Louis issued the following Press Release in response to the upzone of the Mount Baker Station District: Zoning out jobs, Zoning in gentrification; Professor Louis Watanabe Blasts Upzone of the North Rainier Hub-Mt. Baker Station Area Seattle, WA. “The Seattle City Council’s Planning, Land Use and Sustainability Committee’s plan ignored the need for jobs,” Professor Louis Watanabe said today. Watanabe is a candidate for the State Senate from the 37th Legislative District. “The decision to rezone the area around the Mt. Baker light rail station was a slap in the face to our community in the face of our strenuous objections. The City Council is zoning out jobs and zoning in gentrification.” “Southeast Seattle can certainly accommodate additional growth, but that growth needs to be responsible, based upon a comprehensive plan developed with broad-based community support,” continued Watanabe. “What we have instead is an agenda foisted upon this community by people who do not live in the district, by government planners who carefully selected those who could participate in the planning, with no risk assessment, no fiscal analysis, and with no apparent investors or anchor tenants. What we need is a community-oriented, thoughtful process where transit-oriented development is a natural outgrowth of sound community planning, not the other way around,” said Watanabe. “In an area with the highest unemployment, the lowest household income – $20,000 lower than the next lowest City Council district, the least number of jobs, and the highest crime rate, the City Council seemingly wants to kill off what few jobs currently exist,” Watanabe said. “I believe the best crime prevention tool is economic opportunity and the best social program is a job, and the City Council action will destroy jobs in favor of expensive, high density housing for people that do not currently live in the District.” The area in the Mount Baker Station District currently is home to large employers providing family wage jobs, including Lowe’s Hardware, Pepsi Bottling, Darigold, Jorve Roofing, and the University of Washington laundry facility. “For the past several years and at the direction of the City Council’s PLUS Committee, City planners have undertaken an agenda-based, evidence-devoid effort to engineer social change upon an important gateway community that desperately needs to maintain jobs,” Watanabe said. “This upzone negatively impacts the entire Rainier Valley.” “For jobs and economic justice for the residents in South Seattle, I stand by the people of the 37th District and ask them to call, email or write to the mayor and the city council to stop this upzone,” Watanabe said. The PLUS Committee passed on Tuesday, June 3rd a zoning change in the Mount Baker Station District-North Rainier area of Southeast Seattle. If approved by the full council, the maximum allowable height would double from 65 feet to 125 feet on land along Rainier Avenue South, near the Lowes Home Improvement store. In areas to the south and west of that site, height restrictions would increase from 65 to 85 feet. Watanabe is running for Senate because he sees the recent epidemic of violence in the 37th is in part due to the lack of jobs and opportunity for young people. “As an educator with more than twenty years’ experience in economic development, I know what to do to bring jobs to the 37th Legislative District. The 37th LD has most land available for job-producing light industry and manufacturing in the City,” said Prof. Watanabe. Like most Japanese-American citizens, Louis Watanabe’s family was interned during World War II, his fathers’ family at Tule Lake and his mothers’ at Manzanar. Watanabe, 57, has an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and a Bachelor’s degree in Math and Applied Physics from UCLA. Watanabe was co-founder and COO for Dynamical Systems Research, Microsoft’s first acquisition. He serves as adjunct professor of business and technology at Bellevue College. Living just two blocks from the Beacon Hill light rail station, Louis and his wife, Georgia share a modest home with their rescue dog, Muffin Man. # # #
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 01:32:14 +0000
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