PIKE PLACE MARKET
Trust us, says City Hall. We aren’t selling off the Pike Place Market again. But that is, in fact, what’s happening, raising the specter of when, in the 1990s, the Market’s Public Development Authority (PDA) had to buy back much of the beloved landmark it sold to New York investors in the 1980s. (The PDA thought it was selling tax write-offs; the investors thought they’d bought the title and ordered rent increases.) Then-Mayor Norm Rice approved changes to the PDA charter in 1992 “intended to eliminate the possibility the public will ever again risk losing control” of Market land. Now, Mayor Greg Nickels might have to undo that vow if the current plan, which already has the blessing of the City Council, is to succeed. To build an $11 million-plus mixed-use project, which includes low-income housing next to the LaSalle Apartments on the old Market creamery site along Western Avenue, will require formation of a limited liability company, grouping the PDA with private partners seeking tax-credit investments. That’s New York all over again. To facilitate financing, the partnership would hold the deed to the LaSalle, which would be renovated and attached to the new building. Theresa Alexander, a dissenting PDA council member, says the PDA could lose control through several loopholes in the plan, which opens the door for other sales. First, however, the PDA charter amendment must be approved next month in a referendum by another Market-government bloc, the rebellious Market Constituency headed by former City Council member Charlie Chong, who opposes the sale. His opposite, City Council President Peter Steinbrueck, calls the plan “good for the Market and good for the community” and feels there are built-in safeguards. But that’s what they said last time. RICK ANDERSON
CITY HALL
Last week was what you might call a downer for citizen involvement with the Seattle City Council, five of whose members are up for re-election this year. On Tuesday, June 3, the day after Seattle police forcefully quelled a downtown protest, protesters who showed up at City Hall to complain about police behavior were locked out of the building. The next day, the Municipal Building’s 12th-floor mayoral offices were locked down. About 20 protesters showed up at a hearing of the council’s Police, Fire, Courts, and Technology Committee that afternoon. After allowing them to make statements for approximately 30 minutes about police conduct at the protest, the committee’s chair, council member Jim Compton (council members Margaret Pageler and Jan Drago were not present) told protesters that he was moving on to other agenda items. That didn’t sit well with protesters, who told Compton that they wanted to know what he thought of their complaints about police firing a range of so-called nonlethal weapons at protesters on Monday, June 2. Compton told the protesters that if they didn’t pipe down, he’d have police clear the City Council chamber. Soon after, a squad of bicycle cops appeared to escort protesters out of City Hall. PHILIP DAWDY
