Mount Baker Seattle

Seafair, Seattle's annual summer celebration is underway and with it, parking headaches in neighborhoods along the lake, especially ones like our neighborhood of Mount Baker.  Each year, Mount Baker gets flooded with Seafair families all looking for a place to park for the day. 

While familes come from all around, I imagine at least some of the traffic could be handled by light rail.  It's actually a short walk from the Mount Baker Station to the north entrance of Seafair.  I created a walking map that shows the route:

Walk to Seafair

Beacon Hill blog has some other options for getting there from Othello and Columbia City.

The process was pretty user friendly, but I didn't really know what an
"e-purse" is. I put $10 on it with a credit card, so I'm hoping that
I'll essentially have a $10 credit for busses, trains and ferries.

I'm sure a lot of nerds will be checking out the light rail on this opening weekend.  Let's get together, ride the rail and geek out a little.

Here's the plan: Meet at the Mount Baker Stop at 1pm on Sunday July 19th, in the tunnel by the escalators (see photo below). From there, we'll get on board and maybe ride down to Tukwila and back. I'm hoping Sunday will be less crowded. Bring a camera, etc.  

UPDATED:  Here's a simple plan, in case you come late and still want to catch up.  We'll meet at Mt. Baker and take the train down to Tukwila. One the way back north, we'll get off at Columbia City  and have a "Light Rail Ale" at the Columbia City Ale House to finish up. 

Let's use the hashtag " #SEArail " on our tweets.

Follow @SeattlebyRail on Twitter for updates

I'm sure my neighbors encounter the same thing, but sometimes I tell Seattle locals I live in the Mount Baker neighborhood and they think I live near the actual mountain in Whatcom County. Here's a quick guide:

Mount Baker Mountain

Mount Baker Neighborhood

To help without visuals, I often explain that they've likely driven (literally) through the middle of the neighborhood.  It goes like this:

"You know how I-90 comes from the eastside (Bellevue), across Mercer Island and into Seattle?  The last tunnel by the lakeshore is the Mount Baker tunnel. Those houses you see by the lake are a part of the Mount Baker neighborhood."  That usually does the trick.

Of course, as neighborhoods in Seattle go, Mount Baker is more residential and quiet, meaning people aren't as likely to make it a destination. There are not a bevy of bars, restaurants and attractions like other neighborhoods. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, but Mount Baker is no Capitol Hill.

A big question is how the Mount Baker light rail stop will impact our quiet little neighborhood over the long term? I expect and hope that the station will being economic development to area directly around the station.  Conventional wisdom says that this is a realistic expectation - public transit stations have a history of being engines of local development. I would love to see more locally owned businesses find a niche near the station.

Going a little further out, some of our neighbors will have to deal with parking restrictions thanks to the traffic that will come from the light rail.  However, the majority of residents live away from the traffic that's likely to increase thanks to the light rail.  I live walking distance from the station and don't expect to see a change, much less toursists wandering by my house.

Even if the rail station did bring more traffic, etc. I don't think many residents would trade it for having a station in the neighborhood. Plus, since the station is called the Mount Baker Station, we won't have to explain ourselves as much any more.  We can just ask if they've ridden the light rail.

The idea for Seattle By Rail came from thinking about my neighborhood.  I live in Mt. Baker, walking distance from the light rail stop.  I've been so excited about the access to the rail, consantly thinking about what it will mean to Seattle and my 'hood. 

One day I was looking at the map and realized that Mt. Baker could be a stop that tourists from downtown could use to walk to Lake Washington. There will be no easier way for tourists to get out of the downtown area and to the lake, where there are lots of recreation options.

Then it occured to me. The businesses in my neighborhood have a stake in this happening. If locals and/or tourists end up walking to the lake, they should have a resource for knowing where to get off and what to do. Soon after it became obvious that this is the case with nearly every stop.  If people had a way to know what to do, they would be more likely to got off and grab a beer, take a walk, eat some food.

So Seattle By Rail was born as a way to give people an easy way to learn about the stops along the Light Rail, but also a way for local businesses to advertise and create awareness about what they offer to riders.  I'm a believer that the Rail can be an engine of economic development for South Seattle.  I expect economies to grow around many of the stops, especially between Othello and Beacon Hill. 

We're just getting started, but the success of this site will depend on people who live in areas that will be touched by the Light Rail that are ready to contribute blog posts, reviews and other content to make the site a useful place. I hope you'll consider being a part of the action.

Mt. Baker

Just recently I visited the station which is still under construction.  I have a feeling that a bit of contruction will have to occur after the opening day on June 18th.