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HOME  - Privatization Develop It to Save It!?
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Written by Scott Silver
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Friday, 18 August 2006 |
Quoted from current edition of Seattle Magazine:
[Silver, of Wild Wilderness, says the McMenamins project sounds like part of a long line of corporate intrusions into parklands. He compares it to Fort Hancock in New Jersey or the Presidio in San Francisco, where the National Park Service has entered into public-private agreements to create developments on parklands.]
As public funding for public projects dries up and as deferred maintenance backlogs rapidly increase, we will soon reach a point where there will be no option but to accept the privatization of everything public in order to save it -- or accept that everything public will simply fall apart.
We've been on this course for so long that it may no longer even be possible to make meaningful course corrections. Then again, there might just be a chance of reversing this trend. But for that to happen, the public is going to have to make itself heard pretty damn quickly.
The article which follows was titled "Hot Button - What Seattle is Talking About". Perhaps there's reason for hope!
Scott
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SEATTLE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2006
HOT BUTTON - What Seattle is Talking About
At Saint Edward Park, a private developer is proposing a commercial enterprise on public land
By Jim Davis
WALKING THROUGH SAINT EDWARD State Park on the northeast shore of Lake
Washington feels vaguely like walking through a college campus on
spring break. Despite the activity -runners jog on trails lined with
Douglas firs and big-leaf maples, toddlers climb through a wooden
playground with castlelike turrets and swimmers shiver underneath
towels as they leave an Olympic-sized indoor pool on the grounds-the
316-acre park in Kenmore has an empty feel to it, perhaps due to the
massive brick Catholic seminary building that's at its center. The
building has sat empty since the state took over ownership of the
property nearly 30 years ago. That could soon change. McMenamins - a
Portland-based developer of pubs, restaurants and hotels - has made a
proposal to Washington State Parks to lease the seminary building and
renovate it, turning it into a hotel with 75 to 100 guestrooms,
restaurant and a conference center with gardens and parking, consuming
up to 20 acres of the park. The company expects the renovation to cost
$8 million to $10 million.
"The scale and scope of the proposed development is so huge it would
completely take over the park," says Ray Benish of Bothell, a member of
Citizens for Saint Edward State Park, a group that's opposed to the
project with concerns that range from traffic to the consumption of
alcohol on park grounds. "There would be no park left."
The group numbers about 50 people, and most live within 10 miles of the
park. While it would be easy to dismiss them as the usual
not-in-my-backyard opponents, they raise valid issues, especially about
the idea of a private business opening shop in a public park.
"I'm not opposed to McMenamins, because they have a good reputation and
they have done a good job with their developments in Oregon," says
Manny Mankowski of Kirkland, another member. "But I am opposed to
privatization of parks."
The concern is not new. Corporate intrusion is happening in parks
across the country as they scramble for money-from a developer putting
shops at a historic fort in New Jersey to Subway franchises opening at
King County parks.
"I call it the corporate takeover of nature and Disneyfication of the
wild," says Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, a
Bend, Oregon-based group that opposes privatization of parks.
But McMenamins, a family-owned com pany that brews beers with whimsical
names (Hammerhead Ale, Terminator Stout), seems like it could be a good
fit. It has a history of reviving old public buildings and hires
artists to decorate and tell stories of the places.
The former Multnomah County poor-house in Troutdale, Oregon -built in
1911- became Edgefield, a European-style village with extensive gardens
and on-site glassblowing and pottery making. Portland's Kennedy School
-a 1915 elementary school that had been abandoned- became an offbeat
hostel with a bar called the Detention Bar and another called the
Honors Bar.
"We like to have a little bit of fun with what we do, a little bit of magic," company founder Mike McMenamin says.
For his part, he sees the Saint Edward seminary as a great place that
he would like to restore. "In the end you're faced with having to deal
with that building one way or another," McMenamin says. "Do you just
take it down or do you restore it? If you restore it, you have to do
something with it."
The idea of McMenamins opening at Saint Edward began around the time
that Washington State Parks officials realized the 100th anniversary of
the park system was approaching in 2013.
Seeking ways to improve state parks -and not being blind to the need to
increase revenues- park officials hired a consultant to showcase a
dozen park sites for potential public-private partnerships, says Bill
Koss, state parks manager of planning and research.
They found that one partner -McMenamins- was interested in the Saint Edward seminary.
Saint Edward State Park, with 3,000 feet of shoreline, has the largest
piece of undeveloped land along Lake Washington, according to park
brochures. About 415,000 people visited the park last year. The state
has owned the park and the five-story seminary building since 1977.
Park users have enjoyed the property's trails for years. It's a popular
site for mountain bikers, and its gym and swimming pool in two separate
seminary buildings get frequent use. But the hulking main seminary
building with 90,000 square feet of space on five floors has sat mostly
vacant. (The state does rent out a dining hall in the building a few
dozen times a year.)
