May 2007

I ride my bike year-round as my main means of transportation. My bike is not a toy. I don't aspire to be Lance Armstrong. I'm not too poor to afford a car. I choose a bicycle because its healthier for me, and healthier for the city I live in. I'm not riding in the middle of the lane to slow you down or thwart you. I'm just trying to do the same thing as you - get from point A to point B safely.

I ride in the middle of the lane if the lane is too narrow to share safely.

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council represents about 31,000 White Center and Boulevard Park residents, but only one in a thousand of them bothered to vote in the election of the community's lone elected body.

There will be four new members on the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council when it meets next month.

The North Highline Council is the only elected local body that represents White Center, Boulevard Park and the many neighborhoods in the unincorporated area.

Dow Constantine has filed legislation to protect the right of county residents to cast a secret ballot.

"The right to cast a secret ballot is guaranteed to all citizens by our state Constitution," said Constantine, King County Council member from West Seattle.

Beware on Alki Avenue Southwest on May 25 because for the first time since its inception, Washington's Click it or Ticket campaign will take to the nighttime hours.

More than 75 law enforcement agencies throughout Washington will be out watching for unbuckled motorists.

Travel will be up slightly this Memorial Day holiday despite high gas prices and increasing hotel costs, according to the American Automobile Association, which estimates that 38.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a 1.7 percent increase from last year.

Approximately 32.1 million travelers expect to go by motor vehicle, a 1.8 percent increase from the 31.5 million who drove a year ago.

Another 4.4 million plan to travel by airplane, up 1.0 percent from last Memorial Day.

At the Junction, an officer watched a driver pull into the 7-11 and park his truck askew, blocking the disabled parking space as well as another spot. When the man and his female friend returned to the truck, the officer questioned them, planning to simply cite the man for the parking violation. But the incident escalated when the man denied being the driver, claimed to have no ID, and began to get nervous. Concerned for his own safety, the officer asked the man to put his hands on the patrol car's hood.

My friend Rucy would have been 75 years old this month. Three years ago on the 17th of May we met at Java Bean on 24th Northwest. Rucy was a writing partner, a landscape gardener, an artist, a grandmother, a friend and a 27-year breast cancer survivor. Each year on the anniversary of being declared cancer free she brought chocolate truffles to share with our larger writing group.

Rucy lived on Mercer Island but would come to Ballard for Pilates and shop afterwards at our Bartell's. She was planning to go bra shopping at Mary Katherine's, the long-time lingerie store; they had an excellent selection of lingerie for woman after mastectomies. But before she could acquire new lingerie, she acquired a new diagnosis. The persistent cough was lung cancer, dating back many undetected years.

The "No Parking Between 3-8 p.m." signs for the Syttende Mai Parade were already in place along 24th when we took the window table at Java Bean. Rucy had brought her own cushion to tie to the seat of a chair. She had always been very small but her illness was rendering her smaller, and it hurt to sit on her bones.

Hip yet comforting, the Station Bistro on Leary Way occupies an old gas station. Interesting design touches from the old days remain, like glass floor-to-ceiling doors that open when it's warm, and a rounded anteroom one end. The space offers a unique and pleasing experience akin to eating in a friend's house.

I ride my bike year-round as my main means of transportation. My bike is not a toy. I don't aspire to be Lance Armstrong. I'm not too poor to afford a car. I choose a bicycle because its healthier for me, and healthier for the city I live in. I'm not riding in the middle of the lane to slow you down or thwart you. I'm just trying to do the same thing as you - get from point A to point B safely.

I ride in the middle of the lane if the lane is too narrow to share safely.

A water taxi from Shilshole to downtown Seattle, light rail to the University of Washington and a long-time plan for a Sound Transit commuter rail stop could help ease Ballard's growing congestion, but none are likely for many years.

The impending replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is sure to cause gridlock for years to come.