Camp Fire Boys and Girls selling bald eagle habitat to condo developers

[LisaM]

This is sickening. The Maple Leaf/Northgate area is simply ruined by development (I call it Greg Nickels' Northgate Uglification Project). I hope the neighborhood association can do something about this. Unfortunately, I think bald eagles just went off the endangered species list, so the development probably can't be blocked on that basis. There is a grove of trees there that are at least 80 years old; they're just beautiful. And they're going to chop them down.

http://www.campfire-usa.org/press/propertysale.htm#letter

[joneschick]

1. I think they're still protected

Even if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes the bald eagle from the "threatened and endangered" species list, it will still be protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. ........
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/

[LisaM]

2. Thanks. I should email our community center

Maybe our national bird can help save my neighborhood!

[Joanne98]

3. That's terrible. Can't we find someone else to buy it?

[Sukie1941]

4. Things have changed.....

I had a run-in with a Girl Scout administrator several years ago. She lied on a job application. She was a student at a university where I worked, and she asked me to look over her resume. On it she had shown herself as a state employee with the position of "Office Coordinator." She was never a state employee. The position was mine. She actually asked me to check her resume which listed MY JOB!

I made a copy of the resume and handed it to our union president (it was not a management job). We made sure our good Girl Scout leader never got a job interview at our university.

I have very little respect for either Girl Scouts or Campfire Girls as they are managed today. I don't buy their damn too-expensive cookies and don't support much of anything they do.

[LisaM]

5. Here's some more information

Believe me, they hid this story big time - I heard about it on the news this week. Apparently Camp Fire Boys and Girls have been hit by an avalanche of bad publicity this week (good) and that's when they wrote their letter to their "neighbors".

I checked out the Community Council website and they are trying to have it designated a landmark. If you're a Maple Leaf resident (or just someone in Seattle who cares), it lists some courses of action:


http://www.savewaldo.org/

http://cityofseattle.net/commnty/mapleleaf/#camp%20fire

[flamingyouth]

7. I figured this was coming when the sale was announced.

I saw it in the Puget Sound Business Journal a while back (the sale) and I thought, "Gee, why do I think this is going to get torn down for condos?" :eyes:

Thanks for the contact info.

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. Jesus! How much development do THEY NEED IN SEATTLE?!?!

And it is bad enough that working families can't afford to live there anyway. And Greg Nickels calls himself and environmental activist? A Democrat?

[LisaM]

8. Greg Nickels seems to be on a mission to ruin the Maple Leaf/Northgate area

In his eyes, it was underdeveloped. When he's finished, it's going to be a nightmare. Traffic is going to be horrendous. For no reason that I can fathom, they are putting in a 16-screen movie theatre just south of the mall - they are adding businesses to the mall, but won't tell anyone what they're going to be other than Barnes & Noble - what do they want? Another Alderwood? It was a nice, sleepy little part of town. They are jamming it with condos and two or three houses built on one lot - I don't think they are allotting enough parking - one spot per unit in most of them, and other than us, I don't think I know any couples who only have one car - no, I take it back, I know ONE other couple who does. A few years ago I heard people trying to talk to Greg Nickels on KUOW about all this and one woman asked him directly about chain stores versus local stores and he completely skirted the issue. If Seattle can't be a bastion for local businesses, I don't know if there's anywhere that can.

[flamingyouth]

9. I see the deed is done and the site has been approved for demolition.

SUCKS.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/320735_waldo22.html

[SeattleGirl]

10. Good God! Can we PLEASE put a moratorium on condos in this area????

My daughter and SIL just had to move from the apartment they'd been in for several years because it's being converted to condos.

Everywhere I look, more and more of them are going up.

More and more people are being displaced because of this.

I am getting very pissed off about this! Damnit, not EVERY FREAKING PERSON in this area can afford to buy a condo! :grr: :grr: :grr:

[maxsolomon]

11. No, we CAN'T put a moratorium on Condo development

there's a MILLION more people coming to Seattle in the next 20 years. we're going to become a real city. Do you want the new emigrants camping in motor homes in front of your house? how about if they all live in shite fee-simple townhomes like that ghetto-of-the-future being perpetrated near 85th & Aurora, and that growth pattern blankets the entire city?

or would you prefer that they live in high-density green condos directly adjacent to a light rail line & BRT down i-5, and WALK over to the California Pizza Kitchen & the 16 screen multiplex at Northgate Mall?

don't just bitch & call for a moratorium on development: you'll lose. property taxes run this state, remember? embrace the density & get involved in the Design Review process. make your, and your neighborhood's, opinion on specific projects felt. if the entire neighborhood is in agreement, DPD will listen to community opinion, & it WILL shape the final product. you might get the trees saved.

call your councilmembers & let them know you want groves of mature trees added to the list of ECAs (environmentally critical areas), like wetlands & steep slopes are now. you have to provide 15' buffers from all slopes over 40%, and 50' from wetlands! its possible to do the same for stands of trees, but it has to be a council action to amend the SMC (seattle munincipal code).

and expect developers to fight you tooth & nail. capital only likes nature when it can exploit it.

while you're at it, suggest that tree-toppers get put in stocks at Victor Steinbruck park.

