Dueling Proposals for Seattle's Waterfront Park

"A battle is brewing over what should be done with a historic piece of Seattle's waterfront," according to an article by Russ Bowen. "It all boils down to a park, but what that park ends up looking like is still very much up for debate."

The controversy pits Park My Viaduct against Waterfront Seattle—each support of separate proposals for a waterfront park, built from the ashes of the doomed Highway 99.

According to Bowen, "Park My Viaduct now has enough signatures to get Initiative 123 on the ballot. It would establish the Downtown Waterfront Preservation and Development Authority that would oversee the construction of the park to replace the viaduct." 

"The group has proposed an elevated section that would be a total of six acres. The elevated park would be one mile long and include one section that would be saved from the old viaduct," adds Bowen. 

Friends of Waterfront Seattle, however, recently released a statement claiming that Park My Viaduct used paid signature gathers and "appropriated facts and the City's 'Waterfront for All' language." In effect, Friends of Waterfront Seattle prefer the city's project, already underway with environmental review, and say the Park My Viaduct proposal would "put public space into the hands of a private developer."

Mike Lindblom provides additional coverage of the controversy, picking up the news when the Park My Viaduct qualified Initiative 123 for a public vote.