On a skinny stretch of Queen Anne’s 14th Avenue West, a simmering parking feud is boiling over. The city is gearing up to yank more than 50 on-street parking spaces, and neighbors are scrambling to stop it. Seattle transportation officials say clearing the curb is about one thing: making sure fire engines and other emergency vehicles can actually squeeze through. Residents counter that those parked cars are doing quiet double duty as traffic calming, and that stripping them out will turn the hill into a speedway. Handwritten posters now line the block, and community members are planning to confront city staff at a public meeting tonight, hoping to force changes before the plan gets locked in.
City frames it as an emergency-access fix
According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, the project would reconfigure 14th Avenue West between Gilman Drive West and West Barrett Street. The plan calls for removing parking on the uphill side of the street and adding new pavement markings meant to support safer speeds…..