Foes of the new 520 dig in

From the point of view of the State’s elected officials, it’s a done deal: the SR-520 floating bridge and its approaches will be replaced using the “preferred alternative” plan approved last year by the Governor. Although construction on the new bridge itself will not begin until next year, pontoon construction is already getting underway in Aberdeen, and construction is scheduled to begin next month on an SR-520 expansion project that will create a six-lane highway from Medina to Bellevue to better connect the new six-lane floating bridge to the Eastside.  And even though the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project has yet to be finalized, the State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is already conducting over-water fieldwork and on-land test drilling in preparation for construction of the new bridge.

In spite of all this “full speed ahead” activity on the part of State officialdom, however, the opponents of the “preferred alternative” have definitely not given up the fight.  In fact, with their other options becoming increasingly limited, the foes of the new bridge are girding themselves for the possibility of taking their case to court.  “We would still love to avoid a lawsuit,” says Fran Conley, leader of the Coalition for a Sustainable SR 520, “but it looks like we are heading that way.”

Conley states that there are several potential legal challenges that the opponents may pursue, including ones based upon the State’s supposed failure to adequately measure the traffic impact of the new bridge on the surrounding communities, the effect of construction on the environment, and the impact of the new bridge on open spaces and on water spaces. She says that both State and Federal laws govern these issues, none of which has been adequately addressed by the draft EIS.

Additionally, she notes, the draft EIS does not provide an analysis of two important factors: 1) the effect of having tolls on the floating bridge, and 2) the possibility of using the two additional traffic lanes (5 & 6) for busses only or for busses and eventual light rail only.  Both these things, she says, need to be studied.

In its literature, the group’s case against the “preferred alternative” plan is succinctly argued: “The state plans to spend money it doesn’t have to expand 520 in a way that doesn’t solve traffic problems and blights our historic communities.”  That’s a pretty comprehensive condemnation of a project that appears well underway, with construction bids for the floating bridge portion due to WSDOT by June 8.

The State, for its part, stresses theses positive aspects of the project: the replacement of a seismically unsafe floating bridge with one that can withstand both earthquakes and windstorms, the addition of a transit/HOV lane in each direction (as well as a bicycle/pedestrian path) across the new bridge, wider and safer traffic lanes, and the capacity of the new bridge to accommodate light rail at some point in the future.

We have given a significant amount of coverage on this blog to the issues surrounding the “preferred alternative” plan for the new bridge. Our previous postings have highlighted these salient facts: 1) the Arboretum on and off ramps to 520 will be eliminated, 2) the new bridge will be much higher, wider, and imposing than the existing bridge, and 3) funds do not currently exist to pay for the planned western approaches to the bridge. 

WSDOT has yet to produce a graphic showing the new floating bridge from a side view, as we would see it from Madison Park.  Opponents believe this is because the bridge will look pretty big and ugly from the water side.  This view, which comes from a WSDOT simulation, shows the projecting pontoons at the sides of the bridge.  These pontoons may extend nine feet above water level, and the bridge itself is expected to extend at least another 11 feet above that.

The purpose of this posting, however, is not to rehash any of those issues or to provide a comprehensive analysis of the pros and cons of the bridge project.  Rather, we are alerting our readership to the fact that both the opponents and proponents have upcoming information sessions where you can judge for yourselves whether this construction project is going to be, on the whole, a good thing or something less than that.

The State has been sponsoring “outreach sessions” to address citizen concerns and answer questions about the project.  The next such session will be held today, March 30, 5 to 7 pm, at Voxx Coffee in Eastlake (2245 Eastlake Ave. E.).  Information from WSDOT about the SR-520 bridge replacement project is available here. 

The Coalition for a Sustainable 520, meanwhile, will be holding a meeting at Park Place Deli (4122 E. Madison St.) on Saturday, April 2 at 9 am to inform Madison Parkers about their concerns surrounding the bridge project.  Information about the Coalition’s positions is available here.  The Madison Park Community Council, which is a member of the Coalition, is a co-sponsor of the session.  On Monday, April 4, Tom Rasmussen, Chair of the City Council's Transportation Committee, will be on hand at the regular meeting of the Madison Park Community Council (7 pm at the Bathhouse) to discuss the 520 situation.  The meeting is open to the public.

