January 2008

Gridlock, or . . .

Many experts believe that the more separate and distinct transportation agencies there are, the more chance there will be that chaos will set in, driving up costs and lowering effectiveness to the public that pays for it.

We in Seattle seem to have about as many transportation agencies as is possible. Mostly, they run individually with not requirement that each works with the other to provide seamless mass transportation.

Neighborhood
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Bartell's Responds

(Editor's Note. Last week we published a letter to Bartell's CEO by Robert Drucker. Here is the company's response.

Thank you for taking the time to offer your very relevant comments about the existing Bartell Drugs as well as the proposed development on the former Denny's property.

As you point out, the existing Bartell Drugs is experiencing the hardship of limited parking. In recent years, the City of Seattle installed a very nice community park on the former Safeway property.

Neighborhood
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Route 17 to be restored

It's good to hear that Metro Transit is thinking about restoring all-day bus service to Seaview Avenue.

However, I do not think the community should stand for Metro's proposal to pay for this service by cutting off-peak service on 32nd Avenue, and terminating all Route 17 service at 9 p.m.

Metro seems to think that the best they can do for Ballard is to shuffle scarce dollars among limited ridership.

Neighborhood
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Keep old Denny's building

We are writing this letter in response to the article, "Is old Denny's a landmark?" in the Jan. 9 edition of the newspaper. As members of the community, we read the article with interest and learned a great deal about the architectural style of the said building.

We've always considered the building to be out of place with the architecture of the neighborhood. And now we understand why.

Neighborhood
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No Denny's means Late-Night Mischief

Ballardites have been scrambling for reasons to keep our beloved Denny's.

Really, the reason is that we like it and don't want it to go away to make room for an ever-growing scourge of soulless condominiums. It's important to us that the crossroads of Ballard has some symbol of our collective quirkiness. Fremont has its Lenin statue, we've got our goofy Denny's.

But all that aside, if you're looking for a reason why our Denny's shouldn't go away, here it is: Where are 16 to 20 year olds in Ballard going to go late at night now?

Neighborhood
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Alaskan Way Viaduct Committee Letter

Editor's Note: This letter was sent to the head of the city, county and state departments of transportation with a copy to this newspaper.

This is the second request that you include the attached document and make it available to all stakeholders. The document shows election results from the March 2007 election on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and is broken out by The Seattle Times to illustrate geographically how the city voted in the March 2007 Election. The returns from that vote show that significant areas of Seattle actually voted in favor of a Viaduct Rebuild.

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Op-Ed

Some Viaduct deceptions

By Harvey Friedman

Why do Mayor Nickels, the majority of the City Council, King County Executive Sims and Seattle downtown interests insist an elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct (Alaskan Way Viaduct) solution would be so terrible?

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City council eyes streetcar network
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City Council members are considering leveraging the success of the South Lake Union Streetcar to build trolleys across the city, including a line that would link West Seattle, downtown and Ballard.

Chair of the council's transportation committee Jan Drago said since initial ridership for the South Lake Union car has been promising, there's drive to build a citywide system.

"I am very pleased with all the energy and ideas that the streetcar network has generated," said Drago.

Neighborhood
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