1. The city’s parks department is reportedly considering a plan to put term limits, perhaps as short as three years, on P-Patch garden plots on Parks-owned land, irking some P-Patch tenants who have maintained plots for years. (Twenty-two of the city’s 70 P-Patch gardens sit on Parks property.)
According to 20-year Bradner Gardens gardener and P-Patch Trust Board member Joyce Moty, the majority of those who garden on Parks-owned land would have to give up their plots immediately. Moty says that term limits would make it impossible to establish stable gardens and would discourage the volunteerism that’s necessary to keep parks and gardens in good condition.
Joelle Hammerstad, a spokeswoman for the parks department, says she can’t “speak to any specific proposals, but as a philosophy, our intention is to make P-Patches available to the greatest number of people possible.” Mayor Mike McGinn reportedly plans to meet with the heads of the parks and neighborhoods departments this week to discuss the term limits proposal.
Meanwhile, the city is seeking input from wannabe gardeners on where they’d like to see new P-Patches in the city.
2. McGinn told Slog he would veto the aggressive panhandling proposal, up for a vote by the city council this afternoon, even if it passes with six votes, a veto-proof majority.
Last week, we broke the news that six council members have said they’ll support the proposal, including frequent McGinn ally Mike O’Brien. Also, check out this weekend’s dueling Cola editorials by Tim Burgess and Tim Harris, the most prominent proponent and opponent of the proposal.
3. Washington State got a shout-out in the New York Times this weekend, but not for the reasons state lawmakers might have wished. Washington, the NYT reported, joins a growing number of states that are relying on “sin taxes”—sales tax increases on things like cigarettes, alcohol, candy, and soda.
4. Dozens of environmental and community groups, organized as Streets for All Seattle, have asked the city to help them come up with a dedicated funding source to pay for $30 million a year in unmet walking, biking, and transit-related needs. In a letter to the mayor and city council, the group notes that the city’s bike and pedestrian master plans are woefully underfunded; meanwhile, King County Metro faces an ongoing budget crisis. The letter is signed by groups like Cascade Bicycle Club, El Centro de la Raza, FutureWise, and the Sierra Club.
5. The city’s multifamily housing tax exemption program, which gives a property tax exemption to developers who agree to build “affordable” units, expires this year unless the city council decides to extend it past 2010. Affordable-housing advocates are asking pointed questions about how well the program has succeeded since it was put in place in 2004, such as: How many of the affordable units created under the program would have happened anyway? Did any of the projects built under the program displace low-income housing? And: Are the “affordable” rents allowed under the program really affordable?
