Edmonds Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

The city of Edmonds has accepted a grant from Sound Transit for bike lanes along Ninth Avenue South to 100th Avenue West to Firdale Village and from Ninth Avenue and Walnut Street up Bowdoin Way to Five Corners.

Late last year, city officials took many citizens to task for a flyer that was circulated door to door that implied that all parking on Ninth Avenue South and Walnut/Bowdoin might be eliminated. The city officials assured the citizens in a public meeting that eliminating all parking was not an option, but parking might be reduced approximately 50%.

Now, the latest city materials, just published, show an option that would eliminate all parking on Ninth and Walnut/Bowdoin. So it looks like the citizen's flyer circulated last year was correct after all.

At the public listening sessions last December, city officials assured the public that turn lanes on Ninth would be a part of the project, and now it appears that there are no turn lanes being proposed, so far.

This, of course, would create serious traffic jams. City officials also assured the public that "traffic calming" was not a goal of the Bike Lane Project, but it seems that if things keep progressing like they are, that "traffic calming" is an inevitable primary result, creating unnecessary traffic delays and frustration for people who visit and live in Edmonds.

These developments are indeed unfortunate, because this is just one more example of a series of debacles that is eroding our confidence in the mayor, the City Council, and city departmental management.

Something needs to be done to restore confidence. Our city government is behaving as if it has been captured by the bike lobby, Sound Transit, and other special interests with an agenda that is not in accordance with what most of the citizens of Edmonds really want.

You can access the city's website with an interactive map that you can use to view the design alternatives. You can access the project website at http://www.bikelanes.edmondswa.gov . You can access the interactive map at https://bit.ly/3scWvry.

The City will be holding a public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 24.

Zoom info for the public meeting can be found on the project website at www/bikelanes.edmondswa.gov. The special interest groups outside of Edmonds are vocal and typically show up in force on these Zoom meetings.

We need your participation to offset organized special interest groups.

We are running out of time. Please write the City Council at [email protected] and the Mayor at [email protected]

Andrew MorganEdmonds