Thirty-five dots sprinkled the initial City of Seattle municipal jail site map. Each represented a potential seven-plus-acre site for a new 445-bed misdemeanor jail.

And then there were four. One is off 15th Avenue West abutting the Interbay Golf Center's southern border. Another is on 11762 Aurora Avenue North, across the street from Puetz Golf.

The remaining two candidates have nothing to do with golf, but everything to do with the South Park neighborhood, whose former rough-and-tumble reputation has softened over the last decade. And many of its residents are starting to squirm.

A letter King County Council member Dow Constantine sent to Mayor Greg Nickels June 2 addresses his opposition to both South Park sites, one at 7200 West Marginal Way S.W., and the other at 9501 Myers Way SW, next to the Joint Training Facility. That's where firefighters train for emergency operations.

In the letter he and other council members argue that both sites are "problematic" as they contain wetlands, are underserved by public transportation, and are too close to homes and parks.

So why the rush? Seattle leases all of its misdemeanor beds from King County. Its nonrenewable contract is up in December 2012. Generally it takes six years to plan and build a new jail. The accelerated plan calls for a decision on the site by April of next year.

Constantine and nearly 40 area residents attended a meeting at the South Park Neighborhood Center June 10 headed by Catherine Cornwall, of the city office of policy and management. She represents the city on the jail project.

The 10-year-old King County Regional Justice Center is a "low-rise jail" in Kent and considered the template for the new proposed facility. It sits next to ball fields, a shopping center, and the future site of the Thunderbirds Hockey Stadium.

The message Cornwall seemed to send by pushing the Kent facility as a model was that a jail can be a good, safe neighbor.

The good news is that, while Seattle's felony population is increasing, its misdemeanant population is falling. A study shows that since 1996 the average daily population declined annually from 456 to 285. The three most common misdemeanor convictions are driving under the influence charges with prior convictions that mandate a 30 to 45 day conviction, domestic violence arrests, and those released from jail who then fail to show up in court.

Constantine said that fewer misdemeanants are jailed annually thanks to "a more holistic approach" of successful diversion, substance abuse, and house-arrest programs,

The bad news is, if you reside in South Park, you might not want your neighborhood stigmatized by a correctional facility, whether any danger is real or imagined.

"I don't have an opinion yet," said architect Geoff Belau, who attended the meeting. "But there is a prevailing feeling here that we bear the brunt of Seattle's problems disproportionately along the Duwamish corridor. We have the polluted Duwamish River that is a Superfund site, the worn bridge that needs to be replaced, the transfer (South Recycling and Disposal) station and a new transfer station across the street. And SR 99 divided South Park, but before my time. Despite all that we still have a cohesive neighborhood."

Belau said it is not so much the "NIMBY," "not in my backyard." argument as it is that everything (negative) seems to fall into the backyards of South Park residents.

"There is a certain inequity of unwanted uses in this part of the county," said Constantine.

"Did you consider Mercer Island as a site?" a local resident asked Cornwall. That comment earned him about a dozen laughs from the audience.

Others suggested the city offer mitigation, or financial incentives, to help fund the rebuilding of the South Park Bridge if local residents were to green-light one of the two sites.

Constantine offered a multi-pronged solution to acquiring more beds while not intruding on South Park.

First, he said that the Kent could absorb some inmates in the short term that more time should be taken by the city to consider a high-rise jail downtown with an underground passageway to the courthouse to avoid long commutes, and that the county council members would agree to extend the contract with the city another two years, through 2014. All nine King County council members introduced a motion for such an ordinance last week.

"We want to extend the agreement," said Constantine.

Mark Wainwright, president of the Admiral Neighborhood Association, submitted a letter to the Southwest District Council about the two sites on behalf of his organization. In it he stated that "the facility would need to be located somewhere" and that "an outright rejection of this facility could serve to 'dehumanize' the people whom will someday be held within the goals of rehabilitation and reintroduction into society."

The association's letter also stated that the idea that a correctional facility would be blight on its surroundings is unfounded.

Wainwright acknowledged that had a site been proposed closer to the Admiral neighborhood, "it is possible that we would have felt differently, but the hope here is to see through some of this and have clarity."

"Each (South Park) site is in a gateway location to vibrant communities that struggled a long time," said Constantine. "If you have a jail at the front door it provides a challenge to people's perception. I don't believe prisoners would be running around town, but there needs to be a discussion on where they would be released."

He acknowledged that "it is possible" that one of the two South Park sites could turn out to be the best option, but he added this caveat.

"The new jail will end up in the place where there was the least resistance and public scrutiny," he said. "Join with other communities surrounding this one. It pays to organize."

For more information go to: http://www.seattle.gov/municipaljail/background.htm

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com