Editorials / Opinion

Mayor McGinn should add not decrease parking

Mayor Mike McGinn’s support of reducing street parking and reducing the requirement for new parking developments is making Seattle less livable.

For a while I lived in a condo in Belltown and my range hood stopped working. No repair company recommended by the manufacturer would come to Belltown because of the lack of parking. I noticed on their Web sites that several Seattle neighborhoods were in their no-repair zones.

Back in Mayor Norm Rice’s days, neighborhoods strongly supported the requirement that new developments needed at least one parking space for each apartment. Providing sufficient parking for customers of businesses was also a strong neighborhood goal. Businesses cannot attract customers outside the neighborhood if there is insufficient street parking.

Mayor McGinn’s narrow-minded support for bicycles neglects the need and accommodations for vehicle parking necessary for a healthy city. Where are Seattle citizens who own cars for recreation, business and other personal needs going to do? What are the businesses that depend on parking going to do? Limiting our choices is not the answer. The mayor needs more balance in this single-minded policy.

Terry Hoy, Bremerton

Get with the program

Bikers use the “cycle track” on Linden Avenue North from North 130th Street. [Mike Siegel, The Seattle Times.]

It is about time that our city officials got their heads out of the sand.

I am referring to the fact that they want people to get out of their cars and use bicycles or public transportation. More specifically, about making developers put in so few parking spaces for their new apartment buildings that it will impact the surrounding neighborhood.

Because there will not be enough parking spaces provided in the apartment buildings, there will be a spillover in the immediate area. I grew up a few blocks from the new apartments on 15th Avenue Northwest, and I am fully expecting property values of the single-family homes in that area to be adversely affected by this.

One needs a car to get a large load of groceries. There is also a need for extra parking spaces if a tenant wishes to entertain. People who are elderly or disabled need to have a space to park a car or have someone pick them up. Finally, what about women who have to work late? They need to be able to park in their own building for their own security.

Folks, America is married to the car — get with the program!

Sally Neumeyer, Seattle

The event is a hassle

The Lucas Oil Air Show planes fly near each other as they release trails of smoke during the final day of Seafair, Sunday, August 4, 2013. [Lindsey Wasson, The Seattle Times.]

The drop in attendance at Seafair might be attributed to answering this simple query: Do the pleasures derived from attending the event outweigh the hassles? [“Is Seafair sinking? Down year fires up debate on its fate,” seattletimes.com, Aug. 8.]

Seafair must draw its patrons from the neighborhood or not at all, because those coming from outlying areas probably find Seattle more intimidating than inviting.

The potential consequences of inadvertently parking in the wrong place can hang over one like the sword of Damocles. Who wants to face coughing up a week’s wages just to get a car out of impound?

Then there is the perpetually bad traffic that only gets worse during special events. Why should one endure life-shortening stress to get to and from what is supposed to be a recreational event?

And why, pray tell, should someone need the latest technology and applications to supposedly ease the formerly simple, now arcane, transaction of paying for parking?

Thomas Munyon, Marysville

Ideas for city improvement

A bicyclist cruises down Alaskan Way near Pike Street on the Seattle waterfront. [Ellen M. Banner, The Seattle Times.]

Seattle mayoral candidates: Where is Seattle’s vision?

Seattle could be improved in many ways. The present mayor’s vision for Seattle has been limited to improved bicycle features and seawall repair.

The new candidates have said little about how Seattle can be improved. Here are some ideas: Upgrade the waterfront to attract more people to Seattle and the area — we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance for great change with removal of Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Seattle is and has been the “Gateway to Alaska.” Build on this subject: incorporate a waterfront-to-Seattle Center skylift, build a covered maritime museum.

Clean streets and roads. Complete the Burke-Gillman Trail. Get more cruise ship docking closer to Seattle. Improve Ballard Locks parking.

Let’s hear more from the mayoral candidates!

Lynn Thompson, Bellevue

Smartphone apps favor the wealthy

Barry Arnold, chief commercial officer of PayByPhone, demonstrates how a driver could buy parking with an iPad or a cellphone. Beginning with downtown’s retail core, drivers are now able to use their phones to pay for on-street parking without needing to visit a pay station. [Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times.]

When information technologies came on the scene not long ago, the pundits all chorused about how it would democratize public life, as if the new possibilities would be equally open to all. [“Find your on-street parking spot, then pay for it by phone,” NW Friday, July 19.]

However, all the new gadgets and apps are designed to promise the user a competitive edge over other people. In other words, they are meant to heighten social differences, not reduce them.

Now comes the new parking-meter app, making paying for a spot easier. However, national statistics indicate that nearly 40 percent of Americans don’t have a smartphone.

So, the wealthy and highly-educated will have an edge on simplified parking downtown. The city’s transportation people have assuaged any guilt (if they are even aware of such statistics) by providing a phone number that can be used (if the driver can memorize it and not call while the car is running, in violation of state law) or a website (which the driver can’t access without a smartphone).

Thus, liberal Seattle moves bravely into the future.

Philip Bereano, Seattle

Chinatown/International District should have free parking

The parking meter near the entrance to the Sea Garden Restaurant shows the enforcement hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. [Greg Gilbert, The Seattle Times.]

It is obvious that Seattle City Council members Tim Burgess and Tom Rasmussen have not been anywhere near the Chinatown/International District in a long time. [“Parking-rate critics target McGinn,” NW Friday, July 5.]

The massive long-term disruption along South Jackson Street by the First Hill trolley construction project is undeniable. Parking should be free in the core Chinatown/Little Saigon area to partially mitigate this disruption.

William Bayley, Seattle