The system is definitely not working in South East Seattle. Here are three recent examples, where a large group of citizens tried to change how the system impacts our lives and how, in the end, their words and intentions were dismissed and ignored.

Airport noise. SeaTac, King County International Airport (a.k.a. Boeing Field) and Renton Airport surround the south end of Seattle. The planes utilizing these facilities bombard our neighborhoods with a steady stream of noise and exhaust. These planes could choose a multitude of routes to exit or enter the airspace near SeaTac, but instead, take the same route most of the time, concentrating their noise and air pollution on just a few neighborhoods. Recently, communities all around Sea Tac participated in a Port of Seattle sponsored noise study. The recommendations coming from the study were crystal clear--the planes need to spread the noise out amongst different neighborhoods rather than concentrating approach routes over a few. The Port of Seattle decided not to pass this suggestion on to the FAA.

The Port simply ignored our concerns and the work of hundreds of people who volunteered to serve on the committee and attend meetings. Just one example of a broken system.

Another popular example is what we've started calling un-sound transit here in the Southend.

Anyone who attended the many Sound Transit community meetings a couple years ago would agree that Rainier Valley residents overwhelmingly favored a tunnel for light rail. In those public meetings, there usually was just about 1 person who backed the Sound Transit solution of at-grade light rail and about 300 others who testified that they did not want light rail in the Rainier Valley if it were going to be at-grade. The Sound Transit officials and administrators would listen, take notes, and keep on plugging ahead with their original plan for at-grade rail. Had the better-financially backed folks from the north end not started groups like SANE, and tried to stop Sound Transit for other reasons, we'd be stuck with only under-funded, overworked folks like Save Our Valley to defend the Southend residents from Sound Transit's assault on our neighborhood.

What does it tell you when 99% of the people who testify in a region tell officials the same thing and are not heard?

Finally, on a more micro level, here's an example from my neighborhood, Beacon Hill and the neighborhood planning effort we spent years on.

Our neighborhood planning was broken up into two parts, the Urban Village and Jefferson Park. Our urban village plan doesn't ask for anything unusual, but our recommendations for Jefferson Park caused a stir.

Jefferson Park, the 6th largest park in Seattle has, over the years, gone from providing a multiplicity of uses, to one use only: golf. There are 27 holes of golf, a driving range, a putting green, and other golf facilities. What is left for non-golfers is a small children's' area, the VA Medical Center, Asa Mercer Middle School, the Horticultural facility, two reservoirs, and our community center. When we started our neighborhood planning process a couple of years ago, it quickly became obvious that there was a lot of resentment in the community for how much space is dedicated to one use.

So we met. And met. And met. We did dot exercises, surveyed the community, translated our materials into Vietnamese, Chinese, and Spanish. We met at neighborhood check-ins and, over the course of two years with the input of thousands of residents and the help of paid consultants, we came up with a variety of recommendations.

We called for at least the removal of the driving range, and possibly reconfiguring the course to 9-holes, which golf experts said could easily be done and would give us room to build our new gym and possibly expand the community center. At the final adoption meeting for our plan, the City Council dismissed our efforts outright, adopted a few simplistic measures, and said that no further action was necessary. Again, the people spoke and the system failed to respond.

My neighbors and my community have lobbied our elected officials, written countless letters to the editor, and done everything short of flying dirigibles over our houses to divert the planes and what have we gotten in return? Nothing.

Maybe we are crazy. I've seen people come into these fights, work on them for a couple of years, and then drop out in disgust--believing that nothing can be changed. Well, after all this, I don't have an answer. If a multitude of people in a city come out time and again and call for changes and these calls aren't heeded, the people stop believing in the system they have created and either give up altogether or come up with other ways to get what they want.

For more information on Jefferson Park see the Jefferson Park Alliance's website at www.cityofseattle.net/beaconhill/jpa.htm.