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Madison Park makes another Best Places list

One local magazine (that shall remain nameless) had the temerity recently to not include Madison Park on its list of best places to live in the region.  How rude.  Madison Parkers can be forgiven, perhaps, for thinking that it’s the natural order of things for our neighborhood to automatically appear on such lists. Apparently, it’s not.

Fortunately for those of us experiencing a diminished sense of place, Seattle Met Magazine has just come to the rescue with another “Best Places” list to which we can point with pride.  Madison Park is listed as Number 12 on the magazine’s recently published list of “The 20 Best Places to Live Now.”  Also included on the list are nearby neighborhoods Pike/Pine, Madrona, Montlake, and Laurelhurst. Madison Park is cited as a waterfront destination neighborhood.  [Full disclosure: the author of the Madison Park Blogger is quoted in the section on Madison Park, opining that this is a liberal, welcoming, walk-around neighborhood that, once arrived, you really never have to leave.  Any dissension?]

By the way, that other magazine (the one that overlooked us) included both Madrona (34th Avenue, at least) and Capitol Hill (12th Avenue, at least) on its list of best places to live.  But in the same issue, the magazine chided Beacon Hill for not being quite “there” yet as a neighborhood.  Which is interesting, since Seattle Met this year places Beacon Hill at Number 1 on its Best Places list.  Proving only, we suppose, that when it comes to determining best neighborhoods, it all depends on who’s doing the choosing.

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City likely to begin nighttime construction on East Madison Street through Madison Valley

As if the merchants of Madison Valley had not already endured enough disruption from the months-long construction of the stormwater pipeline, Seattle Public Utilities suddenly revealed in late February that it was contemplating turning portions of E. Madison Street into a one-lane thoroughfare and allowing no curb-side parking on the street during an upcoming weeks-long phase of stormwater mitigation work.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reaction of area retailers, service providers, and restaurateurs to this news bulletin was mixture of dismay, horror, and—at least in a few cases—outrage.  Now, as the result of a lot of back-and-forth discussion between SPU and the merchants, it looks like the City’s solution will be to do the work at night.  But because nighttime construction will create an uncomfortable or even untenable situation for many residents living in the immediate area, some of them will probably need to be moved into hotels for the duration—at the City’s expense.

In theory, at least, it wasn’t supposed to be like this.  Madison Valley merchants point out that they were told early on by SPU that the many months of planned construction on the Madison Valley Stormwater Project would not result in traffic disruption to E. Madison St. (other than for very brief periods).  The Madison Park Blogger, in fact, was told the same thing by the City when we did a story on the project in late 2009 (“Impact of Stormwater Project on Madison Street Traffic Expected to be Negligible”).  We asked SPU to explain the discrepancy and were told that when they talked to us they had only been referring to the main stormwater pipeline project and not the separate stormwater mitigation efforts related specifically to E. Madison Street.  Huh?

Well, it seems that what the City is soon to be working on is a separate-but-related project called E. Madison St. Stormwater Infrastructure Work.  According to SPU spokesperson Elaine Yeung, this construction effort, not directly part of the Madison Valley Stormwater Project, is designed to help divert the surface water that accumulates on E. Madison St.   And unlike the construction of the pipeline, which is a trenchless (underground boring) operation, the water diversion project for E. Madison St. will involve the digging of cross-the-street trenches.  Bottom line: the street will have to be torn up and then repaved after the new drains and pipes have been installed, likely a two-to-three-week process beginning in early April.

So, back to the City’s original plan.  That was to narrow E. Madison St. to a single lane during the open-trench phase of construction, with no on-street parking allowed.  Traffic would be backed up in both directions (east and west) for significant periods of time, with flaggers controlling the back and forth movement of the single traffic lane. Potential customers would necessarily find it even more difficult to get to Madison Valley shops than is already the case, thus creating an even worse nightmare for area merchants.

Upon learning this news, the Madison Valley Merchants Association (MVMA) immediately launched a campaign to change SPU’s planned program, requesting that the construction occur only between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, that on-street parking not be prohibited in the construction area, that the “No Parking” signs be taken down during the day or covered up when parking is allowed (since all many potential parkers see are the words “no parking” and then don’t read the details), and that entrances to parking lots not be blocked during construction.

