‘Abandoned by the city’ — Letter calls for more maintenance and outreach resources as disorder at Cal Anderson Park causes ‘trickle-down effect’

A group of Capitol Hill business leaders, residents, and the Cal Anderson Park Alliance sent a joint letter to Mayor Katie Wilson, the Seattle City Council, and Seattle Parks and Recreation calling for new solutions following a summer marked by deteriorating conditions and escalating safety concerns.

The letter, co-signed by the GSBA chamber of commerce, property developers Hunters Capital and Dunn & Hobbes, and neighborhood advocates, argues that neglect has created an environment of public safety risk that spills directly onto Broadway and the Pike/Pine commercial corridor.

“Cal Anderson desperately needs increased investment in the stewardship and beauty of the park. A visitor to the area during Pride weekend would have seen a park full of trampled, yellow grass and dying flowers, an empty wading pool filled with the remains of a bonfire, tire treads along park pathways, litter, and more,” the letter reads. “The area looks less like a reflection of the community’s character and more like a grassy hill with a water feature.”

“Neglected stewardship lends credence to the perception that Cal Anderson has been abandoned by the city,” the letter reads.

Public safety breakdowns over the peak summer months served as the primary catalyst for the coalition’s appeal.

The people behind the letter said that unchecked drug activity along Nagle Place and restroom overdoses in neighboring shops have dissuaded visitors, culminating in holiday disorder on Bobby Morris Field. “Fireworks activity that occurred in Cal Anderson over the Fourth of July weekend presents a microcosm of these issues at play,” the letter stated, citing an incident where a large group of people burned e-bikes and scooters in a bonfire while fire crews waited for police to intervene.

Cal Anderson’s basketball court was also the scene of a reported accidental shooting in August that sent a man to the hospital while the Seattle Police Department said it began conducting extra patrols near the park after neighbor complaints about noise and drugs.

The letter asks that the city convene an inter-departmental task force, fund consistent place-based outreach for the park’s unhoused population, and boost patrols by Park Rangers, the CARE department, and Seattle Police.

Neither Mayor Katie Wilson nor Seattle City Council President Joy Hollingsworth have made a public response to the letter and neither office responded to a request for details of any plans for addressing the complaints.

However, local mutual-aid group The Stone Soup Crew released a counter-response, agreeing on the necessity of park investment but urging City Hall to empower unhoused park regulars as paid stewards rather than increasing police enforcement.

The Salvation Army outreach effort Street Level currently holds a $1.2 million contract for outreach in the area covering all of Capitol Hill and the Central District. The letter claims the organization has only two employees to cover the entirety of the District 3 assignment.

The city’s current 2027-2028 budget process could provide resources for addressing some of the issues. Though there has been no discussion of Cal Anderson-specific amendments to date, the current proposal includes expanded funding for parks rangers, park restroom renovations and maintenance, $714,000 for parks buskers and increases in general park maintenance programs, and maintaining funding for place-based community safety and commercial corridor activations that include Capitol Hill. An additional $75,000 has been earmarked specifically for public space activation and community-led events on Capitol Hill parks primarily focused on Cal Anderson and $25,000 for art murals, lighting, and graffiti deterrence at the Cal Anderson restroom structure aimed at reducing vandalism and preventing drug usage in and around park facilities.