Let the whining begin

Washington State in general, and King County and Seattle residents in particular, excel at NIMBYism.

So the site selection for the new City of Seattle jail should prove to be quite comedic

Seattle officials Tuesday announced four possible sites for a new jail that would hold misdemeanor offenders when the King County Jail runs out of space.

The potential locations are all on industrial or commercial land outside of downtown:
• 11762 Aurora Ave. N. — currently a golf driving range and pro shop.
• 1600 W. Armory Way — a group of small warehouses south of Seattle’s Interbay Golf Course.
• 7200 West Marginal Way S.W. — a patch of mostly vacant land near the First Avenue South Bridge.
• 9501 Myers Way S. — part of a former gravel pit adjacent to the city’s new firefighter-training facility.

City officials recognize that putting a new jail in any neighborhood is likely to be controversial.

“I’m already starting to hear from some of my neighbors,” said City Councilmember Tim Burgess, who lives in Queen Anne, which is close to the Interbay site.

“There are going to be a lot of complaints, and many of them will be fear-driven,” said Burgess, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee. “But when we look at the facts, I think we can all understand the need for a jail, and we can understand that they can be safely run in our communities.”

City officials said they intend to seek plenty of public input before making a final decision. Burgess expects the process to take about nine months.

Nine months? He’ll be lucky if they get to take a vote before 2010.

Since it seems that both the county and the city of Seattle like to stuff their crap in the south end whenever possible south end residents will demand the jail be up north for once at the Aurora Ave. N. location. But at only 7.2 acres, it is the smallest site. Also, it is in the middle of a dense commercial and residential area.

I’d lay money that the Armory Way site was only thrown in for comic relief. That location rests between two of Seattle’s richest neighborhoods, Magnolia and Queen Anne. Actual Seattle City Council and King County Council members live there. They won’t let this happen since it would mean the cancellation of their invitations to the best shindigs.

The West Marginal location is 10.5 acres, which is the beginning of a reasonable size for the site. I like this one because it is just south of the shipping and industrial center of Seattle. Not a residence for at least a half-a-mile. Also, the ICE guys and gals would find this location very convenient, though I’m sure that this fact will count against it.

So I’m putting my money on the Meyers Way location. It is plenty large enough, the Seattle Fire Dept. guys would be right next door and the Mounted Patrol HQ isn’t too far away either. But it does have plenty of residences around, so maybe I’ll be proven wrong.