Councilmember Conlin: City Council is still working to prevent offices from moving into Green Lake Community Center

What do you think? (2 Comments) November 16, 2010 at 3:52PM

Yesterday (Monday, Nov. 16, 2010), Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin sent an email to several members of the Green Lake community.

Councilmember Conlin reviewed the changes that City Council has made to Mayor McGinn’s proposed 2011-2012 City budget. On Friday, City Council added 15 weekly Green Lake Community Center drop-in hours to the 15 proposed by the mayor. They also saved two of the three rooms slated for office space in the mayor’s proposed budget. (You can read more about the changes City Council has made to the Mayor’s budget here.)

“We are continuing to look for replacement space to eliminate the final office conversion,” Conlin wrote, “and hope that we will identify that before the end of the year.”

“We do not agree that this office space should be the long-term plan for even one space at Green Lake,” he said, before explaining that, “because of the difficult budget situation,” City Council could not fully restore services at Green Lake.

Conlin also shared information about “Community Center Partnerships and Planning Analysis,” a Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) adopted by City Council on Friday:

We are embarking on a full review of community center operations in 2011, with the goal of finding ways to provide appropriate levels of service to all of our neighborhoods. The Parks Department has agreed to work with us on this, and we also have commitments from employees and their unions to work with us to find efficiencies that may allow services to be restored even with reduced funding.

Author: Amy Duncan

Location: Green Lake Park

Topics: local politics, parks and rec

What do you think? (2 Comments)

http://www.arttrek.com Ann-Marie Stillion

Yes, Councilman Conlin sent this message to my group which includes tai chi and kenpo members.

We are very happy that Conlin has stepped forward to join Rasmussen in being proactive and truly responsive to community desires.

No one believes there is nowhere else to go for office spaces in the City of Seattle, except to steal community space. There has been a glut of empty space for a long time.

It is a matter of values and respecting the commons. Now more than ever the people need to play and exercise and breathe outside of constraints of budgets. We want Parks and the City to do it’s job.

I believe that it is poor planning, a lack of imagination and real lack of respect for the role that the community centers represent which is driving this takeover, not a lack of money.

Anyone reading this post please contact the city council, the mayor and the acting supervisor at the Parks department. Here’s the list. Don’t give up!

Sally.Bagshaw@Seattle.gov (City Council, Parks Committee)
Tom.Rasmussen@Seattle.gov (City Council, Vice-Chairman of Parks Committee)
Richard.Conlin@seattle.gov (President of City Council)
Tim.Burgess@seattle.gov (City Council Member)
Nick.Licata@Seattle.gov (City Council, resident of north Green Lake )
Bruce.Harrell@Seattle.gov (City Council, member of Parks Committee)
Jean.Godden@Seattle.gov (City Council, alternate to Parks Committee and Chair of Finance and Budget Committee)
Sally.Clark@Seattle.gov (City Council, has attended several Green Lake Community Council meetings)
Mike.Obrien@seattle.gov (City Council Member)

You might also send Emails to:

Mike.McGinn@Seattle.gov (Mayor)
Christopher.Williams@Seattle.gov (Acting Superintendent of Department of Parks & Recreation)

Also, I have to give a shout out (again to the My Green Lake blog). MyGreenLake.com is proving itself to be a vital link in the web of Seattle. Thank you!