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Land War

Parking Fight in Magnolia Turns Bizarre

by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

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Mark Kaufman

At the bend in the road in the middle of a cul-de-sac in Magnolia, one neighbor's attempt to beautify her block has exploded into a bizarre and nearly incomprehensible war between neighbors, filled with screaming matches, threats, effigies, allegations of attempted vehicular assault, and protection orders.

The source of all this angst: a 10-foot parking strip. In the two years since the problems began, neighbors say they've been forced to become "shut-ins," installed security cameras outside their homes, and forbidden their children from walking in front of certain houses on the block.

After more than a decade in the neighborhood, Cheryl Kuczek had grown tired of staring at a dry, dreary patch of grass on the corner of her Magnolia home on Brygger Drive West. In 2007, Kuczek, an avid gardener, decided she'd take it upon herself to beautify the street by installing a few large planters along the strip. Although Kuczek initially installed the planters without permission from the city, she later received approval from the Seattle Department of Transportation, which put in "no parking" signs along the strip of grass.

According to documents filed by Kuzcek in King County Superior Court, it wasn't long before Kuczek found herself at odds with her neighbors, Linda Pedersen and her boyfriend Zion Gliksman, who occasionally parked along the strip of grass—instead of in their driveway or two-car garage—and apparently took exception to Kuczek's unpermitted beautification efforts.

"[Pedersen and Gliksman] are constantly using the area in front of my house as a parking lot for their cars and a bathroom for their dogs," Kuczek wrote in a protection order request filed in July 2008, a year after the problems with her neighbors began. "The plants are starting to die. Before Linda and Zion led their dogs to urinate on our plants, the plants were healthy for years." A judge granted a two-year protection order, ordering Pedersen and Gliksman to refrain from contacting, videotaping, or coming within 30 feet of Kuczek. Pedersen and Gliksman also filed a protection order, but the court denied the order.

According to Kuczek's court testimony, she's been under attack in her own home ever since. In court documents, Kuczek accuses Pedersen of leaving bags of dog droppings on her yard, verbal harassment, "vigilante efforts at parking enforcement," and even efforts to run Kuczek over with her car. "I cannot even relax in my own home," Kuczek writes.

Gliksman says he's fighting over the parking strip on behalf of sidewalkless neighborhoods "in different areas all over the city," where, he says, people like him are being targeted by spiteful neighbors.

Eventually, the dispute expanded to include other neighbors. According to written testimony from nearly a dozen other Brygger Drive residents—who provided supporting statements to Kuczek and another neighbor's petitions for court orders—Pedersen and Gliksman have been at odds with nearly everyone on the block.

"There is no place in society for this type of behavior, and it is our hope that the court listens to everyone's stories on how Linda Pedersen and Zion Gliksman have [made] this formerly peaceful neighborhood a veritable war zone," Ken and Amy Webert wrote in their supporting testimony.

In their filing, the Weberts say they've also been verbally harassed by Pedersen and Gliksman. "[Pedersen] would start yelling things at us like 'beached whale' [and] 'little Napoleon,'" Ken Webert told The Stranger. The Weberts say they, too, have been the victims of "vigilante" parking enforcement; they received a ticket after, they say, Pedersen complained to police that the Weberts had parked in front of their own driveway. The Weberts say they even woke up one morning to find Gliksman and his golden retriever standing outside of their fence, attempting to goad their dalmatian-beagle mix, Peso, into a fight. "I grabbed a golf club and asked what he was doing," Ken says. "He said, 'Oh, you'll find out.'"

Ken says he never did find out exactly what Gliksman was doing.

Perhaps the most disturbing document is a protection petition from Pedersen and Gliksman's next-door neighbors, Shari and Bryan Roberts. The Robertses moved next door to Pedersen in 2007 and immediately noticed strange behavior from their neighbor. They thought little of it and decided to keep their distance.

But in December 2007, while having a Hanukkah celebration at their home, the Robertses heard a knock at their front door from someone claiming to be "a neighbor with a Hanukkah gift."

Court filings by the Robertses say Pedersen attempted to force her way into the Robertses' house and threw a pile of paperwork at Shari Roberts. Months later, in February 2008, the Robertses say Pedersen began to pile large bags of dog waste and garbage near the front entrance of their house, which abuts Pedersen's home. The Robertses also claim Pedersen has referred to Shari as a "gypsy cunt" and began taking out large collections of bottles to her garbage—right below the Robertses' bedroom window—as early as five in the morning. The documents also claim Pedersen started stacking orange traffic cones, mops, and tires in a tree overlooking the Robertses' living room.

In April 2008, the Robertses testified, Bryan Roberts asked Pedersen and Gliksman to remove the debris from their yard. According to court documents, Pedersen went on a tirade, screaming, "those Jew bastards, I can do what I want." Later, Pedersen hung a witch doll head—complete with beady eyes and long, warty nose—on her back porch, in plain view of the Robertses' back deck.

Shari Roberts believes the doll head is meant to be an effigy of her. The doll has been dressed in a curly black wig—similar to Shari's hair—and often sports a headband, baseball cap, or sunglasses—outfits that Shari says regularly coincide with what Shari is wearing.

The Robertses sought a protection order against Pedersen in March 2008. However, the judge seemed to think it was just a dispute between neighbors and warned Pedersen and the Robertses that he would issue a protection order against one of them, forcing them to sell their house, if they couldn't settle their differences. The Robertses dropped the issue and built a fence instead.

While things have quieted down on Brygger Drive since the summer, it appears Pedersen and Gliksman may be interested in reopening old wounds. On November 20, Gliksman contacted The Stranger to pitch a story, he said, about "crazy neighbors," police harassment, and a cover-up at the city.

While telling The Stranger his story (mostly about violations of obscure and apparently misinterpreted sections of the Seattle Municipal Code on parking strips), Gliksman stated that he'd filed an Office of Professional Accountability complaint against Community Police Team sergeant Paul Gracy (a 29-year SPD veteran who recently received a Medal of Valor award from the department for disarming a 23-year-old gunman at the Northwest Folklife Festival) for writing Gliksman several parking citations.

For now, residents of Brygger Drive say they feel there's little they can do. Some neighbors have considered filing a civil suit against Pedersen, while others, like Ken Webert, are contemplating moving out of the neighborhood. "I worry about the escalation," Webert says. "I worry about my little kids."