Follow up to parking problems:  Last month I wrote about the University of Washington Community Relations staff trying to reduce the parking violations in the Shelby-Hamlin area.  This problem occurs when employees and students without our zone parking decals park on these streets beyond the 2-hour limit.  There seems to be a large number of drivers who park here regularly with a hope and a prayer they will not get a parking ticket.

I received several responses about this issue.  The majority opinion is that these parking violators will not be deterred by a polite letter placed on their windshield asking the driver to obey the ordinance and not park beyond 2 hours.  The solution to this problem seems to be to call the Seattle Police Traffic Enforcement (Phone 206-684-8757) and report the violator.  My hope is that we create a vigilant group of residents on Shelby and Hamlin who are calling frequently to report violations.  Maybe the City will see this as a lucrative source of traffic ticket revenue for the city coffers and assign traffic enforcement officers to patrol regularly.  Currently officers do not regularly patrol except on Husky Football game days.

News about the 520 Bridge construction:  It was brought to my attention that we have not been publishing information in The Flyer about recent events related to the 520 replacement bridge.  Frankly, the MCC board has not had any good news to pass along, since the Coalition for a Sustainable SR 520 of which Montlake is a member, lost their lawsuit again the state department of transportation in July, 2012.  However, Montlake.net has a link to the Coalition website.  It can be found under “Neighborhood” then “Montlake Resources“.  You can scroll down the Neighborhood listing and find “Groups in Montlake”.  Listed under that heading is the Coalition for 520.  The website has not been updated for several months.  However, there is information and illustrations about the next phase of construction which will greatly impact Montlake.  That is the building of a section of the bridge called “WABN” or western approach bridge-north side.  This is the section directly east of Foster Island. The illustration shows the new exit for westbound traffic heading south into the Montlake neighborhood and heading north to the Montlake bridge and the University of Washington.

Submitted by Julee Neuhart