[UPDATE 5/22: This post has been updated to include a letter from coalition of Northgate neighborhood leaders and advocacy organizations, expressing our concern about the direction Sound Transit is taking on a planned parking garage at Northgate.]
Michelle lives less than a mile from the Northgate transit center and wants nothing more than to ride her bicycle there and catch the bus to her job in Bellevue. But she doesn’t ride because she just doesn’t feel safe.
Sound Transit should make it safer for Michelle to bike to Northgate, not more dangerous
Instead, Michelle is forced to drive less than a mile to catch the bus, or pay $11 every day for tolls and gas driving to work. There are tens of thousands of people just like Michelle living near Northgate who would love to have the opportunity to safely bike or walk to the transit center. But we haven’t made the investments necessary to make it possible.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The construction of the light rail station at Northgate provides a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is our chance to transform a 1950’s auto-dominated part of the city into a bikeable, walkable and transit-rich community where everyone who wants to can safely bike or walk to the station.
But right now, Sound Transit is poised to spend around $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage that will actually make it more dangerous to bike and walk in the neighborhood.
Sound Transit needs to hear from you that they should make it safer for the tens of thousands of people like Michelle to bike to Northgate, not more dangerous.
For a fraction of the cost of the parking garage, we could make hundreds of small shovel-ready improvements that would make it easier and safer for people to bike, walk or take transit to the station. We’d even have enough money left over to build a bicycle/pedestrian bridge across I-5 so the seven thousand people who attend and work at North Seattle Community College – and the thousands of other people who live in the neighborhood – could easily access the station.
So why on earth would Sound Transit want to spend $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage that the community doesn’t want, the station doesn’t need, and would make it more dangerous for the tens of thousands of people like Michelle who want to safely bike or walk to the station to do so?
Honestly, we have no idea. What we do know is that Sound Transit reached a backroom deal to build a parking garage without any public involvement, none. A backroom deal that a prominent neighborhood leader described as “repulsive and offensive,” because it was reached without any consultation with the community and does not align with anyone’s vision for the future of the neighborhood.
Sound Transit doesn’t have to build a parking garage. They can choose to step back and do the hard work necessary to get this once in a lifetime opportunity right. But they’re not going to do the right thing unless they hear from you.
Craig, your post leaves out key details that would help people , like myself, understand the issue. As a person that is familar with the Northgate area (born and raised in Seattle area, and yes I avoid biking Northgate) but someone that is not familar with the day to day usage of peds, bikes, and cars it would be helpful to have some additional info instead of generalizations:
1) how do we know this won’t help… I’ve seen many of the sound transit/Metro/Community Transit park and ride improvements help areas like Issaquah, Kirkland, Eastgate, South Everett)
2) You say the community doesn’t want the garage… What data is there on this (articles, community groups, etc)
3) Why does adding this station make it more dangerous for peds and bikers
4) What info do you have back up the claim of a backroom deal… Making allegations without facts can be damaging to the cause.
5) the article you linked from Tessa Greegor is a great example of details that help advocate for the issue by giving facts
I do believe Sound Transit, King County and SDOT are missing an opportunity to improve ped/bike access in the Northgate area but we need to be positive advocates for the cause. I have seen great examples of community input and great planning in the Issaquah and Eastgate areas for bike and bus transit.
Do your research! Sound Transit is required by the federal government to replace the parking-and-ride spots they are eliminating to build the station. They are following the law. I don’t like it either, but it is not Sound Transit’s decision. Also the garage will be 450 spots, not 900.
Couple of quick responses in response to the comments posted:
- We’ve had a number of conversations with the community groups around the station, the parking garage does not align with their vision for the future of the neighborhood.
- Adding the station makes it more dangerous for bicycling because it would increase traffic around the station and through the neighborhood while doing nothing to improve conditions for bicycling and walking. More importantly, it’s an issue of opportunity cost.
- Sound Transit has not released any public proposal regarding the parking garage, yet they are planning on reviewing the Garage proposal this week and providing direction to move forward with it in June, without any significant public involvement or input. We are working with Sound Transit to fix this situation.
- The station is only displacing 117 permanent parking stalls, Sound Transit does not need to replace 117 with 900. In addition, they could request a waiver from the FTA, or come up with other creative and innovative options to meet the requirements of the federal government.
Craig: How’s this for a public document:
http://projects.soundtransit.org/Projects-Home/North-Link/North-Link-Final-SEIS.xml
Or this:
http://projects.soundtransit.org/documents/doc/NLinkROD_6-7-06.doc
Some backroom deal: they managed to get an entire $2 billion project decision and concurring federal opinion without telling anyone. Impressive.
