Street parking is not — yet — an inalienable right in the USA. But in a busy business district like central Pike/Pine, every spot counts. Capitol Hill drivers and, especially, the savvy, the statistics-minded, and the “I have awesome parking karma” parkers have been surprised to find a full block of E Pine street parking has suddenly been removed from the equation.
Here’s a note we received from neighbor Damien:
I noticed that the North side of Pike between 11th and 12th is now police vehicles only. Last night there was a parade of tow trucks removing 3 illegally parked cars over by the liquor store (about 11p) I think the police took over parking on a few of the other side streets by the station too. Looks like this is going to be a new favorite get towed “gotcha” spot on the hill.
We asked SDOT about the change and they passed along this letter, below, sent out by East Precinct Commander Capt. Ron Wilson. With the 12th Ave Arts project slated to break ground next month on the site of the precinct’s parking lot, SPD needed a temporary, nearby solution for its patrol and operations vehicles:
Yeah, in this case, a few years is, indeed, temporary.
It’s not all bad news for Pike/Pine parkers. The precinct’s parking enforcement officers and their squad of carts and Segways will be exiled to the old fire station at 23rd and Yesler for the duration of the construction:
The Seattle Police Department will temporarily base parking enforcement officers from the East Precinct Police Station at the former fire station 6 at 23rd and Yesler for approximately 18 to 24 months while the Capitol Hill Arts building is under construction.
No telling if this will give you a better chance of avoiding a ticket. We’d be surprised.
An SDOT study showed Pike/Pine parking utilization rising above 100% at night. Well done, creative parkers
Meanwhile, Salon Dewi’s Travis Powell sends us a common complaint we hear about the payment stations on the Hill — many of them don’t work:
Heads up, the parking meters located on 11th Ave in between Pike and Pine have been broken for over a week, they won’t accept credit cards – only change and who carries that many quarters these days! I have called the City of Seattle and reported it. They are still issuing parking tickets on this block – beware. The only meter that is working is located around the corner on Pike. The meter maids know they aren’t working as well. The city is getting revenue for something that isn’t the citizens fault. Those that receive a ticket can call the City and have the parking meter number and have the ticket dismissed, this was told to me by the maintenance department. Not sure if this works or not. It is really a problem for those of us that have businesses on this block – our clients are getting upset and don’t know what to do about the issue. The city needs to put out of order signs on them and direct people to where working meters are. Maybe you can contact them and find out what is really going on.
Thanks, The Waxing Diva – aka – Travis Powell
Like we said, parking isn’t an inalienable right. But let’s assume a space or 28 provide a certain level of utility and economic value. We’ll surrender E Pine. But can SDOT perhaps make the pay station experience a little less miserable?
You can now check out SPD’s sleek new cruisers on both sides of E Pine (Image: CHS)
When is 2 years “temporary”? Under what definition?
Only “gotcha” for those who can’t read signs. Which, I’ll admit, seems to be a lot of drivers on the hill.
I for one am not fond of the body paint on the new cruisers. The units looks like every Hollywood cop car out there. You can’t tell me that the SPD didn’t have the clout to request from their vehicle supplier to give them the same body coloring/striping that they used in the Ford Crown Vics.
Two years is temporary as opposed to _permanently_.
Are these ‘officially’ new cruisers? I’ve only seen the one Impala. There is also a Suburban and an Explorer in the same paint. A couple of Dodge cars have appeared too. They may be manufacturer demonstrators. A few years ago I saw a police equipped demonstrator Suburban on I5 complete with a GM police vehicle shield. With the Crown Vic being phased out I’d say SPD is sampling some other police packages. I wonder if we’ll see the twin turbo V6 Taurus that Ford is touting as the Crown Vic replacement. I do agree, I’ll miss the blue scheme if SPD goes to B&W.
When it is two year which means it ends in two years. That makes it temporary. If it were permanent, it would have no end date. I didn’t even look that up in a dictionary or Google it.
You mean those wasted spaces on our public streets that old people use to put their personal vehicles in when they have to visit our vibrant awesome neighborhood from whatever crappy suburb they crawled out of? That’s so 1999. Get a bus pass an adapt already, weirdos. :-D
Old or rich, make sure you stereotype correctly if you are going to do it there trolly.
I’m willing to bet this “temporary” thing is like the temporary closure of East Denny at Broadway. What was originally supposed to be a 6 year project is now of course much longer, and when it’s finished won’t even leave Denny open to two way traffic like it was supposed to.
Things change, we adapt whether we want to or not.
A bit off-subject here but are all of the new police cruisers from this point forward going to be “black and whites” with eventual phase-out of the blue cars? Just curious. Wondering what the rationale is for going back to the traditional black and white paint job. Does anyone know?
Why are they changing the police car color scheme? Was this announced? Stick with the same color, which is light blue!
i had my car towed from there this pas weekend they dont have many signs either to let you know. they look like 2hr parking signs maybe making them brighter or something.. Those pigs wana take over everything.. it would have been nice to get a warning sticker or something first. 200 bucks later got my car out. things like this make capital suck a big one!!
A person who has gotten used to parking on that block is not likely to notice that there is a new sign with a new restriction. Whether they can read or not.
So there will be even more cars creeping along the residential side streets around there every night looking for “free” parking that pretty much doesn’t exist.
But I guess that’s a small price to pay to get rid of that hideous surface lot, in the long run.
I found out the answer to my own question! I asked a nice policeman who was preparing to get into one of the new black and white patrol cars what the scoop was on the new paintjob and he told me that the blue paint is a custom color that has become prohibitively expensive to use. So, yes, all of the police cars from this point forward will be the traditional (and less expensive) black and white in color.
Good to know there’s a remedy. The pay stations on the block of Broadway Market (QFC) haven’t been functioning for several days either and I’ve nervously left my car parked there anyway for a quick run in to the store.
The large, black&white sign pictured at the top of this thread could not be any more visible or any clearer. Too bad you got towed, but the responsibility for that is yours and yours alone. And a little correction….the SPD is not “taking over” that street….they need the parking for legitimate reasons, and it is only a temporary measure until the new development is finished.