200 protest city's actions regarding park proposals

About 200 people rallied Saturday in front of Woodland Park Zoo to protest city actions that organizers said demonstrate a pattern of dismissing the public's concerns when it comes to decisions affecting Seattle parks.

The rally drew activists upset with several park-department proposals, among them:

• A four-story parking garage at Woodland Park Zoo.

• A skate park at Lower Woodland Park.

• The cutting down of 17 trees in Occidental Square.

• The conversion of grass to synthetic turf at Loyal Heights Playfield.

• A private company's summer concert series to use Gas Works Parks on north Lake Union.

Huddled together in the morning chill, protesters at the zoo's south entrance waved signs such as "Green Spaces Not Dollars" and "Pave Paradise?" Some drew supportive honks from cars carrying participants to the zoo's second of two public workshops on designs for the proposed garage along Phinney Avenue North near North 56th Street.

In an interview, Ken Bounds, supervisor of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, rejected the protesters' accusations, saying that the department had engaged in "very extensive" public process on its projects, though he acknowledged that the public didn't have much say in the move of Summer Nights concerts to Gas Works Park.

"What I find most intellectually dishonest is that they have dismissed all our important concerns as NIMBYism," garage opponent Cecile Andrews told the crowd, referring to the acronym for "Not In My Back Yard."

The garage also represents "an attack on our poor democracy," Andrews said. "The public process has been a sham."

Bounds said he has never described project opponents as "NIMBYs."

Former mayoral candidate Al Runte said he found it inconsistent that Mayor Greg Nickels last year touted his Climate Protection Initiative to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and now supports the zoo garage.

"It doesn't belong in an Olmsted park, and it doesn't belong in the Emerald City," said Runte.

The landscape architecture firm Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Mass., designed many of Seattle's most beloved parks, starting in 1903.

Nickels wasn't alone in his support for the garage. The City Council voted unanimously for the above-ground parking garage, the cost for which is projected to be $15 million cheaper than an underground version.

The council also unanimously approved the plan for Occidental Square. Councilman Peter Steinbrueck was absent from that vote but was present at Saturday's rally and said he opposes the cutting of trees at Occidental Park.

Bounds said the parks system planted more than 5,000 trees last year. The Pioneer Square Community Association supports the Occidental Square project, he said.

Mira Latoszek, a Beacon Hill resident, said she was concerned that the parks department, after years of planning with community volunteers, might bow to soccer advocates' push for field lights in Jefferson Park, which now offers views of the Olympics and the Puget Sound.

"You got through all this planning, and at the last minute things get changed, and it's a radical change," Latoszek said.

Bounds said the soccer advocates had as much a right as anyone else to be heard by the Parks Board.

More than a few protesters said Saturday's rally lifted their spirits.

Jim Anderson, president of the Loyal Heights Community Council, said dealing with the parks department was a "bruising, demoralizing process" because in the end his constituents didn't get what they wanted.

"It's nice to connect with all these other people," he said.

Roberta Nelson, a Ballard resident and rally organizer, said the various park-project opponents planned to share information and support one another's causes.

"Almost every group here felt they weren't given a voice," she said.

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com