Seattle Press on Line - Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Jun 22, 2001 -- Boater Benningfield Weighs in on Parking on Sunday

To the Editor:

As a boater in the Fremont area, and as the only boater interviewed by The Seattle Press ("Boaters vs. Market," May 30), I feel that I have a right to defend the boaters against all of the negative publicity that the boating community is seeing as a result of this hoopla.

First, and let me be very clear, we do not have a problem with the Fremont Market. Many of us go to the Market on a weekly basis. The Fremont Market has a right to exist and if the owners of the parking area where the Market currently resides see fit to allow the Market to be there, so be it. What we do have a problem with is the lack of parking that tends to result from the masses of people who wish to come down and either sell or buy stuff. This is not a battle between the boaters and the rest of Fremont. Anyone who thinks it is, is only fooling themselves. This is not a battle at all. The general public doesn't care where the Market is located. They'll follow it wherever.

We are not spoiled rich kids. My neighbors and I don't live somewhere else and drive to Fremont only on the weekends to visit our "toys." These are our homes. I personally live in less than 200 square feet of space and have for nearly three years. We don't have yards with grass, flower pots, driveways or garages to park our cars. We don't own homes or condos where we can escape after a day's work. We own boats, and believe me, unless you live in a cardboard box, we pay as much to live on our boats as others do to live in their homes.

Is it unrealistic of us to want to be able to park near our homes? We would like to feel like we can leave our homes on Saturday or Sunday without fearing that we can't get back home because someone has taken a parking spot reserved for the marina. We'd like to feel that we can do the shopping without feeling that we need to park blocks away and carry our groceries home. The area just south of the Market is reserved for the Marina and waterfront businesses. Instead, what we get is people from the Market parking along the fence on Saturdays to insure that they have a spot. And what about those who buy monthly parking passes to the lot? If they don't find a place along the fence before noon on Saturday, they get towed to make room for the market. We feel like we are locked in and that our homes have suddenly become our jails because we can't get out to do the things others would normally do on the weekends.

All we ask for is your help keeping the area south of the Market open for the people who live and work on the water.

So, if you think we are being unreasonable, let me ask this: If the Market is so valuable to the area, why is it that none of the other businesses want it located in their parking lots? Why not move it to Fred Meyers' parking lot? And, If you think we are being unrealistic then let's have the Market on your street next year. We can close off both ends on Sundays and let the masses in. Or perhaps your condo garage--that way the market would be protected from the rain.

Tom Benningfield
Fremont

Respect for Boat Owners' Choice

The boat owners' and Fremont Sunday Market's arguments aside, why is it that people insist on thinking of boats as expensive toys for rich kids? Boats are a long Seattle tradition, and they come in a wide variety of prices. Many are affordable and owned by middle-class working folks. And they're not all toys. Some are people's homes. For some people, a boat is the only home they can afford to own in inflated-real-estate Seattle. Where's the famous Seattle respect for other people's choices and lifestyles?

Mary Ann Chapman

Port of Seattle: Just Trying to Help Fishermen

To the Editor:

I was interested to read in your pages comparisons between Seattle's Pike Place Market and Fishermen's Terminal as two special Seattle places whose character must be preserved as the city grows and changes. The Port of Seattle couldn't agree more.

As the owner and steward of the home of the fishing fleet since 1913, the Port has worked closely with the community through several redevelopments and upgrades to Fishermen's Terminal over the years, and we have committed more than $25 million to dock improvements in the next few years to continue meeting the needs of the fishing industry.

Fishermen's Terminal has a chronic vacancy rate of about 30 percent, despite the Port's policy of maintaining a commercial fishing boat rate that's less than half of common recreational moorage rates. The Port has worked directly with the fishing fleet for several years to try to fill these empty berths and has begun allowing commercial workboats to moor at the facility. Many berths remain empty and the Port must generate revenue to fund the extensive dock replacement program needed to modernize the Terminal for the fishing industry.

In response to this dilemma, the Port sought the advice of the Harbor Development Strategy Community Advisory Committee, 30 citizens representing a broad range of interests from throughout Seattle and King County. The Committee recommended, and the Port agrees, that supporting the fishing industry should remain the top priority at Fishermen's Terminal. The citizens advisory committee also suggested the Port temporarily accommodate some recreational boats to fill the vacant berths until they are needed by fishing boats--which would always have priority at the Terminal.

