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City Planners Ignore Northgate Neighbors
By Joel Tufel
Apr 25, 2002 -- Congenital defects at Northgate can only be overcome by bold and visionary effort. The core area is constricted by an obstructing freeway, a traffic-congested Northgate Way, suburban superblock dimensions, and the mall itself. It is all zoned to allow the development of about nine times the square footage of what exists there now. Metro already schedules about 725 buses each day along Fifth Avenue, the intended future "Main Street". Without curbside parking, pedestrians are directly exposed to aggressive arterial traffic. There is no public official or decision-maker in Seattle who is participating with the credentials of a distinguished urban planner. We fly by the seat of our pants.Northgate community activists advocated for increased open space, outstanding pedestrian opportunities and traffic mitigation, connectivity with all areas to the west, a daylighted Thornton Creek, and an exciting location for a new library and community center. None of this has happened.
There have been many pathetic public meetings to learn about what happened to us since the last meeting and to "comment". There was not one opportunity to vote or to poll for community preference. How can concerned citizens take responsibility for planning local growth and development when they have no authority? No wonder there is so much cynicism, detachment, and distrust of government. We were only slowing down the process of making decisions that were not ours to make. We functioned as spectators and news commentators.
If you wonder why the neighborhoods aren't shaping up, why traffic congestion increases, why open space is a shrinking amenity and we continue to degrade our natural environment, our Journal of Designing Northgate can serve as a textbook model.
Joel Tufel is a member of Citizens for a Liveable Northgate.
Reader Comments
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| lynn hainsworth | Dec 23, 2003 | Saskatoon, Canada | |
| Gee, this situation sounds really familiar. I live in a neighbourhood close to the downtown in a city which is divided very distinctively and geographically on race and economic advantage or lack. The Westside of the river is generally considered an undesirable area because we are poorer and the majority of First Nations people at least the most disadvantaged ones live on the Westside. In our neighourhood, Caswell ( which has lots of advantages including a library, several schools and grocery stores plus affordable housing is being gradually undermined by the city. The city engaged in one of the most shockingly bogus " planning exercises " known to mankind and even then proceeded to undermine even the most modest of our suggestions. So in three years while traffic has continued to get worse, they have installed four, (count 'em) stop signs while rerouting traffic through the neighbourhood, rezoning to allow more light industrial and increasing the number of liquor outlets, including offsales, ( so that more underage and inebriated drivers can pick up liquor without scrutiny. Strangely enough our community has raised a fair amount of cash throughout the years, so much so, that we have a little war chest. We could hire someone to come in to develop a really good plan that could accommodate our needs plus embarrass or educate local planners but we need some progressive suggestions of good planners any ideas? Lynn | |||
