UPDATE 2:55 PM: But not completely! Still signs up between Broadway and 12th Ave. Wacky.
UPDATE 11:15 AM: We haven’t heard from SDOT but Peter from Poco on Pine says the signs are gone:
No parking signs are now gone. Peeps can now park their cars on Pine St. The same company came to pick them up this a.m. Not sure why though…they got them awfully quick and were on their way!
Original report: A stretch of street parking along East Pine has been closed for days — for no apparent reason. CHS reported last week on the no-parking signs that popped up on East Pine between 15th and Broadway and along some side spurs.
Each announced a 7 AM to 7 PM closure of the parking starting on Friday — which happened to be Park(ing Day) — through this coming Friday. We attributed to the closure to a bike lane and sharrow painting project planned for the same area and markings on the street indicate that the new paint job is imminent. But starting the fifth day of closure for the area, there’s still no work underway and people have begun taking the no-parking signs and moving them aside.
Bonus points to CHS commenter Tim for calling shenanigans first:
Parking (or lack there of)
I called national barricade about the signs on E Pine Street and they don’t have any idea about them. Only thing they know about in this area is the blocked parking for the Pearl party on Saturday. I called the city about the signs. They have no idea why these signs are there. They referred me to a street inspector who might show up on Monday to see what the deal is. None of the signs have permit numbers or info on them. Technically to be legal all signs must have a permit number relating to why they are there. It does not take 1 week to paint a few stripes on a road. Anyway by the post above it says that the painting will not impact street use, sidewalk or parking. What gives on these signs? They showed up before noon on Wednesday. The people putting them up did not look like City of Seattle or National Barricade employees. I didn’t have a chance to ask them what they are for. I’d love more info on this. Thanks Capitol Hill!!
Seattle Department of Transportation spokesperson Marybeth Turner says SDOT is trying to figure out what is happening and confirms that a street use inspector has been assigned to look into the matter. She also confirms that the signs should display a permit number. We’re told there may be some delays in sorting the whole thing out because some of SDOT’s facilities near Monday’s big fire in Sodo had to be evacuated.
I was surprised to learn years ago that permits are required on these signs, since they usually don’t have anything. I wonder how common this kind of thing is.
The next time I see suspiciously blank ‘no parking’ signs, I’m going to park and take a picture with my phone.
When I lived at Pike and Bellevue, the city left a bunch of those signs just laying on the sidewalk along Bellevue for months after they finished light rail-related electrical work. It was tempting to grab a grease pencil and schedule in no parking dates when I was frustrated about not finding spots after work.
…this was before I realized the idiocy of having a car on the hill in the first place, of course.