(light music) - Welcome to the Newsfeed.

Formerly Crosscut now, this is still the same show, but with a new name that takes you beyond the breaking news, goes deeper on the issues you care about and brings awareness to stories affecting communities.

In today's episode, the landscape of Seattle's waterfront is transforming with an $806 million revitalization project led by an all women leadership team.

We'll let you meet the visionaries behind the complex program that reimagines 20 acres of real estate from the stadiums to Belltown.

We'll also learn more about a new longtime veterinary clinic that's helping make medications and services more affordable for low income and homeless pet owners and how critical their presence is for some and youth advocates say, if we are serious about solving homelessness and patient treatment is just the beginning of the journey, more on a Washington bill to help young adults find housing after treatment.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Today's stop story will take you into the construction zone and introduce you to the female leadership handling, one of the city's largest transformation projects.

- I mean, what do you think?

It feels like it's a beautiful day to build Seattle.

That's what we're doing down here.

- One of the largest civic transformations is underway along Seattle's waterfront, reconnecting downtown and neighborhoods from the stadiums to Belltown.

A group of female leaders are behind the more than $800 million project.

We sat down with director of the Waterfront Program, Angela Brady.

This waterfront project is extensive, it's complex.

It's a project that more than $1 billion has been invested to reimagine the waterfront.

How does it feel for you to lead a project for the city, the region of this magnitude?

- It feels incredible.

It's probably one of the most...

The biggest things I've ever done in my career.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We talk about we're building a waterfront for all.

We really want this waterfront not just to be for tourists, we want it to be for our Seattle residents, our Washingtonians.

We want people to really wanna be excited about coming down to the waterfront.

We built a new sea wall, which forms the foundation for this entire waterfront, and over time, we've been able to build out certain portions of the project and open those to the public.

Different elements have been opened over time, and I think people are beginning to see the quality of the work, the uniqueness of the improvements that we're making, the way that we're really trying to not only build a brand new waterfront down here, but really focused on the east-west connections and enhancing those connections into downtown.

And that's been a really important feature, not just rebuilding the waterfront, but really reconnecting our downtown to our waterfront because it was so disconnected with this massive Alaska Way Viaduct for so long.

- The 66-year-old double decker Alaskan Way Viaduct stood in the way of those connections.

Crews toppled it in 2019, making way for 20 new acres of new parks, public space, and significant transportation upgrades.

This project has been going on for more than 10 years, as you highlighted.

And of course, with something that's going on for that span of time, there can be challenges.

I mean, 2020, a segment of Pier 58 collapsed.

Last year, there was a lawsuit filed against the city with regard to workers that were impacted by that collapse, increased budgets as well as COVID-19.

What are your thoughts in regards to just the challenges that the agency has faced?

- Anytime anyone embarks on a program of this magnitude for the duration that we've been building this program, we're gonna see challenges.

The important aspect of it is that we can sit down together as a team and solve for those challenges and move on.

You mentioned the Pier 58 work.

That was an unfortunate accident.

I will tell you generally speaking, safety is our highest priority here on the waterfront.

As I've said, we're under construction for 10 years.

We've had very few safety incidents and actually the first big challenge we had was when the tunnel was under construction and the tunnel boring machine affectionately named Bertha, if for those who might remember, she got stuck and she had to be repaired.

We used up that time, we were able to do some planning and design and really get further prepared to build our new waterfront.

But that was a real challenge.

And we forged ahead, we moved the project forward and we did that as a team and it's something I'm really proud of.

You get hit with a big challenge, you figure out how to solve it, you move it forward.

- Ruri Yampolsky and Barbara Lee are behind the art and design decisions to incorporate history, culture, and sustainability.

And Ruri, one of the things that we must recognize is that we are on the land of the Coast Salish people, and part of what you do is to make sure that the art installations magnify that to some degree.

How are you doing that?

- This is indigenous land.

