The School Board's Costly Real Estate Wake-up Call
After proposing to trade high school land for a smaller plot, officials discover the exchange would cost them thousands and force a costly infrastructure upgrade.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The board of education has come to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to exchange the present high school site, consisting of three-quarters of block 27, in A. A. Denny's Broadway addition, for the triangular shaped property lying just east and containing about the same amount of ground. On further investigation, however, the members of the board have come to the conclusion that the trade would not be an advantageous one, especially as the board would have to pay $2,800 to boot, and afterwards be subject to a grading tax on streets around the block, and in addition have to build a retaining wall. So at an adjourned meeting yesterday afternoon the board reconsidered its action in ordering the election held, and the matter was laid on the table.
“The board would have to pay $2,800 to boot, and afterwards be subject to a grading tax on streets around the block, and in addition have to build a retaining wall.”
Public school infrastructure funding and land management have remained flashpoints in Seattle for over a century. The struggle over 'grading taxes' and retaining walls reflects the ongoing tension between historic urban development and the pragmatic realities of modern site maintenance.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.