By Patrick Robinson

The West Seattle Junction is getting a heart transplant, of sorts, as the Executive Director of the West Seattle Junction Association (WSJA) Lora Radford, is leaving the job after six years. She has chosen not to name her replacement for now but she only has a few more weeks in the role. She is not going far, opting to work for Sound Transit as a community liason person helping the agency talk to the community about all the work required to get light rail into West Seattle before its 2035 arrival. Her last day is Nov. 17.

To say her time in the Junction job has been transformative is an understatement. The WSJA was formed in 1987 as a Business Improvement Area (BIA) whose mission is to preserve parking and promote the business interests of the Junction. But there's a lot more to it.

The City of Seattle policies statement talks about "Clean & Safe Programs: services such as regular sidewalk cleaning, additional trash pickup, graffiti removal, etc.  Marketing and Promotion, Business and Economic Development, Public Realm Improvements and Planning, Organizational Development/Management/Staffing, and Advocacy."

All this mind you is a part time job.

But Radford has steered the Junction through tumultuous times and driven it well beyond what part time employment could ever be expected to accomplish.

Here's the list of what she accomplished in her time in West Seattle.

She grew the West Seattle Summerfest into a regional event, expanded Harvest Fest held every fall, launched a Small Business Relief Fund raising $111,000 for small business through COVID, worked with city partners on a $14.4M deal to build family forward housing and a small business incubator, was one of the founders of the West Seattle Art Walk in 2003, founded the West Seattle Outdoor Movies in 2008, launched a campaign around WS Bridge T-shirts connecting Art, community together, raised $95,000 for small business through the holiday tote program, started the PAWrade in partnership with the Rotary Grand Parade, produced the .5k beer ‘run’ with all of the glory, but none of the exercise started the Easter Egg Hunt in 2021. expanded Hometown Holidays, founded the West Seattle Night Market, she organized the "Light it Blue" tree during the pandemic honoring health care workers,Focused and expanded the Junction volunteer program now with over 340 volunteers, started the rainbow flags celebrating Pride, was behind the effort that repaired and repainted the historic murals and more.

Interestingly, Radford is not an American citizen. She was born in England, and came here at age 13. She plans to stay a British subject and work under a green card because she said, "It's easier for me to travel around the world." She still has family there as well.

In her professional life she's worked in insurance and for AAA before opening Hotwire Coffee near the Post Office in the early 2000's. She was tapped for the junction leadership role in 2016.

Her departure comes at a somewhat critical time considering the future of the land that comprises the 228 parking spaces in the WSJA leased lots in the Junction. She in fact was instrumental in representing the Junction merchant's interests in the development of an offer from Community Roots Housing (on behalf of the City of Seattle) to buy the land and develop  it. Their plans include affordable housing, a community meeting space, a business incubator, and numerous amenities meant to be community friendly.  The offer was brought up in the most recent shareholders meeting of West Seattle Trusteed Partners, the group that actually owns the land. What will happen to that effort?

"The shareholders and the group of people who have been advocates of the potential sale did as much as they could before the last shareholder meeting," Radford said, "And keep in mind that even though I'm not going to be leading the junction, that doesn't mean that the Junction Association won't have a a leader who is going to... bring those conversations through. You have the ability to be as successful as you need to be and change the face of West Seattle and become true visionaries. But it's going to take some work to make that happen, and I strongly believe with the intelligent people who are part of this conversation, you will make it happen."

She said that Summerfest 2022 is now set to happen next year and that all the other programs that she established or expanded will continue, noting that it's not all about one person. "It's the 340 volunteers and it's 200 merchants, and it's the thousands of people in West Seattle that believe in continuing. All of the events that are important that bring us together. I think the trickiest thing is going to be how we will address the vaccination mandate and how we will continue to keep people safe."

She's prepared an extensive information packet for her successor and is already gearing up for her new role. What does she see in West Seattle's future?

"West Seattle people have it in their power to create a different looking junction and a different looking urban village," Radford explained.

"The voters, voted in the Urban village concept and we're moving forward to the 2035 idea of having these centers where people can work and shop. Live affordably. Live right within their neighborhood, and it almost makes you think of 'thinking big' but actually living small in the city, because I think that's what people are really asking. People say all the time, well, we don't want it to change, but that's what change is all about living in a city. You want change, you want to see innovation. You want to see new things happening and you want to meet different neighbors and we can't have things stay the same all the time because you have to ask yourself why, why, why do you want it to stay the same? Because it feels comfortable to you. Well, imagine if we had that same concept when the junction was first created and we just had a couple of trolleys going through the the middle. Is that what you want? I don't think so. You want thoughtful development you want thoughtful people really taking a look at what the junction could become. I see it becoming more dense. I would love to see a large employer come into the junction and have a different type of person eat and shop and work here."

Will we see an underground light rail station or an above ground version in the Junction area? The price as currently estimated is more than $700 million. "I can't predict but that would be third party funding and you could do something in the  middle like a cut and cover style station,"  Radford said, "I haven't  even had a chance to look at the draft EIS but that's why it's so important for West Seattle to show up for these meetings and to give their valuable input."

As you'd imagine she's a proponent of light rail and said, "I think the West Seattle Bridge has certainly brought to light that we need to pay attention in a much deeper way to the infrastructure, especially just the geography of the Puget Sound. I mean the bridges are a necessary function, as we have found out in the last year how important it is to us."

She and her husband have travelled extensively and always make the choice to visit cities with well developed public transit systems like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Portland. She sees the future of getting around a city as multi modal. "I think it's important as a city that we we do offer multimodal transportation, whether it be light rail or the sounder or the master plan bike plan, or the water taxi. We have to give people options and also the fact that we can work at home. 

We've proven through the pandemic that people can effectively function as teams while working remotely, and so all we really need to do is make sure that we are meeting those needs of the new working."

What will she take away from her time as the driving force behind the West Seattle Junction?

"There's so many micro moments I have.  I loved being the leader of the Junction. I always harken back to the community. West Seattle is a magical place. The people that live here have their own sense of self and place. The most inspiring moments, not just of my time as Executive Director of my entire life have been the way West Seattle showed up for us through the Small Business Relief Fund. At one point there was no money for small businesses in the pandemic, and those checks for $25 or $50 or $100 gave business owners hope they could carry on. And the tote bags we put on sale and a year later we've re-infused $95,000 back into the West Seattle Junction Merchants... In their heart of hearts they knew that it was important to give."

She summed up by saying, "My time in the junction has been these continuous moments of just joy and magic and you know, standing in the middle of harvest fest, watching all of the kids dressed up and the marching band behind me and standing on the stage for hometown holidays. while we countdown the tree lighting with Santa and Jack Menashe. 

All those little moments that make life magic."