SPU agreed to talk about the situation and scheduled multiple meetings for area merchants and residents to present their views. Sessions were held on March 5, 11 and 12, with most of the 30 or so Madison Valley business owners attending either one or more of the meetings.  A few local residents also showed up.  The merchants, at least, did not mince words.  Many described the potential negative impact of daytime open-trench construction on their individual businesses.  Restaurant owners were concerned about construction that would occur in the evenings as well, hoping that any work on the street could be delayed until at least 10 pm.  Emotions ran high at one of the sessions, as evidenced when a shop owner told the assembled crowd that at the rate things were going she was in danger of losing her house.

MVMA President Larry Levine says the business owners feel they’ve already suffered more than enough.  “The work over the Christmas holidays was longer than the City originally said--and that was hard,” he told us.  Additionally, according to Levine, the City did not make it clear to the merchants that there would be weeks of open-trench work this year.  “This could be devastating for some of the businesses,” he notes.  Just to put the situation into stark perspective, one shop manager told us that on a day when construction crews were working directly in front of his shop his total revenues were $25.

The City this week came out with a new construction schedule that limits construction to the period between 8 pm and 6 am (Monday through Friday), except during the street-repaving period, which is expected to last one week.   SPU’s additional concession was to work to make the “No Parking” signage more understandable, so that during periods when parking is allowed on E. Madison it will be clear to potential shoppers.

Whether these concessions will be satisfactory to the business owners (or for that matter, area residents) should be a bit clearer after SPU’s upcoming public meeting to discuss the new construction plan. The session will take place tomorrow, March 26, at Luc (2800 E. Madison St.) from 9:30 to 11:30 am.

Levine tells us that the restaurant owners, in particular, have problems with the idea of construction beginning at 8 pm, since the lights and noise will not only interfere with the dining experience but cause many restaurant goers either to have to park farther away or get up from dinner and move their cars off the street once construction is about to begin.

Although Levine says he believes the City is being more responsive than it had been, “right now it’s a wait and see attitude from me. My concern is how long is this construction going to take and when are they going to start.”  This view is echoed by Zach Letendre, Manager of Bill the Butcher, who says  “I wish the City had responded earlier to the needs of the businesses.”  To which he adds, “But if they can do the construction at night, I will be pleased with the outcome.”

[Information on the Madison Valley Stormwater Project is available here.  There are two locations principally involved in the open-trench construction phase:  1) the intersection of 29th Ave. E. and E. Madison St., near Café Flora, and 2) mid-block along E. Madison St. between Lake Washington Blvd. E. and 29th Avenue E., near City People’s.]  Photo at top by Duy Tran from cpdpcolumbiapike.blogspot.com.

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City settles with Madison Valley homeowners

A couple of weeks ago, The Valley View, the monthly community newsletter of the Greater Madison Valley Community Council, broke the story that the City of Seattle had settled a lawsuit with the twelve Madison Valley residents who had sued over stormwater and sewer damage to their houses. This original reporting by citizen journalist David Jacobson resulted from the discovery of the settlement through a public records request.  Jacobson learned that the City had agreed to pay the plaintiffs $2.5 million to keep the suit from going to court, and he shined the light of day on that fact.

Yesterday the story broke in The Seattle Times, which was gracious enough to acknowledge The Valley View as the initial source of the information.  KOMO-TV, which led with the story on one of its evening news shows yesterday, didn’t bother to cite the source of the news or make it clear that the out-of-court settlement, breathlessly reported as though it were a breaking story, was actually signed in November of last year.

Oh well, we know better.  Jacobson, who lives in Denny Blaine, made the Madison Park Blogger aware of The Valley View scoop at the time of publication. Although Madison Valley is not a part of our coverage area (other than the Madison Valley business district), we waited to make note of the settlement as part of our coverage today of the ongoing stormwater project. The residents' settlement with the City makes for an interesting story--and one that you can read in full here.

Three cheers for citizen journalism!

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Readers send photos

New wading pool for the neighborhood?