Dear “railcan”, those documents are from 2006 and not directly relevant to the conversation at hand.
I lived in Boston for 11 years: three of those years inside the city, and eight of them in the suburbs. When I lived in the suburbs, I used various MBTA commuter options to get to my job in the financial district.
The commuter rail and boat system there is very popular and used heavily. Essential to that system is a series of very large park and ride lots. The MBTA provides 51,000 parking spaces in 150 locations. They are the largest owner and operator of off-street parking in New England.
It boggles my mind that you people would be opposing park and ride lots in a natural location like Northgate. If you were against mass transit and wanted it to fail, I could understand the opposition. But my perception is that the bicycle lobby in Seattle wants Sound Transit to succeed.
So why on earth would you be opposing park and ride lots? A 900-space garage is nothing. I used to park at the MBTA garage at Quincy, Mass., which is approximately the same distance from Boston’s financial district that Northgate is from downtown Seattle. MBTA’s Quincy lot has 2,400 spaces. The Braintree station, a little farther out, has another 1,300 spaces. I’d also use that.
If you go down to Portland and look at their light rail system, you’ll see that the trains are often mostly empty, in contrast to Boston’s commuter system, which runs much fuller. I asked my friend from there why, and he said it’s because there are so few parking lots. You can’t get to the stations, so people just drive to work.
Look, children, only 3% of the people in Seattle use their bicycle to commute. That’s not going to change much, if at all, no matter what you think. If you build a rail network without parking lots, you’ll build a rail network without passengers. Is that what you want? I’m not against mass transit at all. I loved Boston’s network. But they know what they’re doing. You people don’t have a clue!
The last time I checked, the Mayor was on the ST Board. So how can this be a backroom deal? I am pretty sure that the Mayor does not need his old Sierra Club buddy and almost City employee leveling such unfounded accusations at the agency he oversees. Chill, dude.
I’m surprised by Craig’s response to posting the environmental docs. To label them “not directly relevant” to this converation is darn irresponsible. The ROD is the very basis of the current discussion. Take a look at chapter 3, and then the ROD. They state very clearly Sound Transit must mitigate parking impacts (along with a whole lot of other stuff that goes along with transforming this area into an extremely cool, transit uber-hub with a 6-minute subway ride to downtown).
As to the timing? 2006 is when this decision was made. That’s a statement in itself; here we are, six years later, re-opening a major issue in true Seattle fashion. Go, team. My original point stands: to make the statement, “What we do know is that Sound Transit reached a backroom deal to build a parking garage without any public involvement, none”… well that just is not true, and it’s a disservice to club members to tell ‘em that.
“railcan” I think you are completely missing the point here. Sound Transit is only losing 117 permanent stalls, this does not necessitate building a 900-stall garage. In addition, Thursday will be the first time that Sound Transit has publicly released any information regarding the “potential shared use, replacement parking garage.” The plan for this garage has been developed by government agencies working behind closed doors without any stakeholder or public engagement, that’s not how we do things in Seattle.
You’re right, we don’t do things behind closed doors in Seattle. We plan things endlessly through multi-year exhaustive analyses in the full light of day (and night), and then we re-look, and look again, and talk some more, and listen and talk again, and then maybe make a decision once everyone has had their say. Which is what’s happened here.
If you took the time to look at the docs you’d see the foundational records and decisions about what will happen when Link comes to Norhtgate. If you examine the five years since then, you’d see ongoing dialogue through the design- and related planning processes. If you looked at the ST website, or King County’s or PSRC’s Growing Transit Communities materials, you would see repeated references to Northgate planning, including records of discussion about how to deal with the agencies’ parking mitigation requirements in order to clear the way for Transit-Oriented Communities. That is, after all the main point: getting the system built and having the right kind of land use occur as a result. As recently as March the ST Board told the ST staff that a parking garage next to the station would inhibit re-developemnt of public land, and to go back to the drawing board. Were you at that meeting? I’m guesing not. This thread suggests you haven’t done any of that due diligence, so you have missed that central point and misled club members as a result.
I normally don’t belabor things to this extent, but the lack of self-awareness being demonstrated here is rather astonishing. (And to get the bona fides out of the way, yes I am a club member and regular bike commuter, and yes I have inside information. I just don’t see why the club has to shoot from the hip on things like this without a more considered approach; this issue is simply not as simple as the post would have readers believe. The energy & focus of the membership is a precious thing to use up.) Peace out.
You’re right, we don’t do things behind closed doors in Seattle.
Really? Look at what McGinn and the City Council tried to shove down Capitol Hill’s throat. That got stopped only at the last minute, and a lot of it was cooked up in secret meetings of McGinn’s allies.