Meanwhile, the state parks system has had to shoulder more costs over
the years. In its two-year budget period from 2003 to 2005, the system
was expected to generate 37 percent of its revenues through fees - up
from 20 percent a decade ago. That will change now that the Legislature
rescinded the fee for parking cars at parks; but to what extent is not
yet clear. What is clear is that the parks system needs to control
costs, and Saint Edward is a substantial cost.
In the current budget period, the state will pay $1.1 million for
staff, utilities and maintenance, such as lawn mowing, for Saint
Edward. The state expected the park to generate an income of $450,000,
mostly from the now-defunct parking fees.
McMenamins could be the ticket to a steady revenue stream -though park
officials won't say yet how much of a stream it might be. A lease won't
be negotiated -or a lease amount determined- until after the parks
commission decides whether or not to actually lease the land.
The brewery already operates seven pubs in Washington -including three
in Seattle. But the company wants to do something grander at Saint
Edward. It made its proposal for the seminary building last year, and
the state parks commission accepted a concept letter; a final decision
on the property won't be made until January. The commission could also
go in another direction: Bastyr University, whose campus is nearby, has
a proposal to use the building. And the parks commission in May created
a process to accept other proposals for the building.
The McMenamins proposal sparked opposition almost immediately.
Benish, of the citizens' group who opposes the plan, says he was aghast
when he heard the state parks commission was considering the proposal:
"Keep it green for the next 20 or 30 years and it will be a prize.'
Yet, he says, the parks commission "can snap its fingers" and the park
becomes a brewery."
The group is trying to find an alternative use for the park. Members
are exploring the idea of creating a tax district to pay for it. Some
of the ideas include creating a Hogwarts-style school for Harry Potter
fanatics and a venue for a Shakespeare festival.
"You have to have a viable alternative," Mankowski says. "We've been
told that you can't just say, 'No, no, no.' You have to have something
to replace it with." And he fears that if McMenamins goes forward, it
could be a template for state parks in the future.
Silver, of Wild Wilderness, says the McMenamins project sounds like
part of a long line of corporate intrusions into parklands. He compares
it to Fort Hancock in New Jersey or the Presidio in San Francisco,
where the National Park Service has entered into public-private
agreements to create developments on parklands.
Closer to Seattle, at Mount St. Helens, the U.S. Forest Service is
seeking a private company to run government visitor centers and offer
-at a price- such things as helicopter tours, guided hikes and tourist
cabins. And in King County a budget crisis four years ago forced the
county park system to find more funds. It actively sought private
partners, entering into a contract with Subway sandwiches to operate
franchises at Marymoor Park in Redmond and the King County Aquatic
Center in Federal Way.
The county also sold naming rights to Group Health Cooperative, a
medical provider, for the velodrome at Marymoor. A sign bears the
company's name. MSN purchased the naming rights for Wi-Fi zones at
Marymoor, the Aquatic Center and White Center Park. The company's logo
is on small signs throughout the park. Starbucks paid for 17 kiosks as
well as maps and other material for the county's trails system. The
coffee company's logo is on the kiosks and posters.
Tom Teigen, a King County parks manager tasked with developing
corporate partnerships with county parks, says the county chooses its
partners carefully. But, he says, there's a need for funding: "We value
open space and we value our parks," he says, but it's hard to fully
fund them.
That's not a good enough reason to allow corporate intrusion in
parklands, says Janine Blaeloch, director of the Western Lands Project,
a Seattle environmental group that monitors and challenges
privatization of fed- eral land. "The thing that is so disturbing about
it is it only takes a tiny step to make a huge impact and move things
entirely in the wrong direction," Blaeloch says. "Once you create the
precedent to privatize public land -whether it's federal or local- the
damage is done, it sets the precedent."
The Reason Foundation, a think tank based in Southern California, is
grappling with this issue and argues that privatization can benefit
taxpayers and park users. People are understandably skeptical of
government being able to control itself in pursuit of raising funds,
says Adrian Moore, the foundation's vice president. But does private
development -such as a Subway franchise next to the ball fields in
Marymoor Park- have to hurt the park experience? As for McMenamins'
proposal, Moore sees it as a chance to restore an abandoned building.
"Does the park service have a big pile of money to do something with
the seminary?" Moore asks. "If not, then you're saying we should just
let this building crumble." And a beautiful building such as the
Catholic seminary at Saint Edward State Park should be restored and
saved. But what if Applebee's or The Old Spaghetti Factory was
proposing to move into the building? How people view McMenamins'
proposal may depend on how they feel about commercial development in a
public park -or it might come down to how they view McMenamins- and
whether they like Hammerhead Ale and Terminator Stout.
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