The Pros and Cons of CSAs
Washington Leads the Country in Troubled Banks
Seattlest Pix 09Nov08
Seattlest Pix 09Nov09
Lower Queen Anne is dead to us. And we like Lower Queen Anne, we do: Many's the night we've whiled away down at Solo chatting up Kultur Shock's Val behind the bar, or closing out the Great Nabob with co-workers. But last night, it became clear that they no longer want us to visit. Because for reasons we don't quite understand, there is no longer any parking in Lower Queen Anne.
And not just street parking (heaven knows you can't find that anywhere): For some mystifying reason, the city has seen fit to allow the elimination of several of the largest pay lots around Fifth and Roy. Teatro Zinzanni eliminated most of a large parking lot at Second and Roy. As of a week ago, another large parking lot at Third has been closed to build a hotel. The Seattle Center Garage at Third doesn't accept cards (only cash and—get this—checks), and Seattle Center closed off a large portion of their lot on Fifth Avenue to build a new parking structure.
The result was that last night around seven, there was absolutely no parking to be found around Roy Street from east by Highway 99 all the way out to Third Avenue West. The precious few non-RPZ spots around were full, and parking any further away from Solo at 200 Roy Street would have been absurd. And don't hassle us for not taking the bus: the Number 8's service from Capitol Hill is spotty at best--it spends most of its time stuck in traffic along Denny, and by 10 o'clock is overflowing with the crowds leaving all the events at Seattle Center, meaning your 45-minute trip back up the Hill will be doubly uncomfortable.
Pic of Roy Street from up at the Bartell's courtesy of Seattlest Flickr group contributor Scarequotes.
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Pardon me--when I write "they don't want us to visit," I refer to Lower Queen Anne, not Solo or Nabob, where I remain (I hope) a beloved customer.
So in other words, no more Eastsiders in LQA on the weekends? I may have to WALK on over sometime! bwahaha
Call me crazy, but I suspect the fact that the most popular hip-hop artist in the past five years was playing a show in Lower Queen Anne might have had a little something to do with the traffic situation last night.
Um... bus? Help the environment? Get drunker?
Bus, bus, bus...I mentioned the bus. Actually remarkably inconvenient--you'll actually have to transfer in the middle of downtown to get back to Capitol Hill after, I believe, 11 p.m., despite the fact it's more or less a straight line from LQA to Capitol Hill.
And to the point about Kanye--yes, Kanye West was at Key Arena. But as someone who has to drive over there frequently, I can attest to the fact that the closure and loss of dozens of pay parking spots has made it far more difficult to park in the area...when there's a show. You know, when people are going there and need to park...rather than when they're not going there (say 10 a..m Sunday morning), when the parking is, in fact, ample.
And the Monorail goes to Queen Anne!
I know, I know, Jeremy M. Grumpy already ruled out the bus, but isn't this exactly what needs to happen to get people to use mass transit?
It needs to be more convenient to use the bus than it is to drive. At some point either through the transit system getting better or traffic/parking getting worse it becomes easier or more economical to hop on a bus (even a slow bus, or [gasp] dare I say several busses).
Should our goal really be to maximize he convenience of getting people around our city by personal vehicle?
Are environmentalists going to be the new authoritarians?
I'm not anti-bus, nor anti-transfer--I ride the one and do the other twice each day to work. Eco Geek seems to be missing my point, though: this really feels like a situation in which all options are exhausted because all are painfully inconvenient. Given the price of gas, I obviously don't like driving if I can help it, but I find it absurd that for some reason it takes twice as long to bus to the Seattle Center (regardless of what events are going on) as it does to get to Pioneer Square.
I think it depends if we can get the old authoritarians out of power.
I gotta write in in support of Jeremy -- the later you're at the Center, the more inconvenient/impossible it is to use transit. The Monorail stops running at 11pm, the #8 at 11:37. And if there is traffic on the way there, the #8 gets stuck in every possible way. The last time I took it, the back door got stuck on a tree branch and I got off and walked to the Center without the bus ever catching up.
Don't get me wrong, my ideal situation is that there is great transit options lure people away from the automobile, and I certainly have never tried riding the high road, er I mean bus on the route that you are talking about.
At this point though it has become pretty clear that the taxpayers/leadership are unwilling to put the money up for a good transit system, so I reluctantly fall back on hoping that traffic anarchy forces people out of cars.
On a completely unrelated note- Let the viaduct fall- NO rebuild, NO tunnel. Hee hee.
i agree with eco geek, your convenience versus getting you out of your car? i'd rather get you out of your car.
plus, it's not like you don't have options. you could take the multiple transfers on a bus, there are cabs (expensive yes but likely not more than the garage that accepts checks that you mentioned), walk or stay out of south queen anne.
besides, driving buzzed is driving drunk. or so the billboards tell me.
Jeremy, nice post. I believe you when you say it's too much hassle to take a bus to LQA. The proselytizing here is over-the-top.
PROSELYTIZING? over-the-top? how do you mean, exactly? by a commenter or two saying that convenience is a poor excuse for continuing to pollute the environment for the sake of a night out drinking?
i believe him too when he says it's too much hassle to take a bus, i'm just not willing to except that as an excuse to keep contributing to the problem.
The #8 is dead to me. I've had trouble parking in QA too, Jeremy. I ended up having to put my blinker on and wait for a person I spotted leaving a restaurant to give me their parking spot on the street. (An obnoxious but effective technique)
Your sanctimonious self-righteousness is just a bit much for my taste, that's all. I'm all for saving the environment and being as green as we can. But I will drive my car from time to time is all.
"sanctimonious"? excessively or hypocritically pious
"self-righteousness"? piously sure of one's own righteousness; moralistic
i don't think i said anything other than comment about how i didn't think convenience is an excuse for not using alternatives. and then list out said alternatives.
you want to drive your car? go ahead, but don't be surprised when other people call you out on your whining. it's not your constitutional right to have convenient parking.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
I dont agree to that.
Sorry Jeremy. I didn't read the part about the 8 because I don't consider it a route. I hate that bus so much!
Honestly, I had forgotten how much of a pain getting from QA to the Hill is. Getting Downtown is easy peasy, but it does take far to long with transfers. Sometimes up to 2 transfers to get to the right section of the Hill. All that means is, exactly what your wrote, no more LQA.
Hey City, guess what, build an infrastructure so we can spend money outside our neighborhood.
That's your last warning.
"Hey City, guess what, build an infrastructure so we can spend money outside our neighborhood.
That's your last warning. "
Haha I dont think theyll ever understand that.
Buy a scooter. Then, parking is NEVER a problem. Plus, you use a lot less gas, which makes it both cheaper and more convenient than riding the bus.
That is an awesome idea! I've always wanted a Vespa so I could be in a Vespa gang! And I think a new Vespa seller is opening up somewhere over on the East-side that I've never heard of!
Definitely cheaper than a smart car.
Sounds like a pretty solid idea to me. I'm sure someone can dig up the numbers, but I would be willing to bet that a scooter uses less energy per passenger mile than even a bus (well maybe not a fully loaded bus, but lets not get carried away here).
Vespa is the way to go and there is already a dealer right in SLU - Vespa Seattle - http://www.vespaseattle.com/.