Several MPB readers have sent us photos that we thought should be shared.  The one above was taken from his iPhone and forwarded to us by our neighbor, Scott Wilson.  It shows the lakeside park at E. Lynn St. and 43rd Ave. E. on Tuesday afternoon this week.  He notes that the parks department, with significant effort and presumably not a little cost, recently replaced a sand base for the swing-set area with a supposedly superior wood-chip base.  Perhaps, he says, the City's intention was to create a dual-use facility for the neighborhood, a combination swing set/wading pool.  "I'd call it a swool," he comments, "but others might call it a stupid use of money."

Does anyone remember seeing the area in this shape when the "inferior" sand base was still in place?

This must have happened on a weekend

Glenn Ader, director of the BRIGHT! Preschool here in the Park sent us this photo showing area preschool directors and teachers as they took a recent "time out."  Many of us are aware of the Madison Park Cooperative Preschool, operating out of the bathhouse, but who knew there were that so many private preschools operating in close proximity?  (We didn't, at least).  The purpose of this gathering, says Ader, was to share ideas and build relationships in order to improve programs for the children each preschool serves.

Pictured:  Sally Straight (Nanny's Annex), Frani Carlson (Frani's Preschool), Darlene Kenney (Frani's Preschool), Tea Carlson (Frani's Preschool), Megan Scott (Little Feet Preschool), Waleska Leiva (Mary Lane's Preschool), Jenny Cummins (Epiphany Pre-K), Andrea Losh (Harvard Avenue), Jackie Hubenet (Jackie's Pre-K), Christine Carlson (Little Feet Preschool), Glenn Ader (BRIGHT! Preschool), Mary Lane (Mary Lane's Preschool), Nora Wheat (Jackie's Pre-K), Nan Stephens (Nannies).

The Pavilion from a different view

From Madison Park resident and historian/author David Chapman comes this intriguing stereoview image of a prosperous-looking woman standing in front of the Park's then-famous Pavilion, sometime around the turn of the 20th Century.  Stereoscopic photographs (aka stereoview cards), which were apparently popular in the late 1800s, were composed of two nearly identical images mounted side-by-side on a cardboard backing.  These images were then viewed on a stereoviewer, providing an early form of 3-D effect. These cards were often sold as souvenirs, and Chapman speculates that this may have been one produced and sold around at time of the Alaska-Yukon Exhibition in 1909.

By the way, Chapman's latest book, just published, is "Venus With Biceps: A Pictorial History of Muscular Women."  Chapman will be giving a talk and a slideshow on  the subject at Elliot Bay Book Company (1521 Tenth Avenue) on Wednesday, March 30.

Chapman reports that the book, co-authored with Patricia Vertinsky, is getting good reviews, including this one in the New Yorker.  The Seattle Times also featured the book earlier this week.

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Another bakery soon to arrive

Almost simultaneously with the arrival of a new patisserie in the general vicinity (Madison Valley), comes word that Madison Park itself is about to land another bakery alternative. Signs went up this weekend on the old Island Video space (3109 E. Madison St.) announcing the appearance, at some unnamed future date, of Belle Epicurean, which bills itself as "Seattle's premier patisserie." Belle Epicurean's main location is in the Fairmont Olympic Hotel downtown, where it has occupied a choice Fourth Avenue storefront for the past six years.  Owner Carolyn Ferguson, who studied cuisine and pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, was profiled in a Seattle Weekly blog posting a year ago, and much earlier by Madison Park Conservatory's Maggie Savarino, back in the days when Maggie was a food writer for the Weekly.  But food writers are not the only ones to give BE high marks: the 95 reviewers of Yelp give the patisserie an average rating of four stars.

Belle Epicurean was famously (though not very) used in a scene for the ABC-TV show "The Bachelor" a couple of years ago, in which local (Kirkland) bachelor Jason Mesnick talked seriously to one of the show's contestants while they sipped hot chocolate. Or perhaps they were eating some of the patisserie's "signature" brioches during that pivotal scene (or is brioche also plural?).  Anyway, the place looked romantic, which may be tough to duplicate here in the new spot on Madison Street.  It seems that more than a bit of construction will be needed before the place is ready to turn out the croissants and spread the ambiance.

We've asked for the full story, and we'll keep you posted.

[Photo from the Belle Epicurean site.] 

