Madison Park
The Madison Park Community Council (MPCC) in accordance with its time-honored tradition, plus an absence overseas of most of its executive board, did not hold a regular monthly general board meeting in July. Of course, this didn’t mean that activities ceased in Madison Park.
The highlight of last month in the Park was the children’s parade and picnic on July 11, in conjunction with the three-day Madison Park Days event, put on by the Madison Park Business Association.
We continue to make progress on establishing a HUB as part of our program for Emergency Preparedness, under the guidance of Debbie Goetz, of the city’s Department of Emergency Management, and Cindy Barker, who is the guiding light behind a similar program now up and running in West Seattle. There was a meeting to go over the details at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford on July 22.
At this point, we have a substantial portion of the supplies for filling the to-be-obtained large metal container for free, so we will only pay for the box itself, plus its installation on a concrete pad, and this cost we now expect will be covered by a grant. We now have MPCC board members Bob Edmiston and Carol Loe licensed as ham radio operators in conjunction with the program.
Unfortunately, MPCC is having problems getting a key to the bathhouse for our meetings. Seattle Parks and Recreation has proposed a contract that has a long list of requirements. Whether we can prune the contract down to something simple remains to be seen. MPCC efforts made the bathhouse a useful building, with a large in-the-Park fundraising project coupled with a substantial federal grant, which enabled the complete re-purposing of the building; no city funds were involved.
On the transportation front, the state Legislature has committed to fund the remaining portion of the state Route 520 bridge project to the tune of about $1.5 billion. This will allow construction to begin on a new bridge from Montlake up to Interstate 5, hence replacing the existing viaduct up that hill. A bridge will have the advantage of resulting in fewer concrete columns in Portage Bay.
The alignment of the roadway will also be straightened and a wide bicycle lane added. Most of the construction will be to the north of the existing viaduct.
From the Washington State Department of Transportation’s viewpoint, this is a positive development. One minor impediment is NOAA’s current reluctance to relinquish any of their land to the north of the highway.
Locally, however, many people in Montlake do not regard the addition of a second bascule bridge — part of the proposed project — with enthusiasm, despite the ongoing congestion in that area, particularly for southbound traffic. MPCC has proposed to our legislators that the existing Montlake Bridge be retained as-is and reworked to add a southbound HOV lane. This could be accomplished by moving the bike/pedestrian lanes to the outside of the existing bridge towers and structure, per the fairly recently completed example of the Lions Gate Bridge rework in Vancouver, B.C.
MPCC has also strongly suggested that a tunnel (instead of a second bridge) be constructed under the Lake Washington Ship Canal to allow buses and emergency vehicles direct access from SR 520 to the north and particularly to the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s hospital without the possibly critical wait time now experienced when the bridge is raised.
This tunnel is not a new idea. It has been studied and costed before and will, in fact, be built by Sound Transit in the future. The proposal is merely to move up the construction start date and to use the tunnel for buses prior to its use by light rail, in the same way that the downtown bus/rail tunnel is used. Fortunately, there is now language in the just-passed transportation bill that could allow this study, thanks to MPCC’s meetings with 43rd District Rep. Brady Walkinshaw.
The language would also allow the study of a new and replacement direct on-ramp from Lake Washington Boulevard to eastbound SR 520 — something for which MPCC has been campaigning for many years, in case of a complete breakdown of the intersection of Montlake and Lake Washington boulevards when the existing eastbound ramp is removed. A specific request on this last matter was given to House Speaker Frank Chopp at a meeting on July 27.
We are continuing with our popular series of speakers in our Extraordinary Neighbors program. Unfortunately, our last anticipated speaker, scheduled for July 29, Four-Star Gen. Pete Chiarelli (who was to have been introduced by our own Tom Skerritt) got called away to Washington, D.C., at the last minute. We are hoping to be able to reschedule his talk in the near future.
And don’t forget the free Music in the Park concert series in Madison Park (4201 E. Madison St.) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays in August (Aug. 6, 13, 20 and 27).
It is none too early to remind you to put Sept. 11 on your calendar, as well, for the popular Madison Park Artwalk.
— Maurice Cooper, president