Privately leased or publically owned? What will be the fate of building 27 at Magnuson Park?

Last night at my community council meeting one Trustee let us know about a proposal by Arena Sports to invest $6 million dollars to refurbish Magnuson Parks’ Building 27 for well…Arena Sports’ use. However, when I returned home I discovered a forwarded email from hangar27.org, a local group who wants the hangar to remain available to a wide range of organizations (including the Rat City Rollgirls!).

Anyway, supporting the Arena Sports proposal is the Seattle Parks Department, while on Hangar27 ’s side is the Seattle City Council (Lucky for Magnuson Park that councilmember Jean Godden’s sister lives in the neighborhood! And Hanger27.com if you want to guarantee councilmember Richard Conlin’s vote, make sure you somehow tie your plans together with domesticated pet goats, because the Goat Justice League lobby totally owns Conlin).

What’s really sad about these two different city organizations putting their support behind two competing proposals like this shows that Magnuson Park’s long-term care isn’t in very good hands right now. And I say this because the same thing is happening over Magnuson Park building 11 where the Parks Department wants to hand over the building to a private company, and the Friends of Magnuson Park feel it should remain a publically managed building.

My suggestion, rename the park ‘Olympic Sculpture Park II’ and hand the whole park over to the Seattle Art Museum to manage. They are one of the few groups in town that has both the influence over the city to not only propose a vision for good land development, but to execute on that vision.