[...] as a source in the comments on my last post about the currently-circulating rumors of a “back room deal” for a 900-stall parking garage at Northgate. I asked him for comment about this, and [...]
I had some time to do a little more reading on this topic, prompted by a spot I heard on the radio this morning. I had been sucked in by the initial email from Cascade about this ‘backroom deal,’ and I wrote a message opposing the garage. Having read more about the transit center and garage proposal, I’m a bit miffed at Cascade for sending out the initial incendiary email. From my additional reading, this sounds a lot more complicated than the message I understood from the email, namely, “ST’s going to nearly double the P&R spaces at Northgate while doing nothing for cyclists and pedestrians.” I feel a bit misled by Cascade in this topic now. There may be an issue to work on at Northgate, but it doesn’t appear well researched and presented by Cascade. Cry ‘Wolf!’ enough times without reason, and the membership will soon quit listening, and eventually go away.
I depend on Cascade to scan for significant regional cycling issues that I don’t have time to look out for myself, not to sensationalize every little pothole. Please research a bit more before you call the membership to action.
[...] with regards to the 900-stall parking garage at Northgate. It started with Cascade’s blog post accusing Sound Transit (ST) of making a backroom deal to build 900 parking stalls, which ST [...]
At the peak, Sound Transit is displacing 428 spots, but in the end they’re only displacing 117 spots. See slides 28 to 31 at http://projects.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/projects/link/north/northgate/Northgate_Construction_Open_House_Presentation_032112_.pdf.
However, they’re also displacing 451 spots on Northgate property that they’re obliged to compensate Simon for. See http://projects.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/projects/link/north/northgate/20120601mitigation_fact_sheet.pdf.
The parking garage is pegged at 600 to 900 spots. If it comes in at the low end, it’ll just be 32 more spots than the current parking available for the Northgate Transit Center and Northgate Mall. That doesn’t strike me as a sin against nature. Sure, I’d rather more people biked, walked, or took public transit to Northgate, as I do, but I also acknowledge that not everyone’s schedule always permits it. Moreover, King County Metro is decreasing service, not increasing it, so neighborhoods that are currently poorly served by transit aren’t going to get any better anytime soon.
Like others, I’m put out that Cascade is lying with statistics by cherry-picking its numbers. You don’t have to cite every number that Sound Transit has ever produced, but you have to cite the relevant numbers so your audience can make an intelligent decision, not an emotional decision based on limited information. 900! $40,000,000! Fear! Outrage! Balderdash.
I love that all you nice healthy young folks love to scoot around the neighborhood on your bikes but the reality is that despite all the negatives cars are popular and dominant for a reason.
Sure I would love to commute on a $1000 bike that has 0 fuel costs compared to my $50,000 van that I had to buy to fit my wheelchair that eats thousands a year in gas but that is just not possible.
Sadly in this city the non able-bodied are considered invisible. Its called “ableism”.
Its not my fault I’m crippled and forced to own a car. Its hard to find parking in Northgate because all the handicap spots are taken up. Yes I’m fairly mobile so I don’t have to even use them most the time but parking is still a bear. I cant wait for the garage and train because it will save me a fortune because the light rail will drop me off right at work but i need to drive 4 miles to get to Northgate. An impossibility to do in a wheelchair with my condition.
I notice Cyclists fight so hard to get their way and seem to really hate cars but you need to be aware that its not a battle and adding pedestrians to the cry makes it sound nicer but its all self serving for bikes.
The best thing a cyclist can do besides praying for all the streets to be dug up and turned into paths is just be more aware and cautious. I cant tell you how many bikes I see drift out in traffic avoiding glass or potholes and don’t even bother to see if there is traffic behind them. Im constantly buzzed by uncaring cyclists that don’t care that they are scaring the hell out of me. Ive almost hit a cyclist at night because they wear dark clothing and have no lights on. I see about 20 a day that run the stop light next to my house while flying down the hill at 40mph in a 25mph school zone (yes several children have been hit by cyclists over the years and its getting more frequent!).
Its nice that the little girl in the story wants a safe trip to northgate but it seems “safe” to a lot of Seattle cyclists means they can be oblivious and not have to worry about repercussions of ignoring everything around them. Trusting that everyone sees you even though your in a bike line is just insane and its begging for trouble.
If you want a safe trip, wear a helmet, put lights on your bike. wear a dayglow vest. and PAY ATTENTION!share the road means cars share it with cycles, not bikes own it and lets cars use it.
In the meantime please stop making cars the enemy. Not all of us live in the populous parts of the city in healthy bodies that can cycle.