(Updated photo: Constellation Park section of Alki Point Healthy Street, today)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Two local wildlife advocacy organizations say the final design for the Alki Point “Healthy Street” – Beach Drive and Alki Avenue from 63rd to Alki Point – is an impediment to their work and the wildlife and people who benefit from it, as well as to Constellation Park visitors.
After what they say was a fruitless appeal directly to SDOT, Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network and The Whale Trail are taking their case to the mayor and asking for community support in a new campaign they’re calling “Alki Point for All,” with an online petition. Both groups have historically used Constellation Park, along the Beach Drive section, extensively, Seal Sitters for responding to beached, sick, and/or dead marine mammals, The Whale Trail for assisting land-based viewing when orcas are in the area.
While the “Healthy Street” designation has been on the stretch for almost four years, what’s new is the final design, reported here in December, removing more than 60 on-street parking spaces, mostly to add a 10-foot-wide “walking/rolling lane” adjacent to the waterfront sidewalk. That was a major change from the design proposal on which SDOT gathered feedback a year earlier, which did not include major parking removal. Regarding their challenge now, the Alki Point for All coalition explains:
An SDOT representative has informed our organizations that SDOT will not be reconsidering our request to keep the existing beach-side parking spaces around Alki Point as well as the public vehicle access. … We are disappointed by this decision since it not only impacts our organizations but many others who come to these parks and rely on the existing parking configuration.
We have asked to meet with the Healthy Street project manager, but that meeting has not yet been scheduled by SDOT.
Our coalition met with Councilmember Rob Saka and his staff regarding this matter. In addition, we sent a letter to Mayor Bruce Harrell appealing this decision and asking that his office review the SDOT decision to designate Alki Point as a “Healthy Street” with very restrictive public access as well as removing sixty-seven beach side parking spaces around Alki Point.
We have established an online petition to allow the broader Seattle community to respond to the negative impacts this decision will have on public access to a premiere marine reserve and the city park. We invite West Seattle and the wider community to join us in voicing their concerns and join our campaign Alki Point For All!
The coalition points to this excerpt from SDOT’s most recent FAQ document regarding the Healthy Streets program:
(The question “Will the permanent Healthy Street take away parking spaces on my street?” is answered “No, permanent Healthy Streets will not remove any legal street parking spaces.”) What became “Healthy Streets” were originally announced in the early pandemic days as places where more people could walk, run, roll, etc. while safely “social distancing,” but were kept in place even after the pandemic ebbed. The Beach Drive section of Alki Point, however, was also an undeniable solution to a long-running problem about which nearby residents had complained for years – recklessness and noise related to driver gatherings – as acknowledged by police in 2020.
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