As feared, the three weeks given by Seattle City Council to finalize funding for a full public urban hygiene center in the Glen Hotel downtown may have been enough time for a backroom deal to scuttle the plan--again.

Reports over the weekend suggest that Council member Cheryl Chow, who led the revival of the Glen Hotel plan in a Jan. 22 Council meeting, has since that time had a number of private meetings with Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) President Kate Joncas. The DSA, which previously offered $350,000 to kill the Glen plan by backing an alternative "dispersed site" proposal, has apparently been shopping around for other non-profits outside the downtown core that would accept their money in exchange for further dispersal; and Chow is reportedly ready to sign off on the idea.

The problem is that the DSA's intent isn't to disperse toilets and showers; it's to disperse the homeless by getting them out of downtown by whatever means possible. The DSA plan makes no sense from a service provider standpoint, but plenty of sense if you believe the rich have exclusive rights to downtown--and to buying off city policy.

The Glen Hotel vote is Friday. A Tuesday Clean-In at Westlake Park has probably happened by the time you read this, but there's still time to call the Council (particularly Chow, Chong, Podlodowski, Noland, Donaldson). The message: don't back out on the city's own recommendations again. Beyond this specific proposal, Council can't afford yet another issue where it appears to abandon principle and good public policy whenever Big Money speaks. Fund the Urban Reststop at the Glen Hotel.