King County Executive Dow Constantine is proposing the creation of a new “Civic Campus” that would redevelop county property including closing the outdated county jail to “reimagine the courthouse neighborhood” between Pioneer Square and downtown Seattle.
The plan would include building a new light rail station below the campus on the site of the current King County Administration Building.
Constantine’s proposal came Tuesday as the official delivered his 2023 State of the County address.
“We have the opportunity, right now, to create a place – a global metropolitan region – worthy of our children, and of theirs,” Constantine said. “And if we seize it, we can show this state, and this nation, what it means for government to be a catalyst for progress and, in that progress, to leave no one behind.”
Constantine has led the county since 2009. His current term ends in three years.
Under the Civic Campus plan, Constantine says King County should redevelop the property with new county buildings to replace the permanently shuttered administration building and the 37-year-old jail that critics say is decaying and dangerous. Constantine said Sound Transit is considering the old administrative building as the site of a new light rail station.
“This historic area can remain a center of local government, but it can also be so much more: a neighborhood with residents of all incomes, with shops and restaurants and gathering spaces, a place that enlivens and supports the surrounding neighborhoods,” Constantine said.
The executive also asked for support from voters in April when a $1.25 billion behavioral health levy to create a new “regional network” of emergency mental health care centers will appear on the special election ballot.
“How many people are in a jail cell when they need to be in a treatment bed? How many people are at risk on the street when they just need a place to recover? How many people, how many families — in every community — are quietly suffering with nowhere to turn for help? Providing crisis care, and treatment beds, and compassionate, professional help is the right and decent thing to do,” Constantine said. “But it is also the smart thing to do at a time when jails and hospitals are bursting at the seams, and so many people are sleeping on our streets.”
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“The plan would include building a new light rail station below the campus on the site of the current King County Administration Building.” I.e. on the planned new light rail line running between Ballard and West Seattle, with no station anywhere near the Amtrak and other light rail station, making transfers much more difficult.
Yeah, this was my feeling too.
It’s great to reactivate the court house area — which is a nightmare at present — but where is the larger planning happening?
Particularly: WE F*CKING NEED LIGHT RAIL ROLL OUT TO PROCEED FASTER THAN IT IS.
And King County is one of the drivers of all this.
Ballard to W. Seattle is a **priority**. There are real engineering challenges, specifically the fact the line must pass under two bodies of water and through downtown.
But none of these are truly novel issues, they just require planning and money. The tunnel boring machines should be going “brrrrr” on this project as I write this, not indeterminate years in the future.
Constantine isn’t exactly awful, but we need more vision and action from King County, most importantly around the roll out of light rail.
We had one of these on olive and summit. Bus and train had a multimodal station that was gifted to the convention center for their expansion.
That was my most used station being the first stop for express lane traffic coming in from the north end.
Why are we spending money on a second multi modal? Back in the day, as the only place that was running interim buses through the future tunnel Seattle had foresight and future mindset. Now Seattle is just throwing money at problems without making any progress