By Peggy Sturdivant

The address for Greenwood’s Preserve & Gather neighborhood café is 358 NW 85th which is very confusing because its front corner is right next to the street sign for 6th NW & NW 85th. At least it was until Tuesday, November 15, 2016 when an eastbound driver experiencing a medical emergency struck down the street sign and their automobile broke through the cafe’s window.

The driver was in critical condition after being freed by emergency responders. A customer inside the café was injured by broken glass.

By unfortunate coincidence Preserve & Gather opened for business exactly one year ago. A tragedy is not what they were expecting for their first anniversary in business. Not to say that the owners and employees have not been expecting to witness an automobile accident, or perhaps worse, an automobile versus pedestrian accident. They see near misses every day as pedestrians try to cross four lanes, encouraged by the curb cuts and put off by the dearth of signals between five blocks.

The Crown Hill Urban Village Committee for Smart Growth website welcomed the new business last July but Rob Fellows, President of Greenwood Community Council warned, “It’s hard to overcome the freeway feel (of 85th NW) and I think that limits the walk-in traffic.”

Waiting to speak Kayla Blincow, one of the owners, I watched a man hustle across the four lanes to cross NW 85th, pushing a child in a stroller. Although just outside of the Urban Village there’s a push along the arterial for more density and mixed-use businesses on the street. The fairly new building has micro-housing units above the ground floor. There is a grocery store and other retail within walking distance, which is convenient if you live on the north side of NW 85th. The location may not be freeway, but you’d think it was a speedway.

Preserve & Gather co-owner Tess Smedley was onsite during the accident; Co-ower Kayla Blincow had left an hour earlier. After the police investigation was completed Blincow’s husband secured the exposed area with plywood. They cleaned up the glass and opened for business as usual at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, serving the fresh baked sweet and savory pastries, small bites and Conduit coffee the neighborhood has readily welcomed. The co-owners are young, multi-talented and are featuring fresh baked goods and preserves in ways I haven’t found other places.

Tuesday, November 15th was a difficult day for Seattle traffic. There had been a pedestrian versus car collision at Greenwood and 143rd. The Army Corps of Engineers was locking the gates to the Locks in advance of the vigil for Standing Rock. It was ten minutes before 4 p.m. closing when the eastbound car crossed the westbound lanes, sheared off the railing of the business to the north and then shattered the retail corner of the building.

A customer asked about the plywood, a common question throughout the days following the crash. Informed of the reason the customer shared his own experience as a homeowner along NW 85th. “I built a fence so burly that the only thing that could get through it was a car. And guess what, a car going about 70 mph hit an Uber driver and his car came right through the fence.”

Blincow kept an eye on the oven while we talked in the space near their front door. A little boy climbed up on the bench to sit directly below the point of impact. “We’ve sort of expected a two-car accident,” Blincow said, “But you never expect this to happen.” She wishes there was a traffic light, a crosswalk signal or even something to “calm” the traffic. “But it is an arterial.” As if on cue there were car horns outside and sudden braking, signaling another near accident. “That happens every day,” she said.

Last summer the City of Seattle announced Vision Zero: Seattle’s plan to end traffic deaths and reduce serious injuries by 2030. Vision Zero went into effect on November 7, 2016. The city’s main tool is reducing speed limits on arterials such as NW 85th, but not currently including NW 85th. For now only downtown Seattle streets have reduced the speed limit.

The same day I spoke to Preserve & Gather’s Blincow there was an event at City Hall to commemorate 240 people who had died to traffic on Seattle streets in the last ten years. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is placing white silhouettes at locations throughout the city where pedestrians have lost their lives.

There’s no silhouette yet at the corner of 6th NW & NW 85th. May it always be so.