Rantz: SDOT and the Seattle Mayor use parking to kill relationships

You walk to your date’s home carrying a single rose. You look into his or her eyes and explain the beautiful evening in Ballard you have planned: the exquisite restaurant and a romantic stroll through the park. There’s excitement in the air because you’re the catch, the keeper, the potential for love.

Until you take your date to the bus stop.

“She drops the flower, she steps on the rose bud and then she runs away and says, ‘We’re done … I’m out … You’re not romantic, you’re cheap and lazy,'” KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz shouts. “Thanks SDOT and the Mayor of Seattle, you’ve just killed another relationship.”

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The Seattle Department of Transportation is considering the creation of a Restricted Parking Zone in Central Ballard that could help Ballard residents reclaim some of their parking, but also even further limit the opportunities for visiting the neighborhood.

Rantz says he understands the notion that Ballard residents should be able to park at their own home, even if the zoning amounts to a double-payment of the roads they’re already paying for. However, that the trade-off could cause a major headache for not only out-of-neighborhood lovebirds, but also Ballard’s shops, restaurants, and other attractions.

Rantz says SDOT created this problem and the City of Seattle perpetuated it by not compelling new apartment complexes to provide adequate parking for the buildings.

“Now, had they forced you to do that, you would have more parking there for the people who are trying to live in Ballard,” he said. “But because [SDOT and the city] don’t like parking spots, they don’t like cars, they want to encourage you to bike to work in the rain up a big steep hill, because they want you to take a bus that just smells so bad that you can literally taste the body odor in the back of your throat from the guy who was there just before you got onto the bus. They don’t want you driving and hope you’ll just say, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll ditch my car.’ Even though that actually doesn’t work for the vast majority of people. And so they’ve created this problem.”

Their fix, he says, creates a whole new set of problems for the Ballard business community because it’s the people living outside the neighborhood who are patronizing their establishments every weekend.

“The people who live there, while they will certainly go to these restaurants, they’re not going there every single day, they’re not going there every single week,” Rantz says. “The people who live outside of Ballard are going to Ballard to go spend money there. So what about these individual businesses? There are significant implications and I guess they don’t care. SDOT doesn’t care. The City of Seattle doesn’t care. What they’ll say is, you know you can walk there. There are amazing buses that you can take.”

Which means you might need to bring your date some chocolates, too.