An Impending Traffic and Parking Nightmare Brewing “Downtown”
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Business
On Saturday I noticed an interesting issue that I haven’t really heard anyone talking about in Kenmore, that is a bit of a problem right now and seems to be guaranteed to be a serious problem sometime in the future.
I’m reffering to the issue of parking for the James G. Murphy Co. auction house located on 68th Ave NE, just north of NE 182nd St.
Roughly once every three months or so James G. Murphy puts on a big auction at their Kenmore headquarters, complete with a major advertising push across the Seattle area. These auctions seem to usually primarily feature lots of cars, trucks, utility vehicles, boats, etc, which take up their entire fenced lot. Their advertising push always seems to be a success, with these quarterly auction events generating a large amount of interest from the deal-hungry buying public and drawing in hundreds of people from all across the Seattle area.
At around 11:00 in the morning yesterday I happened to pass down 68th avenue and 182nd street, and the scene was pretty chaotic. Cars and trucks stuffed into every possible spot (and then some) up and down both streets, lining the entirety of 182nd street and 68th avenue at least up to The Timbers apartment complex a quarter mile up the hill.
The following photos were taken at around 3:00, when—if you can believe it—much of the heavy traffic and parking overflow had actually died down.
Note that this overflow lining the streets is in addition to the completely packed former park & ride parking lot southwest of 68th and 182nd, which had the above-pictured sign indicating that it was the official parking area.
Already today the “downtown” Kenmore region is turned into a bit of a mess when James G. Murphy Co. has one of these big heavily-advertised auction events. But here’s a question that I can’t help wondering…
Where are all these James G. Murphy Co. auction attendees going to park once the Kenmore Village project finally gets off the ground and the ~350-spot former park & ride lot is no longer available?
I have a hard time imagining how the blocks surrounding James G. Murphy Co. will avoid degrading to complete mayhem once this occurs. Picture a traffic backup extending out onto SR-522 in both directions for the better part of the day and parked cars lining every street within a mile radius, crammed right up against residential and business entrances to the streets such that motorist visibility entering the road is virtually destroyed.
Does James G. Murphy Co. have a plan for this eventuality? Is the city working with James G. Murphy Co. to develop a workable plan for this situation before it completely cripples the city some Saturday in the future?
It seems like this is something more people should be talking about now, before the inevitable day of reckoning arrives.
Tags: central-kenmore, Kenmore Village, Murphy-Auction, parking, traffic
5 Responses to “An Impending Traffic and Parking Nightmare Brewing “Downtown””
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Due to the state of the economy and the lack of financing for the type of project the Kenmore City Council has got us stuck in, I think it will be a long time until there is any ground breaking at Kenmore Village (other than tax payer funded, over the top City Hall buildings).
None the less I think your question is a great one. It seems most of the congestion comes on weekends when parking could be made available at Nothshore Utilities & (the new) City Hall. I would hope that local government entities will work with a long time Kenmore business.
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Remember “It’s the economy, xxxxxx”.
Remember, until you’ve got one or more solid alternative(s), in a lousy economy don’t kill what’s working ….. and providing some local employment and outside awareness of Kenmore.
Remember Murphy’s Auction was here before many of us. I’d be surprised if their senior management isn’t doing some long term, measured planning with declining parking a likely reality.
All I’m saying is it’s real easy to cast stones. Building a community figuratively and literally takes years of hard work …… a continuum, educated decisions and crystal balls.
Business retention and recruitment takes all of us to spend and promote locally and participate in the public process …… as agonizingly slow as that may be.
Ask yourself …….. what have I done or am I doing, in a positive and sustained manner, to improve Kenmore.
When was the last time you contacted and had coffee with a city councilperson, or senior staffer?
When was the last time you gave your 3 minutes of public comment on any subject at a regular council meeting,
When was the last time you attended the quarterly Kenmore City Council Town Hall meetings (Q&A).
When was the last time you approached an outside business to relocate to Kenmore.
Big ideas take either big money (now that’s a real double edge sword), or lots of little incremental steps.
Downtown property acquisition and consolidation was and remains a good idea. No one anticipated the current economic climate. But, certainly more needs to be done to better manage it in the short run.
My two bits.
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Just to be clear, I was promoting that local government work to keep James G Murphy a welcome part of our community and provide solutions for any future parking issues.
Being a tax paying property owner in the City of Kenmore combined with my level of participation in community and government I am quite comfortable casting stones. However, this is not about me. This is about people that quite literally begged and pleaded for their positions of leadership in this city. I find it unacceptable to paint the members of our local government in the light of victim and blame citizens for not participating.
The economic downturn is not a blanket answer for everything:
The economy had already driven off the cliff and we all knew we (the City of Kenmore) would be stuck with an undeveloped strip mall, when the City Council decided to plow forward with a new City Hall.
The City Council ignored the thousands of empty (and soon to be empty) square feet of retail space owned by the City and signed a lease for a temporary City Hall.
Kenmore Village is a great idea. However, it is the job of government to build infrastructure. It is not the position of government to gamble with tax dollars as a developer of commercial retail space and private condominiums.
The City Council’s complete mismanagement of Kenmore Village has chased away every tenant in the complex. That is not about the economy. Those businesses are still open (or opening) in other commercial spaces and in some cases other communities.
They deserve criticism.
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Debate is good ……… adds flesh on the bones.
Further clarity, here.
My comments were directed “in general”.
I’m not satisfied with the status quo, much less the vacancies.
However, we the people, are responsible for our leadership, and Nov 3 will reveal ………….
1) The level of citizen participation
2) Citizen review of the leadership -
Back to the issue…. In the process of updating its zoing from the old King County scheme, the Murphy property was changed to [can't recall the exact label] a zone in which it is now considered to be a Non-Conforming Business. This issue was studied long and hard by the Downtown Taskforce in 2007. Their recommendation to the Council was to allow Murphy to continue operations if:
–it did not expand or materially change its operation
–solve the pedestrian problem
–find an alternative to current parking conditionsIn a nutshell, they have been grandfathered in but are under the gun to fix the problem. It is now the City’s job to make sure they do it.
Jason Says:
D. Hill Says:
October 26th, 2009 at 2:21 PM