by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 8 May 2015
On Saturday, May 16th, from Noon – 4p, everyone in our community is invited, and encouraged, to come help restore and explore the underappreciated treasure that is the north shoreline of Lake Union.
The Friends Of North Lake Union (FONLU) want to gather us together for a ‘Spring Clean’ of Northlake Avenue North, starting from Waterway 22 (where Stone Way ends at Lake Union) and east to Gas Works Park… and beyond, if volunteer effort allows.
FONLU also hopes that this Spring Clean will bring people – Fremonsters, Wallingfordians, and all those in-between – to see this area for themselves. “The primary motive is to literally clean up the Waterway,” explained Reid Haefer about May 16th, but he also wants, “to raise awareness: about Waterway 22, and what can be done there, and about what else is going on there – the lack of pedestrian amenities, the trash, the homeless and the shoreline.”
Raise A Hand
Haefer is founder and current chairperson of FONLU, a new community advocacy group that he launched after attending meetings of the Wallingford Community Council (WCC.)
At a WCC meeting, a Seattle Department Of Transportation (SDOT) representative explained about a sidewalk project along North Northlake Ave. Through the 2013 Neighborhood Street Fund, community advocates got SDOT funds designated for adding sidewalks (and sidewalk improvements) from east of Waterway 22 to Gas Works Park. (Read a bit about this in a Fremocentrist.com column from January 2013.) At the meeting Haefer attended, the representative suggested that the WCC do an environmental restoration of the Waterway. “I think it had been floated before,” he said about the suggestion, “but no one had followed up.”
He, and some others, took the suggestion and looked into it – and discovered a buried treasure in desperate need of attention. “I raised my hand,” Haefer recently observed about how he got into community advocacy so deeply that he created a whole new organization.
Start Advocacy
When Haefer, and others of FONLU, went to explore Waterway 22, and talked to neighbors, “we were amazed,” he said, “It’s seemingly ignored.” The foot of Stone Way has a traffic barrier, and behind it is a path dug into the earth by pedestrians, but otherwise the Waterway is choked by invasive plant species – particularly blackberries – and the trash that rarely ever gets cleared away.
“Possibly ownership is part of the problem,” explained Haefer. Waterway 22, and all public waterways, are owned by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), but as it sits within the City of Seattle, it is also falls under city responsibilities. As a result, improvements rarely get done until neighbors pitch loud complaints – or start advocating.
“Coordinating with the owners is most difficult,” acknowledged Haefer about working with the DNR. FONLU has already had to navigate with personnel changes and policy confusion. Yet, the organization continues to negotiate with DNR representatives to get a permit, and permission, for a community-based improvement plan for Waterway 22.
Once permission is gained, FONLU plans to apply for City of Seattle funds to do community planning, through meetings, for what we want to see at Waterway 22. According to Haefer, FONLU doesn’t have a plan set. They do want to remove the invasive plant species, and perhaps see a small seating area installed along with a safe sidewalk. If the community so desired, Haefer also suggested a small stairway to the water. “Our organization has a strong interest in improving the natural environment of Lake Union, and the shoreline,” he said, “but we don’t have a plan. We just want something to be done.”
Create Ownership
The logo of FONLU is all of Lake Union, however, and they want the May 16th Spring Clean to also clean up North Northlake. More involvement by the community in this area – a deliberate show of interest – could help dampen a dramatic increase in littering and general abuse.
“It’s kind of chicken-and-egg,” Haefer said. As the public Waterways and North Northlake Way, “collects garbage, that induces people to dump more garbage. It makes people think it is okay.”
Due to its parallel with the Burke-Gilman Trail, the area gets a lot of pedestrian use but along the trail pedestrians scramble out of the path of high-speed cyclists and along Waterway 22 and North Northlake, they don’t have safe sidewalks or paths. “At times it seems like a lose-lose for pedestrians,” Haefer observed, “a more permanent solution to Waterway 22 will make it safer for pedestrians.”
Yet, safe sidewalks aren’t the biggest danger along North Northlake right now. Haefer has heard at a recent WCC meeting about problems regarding safety, parking and public health caused by encampments along this corridor. “It’s an on-going topic that doesn’t have a solution,” Haefer said, and “it’s getting worse.”
On May 16th, FONLU hopes to get our community to join in with cleaning, and showing ownership of the North Lake Union shoreline. Come help pick up weeds and debris from roughly Aurora to Gas Works Park.
After collection of trash (including items like a long-deteriorating recliner) and/or cut back of weeds and blackberry vines, at about 4p, join in a post-cleanup community celebration at Fremont Brewing, to fully meet FONLU.
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©2015 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.