Seattle Press on Line - Aurora Avenue Business Endangered by State Traffic Planning?

There From Here

Aurora Avenue Business Endangered by State Traffic Planning?

By Tara Peattie

Oct 25, 2001 -- Some things you don't mess with. Fergie was never going to be Princess Di, Seattle is never going to be New York, and Aurora Avenue is never going to be Park Avenue or the Champs Elysees, at least not as long as Butch's Gun Shop calls it home. Yet the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has high hopes for Aurora, written up in their long range plan for state highways.

The plan calls for potentially eliminating street parking along Aurora, dedicating the third lanes on either side to transit-only, and the vision currently includes prettifying the street by making it more boulevard-like.

Butch Jr. has been the proprietor of Butch's Gun Shop on the 7500 block of Aurora for the past 30 years. He says, "It's a bad, bad, bad idea. If they're going to take away the street parking along here, they might as well buy out every business along Aurora, and they ain't going to do that." Many businesses along Aurora don't have parking lots, and the ability of shoppers to pull up to the curb is part of their lifeblood.

"The only worse thing they could do is put up Jersey barriers. You see how many businesses survived that stretch south where there are barriers now. Not even the motels can survive that. There is nowhere to cross the street, and nowhere to turn around."

Jim Thornton, owner of the Aurora Family Restaurant at 88th and Aurora, says, "Merchants need that parking. We depend on that parking, we've been against this for a long time and we're not going to let them do it."

As you could guess by now, the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association is resolutely opposed to the item, and a couple years ago WS DOT assured the group that the item would be removed from the plan. That never happened. Why not? Dave Quiring points a finger north, to Shoreline. Yes, maybe we can blame Shoreline and their politically correct consultants for bringing recent pressure onto Aurora Avenue to change. Change, of course, is inevitable, regardless of Shoreline, but what form will it take?

Quiring has run Quiring Monuments, which is possibly the best memorial monument crafts shop in the Northwest, for 38 years. He's also the president of the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association.

"Shoreline wants to create a boulevard appearance, and in the process, create a couple of transit-only lanes. They hired a consultant with a vision. Shoreline was sold a vision of Aurora as a tree-lined boulevard. Urban planning on Aurora is a really hot election issue for Shoreline this year." Naturally, WSDOT would think to carry the concept south. Chez Chubby & Tubby, anyone?

Aurora Avenue in Shoreline used to be a pretty dangerous place to be a pedestrian. Forty-two people were struck by cars between 1992 and '96. They've worked on the problem, but finding ways to speed vehicular traffic still presents safety hazards for pedestrians. High-speed traffic is also not always viewed kindly by businesses along the route that naturally want to be a destination, not a passing glimpse mid-Slurpee at 60 miles an hour.

The stretch of Aurora just south of Shoreline, from 117th to 145th in Seattle, has transit-only lanes, which Quiring says are unsafe. This is strip-mall country where hoofers aren't really welcome. It's somewhat different from what we know Aurora to be further south, although a walk along Aurora always feels a bit like a walk on the wild side, even for me.

Already, one may not park on Aurora from 7 - 10 a.m. or 3 - 7 p.m. WSDOT would like to make this all day, from 117th Street to 67th Street. "The planning guys just see it as a big street, not as a neighborhood." says Quiring. Quiring Monuments has been on Aurora since 1949.

Quiring believes that taking away the third general purpose lane available during rush hour and dedicating it to transit will make the two remaining lanes so congested that there will be more cut-through traffic in the neighborhoods.

Traffic on Aurora currently seems manageable. But it's inevitable that commuter pressure on the Highway 99 will increase. When that happens, there will be significant opposition. "There are 535 businesses up and down Aurora and we know how to come together when it's necessary," says Quiring. "I don't want to see monorail on Aurora either. We're opposed to monorail on Aurora. But I guess I'd take monorail over the bus lanes." Happily for the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association, that route is not currently being considered for monorail.

Aurora Avenue is both a thoroughfare under the purview of the state, and a unique local asset. To avoid identity crisis, a balance must be struck.

Tara Peattie thinks it would be tragic if motorcycles could no longer park in front of Beth's Cafe. It would irrevocably ruin the 12-egg omelette eating experience. She can be reached at peattie@drizzle.com.

Reader Comments

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Will Affleck-Asch	Oct 27, 2001	Seattle, WA	Systems Analyst/Investor
I find it amusing that the Aurora Ave businesses are so dead set against the monorail. It is possible to have both monorail and parking in the same lane, but not more car traffic. However, due to the business feedback, it looks like West Queen Anne and Magnolia will be getting monorail along 15th, due to a mistake by the original STP survey that reported "noone on Highway 99 (Aurora) wants monorail". In fact, only those north of Greenlake are dead set against monorail. And all the monorail plans I've seen show it never getting north of 50th and Aurora at best. Be careful what you ask for - you may get it. Or, as is the case with monorail, you won't get it - someone else will get it, and all those extra customers you turned down due to your shortsighted outlook.


Michaela	Oct 25, 2002	Seattle, WA	Software Administrator
I think the merchants of Aurora should get out of their stores and take a good look around and really see what goes on along Aurora Avenue and its neighboring streets. If they did they'd see strung out people waiting for a drug dealer to show up in a parking lot half a block from Green Lake. They'd see prostitutes waiting for a john in a dentist's parking lot. These are just some of the things that go on along Aurora and this is what they want to protect? As a homeowner 1/2 block from Aurora, I couldn't agree less. Take away the parking since everyone already parks along the side streets of Aurora and give the lane to the buses, which may actually start running on time then. Removing the parking lane will not only help the buses, but it would make pedestrians more visible and offer more visibility to drivers. The only drawback I can see to all this is that the business owners whose store fronts are run down may need to do a little maintenance to make them look a little less run down since their stores will also be more visible.