Dear Editor
Warren Aakervik and Eugene Wasserman both resigned due to the DAC’s failure to listen to and act on their concerns.
Not just due to safety concerns, but outright fear of litigation, when the first bicyclist dies and the life of the driver is devastated.
The final meeting was looking for a quick ending with no attempt at continuing trail design and development under the DAC guidance.
It was unsettlingly un-attentive to the public and fraught with safety concerns.
Unfortunately the design at the final DAC was not final. The design had deadly gaps in its consideration for safety.
There was no attention to the issues of futilely trying to make bicycles stop for vehicular OR pedestrian traffic.
The lack of lines of sight and issues for improvement were ignored.
The design takes away accesses to businesses that have been here since 1871.
Routes and turning radiuses are changed and compromised to the extent they will cripple freight mobility, not to mention fire response.
When it comes to costs, we note the committee was briefed earlier on the fact that the millions in dollars of required improvements to 54th Ave NW and condemnation of the railroad were known and purposely exclude from the BGT cost-per-mile estimates.
And where in the estimates is the $1,000,000 payment to the Nordic Museum for buying their required property on 54th?
We understand this purchase of the museum’s private property may have been improperly classified as a donation.
When in fact it was the City’s wielding their power and right of Eminent Domain at a high cost to the taxpayer.
It is not just our small 1871 fishing vessel based shipyard that is affected.
There is a much larger user group of tugs, ferries, workboats, yachts and all the union and non-union workers.
Peeling off the leaves of the industrial-maritime working base will result in a cluster effect failure.
The infrastructure they provide with the jobs they generate and the taxes they pay should go to support a properly designed, safe path, using Leary Way NW.
Shilshole has a steep incline where Leary does not. The statement that Shilshole was less inclined was false.
The new street down the tracks and truck route on 54th creates a de facto, shorter route……just what the Cascade Bicycle Club wanted.
The significant parking lost on NW 54th was not considered in the EIS or by the DAC, so claims for savings on Shilshole are false.
When looking at the technical presentation of the EIS, it is clear that Shilshole is a political choice, not based on safety, crossings or parking or any other findings in the EIS.
Sincerely,
Pacific Fishermen Shipyard and PFI Marine Electric
Doug Dixon, General Manager
(206) 718-0253
5351 24th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
www.pacificfishermen.com
“If you build a Trail on Shilshole Avenue, someone will die!” Fortunately, despite all of the injuries that have occurred over the years, in part because of Doug Dixon’s efforts to prevent the City from completing the Trail and making safety improvements, no one has died.
However, if Doug Dixon and Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel continue their efforts to obstruct the City from completing a separate and protected Trail, thereby, requiring people walking, jogging, and cycling to share a hazardous narrow roadway with trucks and cars, it’s more likely that “someone will die.”
Therefore, their concern about public safety is disingenuous. Otherwise, they would support a separate and protected Trail for pedestrians and bicyclists, which would improve roadway predictability for their drivers.