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Eric
Eric

203 Articles

Hello! I am past president of the Wallingford Community Council and spent 13 years at Microsoft as a developer and manager, concurrent with Ballmer's reign. I helped renovate Meridian Playground and have guided several transportation and parks projects in the neighborhood. If you have a project in mind, the WCC is a great resource for figuring out how to make it happen!

Green Lake Way Redesign Goes from Back Asswards to Meh

Eric November 21, 2018 30 Comments

As covered previously, SDOT was planning to throttle Green Lake Way N and waste a lot of money by putting in a bike crossing at N 52nd and Green Lake Way N, eliminating parking on the East side of the street. Pretty much everyone said “no please” so SDOT thankfully backed off.

New plans are for the 2-way cycle track around the lake to transition to two 1-way protected bike lanes at a new light going in at the Pitch and Putt (where 3 roads all named Green Lake Way intersect). The West side curb of Green Lake Way …

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At Green Lake Way and N 50th, SDOT Is Planning Protected Bike Lanes That Serve Nobody

Eric July 30, 2018 56 Comments

As transportation chair for the Wallingford Community Council I’ve been closely following the roadway redesigns being done as part of repaving arterials in Wallingford and Green Lake. Most changes break down into familiar cyclist vs parking battles, but one design feature stands out as a terrible idea for both cyclists and residents- the current SDOT plans for adding protected bike lanes around the 5-way intersection of Stone Way N, N 50th, and Green Lake Way N.

The intersection is rated “F” for vehicle throughput by SDOT and regularly backs up with traffic, flooding side streets and school zones with vehicles. …

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Repaving of 40th, 50th and Green Lake Way at the Wallingford Community Council – Wed, June 6, 7pm

Eric June 5, 2018 60 Comments

40th, 50th, and Green Lake Way north of 50th are all to be repaved next year, which includes a full redesign of the streets that is happening now. Current plans swap out parking lanes for bike lanes, with protected bike lanes added to 40th and a cycle track added to Green Lake Way.

In the Green Lake Way cycle track both directions of bike traffic will be on the lake side of the street. The transition between the cycle track and the bike lanes is up for debate, as is reconfiguration of the 50th and Green Lake Way intersection. I …

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Win-Win Solutions To Housing Affordability and Neighborhood Livability?

Eric October 27, 2017 51 Comments

Pro-HALA folks paint San Francisco as our nightmare future if HALA doesn’t pass, where all housing near jobs costs millions of dollars. Anti-HALA folks paint Ballard as our future if HALA passes, where existing residents are driven out by a construction tsunami and we are left with luxury housing that is 95% tech bros (plus 5% reserved for a few token “poor” people that win the MHA lottery).

I sat down with some Wallingford HALA proponents, looking for win-win solutions to housing affordability in Seattle. Here are some ideas we came up with:

Collaborate with homeowners on affordable ADUs and …

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Rob Johnson Q&A for April: Limiting Home Demolitions, why HALA Targets Wallingford, and More

Eric April 18, 2017 48 Comments

Rob Johnson represents Wallingford on city council and is ushering HALA through the council as land use chair. This is a follow up to our January interview with him. Topics include Limiting Demolitions, Wallingford Neighborhood Planning, HALA Leaving Car Centric Communities Untouched, Transportation, Developer Impact Fees, The HALA Split on City Council, ADU / DADU Triplexes, and Meeting Rob in Wallingford.

Q1- Limiting Home Demolitions: The main concern with HALA is that upzones will drive redevelopment that happens too quickly, destroying livability while the transformation happens and forcing residents to either sell out to developers or live in a construction …

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Rob Johnson Q&A on the HALA “Grand Bargain” Upzone of Wallingford

Eric January 26, 2017 69 Comments

[Editor’s Note: Thanks Eric, for this exclusive interview. For our readers, this post is longer than our usual format, but packed with a lot of good information.]

Rob Johnson represents Wallingford on Seattle City Council and also leads land use issues for them, so nobody is more important in shaping how HALA ends up for Wallingford. The following Q&A is lightly edited for clarity. We very much appreciate Rob taking the time to address these questions with us, and look forward to your thoughts in the comments section.

Q- The Grand Bargain: A key complaint that we hear about HALA …

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HALA Should Develop Golf Courses and Cemeteries to Create New Walkable Neighborhoods

Eric June 17, 2016 33 Comments

The effect of the upzone to urban villages that HALA proposes is clear as we have already seen it happen in Ballard. Older homes and apartments will be shredded and displace thousands, driving out current residents and turning neighborhoods into unlivable construction zones as the transformation takes place. Further, all the new people that move in will swamp our already overloaded transportation systems and schools, driving up property taxes as we try to catch up and further damaging housing affordability and livability in our city. Do we really need to destroy Wallingford in order to save it, as Rick argued?…

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