Greenlake Spikes

This month, a boater found a bunch of metal spikes in Green Lake, Seattle. There were lots of them, regularly spaced. Who would do such an awful thing? Turns out the Seattle Parks Department put them there as part of a misguided milfoil control program. The City Parks Department said the spikes came as a kit, and the City had "no say" in using the spikes.

I'm not buying it. The City put the spikes in the lake. If the City had concerns about the kit, they should have returned the kit or modified the kit to use sandbags, as in later efforts. It may not have been completely obvious 20 years ago when these spikes were put in that they would become a hazard, but it's still the City's screw up. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, and the city is really very somewhat certain that they have all of the spikes up out of the lake.

Critical Crossings

City Councilmember Nick Licata has a web site devoted to "critical" pedestrian crossings in Seattle: Critical Crossings. You can add your own crossing with a picture. Cool.