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Law

Seattle May Day Protests Likely To Snarl Traffic

Kyle Stokes
Immigrant Rights March May Day 2014

Seattle Police say they’re prepared for whatever happens at protests tomorrow for May Day, the international day to celebrate workers that has become a rallying point locally for all sorts of activists.

In the past few years, there have been some arrests on May Day for property damage, although protest marches have been mostly peaceful. The biggest problem  this year could be traffic.

These are the 3 planned events and marches Seattle Police are aware of:

  • 10:25 a.m. Black Lives Matter event at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, 2200 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.
  • 2 p.m. Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights, begins at St. Mary's Church, 611 20th Ave. S., and ends at the Federal Courthouse downtown at 700 Stewart St.
  • 6 p.m. Non-permitted protest, advertised as an anti-capitalist march from Seattle Central College on Capitol Hill to Westlake downtown.

James Sido, spokesman for the Downtown Seattle Association, is encouraging people to plan ahead.
"I would say that, if you work downtown, shoot for an earlier commute time because there will be traffic disruption.," he said.

And Jeff Switzer, a spokesman for Metro Transit, says buses likely won't be on schedule either.

"We’re going to have staff out on the street monitoring and reporting back to the transit control center so that we can try to keep transit flowing an rerouting as best we can, but it's going to be a challenging day all around," he said.

And don't expect One Bus Away and other phone apps to help you. Switzer says if buses are taking alternate routes those apps aren't reliable.

Tacoma may also have some traffic tie ups. A workers march will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 1st. The march begins at 6th Avenue and Sprague and goes to Pine.

Paula is a former host, reporter and producer who retired from KNKX in 2021. She joined the station in 1989 as All Things Considered host and covered the Law and Justice beat for 15 years. Paula grew up in Idaho and, prior to KNKX, worked in public radio and television in Boise, San Francisco and upstate New York.