliency investments in Seattle Parks facilities, including community centers.
I don't have any other closing comments beyond just a quick overview of the rest of the process.
My committee is going to continue to meet the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee on topics related to the Metropolitan Park District.
People can publicly comment at any time at those meetings.
both remotely and in person on any topic that pertains to Metropolitan Park District investments.
We're expecting Mayor Harrell to announce his recommended investment areas in the park district in early September, around September 6th.
And we are expecting to take full action as a city council on those, those recommendations with our own potential additions or subtractions in mid-September.
So really appreciate folks turning out tonight.
We will have another in-community public town hall opportunity.
in the Northgate neighborhood at the Northgate Community Center, which I hope to God is one of the four air-conditioned ones, on September 7th.
That will also be starting at 6 p.m., right, Jacob?
6 p.m.?
Yeah, 6 p.m.
So folks who want to turn out for that town hall as well, certainly more than welcome.
You don't have to live in North Seattle to attend that town hall.
So with that, I don't have any additional comments, but I'd like to give space to my colleagues to make any closing remarks if they want to.
All right.
Well, I'm going to hang around for a few more minutes.
If folks want to put some last minute feedback on these poster boards and didn't get an opportunity, we'll give about five more minutes for folks to do that.
But otherwise, thank you for coming out tonight and thank you for representing what you would like to see in the next cycle of investments for the Seattle Metropolitan Park District.
So thank you so much.