Opposition to a new jail in Highland Park is getting organized, why not build the jail downtown near the existing one?

Okay, you know the story already - King County is getting out of the misdemeanor business and focusing its efforts instead on the felony segment of the market - so…that means Seattle needs a new municipal jail in order to process politicians such as King County Councilmember Jane Hague (DUI), Seattle City Councilmember Richard McIver (arrested on charges of domestic violence) or former US Senate Candidate Mike McGavick (DUI) when they run afoul of the law.

But the big question is, ‘where should we build this jail’. Actually, let me restate that question so it’s a bit more accurate, ‘in which politically influential area should we build this jail.’

North Seattle has already stated its position, and now SW Seattle’s Highland Park has put together a nice response to the two different locations being considered for their neighborhood. I’ve got to say, they’ve done a nice job of gathering letters, putting together action items for the neighborhood, and even naming the communications firm the city has hired to help promote the jail (here’s my idea - ‘free complimentary pat-down with every stay’)

Anyway, the planning stage that we’re in right now basically boils down to three neighborhoods trying their hardest to keep the jail out of their backyard. Although one neighborhood will be the loser out of this battle - getting organized and standing up for themselves is at least something of a victory because it shows they aren’t as influential as the city thinks they are. 

But personally, I don’t see why we just don’t build this jail it near our existing jail downtown - we’ve already got the infrastructure for it (ie bail bonds, lawyers, judges, police, city government) and you’ve got to think that putting them close together will save on all kinds of commuting costs by helping prevent sprawl development.

In fact as a solution, let me propose location #5. 

The city already owns the downtown property shown below, and we could make this a truly multi-use block by popping in condos on one half of the block and the city jail on the other half. (Oh yeah, and make sure to space the buildings as close together as you would in the Denny Triangle - don’t want to waste any buildable space here!)

But really, here we are talking about a Civic Square we don’t need - hello - have you forgotten about Westlake Park? And to me it looks like we’re willing to dump a jail on a Seattle neighborhood just so we can protect the view from City Hall.