The Chinese
Garden is being built between between Northwest 2nd and
3rd avenues and
Everett and Flanders streets
A higher power has expelled Bruce Wong (above left) and
his group from the Garden.With hand-crafted pavilions
laid around a lake and 100 painstakingly selected trees,
the Chinese Garden being built in Old Town by a team of
imported artisans will be the largest of its kind anywhere
outside of China.
But this tranquil site, scheduled to open in September,
recently has become a source of tension. On one side stands
Bruce Wong and the 460-member nonprofit he heads--which,
for more than a decade, was a lone voice calling for the
cultural landmark. On the other is the office of Mayor
Vera Katz and her handpicked group, which may now control
the garden.
Wong and other members of the Classical Chinese Garden
Society feel that the mayor has cut them out of operation
of their dream.
"My understanding is we're still a partner," said Wong.
"But unfortunately everything is more or less unilateral."
The society was slated to run the garden. But last November,
citing a need for fiscal oversight, a Katz aide, along
with Gregg Kantor, a Northwest Natural Gas executive,
demanded the society rewrite its bylaws. Kantor heads
a nonprofit closely allied with the city called the Classical
Chinese Garden Trust, formed three years ago to take over
fund-raising from the society.
Kantor defends the November ultimatum, noting that the
city holds the lease on the land--donated by his company--and
has poured $3 million into the $10 million project.
But critics said the city's proposal went too far, giving
the city and Kantor's group total control over the garden
and stripping
the society's members of their
voting rights.
On March 30 the society board voted down the ultimatum.
Mem-bers say they wanted to negotiate with the city, but
the next day Katz informed them of her understanding that
the society "does not wish to manage the operations of
the garden."
She recruited Bob Naito to form yet another nonprofit
to run the garden, since Kantor's trust legally dissolves
the day the garden opens. Naito is the progeny of the
late Bill Naito, who played a leading role in pushing
the garden to prominence. He says that unlike the society
it supplants, the new group will not let members elect
its board or vote on garden management.
Wong and his allies worry that without real citizen involvement,
the garden will fall victim to politics and bureaucratic
neglect. They point to a series of blunders that have
surfaced during the city's watch, including about $850,000
in construction overruns at the garden. In addition, Wong
notes that Kantor's city-allied group has missed a fund-raising
target of $500,000 in cash. According to a financial statement
reviewed by WW, the trust spent $182,000 to raise
just $147,000 as of May 17.
Kantor notes that the figure does not include in-kind
donations of $332,000. But financial planner Kathleen
Kee, a nominal co-chair of the fund-raising effort, told
WW that in-kind gifts were never intended to be
counted toward the $500,000 target. She says the goal
was to create a pot of money to cover operating expenses.
"It's unfortunate because there's a group of people that
have probably devoted 15 years to this project," said
Kee, who sits on both the society and trust boards. "A
lot of volunteers feel [chastised by] this process, and
you never want to do that to your volunteer base."
Naito says his operating agreement to manage the garden
should go before the council for approval later this month.
