Jan. 2, 2023
Dear Sound Transit Board,
Chong Wa Benevolent Association represents over 21 traditional Chinatown organizations within the Chinatown-International District (CID). For over a century, our organization has served to maintain this community of culturally diverse residents, locally-owned small businesses, and help promote tourism for the City of Seattle. Over 20 million visitors travel to Seattle per year, many of whom visit our historical and culturally rich neighborhood. They visit our unique herbal and candy shops. They dine at our family-owned restaurants. They take pictures of our Historic Chinatown Gate. And yet, our District continues to bear the brunt of decades of insufficient investment, harmful public policies, increase in violent crimes, and public and private development pressures.
(Photo by Han Bui)
The 4th Avenue CID ST3 Station is the best and least obstructive option to preserve the CID. Likewise, our community wholly supports Sound Transit building a lid to alleviate the overwhelming amount of traffic constraints during construction of the station.
Sound Transit’s own traffic analysis studies cite 30,000 vehicles driving through the area on a daily basis; 2,300 cars and trucks and 100 buses during peak hour. With no mitigating measures, drivers will divert into the CID, effectively putting a stranglehold of traffic congestion within our neighborhood for the next decade.
On Dec. 8, 2022, the City of Seattle Land Use Committee unanimously approved amendments to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, asserting its support for using lids and other connections over highways and interstates to reconnect divided neighborhoods. The four core values of the Plan are community environmental stewardship, economic opportunity; security, and race and social equity. The City’s own website insists that “limited resources and opportunities must be shared; and the inclusion of under-represented communities in decision- making processes is necessary.” Equity demands a park lid for the CID (three underserved minority neighborhoods—Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Saigon) compared to well-resourced neighborhoods that have lids.
The CID is one of the most under-represented and marginalized communities in Seattle. Chinatown alone houses approximately 4,000 residents, mostly minorities with a poverty level twice the city average. Of those residents, approximately 1,200 are senior citizens. How are our elderly expected to navigate busy streets and crosswalks if frustrated drivers are shepherded into our neighborhood? No other neighborhood—no affluent, well-resourced neighborhood would be expected to tolerate this level of intrusion and obstruction into their daily lives.
Freeway lids have proven historically that they work.
Examples include:
► Freeway Park: Opened in 1976, it utilized the existing freeway lid leftover from construction of Interstate 5. The 5-acre, downtown park contained groundbreaking landscape architecture, because it also helped reconnect Downtown, Capitol Hill, and First Hill neighborhoods in the aftermath. According to the Cultural Landscape Foundation, Freeway Park helped define a new land-use typology for American cities. In 2022, it received official landmark status.
► Seattle Convention Center: Opened in 1988, the convention center straddles part of the Interstate 5 lid. It includes 415,000 square feet of usable space, with two exhibition halls and holds annual large scale events such as PAX West, Emerald City Comic Con, Sakura-Con, and the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.
► Aubrey Davis Park (formerly “The Lid Park”): Opened in 1992, the lid was created during the construction of Interstate 90, to help alleviate traffic constraints. Once completed, the lid was turned into a park, adding miles of green space. Today, it is one of the great legacies of Mercer Island, encompassing a transportation corridor and 90-plus acres; two softball fields, four tennis courts, a picnic shelter, two playground areas, public restrooms, two outdoor basketball courts, and plenty of open green space.
► Montlake Lid: Currently at the junction of State Route 520 and Montlake Boulevard, construction crews are laying groundwork for the foundation of the lid. Once completed, the lid will include pedestrian and bicyclist connections, a wide open space for the neighborhood, and improved transit stops.
Lids work for our city. They work for our neighborhoods. More importantly, this will contribute to environmental justice and much needed racial and social equity for the residents and businesses in the CID.
ST3 can and should be the change we need.
Sincerely,
Mei-Jui Lin
President, Chong Wa Benevolent Association
Bing Kung Tong
Cambodian Ethnic Chinese Association
Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce
Chew Lun Benevolent Association
Eng Suey Sun Family Association
Hai Ninh Community Association
Hip Sing Tong
Hop Sing Tong
Kai Ping Association
Kwong Tung Association
Lee Family Association
Luck Ngi Musical Club
Lung Kong Family Association
Gee How Oak Tin Association
Seniors In Action
Soo Yuen Benevolent Association
Suey Sing Association
Taishan Association
Teo Chew Mutual Association
Wong Family Association
Yee Fung Toy Family Association
cc: King County Executive
Dow Constantine
(dow.constantine@kingcounty.gov)
King County Council
(ZZCNCMEMBERS@kingcounty.gov)
Mayor Bruce Harrell
(bruce.harrell@seattle.gov)
Deputy Mayor Greg Wong
(greg.wong@seattle.gov)
Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss
Seattle Land Use Committee Chair
(Dan.Strauss@seattle.org)
Seattle City Council (council@seattle.gov)
Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales
Seattle Land Use Committee Vice Chair (Tammy.Morales@seattle.org)
Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda
Seattle Land Use Committee Member
(Teresa.Mosqueda@seattle.gov)
Seattle City Councilmember Alex Pedersen
Seattle Land Use Committee Member
(Alex.Pedersen@seattle.gov)
Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson
Seattle Land Use Committee Member
(Sara.Nelson@seattle.gov)
Nicole Kistler (nicole.kistler@seattle.gov)
Joe Reilly
Seattle Subway
(joer@seattlesubway.org)
Naomi Ishisaka
Seattle Times
(nishisaka@seattletimes.com)
Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times
(mlindblom@seattletimes.com)
Assunta Ng
Publisher, Northwest Asian Weekly
(editor@nwasianweekly.com)
Natalie Bicknell Argerious
The Urbanist
(natalie@theurbanist.org)
South Seattle Emerald
(community@seattleemerald.org)
Lizz Giordano
South Seattle Emerald
(lizz.giordano@gmail.com)
Josh Cohen, Crosscut
(josh.cohen@crosscut.com)
Another Sound Transit tactic is to make information hard to obtain. For example, there was only one copy at Workshop 2 of the “CID Further Studies,” and it was not allowed to be taken. On pages 13 and 14, it is revealed that North of the CID and South of the CID options would not have access to the airport for CID residents nor have access for travelers coming in from the Eastside at the current 4th Avenue station. This has negative economic and social impacts on the CID for out of towners coming to see relatives and vice versa, for tourism (local, regional and international) and the local lunch crowd. Don’t make the mistake of I-5, where the cheap option was displacement and loss of property instead of a tunnel; hence today’s talk of lids to connect neighborhoods, restore buildable property and improve the environment.