Last week I had the opportunity to celebrate the re-opening of the recently renovated Lincoln High School (the first new comprehensive high school in our city in nearly 60 years) and attend the re-opening of Town Hall Seattle after two years of major renovations. These projects were made possible thanks in part to our state’s capital construction budget, which puts people to work building public schools, colleges, state parks, community gathering places, and essential infrastructure such as rural broadband.

Celebrating the recently renovated Lincoln High School with the community last week. (Photo courtesy of Seattle Public Schools)

Key community investments

The 2019-21 capital budget includes investments that will help our whole community continue to thrive.  I was proud to work with the other members of the Seattle delegation to secure funding for projects such as:

  • $21 million for Seattle Public Schools (SPS) to meet urgent capacity and safety upgrade needs at Leschi Elementary School, Madison Middle School, and North Beach Elementary School.
  • $6 million to help fund a 75-unit housing project at Broadway & Pine, developed by Capitol Hill Housing as a complement to the new YouthCare Opportunity Center
  • $6 million to help fund an innovative high-rise housing project at Madison & Boylston on First Hill, developed by Bellwether Housing and Plymouth Housing Group as a joint venture to provide 115 permanent supportive apartments for formerly homeless seniors and 253 apartments for low-income families
  • $200,000 to support the FareStart program, which provides job training for people experiencing homelessness, poverty and hunger.
  • $271,000 for the University Heights Center for the Community, which is a crucial gathering place that promotes life-long learning, creativity, culture, community activism in Seattle.
  • $600,000 to help build the AIDS Memorial Pathway at the Capitol Hill light rail station and Cal Anderson Park.
  • $1.5 million to support early learning through the construction of Roosevelt Childcare Center.
  • $986,000 to support the design and construction Northwest Native Canoe Center at Lake Union Park.
  • $451,000 to replace the main Green Lake dock with a larger dock with two floats, renovate two restrooms and add two restrooms with showers.
  • $500,000 to replace the Volunteer Park Amphitheater with a modern and accessible structure.

Statewide highlights:

  • $1.1 billion to build public schools, including $43 million for rural and distressed schools. 
  • $973 million for projects at public colleges and universities, with $408 million for community and technical colleges and $34 million for a new behavioral health teaching hospital at the University of Washington. 
  • $154 million for projects at state mental health facilities, including the design of a new forensic hospital and the design and construction of new 16-bed and 48-bed behavioral health facilities. 
  • $585 million for orca, salmon recovery, and water quality projects 
  • $175 million for affordable housing development statewide.

If you missed my previous updates on health care, gun safety, civil rights, climate change, orca recovery, behavioral health, housing or education, you can read those here.