Letters to the Editor

Upper Golden Gardens Park Under Siege Again

To the Editor:

As a 30-year user and observer of the Gardens, and a past chair of the Friends of Golden Gardens, I wish to make a few comments about the stewardship of this park. The upper park is a designated natural area. Before the dog run went in, it was a place of great beauty and serenity; a place I could take a quiet walk in the woods, sit and read in a quiet setting, or go for a picnic in the meadow with my family. The meadow is now a fenced off, noisy and septic off-leash area. The grasses have been replaced by wood chips. Earth berms have been built to hold septic run-off in a muddy pool at the base of the run. A sign board has gone up. Bright lights and garbage cans have been installed. The rest of the upper park beyond the "off-leash" area has become an "on-leash" extension of the dog run. In short, the whole upper park has been overrun and overwhelmed by a powerful special interest group.

There are hundreds of such groups looking for what little open space remains to carry out their activities. The question is, do the natural areas and passive open spaces have a legal right to exist, is it of exceptional value to the community as is, or will it continue to be described as unused and useless until extensively developed out of existence? Every group that wants land describes the open space and natural areas of a park as insufficiently used and developed. Back in the 1970s, Wes Uhlman and Dixie Lee Ray said the same about the lower park and tried their hardest to turn it into an aquarium, research facilities, and an expanded parking lot. There were also efforts to build a swimming pool and tennis courts there. Because of an outraged community, it did not happen. There was a mandate to keep the park open for everyone and not close it off for special interests.

Present city council politicians have no memory of the battles already fought in the park and the decisions made. Nothing is sacred. The park now seems to be for sale to the strongest lobby and the longest petition and whoever fills the hearing room with the most supporters. Where is the city going with this policy? What sort of parklands will be left when they are all fenced off and divided into exclusive special use areas? Where will be the quiet meadow and woods to walk in and contemplate the simple beauty of the natural world?

The impact of a skateboard facility will be far more than on parking. It will increase overall development and crowding in the whole park. Of major concern to me is the incessant rolling, pounding, scraping noise it will add to the natural area over and above that of the barking at the dog run. Whatever quiet serenity the upper natural area and habitat still has will be further degraded. I am also concerned about the sort of behavior that has left the nearby park retention wall along the tracks covered with graffiti. What do we really know about the overall impact of this sort of facility?

If the city feels it does not need as much overflow parking, then tear up the asphalt and replant the forest that was torn down so long ago. There are other species in the city in need of habitat, and they're being slowly driven to desperation. Once again, the upper park is a designated natural area...under siege.

William Neuman

Bush Can't Spell

To the Editor:

September 10, 2000: Tonight George W. Bush told us that the schools in his state have an "exempla-rar-y" record.

He must have been schooled in Texas.

Gene Buck

Hybrid Car Still Relies on Petroleum

To the Editor:

While [it is] an excellent neighborhood paper, we find the Seattle Press also to be quite discerning about society at large. Another opportunity in this vein may have been lost with the format of your recent "Road Test of Hybrid Car" (Seattle Press, September 6 – 19 issue).

While an multiple-award engineering masterpiece, the promotion of the Toyota Prius suggests that this is the "electric" car, which does not need to be plugged in. Having an electric car that can be plugged in offers energy alternatives besides petroleum. In no way does regenerative braking provide all the charge the batteries need, so most of the battery charging is through the car's internal combustion engine.

There is also the enthusiastic suggestion of unlimited mileage while, in fact, the average one-way commute by car in the greater Puget Sound area is only 10.6 miles, and with ever worsening traffic one wonders whether we are getting our rewards and punishments mixed up here.

While an exceptionally clean burning car, its 50 MPG (yes, even in the city) is outstanding. But as we are running out of petroleum, one wonders where the ethical difference lies between stealing the last drop of petroleum from our grandchildren (at 25 MPG) versus from our greatgrandchildren (at 50 MPG)?

Eric Sundin

Electric Vehicles Northwest

Postal Service is the Best Provider for Fremont

To the Editor:

I agree with the many petition-signers that Fremont needs expanded postal services, as reported in "A Post Office for Fremont?" (Seattle Press August 23 – September 5 issue). The best service provider would, in my opinion, be a not-for-profit entity, the U.S. Postal Service.

Private for-profit mailing operations often add large surcharges to postal products which increase the cost to the customer. Private "postal mailbox" stores charge two to three times what the Postal Service charges for renting a postal box (they also charge extra to forward mail while the Postal Service does that for free).

As a postal clerk at the Wallingford Station, I can attest to the advantages of having trained "specialists" handle mailing and dispatch operations. In addition, the security of the mail is protected by federal law which applies in greater degree to postal employees.

As a union steward I would also speak out in favor of having work done by employees who are paid a living wage, with decent healthcare and retirement benefits. An article in the same (Labor Day) issue of the Seattle Press, (Workers Driven Out of Seattle by Rising Housing Costs) points out that "hourly wages in Seattle's service sector seem 'permanently stuck' at $9 or less." The purpose of private postal operations is primarily to make a profit, whether at the expense of the customer, or by paying their workers poverty-level wages. The Postal Service's mission is public service, not making a profit, and its employees are fortunate to have union protection for our standard of living.

David Yao
Chief Steward, Customer Services American Postal Workers Union, Greater Seattle Area Local

No New Taxes for Sound Transit

To the Editor:

There is no way that I will ever support another tax raise. No way. Never, never, never. None of my friends (who are all registered voters with brains) will ever support Ron Sims' tax raise proposal either. Sound Transit should be a dead issue for the people of Seattle. The light rail system is already grossly over budget and hopelessly antiquated before it's even been built. And they keep waving their little figures of increased ridership, and they are on time and just doing SO good and blah, blah, blah. Well, aren't they just SO special! What a crock of you-know-what and everyone with half a brain knows it. If they really cared about the city of Seattle and the transportation problems that we are all forced to endure daily they would consider every alternative. They are always trying to give us that same old song and dance number, gushing, "Oh gee, it's what the voters wanted, so we're doing it." That's a load of crap too--where's the monorail and why does Safeco Field exist?

And another thing--I know how desperately we need some kind of relief from this traffic congestion, but it is my belief that we shouldn't blindly leap into a seemingly lovely solution when it is actually a horrendous mistake (I-745 for example). I will not ride anything that is 240 feet beneath the surface of the earth no matter how safe they say it is. It's creepy to think about it in this area that's waiting for The Big One. As it has been so wisely said before, "IT ISN'T TOO LATE TO STOP."

If they cared, they would take the time to consider Chuck Collins' transit proposal (in David Brewster's column, Seattle Times, September 1, 2000). And if they don't care, they are arrogant jerks.

Catherine Dampier

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!