After the summer fishing season which is now upon us, the Port will consult with the fishermen to ensure we understand their concerns and gather their suggestions on the best way to make changes which enhance Fishermen's as the working terminal it has always been.

Just as that other Seattle landmark, the Pike Place Market, has constantly evolved from what was originally local farmers selling their produce from truck beds, to today's collection of farmers, craftspeople and shop owners, so too has Fishermen's Terminal changed during the last century.

The Port undertook a major redevelopment at Fishermen's Terminal more than a dozen years ago to adapt to its needs. These improvements, including popular restaurants, a busy new dock and the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial, have been well received by fishermen and the community. We were successful in improving the facility while preserving its unique character, and we know we can achieve this balance again.

What seems to have been forgotten is that this recommendation would bring new revenue to Fishermen's Terminal so that important improvements can be made to benefit fishermen. It's sad that this effort to help restore and rebuild the very facility fishermen rely upon is being portrayed by some as an effort to harm fishermen. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Steve Sewell
Port of Seattle

Executing McVeigh is Government-Sponsored Terrorism

To the Editor:

"I'm sad because there is good in (him) and because this begins our country's involvement again in the cycle of violence." -Inmate Minister Ashmore talking of his meeting with Timothy McVeigh

"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the people by its example." -Justice Brandeis

I do not support or believe in the United States Federal Government any longer. I do not support a government, or a culture, that has the power to execute it's own citizens. I do not believe that executing a human being is justice in any form, it is terrorism and murder. I do not support a government that has the power to create this cultural terrorism and execution of human life. When the United States people stop executing human beings and creating this terrorism, I will support the United States government; until then, I do not support the United States government and I will help change it. (I am not a martyr, terrorist, or savior; I am human.)

Human execution is a human perversion that is both cultural and individual, even if it is your self. Any human who enjoys or desires to create the execution and death of another human being (or themselves) is a terrorist. Thank you, United States, for making my decision so easy (even though its action is so hard); I do not support terrorism, execution, war, or murder, therefore I do not support the United States government. Executing a human being is terrorism and it is what the United States is creating. I do not support terrorism. The United States military kills people all over the world all the time. We are witnessing this killing and terrorism being created in the United States where the military machine is being created. It will be the people of the United States who dismantle this terrorism we are creating - one way or the other; Either through peaceful and conscious evolution, or through perversion, execution, and terrorism. We need to stop this terrorism of executing human beings before it kills us all. If you do not see and feel this terrorism now, you will. Please help stop terrorism from being created by feeling it now, before it takes someone else "by suprise"; it could be someone you know. Please help stop humans from killing humans, it is terrifying, and it creates terrorists.

Kenneth G. Dzaman

Earth Liberation Front Arson Destroyed Valuable Conservation Research

To the Editor,

Arsonists recently destroyed the offices and much of the research work of nine faculty and forty graduate students housed at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture.

The apparent intent of this purposeful damage was to "scare" people into stopping research and silencing open scientific discussion about topics that small groups of people do not support. There are two problems with these terrorist actions. First, trying to stop informed discussion using such scare tactics relegates us to a kind of society where the ends justify the means and brutishness can be employed to control thought, differences of opinion, or differences of any kind. Second, carrying out such damaging actions in the name of an environmental ethic that reveres nature and yet fails to recognize the role of people and science in restoring and healing the land is misguided at best. The Center for Urban Horticulture has made and continues to make a huge contribution to our understanding of ecological restoration. It provides an important setting where people come together to pool their knowledge and experience about how to work with nature and natural processes to restore damaged ecosystems.

The Center for Urban Horticulture supports scientific research and academic education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It also provides a unique function to the greater community by providing unparalleled library resources and technical workshops directed at wide-ranging topics related to the establishment of healthy natural systems. It is with profound appreciation for the existence of the Center and deepest sorrow at the losses suffered from the fire that SERNW and our parent organization, the Society for Ecological Restoration, extend support to the students and faculty to pick up and begin anew. We encourage all peoples working with the environment to speak out against and publicly condemn such senseless acts of violence.

Steve Moddemeyer, President, Society for Ecological Restoration - Northwest Chapter, Seattle, WA
Steve Gatewood, Executive Director, Society for Ecological Restoration, Tucson, AZ

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