Five-hundred thirty apartments starting at $900 a month for a studio are considered "affordable?" "Not everyone owns a car?" "Compliment without cannibalizing?"

All over West Seattle, one and two story buildings are being replaced by four to six stories. One thousand square feet of living space are replaced by 6,000 (as happened on my block of 50th Avenue Southwest). These enormous projects are robbing West Seattle of the human scale that made it special, friendly and comfortable. In their rush to blot out the sun, these developments are certainly not "complementary" to our neighborhood. They are ruining it.

Folks who want to commute "without burning up a lot of time and gas" should look elsewhere; it's hellish getting out of West Seattle during rush hour, whether you're on a bus or in a car, and it will get worse when the viaduct comes down. Yes, there are some who commute by bicycle, but they are a) a tiny percentage, and b) probably all car owners as well. These new tenants will certainly bring cars with them. A minimum of 530 more cars in one development just off California Avenue is complementary to the Junction? Really?

This is only one development company busy in West Seattle at the moment, and this is only one of three projects they are planning - one of which will take the only hotel, modest though it may be, in all of West Seattle.

Here's what's disappearing: modest living.

Greg Nickels has all along made it clear that he wants to turn Seattle into another New York or San Francisco. Well, he's done it, from his comfy spot in the developers' back pocket. They are surely - and not that slowly - turning Seattle into another generic big city, where $900 for a one room dwelling is considered "affordable."

Want to know what I consider affordable? $750 for two bedrooms. I'm a single mom, and my son is not old enough to work and pay rent yet, but he is old enough to need his own bedroom. I suppose we could get a one bedroom and one of us sleep in the living room - but oh, that's right: studios are $900, so one bedrooms must be $1,200 or more. I certainly won't be moving into any Harbor Properties' properties, which doesn't bother me; it just galls me that they dare to call their apartments "affordable."

But then, people who herald the arrival of a QFC and Whole Foods are clearly not living in the world inhabited by most of us: those are the two most expensive supermarkets in the Puget Sound. I guess the people who will pay $1,800 for two bedrooms and commute by bicycle will be shopping in those stores.

Too bad they're not doing it in Bellevue, and leaving one of the few remaining modest neighborhoods alone.

Sue Scharff

Alaska Junction - until I'm

priced out of here