Dear Editor,

I read your article, ("Two lawsuits stall Fauntleroy Place project," March 20, 2009) and I am disappointed that this project is making no progress, tied up in litigation. There is the ugliness, and unsafe conditions, but I would like to add the impact on neighbors due to this project.

The church and bowling alley adjacent to this project have many patrons. The result is a parking issue that has become a huge inconvenience for many. Before the project, the previous open parking lot was used by many for the spillover from parking right in front. Now that the lot is gone, particularly patrons of the bowling alley, fill the area up and down the adjacent streets most every evening of the week. When the church has activities, they too find it hard to find parking.

Those of us who live within a block of the bowling alley are displaced if we get home after about 6:30 p.m. If we leave to run an errand in the evening, we can forget finding a parking spot within a block of our homes.

Those who come to bowl may get frustrated too, with the lack of parking, but they deal with the problem maybe once a week, depending on their bowling habits. Those of us who live nearby deal with this situation every single day, and it has gotten very old and annoying.

Imagine going out to do your major shopping, then have to park in the street, blocking it, while you hurriedly run your groceries inside your home, then go looking for parking. The other solution is to park far away and make multiple trips to your home from your distant car.

The bowling alley has substantial parking room under the building. When the car dealership was active, they rented this area to store new cars. Now that they are gone, the bowling alley keeps it locked up instead of providing it for their patrons. It would help a great deal if they would open the additional parking under their building, but it sits empty every night, while the neighbors struggle to find parking near their homes.

We had hopes that the project would get finished in some reasonable time frame and some could park there once that garage would open. As it stands now, this parking issue will continue on for some time to come. Irritation and tempers have surfaced, frustrations escalate. This is a difficult matter to deal with day in, day out, with no let up in sight for those of us who live nearby.

Kjell Lyso
Seattle