Among all the awfulness of the unprovoked attack against a 75-year-old woman in broad daylight last month, there was the location: It occurred across from the giant hole in the ground that serves as a monument to Seattle City Hall incompetence.
It is long past time to develop the empty block. Whatever caveats or hoops or preconditions city government placed on the property ought to be removed. City officials must act with urgency to fix downtown’s biggest blight.
The Dec. 5 attack along Third Avenue was captured on surveillance footage through the Seattle Police Real Time Crime Center. The images show the woman standing on the corner when a man walks up with a board in his hand and swings at her head.
Fale Pea, 42, was arrested and charged with first-degree assault. The board he was wielding had a screw embedded in it, and the woman was seriously injured.
As the King County prosecuting attorney’s office noted, “This assault occurred on the same block as the King County Courthouse on one of the busiest streets in downtown Seattle, where litigants, jurors, attorneys, other county employees, and members of the public come every day.”
A full block on Third Avenue and Cherry Street is currently surrounded by a fence, which only adds to the public safety concerns in the area. It’s been that way since the city’s old Public Safety Building was demolished in 2005.
Under an agreement struck in 2017, Vancouver, B.C.-based Bosa Development paid the city $16 million and planned to build a 58-story residential high-rise. But the company must also build a 25,000-square-foot plaza, make that space available to the public through an easement and pay at least $5.7 million in fees for affordable housing.
In 2022, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported that Bosa Development was halting development of the tower due to uncertainty in the construction market. The company cited cost volatility. Meanwhile, plenty of other housing projects have been successfully completed in the last 20 years.
So here’s an idea. Dump the requirement for a public plaza. There is plenty of space to protest and hold gatherings at City Hall. And if the fees for affordable housing tip the balance in favor of inaction, they ought to be revisited as well.
The block north of the King County Courthouse is currently a dead zone. For the safety of residents and the economic health of the community — not to mention helping tackle the housing crisis — city officials have a responsibility to bring it back to life.