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Police Blotter 3/17/11

Well, it was inevitable that our local crime holiday would end. Unfortunately, criminal activity returned to normal levels in the neighborhood during the past month.  Where we had nothing to report in our last Police Blotter (2/16/11), we have plenty to report this time.

We’ll start with the five car prowls reported during the period: on 2/17 (the 2400 block of 42nd Ave. E.), on 2/22 (the 4000 block of E. Madison St.), on 2/24 (the 2000 block of 43rd Ave. E.), on 2/26, (the 1000 block of 34th Ave. E.), and on 3/5 (the 1100 block of 33rd). There was also a foiled attempt at a car prowl reported on the 800 block of McGilvra Blvd. E. on 2/23. In that case, the car owner heard the glass being smashed on the passenger window of his car, went out to investigate, and the perpetrator ran off.

There were also two thefts of “auto accessories” reported, one on the 1200 block of 41rd Ave. E on 3/10, and the other on the 3700 block of E. Blaine St. on 3/3.  In the latter incident, the BMW owner reported that just one tire had been removed from his vehicle sometime around 5:15 pm.  A bicycle, meanwhile, was reported stolen from the 4100 block of E. Blaine St. at about 9:00 am on 2/25.

There were a couple of misdemeanor arrests made in the neighborhood during the month.  One occurred on the 3200 block of E. Madison St. during the afternoon of 2/25.  The arrest followed an incident in which a homeowner discovered two men standing in his open garage on the alley behind his house.  Although they ran off, the suspects were later found by the police and questioned.  The one  with an outstanding warrant was arrested and the other suspect released.

The second arrest, on the 1800 block of McGilvra Blvd. E. on 2/28, was of a Madison Park resident who learned the hard way that losing her cool was not the best solution to the situation she (literally) ran into. The incident began when the woman tried to drive her car up an alley, discovering it was blocked by a truck that had deployed stabilizing jacks. According to the police report, the woman began honking her horn and screaming at the workers, who were installing an automated gate at a residence.  As the altercation escalated it caught the attention of a neighbor, who called the police. When the workers suggested that the woman back her car up and go around the other way, the driver reportedly accelerated her car in the direction of the workers before slamming on her breaks, causing some property damage.   She later drove off, but the workers wrote down her license plate number and the police confronted the driver at her residence. After she was interviewed she was arrested for harassment, reckless endangerment, property destruction, and reckless driving.   She was taken to the East Precinct Station, where she was booked and later released.  The police report has been forwarded to the City Attorney’s office for possible prosecution.   The incident occurred at about 5:08 in the evening, so it may well have been collateral fallout from a bad day at the office.

Several burglaries were also reported during the last month.  One occurred sometime during the night of 2/16 on the 2100 block of 38th Ave. E.  In that incident, forced entry occurred through the back door of the residence, the suspect(s) using a blunt object to shatter the door window and then reaching inside to unlock and open the door. While in the residence the perpetrator(s) stole a laptop from a kitchen counter and jewelry from the master bedroom closet, including a one carat diamond ring and platinum wedding band.  Latent finger prints were found, but the police report ends on this interesting note: “Due to the cost amount of the stolen items taken from the listed residence [estimated at $11,500], SPD detectives were contacted, but declined to respond.”

Another burglary occurred on 3/12 in an apartment building on the 1800 block of 43rd Ave. E.  In that incident a woman reported that she had been having dinner at a restaurant in Belltown when her purse was stolen containing the keys to her car and apartment.  She later discovered that her car had been stolen from the parking lot, so she decided to stay the night at her mother’s home.  Upon returning to her apartment the following day she noticed that her laptop was also missing.  She told police that the computer was not password protected an contained some important financial information that could be used fraudulently.

Finally, there was also a break-in at an unoccupied commercial building on the 3100 block of E. Madison St. on 3/7.  The police report states that the building owner noticed that the rear glass door had been shattered sometime during the night and entry may have been made, though nothing of value was in the store.

[Key to crime-map symbols: starbursts represent burglaries, solid cars represent car thefts, un-solid cars represent car prowls, spray-paint cans represent property damage, upraised hands represent shoplifting, dollar bills represent thefts, handcuffs represent arrests under warrants, guns represent weapons involved, red exclamation points represent cases of harassment, and gray cars represent traffic incidents. This map covers the period from February 16 through March 16.]

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