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.” 
These neighbors need to buy firearms, wait for the next tresspass, and pop a cap in their tweaker domes!
My sidewalk lawyering skills are by no means legendary, but doesn’t this constitute malicious harassment? Slanging around the J word, along with bags of poop?
This is what this article was supposed to be about, but Jonah chose to ignore it and write a “Jerry Springer story” instead. The fact is, if you live on a street with no curb or sidewalk, even though it is not illegal to park there according to any Seattle codes, it can be made to appear illegal by some word twisting. The story could have been about truth and accountability in our Seattle government that we will be electing again in 2009. Again, Jonah chose to ignore it.
In November 2007, the director of Seattle Department of Transportation(SDOT), Grace Crunican, wrote:
SMC 11.14.475 provides the definition of a planting strip as a basis for the use of this term in subsequent sections in Chapter 11 of the Seattle Municipal Code. The definition in SMC 11.14.475 is as follows: “Planting strip” means that portion of street lying between the constructed curb and the property line exclusive of the sidewalk area: Provided, that if there is no constructed curb, then “planting strip” means that portion of the street lying between a constructed sidewalk and the property line: Provided further, that if there is no constructed curb or constructed sidewalk, there is no “planting strip.”
By simple logic, that would mean that all those areas that do not have curbs or sidewalks are not ‘planting strips’. And, of course, those areas are not sidewalks or curbs so there is no SMC that prohibits parking on those right-of-ways.
SDOT claims all of those areas without curbs or sidewalks are ‘planting strips’ and it is illegal to park there. In June 2008, Brian de Place of the Street Use Section of SDOT wrote: ‘Although, according to the definition of SMC 11, this area is not technically a ‘planting strip,’ this does not mean that it is a designated parking area either.’ And as far as we know, those are not prohibited parking areas either.
On August 29, 2008, Councilmember Jan Drago’s aide wrote: ‘Judy Barbour (City Attorney’s office) has done what you have asked, and has worked with SDOT to clarify and rectify archaic language so that a ‘planting strip’ is indeed the same as a parking strip, and has no other name. “Planting strip” is the official title for the piece of Right of Way (owned by the City) between the Street and a private property line.’
Is the Seattle Municipal Code correct or can it just be changed by an interpretation by government employees without input from the City Council?
Seriously? This is some major irrational escalation over someone trying to make the neighborhood nicer, and a semantics issue.
Simple solution: Park in front of your own house.
Kudos to Jonah for doing some investigating and getting the whole story.
Comment # 3 is from Zion Gliksman.
Look at Zion’s #3 comment, and you can see how obsessed he has become on his little parking cause, so much so, that he has been blinded by the major issue here of the harassment and anguish he and his girlfriend have caused others. Also, does he not understand that the city will bend to the needs of the majority. This is a democracy, not Zionsland. And, this could be from deep rooted issues that Zion has with his mother for naming him Zion. You would think with a biblical name as such, he would be quite neighborly, but obviously quite the opposite!
COMMENT DELETED: Inflammatory
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Hey Zion Gliksman,
Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.
~ Charles Swindoll
Is this really how you want your life to be? When you were a young lad, did you imagine that you would end up obsessed over where someone can or cannot park, or the legal definition of “planting strip”?
It’s never too late to lighten up and let it go! Do you think you will ever get any peace or satisfaction out of all of this nonsense?
Neighbors should be your friends, not enemies.
Gliksman, you’ve become a human joke, haven’t you?
I’m all for Zionism! Amen.
good coverage. this kind of stuff (or shades of it) happens in every neighborhood. in mine (queen anne), there’s the crank who posts verbose signs about metropolitan market. someone called the city to report trees that weren’t trimmed to code. i think there are a number of people who lack the skills to live in community. small things become threats or take on too much significance. it’s good to shine a light on the behavior.
As one of the neighbors on the cul-de-sac Zion and Linda go far beyond just being over diligent about parking issues on the street. These two people use any mode as a method to bully all the surrounding neighbors. I personally have been screamed at, called names, and cars revved back and forth in front of me while I went to check my mail. We are all really concerned that this will escalate and someone is going to get hurt. Please consider that we have exhausted the use of the criminal court system, law enforcement, and almost all civil recourse. None of us want anything malicious to happen to either Zion or Linda; we just want them cease this aggressive and harmful behavior.
I will come by and have a good talk with Zion, I will get him to see the light, to understand harrassing people isnt the way to go. Zion will be crying by the end of our conversation because of all his deep rooted issues, and will need a little nappy to blow his wee little nose. And he will repent, and will most likely move to another country and learn how to become a better preson. Wont you Zi!
I was at my friend’s home on this cul-de-sac and witnessed Linda’s abusive behavior. As we sat on my friend’s deck for lunch, she walked her dog around the perimeter of my friend’s house, shouting things like “You’re red, white and blue! Redneck, white trash, and blue collar!” I felt unsafe and it just moved into the ridiculous when I later saw Linda raking her concrete driveway for additional ear abuse. They are seriously disturbed. Seriously.
I knew Zion as a young man. He was a gentle soul with a sweet sense of humor and a love for music, incapable of meanness. Zion, if you read this, know that someone in this world is praying for you that you would be forgiven, and that you would forgive. You know G-d is asking you to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Shalom Bro.
I met Zion several years ago when he was good friends with my mother. He was funny, witty, caring, and incredibly intelligent. My mother noticed a change in him when he met the woman he eventually moved in with. Although it pisses me off when everyone blames the female, in this case, even I must reluctantly concede that there was, and clearly still is, a profoundly powerful, negative, and destructive influence here.
This just makes me sad. This is not the smart, funny, gentle, educated “Zion” I remember. Scarier yet, as I recall, I think his live-in girl friend is a school teacher (?) Someone should look into that and notify whatever school she works for of this behavior. Neither one of them are fit to be around children.
Zion, if you read this, please consider getting off the booze and dump this looser. You’ll both be better off, as will society in general. You are not only dragging each other down, your taking everyone around you with you.
it’s interesting that the last two commenters claim to have known Zion several years ago and think they are now qualified to judge him. i wonder if they kept in touch with him or just think they now know so much about him and this story just by reading the crap here. i wonder if they also think they know all about Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, etc.
i know Zion and what has been going on in this neighborhood. it’s not a Jekyl/Hyde situation. he’s still ‘a gentle soul with a sweet sense of humor’ and ‘smart, funny, gentle, educated’. don’t judge unless you know all the facts. you can’t believe everything you read in print, especially in a trashy newspaper.