In response to resident concerns being communicated to various parties in the Mayor’s office and through different departments Director of the Office of Sustainability & Environment Jessica Finn Coven was tasked with replying. Her response, although expressing personal sympathy simply parroted what Seattle City Light has been claiming. They cite “dangerous contaminants” without naming them and without explanation (other than they have the funds now to do clean-up) for why this is suddenly of some immediate danger in need of clean-up now.

Seattle City Light has a longtime pattern of doing a clearcut approach to mitigation, at the expense of landscaping that they once planted and maintained. After the irrevocable damage they engage in minimal public outreach as is supposed to be part of the disposition process. They claim this how it needs to be done. Who is willing to tell them no? As with the sites in West Seattle, such as the Andover site, the approach is to decimate the sites and then loop back to “process.”

It’s ironic that OSE is the messenger on this for the Loyal Heights site because one would hope that the value of existing green space and exceptional trees would allow for a pause to way the actual nature of the contamination versus the City’s Climate Action Plan, Tree Canopy criteria, documented Open Space gaps.

So the planned protest continues and concerned residents are asked to continue to contact the mayor’s office, specifically Michael Fong and Steve Lee. Tell them the tree removal needs to be put on hold until 1) the environmental report is made public, and there’s an independent review, 2) report made by non-city arborist for the onsite and adjoining trees, and, 3) public process concerning potential remediation methods and future uses.

What Seattle City Light proposes to do must be halted. Don’t they report to anyone? Who will tell them no, not this way?