By Gwen Davis

The annual Gathering of Neighbors event that took place Saturday morning, brought in dozens of concerned and committed community members who provided their ideas and heart into creating a stronger West Seattle.

The theme was the 'growing pains' of West Seattle.

Taking place at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the 2016 community-centered forum was put on by VieWS (Visualizing Increased Engagement West Seattle), Southwest Youth & Family Services, and the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association.

Focuses included West Seattle's rapid growth in population, jobs, housing and the benefits and drawbacks that growth bring to the neighborhoods.

"This is a nice opportunity to hear about the current issues here in West Seattle, and for the people here to get together and see each other,” said Kirsten Smith, Delridge resident, before the meeting.

What does Smith think city officials should do about the growing West Seattle population?

"That’s the million dollar question,” she said. "For us, transportation is probably one of the top issues, but housing affordability and all of those things impact West Seattle. It’s the same conversation that the rest of Seattle is having and there are not easy answers.”

Pete Spalding, organizer of the event, kicked off the programming.

“This is our sixth year of doing this program,” Spalding said. “It started in 2004, but this is where we are at today.”

He thanked the city agency officials who showed, as well as the West Seattle Food Bank, West Seattle Helpline and West Seattle Youth and Family Services.

“There are a lot of different neighborhoods that represent us here today,” he said.

The event began with a panel discussion on growth.

Brian Callanan of the Seattle Channel and resident of West Seattle, moderated the panel.

There were four panelists: Lorena Gonzales, Seattle City Councilmember, Ben Crowther, policy and legislative director at The Urbanist, Michelle Chen, senior project manager at the Housing Affordability Livability Agenda (HALA) and Susan Melrose, executive director of the West Seattle Junction Association.

“West Seattle is very important to me,” Callanan began. “We’re talking about growing West Seattle, and we’re going to have a good civil discussion here. It’s an important and ongoing conversation. We’re going to keep our focus on growth,” he emphasized. "West Seattle is one area in Seattle that’s really seeing it.”

Panelists were asked to begin with providing their overall thoughts on growth.

Gonzales: “This is a really important,” she said. "I think we all recognize that there are clear benefits to the growth in West Seattle but there are also clear challenges. I think the challenges around transportation are real,” she said, along with other burdens that are facing West Seattle.

Crowther: “We’re really excited about growth and we love cities,” he said, speaking as part of The Urbanist. "I think growth and density make places such cool places to be." While Crowther doesn’t live in West Seattle himself, his husband has strong roots in West Seattle. “There are pains, and having the infrastructure to support that growth [is. It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg sort of dilemma. The good news is the city has a plan to support the growth.”

Chen: “I’m a Seattle native but don’t get to West Seattle much,” she began on an apologetic note. “But specifically, I want to note that I’m the project manager for the HALA. I heard a lot of cats.” Chen said that there isn’t another HALA meeting scheduled at this time, but the office will be notifying about 200 participants about focus groups. “We will have a meeting soon in West Seattle, but it will be part of the Seattle focus groups."

What is the past and future of the Junction, Callanan asked Melrose?

“When we think about the Junction, we think about our community and small shops,” Melrose responded. "To see so many cranes in the air, people are having a hard time with it", she said. “What are we going to do about the changes in our neighborhood and hold onto what’s special in our community?”

She said that she and others at the association asked the public, What makes West Seattle special? "What came out so often was the businesses, especially those owned by West Seattle residents. People continually said that it’s the businesses that make it so emotionally valuable, she said.

“When we look into those buildings, we can see into our past,” Melrose continued. There are now beautiful new buildings being built at the Junction but “the growing pains are difficult.” Parking is difficult too, Callanan suggested. “Parking is a chore,” Melrose said.

“That parking issue cannot be overlooked,” Callanan continued. How is this reconciled, he asked?

“We can’t just focus on cars,” Crowther said. “We need good bike and walking infrastructure… parking structures are a good.”

How can transpiration help the Junction, Callanan asked?

“So many of the customers of the Junction are customers who live north and south of the Junction... sometimes jumping on the bus doesn’t make that much sense,” said Melrose. “We want a circulator to patron all the three junctions. If there was a way that just felt more [neighborhood I think people will be forced to make different choices on how they get to the Junction."

Gonzales: “Though, we also have to recognize that not one mode of public transportation will work for everyone,” she said. “We need to make sure that as we anticipate the incredible amount of transportation growth, we are creating accessible, affordable transportation alternatives… at the end of the day it’s about making as many transit options available. It’s a time to be bold about getting as many resources as we can to build out our transit networks. I think right now is the moment to do it.”

“Who’s been stuck on the West Seattle bridge before?” Callanan asked the crowed. “It’s the only way to get here. West Seattle is very unique like that. How can we make the bridge a better option?”

Crowther: “Single occupancy vehicles are the less efficient ways to move people,” he said. “We need to create a transit only lane, we need reliable and frequent transit, we need things like a light rail to West Seattle. But we need to look at more than the bridge. There should be more than one option. I don’t have the magic solution in front of me,” he said.

Gonzales: “I think we can’t overlook the concept of equitable transit,” she said. “You could save over $10,000 a year by living near a transit center, like the one that will be near the UW light rail,” she said, quoting previous coverage.

Chen: “Equity is a fundamental key driver in HALA,” she said. “HALA is not all about growth and new development, there’s a big bucket of work towards preservation and anti-displacement. We’re working on things like a preservation tax exemption — just another example of HALA creating preservation efforts.”

Melrose: “In the development on California Ave. we have seen [franchised go in,” she said. “The Downtown Retail Association did a study where they saw rent per square footage double. We also saw that vacancies went from 13 percent down to 3 percent. It’s very competitive to get space in the Junction."

Crowther: When we talk about businesses, we also need talk about appropriate affordability regarding housing, eating and shopping services, he said. Having a QFC may not be the best choice, when a majority of residents don’t use QFC or can’t afford it, for instance.

Closing remarks regarding growth were then issued.

Melrose: “As the West Seattle Junction redevelops to help independent and small shops gain assess to commercial spaces [association support of those is important to our neighborhood.”

Chen: “HALA is an agenda of lots of ideas that make our city continue to be as equitable and diverse as much as possible,” she said. “We, at a minimum, need to get the traditionally under-represented voices to the table. HALA gets us to that.

Crowther: “Growth lets us get cool new programs and opportunities in our community. We want to make sure that Seattle is for everyone, those are Seattle values,” he said.

Gonzales: “My emphasis will continue on focusing that Seattle will be a place of prosperity for everyone, and we are certainly in a better situation than other cities… Seattle will experience an incredible growth in the next five years, and we need to make sure that we don’t encumber the growth but are creating an equitable city,” she said. "That’s the biggest challenge that we have as a city council.”

Up next were the four breakout sessions: “Bringing Light Rail to West Seattle”, “Land Use”, “Neighborhood Planning” and “Business Development”.

The final discussion was another panel about the inequality and historic inequities of West Seattle. It was moderated by Lisa Herbold, Seattle City Councilmember, District 1.