Alki ‘car-free day’ 2010 – Seattle Summer Streets – report #1

Before we start adding photos and updates, we start with the reminder: 9 am-5 pm, it’s the third annual city-organized “car-free day” on Alki, starting with the West Seattle 5K walk/run (co-sponsored by WSB; final signups are under way now; the race itself starts at 9:20). The closure/detour map is here. Don’t let a little drizzle discourage you. 8:53 AM UPDATE: At the beach now – and so are sunbreaks! Also happening, as West Seattle 5K emcee Marty Riemer (see photo just added below) just announced, people who ignored the “no parking” signs are about to get towed (see photo just added above).

Race time has just been revised to 9:25 – all the better, since more sun is coming out with each moment that goes by.

11:04 AM: See our race coverage in this separate story. Meantime, the Summer Streets setup is complete – here’s the skateboard ramp in place across from (and sponsored by) Coastal, and some other exhibitor/participants including Mountain to Sound Outfitters:

We’ll launch a separate Summer Streets story for the afternoon.

8 Replies to "Alki 'car-free day' 2010 - Seattle Summer Streets - report #1"

  • AlkiResident May 23, 2010 (8:53 am)

    8:51 – The first Alki resident’s car has already been towed! Yay!!!

  • AlkiResident May 23, 2010 (9:19 am)

    9:18 – Yay! Another Alki resident gets towed!!!

  • huindekmi May 23, 2010 (12:30 pm)

    Cold miserable day for a car free day. This should be scheduled for mid-summer.

    • WSB May 23, 2010 (12:33 pm)

      Hang on … seeing more sunshine … holes in the clouds … got reports from both ends of the peninsula on this … there’s hope yet :) The first one, if you recall, was early September and heaven knows that is almost guaranteed sunshine. Last year was nice, though, and it was late May, like this year … TR

  • JanS May 23, 2010 (12:47 pm)

    AlkiResident..methinks you’re being sarcastic. I, too, live in a neighborhood where parking is restricted one day out of the year because of the West Seattle Grand Parade. We know it’s coming, we plan for it, and we deal with it. There is no parking all along Calif. Ave. that day , there is no parking on the side streets, and there are signs up saying so. I’m sorry your neighbors are being towed; but if it was for an 8 hour shift of road work would you complain?

    It is what it is, none of us are more special than others. It’s not private parking, it’s a public street. Yes, I grump about the parade to myself, and neighbors, mostly because I live in the area where the parade starts, where all the entries congregate early, bands practice early, etc., etc. It’s noisy, it’s inconvenient, but I know it’ll end in a few hours.

  • alki_resident May 23, 2010 (4:47 pm)

    JanS… methinks you’re on your soap box. Every sunny day on Alki is loud, busy, inconvenient – and it doesn’t ever end in a few hours for US. You get a nice respite. We hear cars booming by at 4 in the morning. Are the cruising ordinances EVER enforced? No. Are the noise ordinances EVER enforced? No. Speeders? Get free passes. Gangsters? Ride on the tops of their car roofs without recourse. Your neighborhood’s secluded. AlkiResident and I live ON Alki. We deal with no parking everyday. Until you’ve lived ON Alki for a Summer, please do let us continue with our sarcasm and skeptical outlook at the sad state of affairs on Alki.

  • brian May 23, 2010 (6:57 pm)

    alki_resident and alkiresident…..it sounds like alki is a horrible place to live with all the speeders and the gangsters and the loud noises and the cars and the lack of parking. Maybe you should move.

  • JanS May 23, 2010 (7:06 pm)

    I live right next to Admiral Safeway…welll, across the street to the east. You have got to be kidding. Delivery trucks at 3am, parking lot cleaning at 10:30pm at night…kids parking their cars at 2am on weekends in Safeway parking lot, and during the summer, and blasting music? Highschool students every day at lunch time, throwing their trash everywhere, cutting through our property, hanging in the alley out back.

    Every neighborhood has something. I knew Safeway was there when I moved in. And…now there’s gonna be construction for the next year and a half at least. But the conveniences far outweigh the inconveniences, in my opinion. I have a great park, I have great grocery shopping at 3 different places, I have restaurants – 10 in one block, a theater…and live music at the Shipwreck on weekends that I can hear in my apartment.

    Alki is…Alki…and people who move there know that there will be people there. I have lived at Alki myself, so I understand what you’re saying. But…I knew that it was a public beach.

    Maybe you could present this at the next Alki Community meeting, esp. if there are any police reps there…see what they say?

Sorry, comment time is over.