This is the land of the Coast Salish peoples, and we make sure from the very beginning on this project that those voices of the local tribes would come out in the waterfront.

So we have, I think we have seven indigenous artists from local tribes as well as urban natives working on this project.

- Part of this story is the fact that you're an all woman team and it's unique in that you guys are working together and collectively to lead a massive project like that.

Why is it important that we highlight this?

- I think back to when I started my professional career 30 years ago and how hard it was starting out as a young professional engineer working in a very male-dominated profession where there weren't a lot of other females around me that I couldn't lean on for support.

And it was very challenging and there were a lot of barriers and I think it's really important to share the story that young girls and women can see that things have really changed, even though it is still I would say a male-dominated profession, that change is possible and we as women on this leadership team are the result of this larger change that the city has made and I think nationally and globally.

(light music) - Jessica Murphy, a licensed engineer, oversees the construction for the Waterfront Seattle program, allowing our cameras inside the construction zone of what's called Overlook Park, a new addition to the waterfront the public has not seen.

- This is actually a part of history in the making every day down here and I tell that to my children and they groan, but it's true and they'll realize it later.

They'll come down someday with their kids and say, my mom did something here.

They might not remember exactly what, but my mom was a part of what's here and that's what motivates me.

So like get a little choked up talking about it.

This is also my family as much as my children are, and I'm here to make it better for them.

This design and that we're putting in will really remind people of what an asset our waters are.

And we're trying to bring people down to the waterfront to enjoy what the waterfront offers.

So putting the park next to the water, we're adding swings next to the water so people can actually realize there's views to be enjoyed and great spaces down here.

I grew up on a boat in Lake Union.

I went to public schools, I was born on Capitol Hill.

I'm a third generation city employee.

I have a deep commitment to this city and making it a place where people wanna be in, making it great and I'm incredibly proud of being able to contribute in this way.

- The waterfront is expected to be fully complete by 2025 ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

A Seattle veterinarian clinic is alleviating the financial hardship of pet services for some animal owners in Seattle.

We'll tell you about the clinic's new space.

A Seattle veterinarian clinic offering free veterinary care to low income and unhoused pet owners for nearly four decades has a new home.

Recently, Doney Coe had a grand opening for a new space off of Airport Way and Soto.

Since its inception, the vet clinic has operated out of a donated space and now the clinic is subleasing a building from King County for below market rate rents, which the county helped renovate to meet the clinic's needs.

For some pet owners who can't afford to cover the cost of expensive treatments or medications, the clinic is a lifeline.

The clinic offers services such as checkups, diagnostic surgery, and medication refills.

They rely heavily on volunteer veterinarians and vet students as it only has one full-time and one part-time employee.

Demand for Doney Coe serves has greatly outpaced its capacity.

Pet owners often face long wait times to be seen, and it's not uncommon for people to show up hours before the clinic opens to secure their place in line.

(light music) A bill that passed the Washington legislature aims to make the transition easier for young people in need of housing after mental health treatment.

We'll explain some of the hurdles this group is facing.

Washingtonians, especially young people, face many hurdles once they complete inpatient mental health treatment.

A bill that passed the legislature this session could make it easier for them to find housing after completing treatment.

A 2023 report from the Washington Department of Social and Health Services found that within a year of exiting inpatient behavioral health treatment, nearly 80% of people between 18 and 24 became homeless.

Advocates say when they don't have a place to live upon discharge, they soon learn resources are sparse in the state and elsewhere.

House built 1929 would funnel tax dollars to the healthcare authority to support existing nonprofit or tribal community organizations in establishing at least two residential programs on both sides of the state.

It would also offer 90 days of housing for those who are 18 to 24 and recently completed an inpatient behavior health program and do not have long-term housing.

HB 1929 passed the House and Senate in February and now awaits Governor Inslee's signature.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching the Newsfeed, your destination for non-profit Northwest News, go to crosscut.com for more.

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