[SeattleGirl]

12. Okay, then, how about a moratorium on the outrageous housing

and rental prices around here? That's my biggest gripe. I've been expecting the developers and millionaires around her to put a fence around Seattle and lot allow anyone worth less than several million dollars to set foot in the city.

The house on the corner of my street sold a couple of years ago for $375,000, and believe me, it ain't all that.

I still say that housing prices here are so outrageously high, it's a wonder we don't all have to live in 10x20 foot trailers.

[maxsolomon]

13. feel free to contact the mayor & city council, let me know how it works out

we bought 10 years ago for 290K. now we could sell for around 800K. which means our property taxes are through the roof, much to the delight of city coffers.

i don't know what they're DOING with the extra loot, but don't expect them to give it up voluntarily.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

14. Indeed Max!

First house here was thirty thousand back in 84 , believe that!? Yes indeed those prices are up ,way up into the sky and those city taxs -way way up there right?Ya, well ah, it just seems the city tells you these days what your property is worth and they tax you by what they say. Yep those taxs!

And the place is starting to look like Phoenix Arizona, yes indeed ,condos and apartment houses inbetween residential houses, where ever they can just force town house,s condo,s or apartment buildings in, yep, the worth of your house just keeps rising by the tax standard isn,t that so?

Yep ,and now they want to go to your house and the house behind you and buy up some of your back yards ,at a price that will make you happy ofcourse and stick something in back there too, yep and those taxs.

The green belts are just disappearing ,but hay, that,s life in the big city I guess right?

Unless ofcourse they are stopped ,which is what must happen!It,s rather out of control right now.And those taxs!

I know it.s going to grow, but ah, we really must have our green!

What the heck Max- think green!

[SeattleGirl]

16. My landlord has been fighting the city for years (in vain, so far).

We have a fairly big yard, but some of the property (covered in blackberry bushes) plunges straight down. However, the dimwits in the gubmit think that my landlord should tear this house down, and put up 2-3 new houses, crammed so closely together that you can reach out your window and touch the house next door. And never mind the fact that the street I live on is about half a block long, barely a lane wide, and is a dead end. That's all we need -- more people and more vehicles.

Needless to say, the city is punishing the hell out of the landlord because he won't give in to them, but instead keeps fighting.

[maxsolomon]

17. i don't understand how the city can force a property owner to develop

whats the zoning? SF or L?

houses can't be closer than 8'. how long are your arms?

[SeattleGirl]

18. Well, I was exaggerating a bit to make a point.

Still, though, have you noticed that when a neighborhood of McMansions gets built, the houses are gigantic, and the yards are miniscule. Maybe I'm just used to having some space around me, and some of those places just seem too close for comfort to me.

I think the city is trying to force my landlord by continuing to really jack up his property taxes, based on their contention that several homes could be built on the property. The really nutso thing, as I mentioned above, is that a good chunk of the property is far too steep to build anything on, yet the city counts it as buildable property (got this info from a conversation with the landlord).

Not sure about the zoning here. Probably SF.

[LisaM]

15. Nothing is done to control rents around here.

Don't even get me started on Northgate. Endless construction, we DO NOT need a 16-plex theatre, all the stores going into the mall so far are huge national chains, and even though they claim it's pedestrian friendly on 5th NE, they haven't lowered speed limits and busses whiz by the narrow sidewalk at about 35 mph. If it's all going to be walkable and pedestrian friendly, for God's sake, lower the speed to 25 mph and enforce it, put up more covered bus stops. There are condos sprouting everywhere, not enough parking, and now they're just going to whang down a bunch of 100+ year old trees to put in more condos. Maple Leaf is getting filled up with condos and to make it worse, they are mostly ugly.

And put in some rent control to protect those of use who have lived here for a long time and will probably get forced out of Seattle altogether.

[progressivebydesign]

19. Hmmm.. I know of several places where they've had a moratorium..

and it worked.

[Luckyangler123]

20. Communism Is NOT the Answer

You may not like the proposed development but the property is privately owned and as a result the owners should be able to maximize its value with a sale of the property for its highest and best use. The main threat your opinion presents is that of communism, or the public ownership and control of all property, real and personal. That has been proven by history to be a disaster, both economically and environmentally. What if somone came and seized your home and told you it had no value and would be turned into a park? Do you think that would be fair and just? That is what you are trying to do here. Celebrate free market capitalism and private property rights!!!!

[eridani]

21. Property rights do not imply a right to shit in the reservoir n/t