A Zone of Their Own
Recently, SEATRAN, the city's department of transporation, has been fielding dozens of calls from Capitol Hill residents complaining about a neighborhood parking zone created on July 1. The new zone -- #15 -- was created at the request of neighbors north of Roy and Belmont streets.
As it turns out, though, these folks don't need a parking zone. The blocks constituting zone 15 are full of expensive homes with their own driveways and garages. At night, the streets of zone 15 are relatively empty.
This brings no end of resentment from the neighborhood to the south, a dense area of apartment buildings with residents who rely on zone 15 for extra parking when their own streets fill up. The seething masses say the rich people to the north asked for a zone-of-their-own because they don't want to see déclassé Subarus and '80s Hondas parked on their block.
The city promises to address this situation soon. "[Parking zones] are not intended to vacate the streets and have parking spaces go unused," says Bill Jack, the city's traffic control programs manager. -- PHIL CAMPBELL
Love Still Alive
In its September 3 article about the SPD's over-attentiveness to gay oriented sex shops, the P-I did a great disservice to Lake City, reporting that the Love Boutique was out of business. Fetishists of all kinds will be happy to know that a simple drive down Lake City Way found the Boutique -- and its wall-to-wall array of curiously intimidating dildoes -- open for business.
-- NANCY DREW
Too Kind
On September 10, the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission fined former mayor and current landlord Wes Uhlman $380 for filing an independent expenditure report over 20 days late. A close look at Uhlman's shenanigans, however, seems to indicate that his tardy filing was actually a cover of a more serious violation; namely, exceeding the $400 campaign contribution limit. Here's the deal: On August 12, Cheryl Chow's campaign reported a $383 "In Kind Contribution" from someone in California named J. W. Flynn. The contribution paid for a Chow fundraising letter addressed to property owners, which bashed Chow's opponent, renters' rights advocate Judy Nicastro. (See In Other News, August 26). It was signed by Uhlman. The Ethics Commission was prompted to look into "Flynn's" contribution because Flynn isn't from Seattle, and Uhlman wrote the letter. When contacted by the Ethics Commission, Flynn couldn't provide any details. The commission then went to Uhlman and pushed for an explanation. Uhlman then contradicted his earlier statements, and took credit for the contribution. However, to make sure he didn't break contribution laws (he had already donated the maximum $400 to Chow), he reclassified the "In Kind Contribution" as an "Independent Expenditure." There are no spending limits on "Independent Expenditures." -- JOSH FEIT
