Downtown Seattle featherheads

[kc7gr]

Fellow bird fanciers,

Just wanted to give you a heads up about Union Station plaza, downtown Seattle. Although home to a considerable number of friendly pigeons, some of whom have the most amazing color combos (bronze iridescence, anyone?), the security folks at 505 Union Station are ready, willing, and able to harass anyone feeding the critters, and they've got the plaza well covered by surveillance cameras. I found this out the hard way when I was rudely harassed on what I thought was public property.

The ironic part is there's nothing --- ZILCH! --- in the Seattle Municipal Code against bird-feeding. Pigeons aren't even mentioned.

The property status is a bit strange. The City Planner's office tells me it's under what they call POPS -- Privately Owned Public Space. This means the building folks own it, but it has been ceded as public space to the city in exchange for some sort of height or zoning variance on the building itself.

With this in mind, I have lodged a complaint against such harassment with the City Planner's office, and asked for a determination based on the written agreements between the property owner(s) and the city. I expect to receive a reply some time next week, and I'll pass on what I learn.

Here's the interesting bit. I've also inquired (politely, of course) with the building security office. Although they re-iterated they have a policy against feeding the birds, the security director started tap-dancing (metaphorically speaking) awfully hard when I (again, politely) told him I did not agree, and I would be asking for a determination from the City Planner.

Happy travels.

[spirit wings]

can you get the flock to move to a more pigeon friendly park? that might take care of the problem, IMO respecting their wishes is amiable thing to do.

[re lee]

You very well may be opening a can of worems. The city may very well pass an a city law about feeding pigeons anywhere in the city. AND the mall I believe does have the right to forbid people from feeding the birds.. Plus the Mall can have a pest control company come in and bait or trap the birds. Sometimes its not good to rock the boat . It turns out bad real fast. As many places in any town U S A building ownersa do not like the pigeons that flock there. Hope things go ok But something to think about.

[Budd]

The guards could still get you to leave the area for littering food/seeds on the ground even though it will all be eatin up in a few minutes. Is it possible to feed those pigeons just ouside the property line of the mall? I always pour my seeds on the ground late at night to avoid being harrassed. The pigeons eat it all up by 6am.

[kc7gr]

I think if Seattle were going to pass such a law, they would have done so ages ago. There's been feeding going on all over the place, in definite public locations, for decades, and at least one of the homeless folk farther south even has a 'pet' crow (something which is, technically, illegal under state law though I don't know if its ever been seriously enforced).

In any case -- I've done nothing more than ask the planner's office for a determination, based on the existing agreement between the building owner(s) and the city itself. If that's "rocking the boat," well, so be it.

There's natural predation in the area as well. At least one mated pair of peregrine falcons calls the old Washington Mutual building home. The steady flow of pigeons must seem like an unlimited buffet to them.

And yes, there are a couple of public parks within the area where the property owners in question have no jurisdiction whatsoever. That being the case, I'll likely move on no matter what.

My main interest, in this case, is simply getting a hard determination of who has what control over which areas, mainly because I've done feeding before in that same area and no one ever bothered me until last week.

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UPDATE: 30-Aug-10
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I'm happy to report that something ... I've no idea what ... has changed for the better in this situation.

Last Wednesday (Aug. 25th) I was passing through Union Station plaza on my way to catch the evening Sounder train. What should catch my eye but a small family group, seated in the exact same spot where I ran into trouble before, happily sharing their picnic with the birds.

I watched this scene for a little over ten minutes, and even saw one of the building security guards walk by, apparently on some other errand. The impromptu picnic drew not the slightest attention from said guard, or anyone else other than bemused commuters and a few tourists!

Encouraged by this, I decided to do an 'acid test,' as it were. Last Friday (Aug. 27th), I settled in the same spot, bag of peanuts in hand, and proceeded to make sure the local featherheads got a good dinner.

No one so much as gave me a dirty look, and there was no sign whatsoever of building security.

I will continue to take advantage of this spot every so often, just to see if a permanent fix has indeed been put in place.

Keep the peace(es).