I’m a frequent visitor to the Bellevue library, and every time I attempt to park there, even if only for a few minutes to drop off books, I find it very difficult if not impossible to find a parking space. So why would I be upset to learn that the Bellevue library will be getting more parking? (Bellevue Reporter; October 28, 2009)
I’ve always found it hard to believe once inside the library, that there were as many people inside the building as there were vehicles parked outside it. My curiosity getting the better of me on a recent Monday morning, I counted the number of cars in all library parking spaces and the number of people inside the library just before the doors opened at 9 a.m. I counted 59 vehicles in library parking spaces, and not surprisingly, 18 people in the library (plus about 20 staff).
On another weekday in the early afternoon, having to park on the street two blocks away in the rain because all three lots were full, I monitored the “10 minute book drop only” spaces and found them occupied with the same vehicles for over 30 minutes before I entered the library to complain. I confronted a librarian who told me, “Even those of us who work here have trouble finding parking.”
Then last Thursday, a friend from out of town and I decided to go into the city. We purposely parked his car beneath the Bellevue library, walked up a flight of stairs to the main lobby and exited the building to board a Sound Transit bus route #550 express to downtown Seattle.
We spent all day there shopping at Westlake Center, visiting the Seattle Art Museum, lunching at Four Seasons, and watching those flying fish at Pike Place Market.
Finally we boarded the 550 back to Bellevue to the 110th Ave NE Terminal right alongside the library. We retraced our steps, got into the car, and drove away without notice or penalty whatsoever.
I sat there as we drove away wondering how many countless others have been abusing parking privileges at the Bellevue library without recompense, and ringing in my ears was a statement from Kay Johnson, Associate Director of Facilities Development: “We don’t want a park and ride,” she said.
Like most of us back in 2004, I voted for the $172 million King County Library System (KCLS) capital bond measure in good faith not realizing whatsoever that we would be subsidizing commuters, employees of small restaurants and their customers, friends of apartment and condo dwellers, construction workers, shoppers, and anyone else wishing to abuse the parking privileges designed for legitimate users of the Bellevue library who must now scramble for parking.
What is clear here is that inadequate parking is not necessarily holding back use of the building, but rather, it is unmonitored and unenforced parking that is doing so, and that parking at the downtown Bellevue library for purposes other than conducting business there is as common as riding a Metro Transit bus without paying proper fare.
Why routine professional enforcement had never been seriously considered before the allocation of millions of King County tax dollars for something that was most likely unnecessary in the first place raises questions.
Without monitoring and enforcement, (and this responsibility should never fall to library staff), the problem of parking at the Bellevue library will never be solved no matter how many extra parking spaces we build, at least not until a threshold is met, because the burgeoning development of the downtown core has created a rapidly increasing population density.
With this kind of development comes a growing need for more public parking especially in this corner of downtown Bellevue. Is it too late to broker a financial undertaking involving not only KCLS, but also King County Metro and/or the city of Bellevue in the creation of a multi-use, multi-level public parking facility with validated parking for people actually using the library?
Ron Vize, Bellevue
