To the Editor:
I am genuinely concerned. My wife and I drove past the Rat City RollerGirls' venue recently. There were young children roller-skating inside and we went in to inquire about signing up our own young children. This is when we learned that by next year they will be evicted and yet another apartment building will go up in its place. Later that week I saw a city councilmember and when I mentioned how sad I was about losing the Rat’s Nest, I was retorted with a simple, “you’re allowed to sell your land.”
So what’s next on the chopping block, the Highland Ice Arena? Spin Alley bowling? Should the city drain Echo Lake and replace everything with more apartments? The city council does have the ability to set limits, preserve or place restrictions on development. Past land development make it appear that developers are driving this vision for short-term profits and the city council is either benefiting by it or complicit with it.
I want Shoreline families to have entertainment options without having to drive to other towns; which is the case currently when my kids are invited to any party. Lynnwood, Edmonds and other towns manage to have businesses that cater to fun and entertainment. Shoreline is becoming a borough of Seattle to simply sleep.
It’s deeply unfortunate that the Shoreline city council is allowing the city they represent to be paved over, with no apparent benefit to their constituents other than packing Shoreline with more constituents.
There are only so many chickens you can cram in a cage and I am fearful that we will live in an overly congested city with inadequate infrastructure and nothing to do but go to bed.
Michael Bachety
Shoreline
Understood, but your are proposing public solutions when the properties you mention are private. Are you proposing that the city confiscate the private property? There is a concept called 'best use'. To an owner with prime real estate, it makes sense to sell it and with housing costs going up, it is probably a good use to provide more inventory. I, for one, would prefer a nice new building instead of the Rat's Nest (SleepAir) buiding. It's ugly. One thing the city can do is offer tax incentives and zoning variances to private builders to put in entertainment-related facilities. If that is what you mean, I'm for it.
ReplyDeleteWhen it's a Friday night, our family never thinks of hanging out in Shoreline. We always go to Edmonds or Seattle for our food and entertainment. What's up with Shoreline? It's turning into a big parking lot of traffic and cruddy stores/restaurants.
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