Washblog

Interfaith Clergy Hold "Service of Lamentation" at Lora Lake Apts

By Sarajane46th
Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 01:17:21 AM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Ports

[Front paged: NM. Ed Note: The demolition was halted today, due to an action by Seattle Port Commissioner Bob Edwards. See comment by Cherisse Luxa, below. Corrections made and links added at request of author, 7/26/07. Sarajane's got great pictures of this event, but I can't get to them. In the meantime, here's one:

Reverend Sandy Brown, Executive Director of Greater Church Council of Seattle leads the service of lamentation in an empty lot owned by the Port of Seattle. Lora Lake Apartments are visible in the background.
End of Ed. Note.]

Who here thinks the Port of Seattle will reverse its decision to allow 162 units of urgently needed low-income housing across from SeaTac called Lora Lake Apartments to be torn down?

Fifteen interfaith clergy, organized by the Church Council of Greater Seattle, held a Service of Lamentation at the Burien site Monday afternoon to call attention to the crying need for low-income housing in King County, where over 8,000 are homeless on any given night.

Alec Fisken is the sole Port Commissioner standing up for housing people vs. using the site for a SeaTac shipping-related warehouse. Other Commissioners may be wavering, so emails to Bob Edwards (in a heated re-election race), Pat Davis (no longer claimed by progressives), Chair John Creighton and Lloyd Hara are in order. There is a Port Commission meeting at noon today, Tuesday. (For meeting info, go to the Port of Seattle home page.)

The Port Commissioners have been trying to blame this one on a re-zoning decision made seven years ago by the City of Burien, and affirmed recently, to change from multi-family housing to commercial. While they dream of retail development and a higher tax base, the Port dreams of more warehouse space.  Burien Councilmember Jack Block, Jr., who is running for Bob Edward's seat on the Port Commission, is the only Burien Councilmember who voted against a zoning decision for that property in May which required the residents to vacate the apartments. This was after being stared down by labor and other progressives supporting his campaign. Councilmember Sally Nelson who was absent from that meeting due to a family emergency was later the only Councilmember to vote against rejecting King County's/King County Housing Authority's offer to buy Lora Lake. Jack Block abstained from that vote. (See links to meeting agendas and minutes, below.)

The Port Commission turned down an offer by King County Executive Ron Sims to buy the apartments at market rates.  It would cost almost twice as much to build new, elsewhere, as Burien wishes. The Port needs to review its mission--moving people and goods, not economic development--and then accept the offer from King County to retain Lora Lake Apartments as affordable housing in a community that lost 3,000 apartment to condo conversion last year alone. Wake up, folks.  We have a housing crisis here, and it's bad for business!

Links

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Poll

Will the Port of Seattle save Lora Lake Apartments?
No, the Port puts economic development above people.
No, the Port is still confused about its mission--moving people and goods..
No, the Port prefers to blame it on the Burien City Council.
No, but Burien "would rather see dirt there" than any more poor people.
Yes, the Port has gained a heart, a brain and courage, too.

Votes: 5
Results | Other Polls
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Interfaith Clergy Hold "Service of Lamentation" at Lora Lake Apts | 14 comments (14 topical)
Report from 10 am press conference
I attended the press conference at the Lora Lake Apartments.

The big news.....Bob Edwards has changed his position.  He will be making a motion at this morning's Port Commission meeting to suspend the demolition until there can be a special meeting of the full Commission and the motion will also direct the Port Commission staff to work on finding a compromise.

Demolition was due to start in mid-August so this should put it on hold.

Others speaking at the press conference were King County Executive Ron Sims, King Co. Councilmember Larry Gossett, King Co. Housing Authority Exec. Director Steve Norman, and Rev. Sandy Brown, Exec. Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

The general thread of what said by all the speakers was that, because there is such a shortage of affordable housing in the region, compromises must be found to save high-quality affordable housing from being needlessly destroyed.

Burien Deputy Mayor Rose Clark and Councilmember Gordon Shaw, who both want the Lora Lake Apartments demolished, were in the crowd and didn't seem too happy.

by Cherisse on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 11:56:27 AM PST

* 1 none 0 *

Good for Bob Ferguson
The service of lamentation yesterday was beautiful.  Cherisse, Sarajane, and I all have photos and another story is in the works.

I sent Bob Ferguson a note of thanks.  This was indeed the right thing to do.

I was low-income for much my adult life, for several months as a teen actually homeless, and at various points later on receiving WIC coupons, heating assistance, food bank fare, etc.   In the early 1990s I lived in inexpensive housing in Georgetown without a shower or central heat right under flight paths that not only frequently drowned out all conversation, but also shook the buildings. My son lived there the first 9 months of his life, and those apartments are occupied today.

The contention is that Lora Lake apartments will be too noisy and that may be the case.  I don't think that poor people should have to live in substandard housing.  And it is very telling that this affordable housing is right in a flight path.  But these are nice apartments, not substandard.  And they will not, I understand, be as noisy as what my family and I lived with.  And I know in the most concrete way possible that I was very grateful for my apartment in Georgetown.  I loved living there.  I would have been seriously impacted -- in fact, I would have been heartbroken --  to have lost that housing.

by noemie maxwell on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 01:44:59 PM PST

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Thanking Bob Ferguson
Noemie, I'm confused.  Commissioner Bob Edwards, who is in a tight race to retain his seat (Gael Tarleton has outraised him) changed his position.  What did King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson do?

"The arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Sarajane46th on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 03:19:43 PM PST

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This should have never come to this point
I agree with Noemie that the noise issue could be exaggerated.  Here's something ironic for you:  4 years ago, my wife and I were living in a condo on South 118th Street in Boulevard Park, which is even more directly in the flight path than the Lora Lake apartments.  In fact there's a large amount of housing in that unincorporated area that regularly experience much more noise than Lora Lake does.

Why is this ironic?  Because that piece of Boulevard Park is being proposed for annexation by both the City of Burien and the City of Seattle.  So, housing in the flight path must not be all bad for Burien.

That said, I think it's really important to acknowledge why this situation is so upsetting many in Burien: