What You Can do Now on 520 Issues – Online Form & Upcoming Meeting

Thank you to all who attended the SR 520 listening session with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s staff on December 20^th at the Queen City Yacht Club. It was a great opportunity for Montlake and surrounding neighbors to express concerns with Representative Jayapal’s dedicated staff members.  The goal of the meeting was for staff to gather as much information as possible about how the 520 project is affecting the 7^th District constituents.  For the first hour, folks that have long been involved in 520 issues as well as the Presidents of both Montlake and Portage Bay community clubs, had a one-on-one meeting with the staff.  This enabled them to update them on the most pressing SR520 issues, including the ongoing legal effort to prevent WSDOT from condemning the Montlake Blvd. Market. For the second two hours, her staff met with and heard from all the folks that attended.  They were particularly interested in how the project is affecting our daily lives and how often we use the Market.

Given that the meeting was held during a busy holiday time and on rather short notice, the staff of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal will be holding another public discussion regarding the 520 project on January 18^th from 6-8pm at the Seattle Yacht Club at 1807 E Hamlin.  Zach Carstensen, Director of Outreach and Engagement, and Sarah Brady, Constituent Services Coordinator, will be leading the conversation. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal will not be present at this meeting.  Please park and access the Boyer Children’s conference room from the parking garage, which can be accessed via E. Howe Street.

For those that are unable to attend this meeting, Rep. Jayapal’s office still wants to hear from you.  Please complete THIS FORM, which can be opened and completed on most PC and Apple computers. Numbers matter and we need all the voices we can to effect change! Here are the instructions for how to fill it out.

• A Social Security number and “wet”/real signature are not necessary
• Complete your name, address, phone number, email and other contact information in order to confirm residence in the 7th District (Section 1).
• In the comments section (Section 2) please describe the project’s impact on your daily quality of life.  Be as specific as possible.  For instance, “ongoing noise and light pollution from construction on Wednesday evenings results in me getting 4 hours of sleep” is better than “There is so much noise.”
• In the comments section please provide a request for the type of mitigation/response that would help improve your quality of life.  For instance, “I would like to see WSDOT work closely with the neighbors to collaboratively address construction impacts.”

If you would prefer the option to cut and paste comments, you can use the following example:

I am requesting that Representative Jayapal help us mitigate the impacts of the 520 project.  This project has negatively impacted my family and community by causing stress and uncertainty about the design.  I am particularly concerned how the project will affect traffic, noise, and our ability to get into and out of our neighborhood.  I would like to see WSDOT and SDOT take action on the items important to the community such as keeping the Montlake Market open during construction as well as implementing traffic concerns and suggestions that have been voiced but are absent in the NTMP.

Please send completed files to Sarah Brady, Sarah.Brady@mail.house.gov, by January 31, 2018. For questions please email or call 206-674-0040.

Some may ask how a federal representative can affect change for a state project.  The bottom line is that we don’t know and they aren’t promising anything.  But we are her constituents and she cares about the issues that we do.  She is the first politician to take a real interest in the issues we are facing so it is important that we take advantage of this opportunity.  While her staff was clear to stress that they can’t promise anything, the first step is identifying that there is indeed a problem and for that we all need to speak up!