City-backed cleaning crew offers proof of concept for Pike/Pine Business Improvement Area
The council president and the Pike/Pine clean-up crew (Image: @cmjoyhollings)
A city-funded street cleaning pilot across Pike/Pine is providing data and serving as a proof of concept for organizers working to establish a dedicated Business Improvement Area.
District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth praised the work of Seattle Surface Cleaners earlier this month, writing that the crew’s morning pressure washing and litter sweeps are an “investment focused on keeping Capitol Hill cleaner and improving the neighborhood.”
The pilot came about through a $300,000 citywide cleaning amendment sponsored last eyar by Councilmember Dan Strauss which allocated $100,000 each to Capitol Hill, Ballard, and the University District.
Alex Altshuler, Hollingsworth’s chief of staff, said that the cleaning funds are designed to work alongside a separate $50,000 budget addition intended to be complementary to the cleaning funds to “aid in the establishment of a BIA,” saying the program was structured as a “proof of concept” for corridor maintenance.
Because no formal BIA yet exists to collect ratepayer assessments, the interim funding is administered by the Seattle Office of Economic Development and fiscally sponsored by the University District Partnership.
Erin Fried of Hidden Cities Consulting, who manages the 15th Ave East BIA and is contracted by OED to guide the Pike/Pine effort, said the trial run is already “great for collecting data on what level of investment is truly needed.”
Over its first three months, the crew removed nearly 10,000 pounds of trash, scrubbed 4,420 graffiti tags, and handled 435 sanitary cleanups across a footprint running from Harvard Ave to 12th, including hot spots like the Neighbours Alley and walkways near Nagle Place next to Cal Anderson Park.
The baseline numbers arrive as organizers navigate the slow political process required to build a permanent assessment district.
As CHS reported in July, the campaign restructured after the GSBA chamber of commerce stepped back from organizing the zone, shifting OED’s direct collaboration to a stakeholder group of prominent local property owners, including Jill Cronauer of Hunters Capital, Liz Dunn of Dunn & Associates, and Don Blakeney of the Cal Anderson Park Alliance.
Hollingsworth has supported the Pike/Pine BIA effort as part of a multi-facet approach to improving public safety in the neighborhood.
Past efforts to form commercial districts on Capitol Hill have stumbled over boundary politics and assessment rates — most notably the bruising, failed push nearly a decade ago to expand the 1980s-era Broadway BIA Hill-wide, which contributed to the shutdown of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.
For the Pike/Pine BIA to move forward, organizers must translate the pilot’s workload metrics into a ratepayer business plan, define parcel borders, secure petition signatures from a majority of commercial property owners by assessed value, and shepherd the formation ordinance through the Seattle City Council.
But the path may be fluid. Earlier this month, the council approved an overhaul of the Broadway BIA’s outdated assessment structure in a boost that will greatly expand its current $200,000 a year budget. During the deliberations, Broadway BIA head Egan Orion told the council officials are exploring “a property-based model or establishing a brand-new BIA and sunsetting this particular model,” as property-based assessments “are more sustainable than B&O-based assessments.”
The Pike/Pine plan has been discussed as a property-based BIA.
Whether that Pike/Pine cleaning funds survive into 2027 will depend on the ongoing fall budget cycle as Mayor Katie Wilson tries to wipe out a $175 million deficit. Because the initial $100,000 cleaning allocation and $50,000 BIA startup grant were one-time council additions rather than permanent line items, Hollingsworth or other council allies will have to sponsor new amendments during the current balancing package deliberations, leaving the fate of continued city-backed cleaning dollars to be decided before final budget adoption in late November — or until property owners can finally agree on a self-funded district.
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