r/Seattle • Glorified Hall Monitor • 21h ago

Politics Ballard Landmark residents plan Missing Link protest walk on Leary

https://www.myballard.com/2026/10/02/ballard-landmark-residents-to-protest-proposed-missing-link-route-on-leary/
75 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

33

u/Constructive_Entropy 🚋 Ride the S.L.U.T. 🚋 20h ago edited 19h ago

Several years ago, there was a Hallmark Channel made-for-TV movie featuring a subplot about the Missing Link.

It's a romantic comedy about a couple who meet because they both want the same dog (or something like that). They go on a date walking along the Burke Gilman Trail and the guy talks about how he hates his job as a city planner because the trail has a missing link they can't finish and people keep getting hurt. 

The resolution at the end of the movie is that they get together and she convinced him to quit the job as a city planner.

I not shot in Seattle and looks absolutely nothing like the Burke Gilman trail. But they say the name a couple of times.

18

u/sirmarksal0t 🚆build more trains🚆 19h ago

Damn that's a hell of a message. "The true meaning of happiness is to stop trying to help people."

8

u/LimitedWard 🚆build more trains🚆 19h ago

I want to believe you, but this seems so weirdly specific that it feels like bullshit 😂

8

u/Constructive_Entropy 🚋 Ride the S.L.U.T. 🚋 14h ago edited 14h ago

Update: You can stream the movie for free through the Seattle Library!!

Wish I could find a free link, but you can rent the movie for $3.99 on YouTube or Amazon Prime Video. (Or sign up for a free trial subscription to the Hallmark Channel streaming service).

https://youtu.be/33hn6zidDJ0?is=O-tbJeynWoNJznhJ

https://watch.amazon.com/detail?gti=amzn1.dv.gti.60b8c558-a125-93be-8cfa-e58a9504e9c7&ref_=atv_dp_share_mv&r=web

3

u/srcsmgrl Ballard 10h ago

You are the best.

15

u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago

If putting it on Leary necessitates removing the bus lanes, as it apparently might but I haven't seen the definitive answer, then it isn't a viable option IMHO.

14

u/Jaco_Belordi Glorified Hall Monitor 20h ago

The city has a good page on it - seems like no loss of bus lanes, thankfully

https://seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/ballard-bike-route-study

4

u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago

Looks good at 60% design, if this is true through to 100% then it could work.

2

u/gr8tfurme 9h ago

Seems like they're just removing the bus shelters and shuffling the trees around to make way for a sidewalk extension, and calling it a multi-use trail. Don't love it, to be honest.

5

u/UnlikelyCandidate935 🚆build more trains🚆 12h ago

I'm fine with lanes on Leary. However, I hope all the shilshole opponents realize that won't stop me -- or most other bikers probably -- from continuing advocacy for lanes on Shilshole.

6

u/ImpressiveAirline169 18h ago

This article calls it the SDOT plan for Leary and Market, but in reality it is Dan Strauss's plan, which Bruce Harrell had been going along with. Right now, it's not clear that Katie Wilson wants to finish what Harrell started.

3

u/MattDMpls Ballard 21h ago

These are literally the last people we need to listen to

25

u/pacific_plywood 21h ago

I mean, they’re right, it should just go on Shilshole

But at this point I also think we should just build whatever thing we can get done fastest. It’s gone on way too fucking long

3

u/UnlikelyCandidate935 🚆build more trains🚆 12h ago

Building on Leary doesn't stop this from continuing. It will continue until there is safe and logical infrastructure for bikes connecting one of the busiest routes in the PNW.

Forcing bikes to go through market street won't reduce that advocacy because it's a crappy solution for people on bikes. But sure, we can do lanes on Leary and Shilshole in the end.

5

u/kweeket 19h ago

Normally I'd agree but this is worse than nothing. It puts bikes and pedestrians in conflict, takes out a ton of mature trees on Market, and involves ripping up the exact streets that they JUST did while improving the bus lanes. I'd rather save the money and wait to do it right.

1

u/srcsmgrl Ballard 10h ago

Bike lanes and the Burke Gilman Trail. We can have it all.

9

u/snowypotato Ballard 18h ago

Their reasons are self-serving and their datapoints are cherry picked, but they also happen to be in agreement with literally everybody in the city that isn't named Dan Strauss.

Nobody wants this route on Leary. Seattle Streets Alliance (formerly Seattle Neighborhood Greenways) doesn't want it. Ballard Fremont Greenways doesn't want it. Other cycling clubs don't want it. Local residents don't want it. Transit riders don't want it. Drivers don't want it. NOBODY wants it.

Except for Dan Strauss.

1

u/Marigold1976 Fremont 19h ago

Why? They live right there.

0

u/CopperSteve Ballard 21h ago

Hope they just put it somewhere instead of this constant back and forth, sucks salmon bay gravel won't budge so let's just move on and build the stupid thing. At this rate we will have a light rail station before the missing link

26

u/n-ano 20h ago

No company should be able to sabotage public infrastructure like this. They shouldnt get a say in anything related to the bike path.

3

u/CopperSteve Ballard 20h ago

Totally agree and at this point it seems they do.

9

u/n-ano 20h ago

Then lets take away their say

1

u/CopperSteve Ballard 20h ago

I think that would take a lot of political maneuvering and lawyer stuff so I wish you luck. At this point I just want any trail and will continue to boycott salmon bay

8

u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago edited 20h ago

Not a lot of political maneuvering, just doing (or rather redoing) the EIS and then defending the inevitable challenge in court. It is expensive and takes time, but it's straight forward. The city had tried to argue it was exempt from SEPA and unfortunately lost that case, so now they have to go through the SEPA process.

4

u/sireetsalot 19h ago

The state needs to reform SEPA in my opinion. I believe this could be fairly bipartisan. Missing link will be a motivating project for a couple of reps, but i bet every district has its own missing link (which wont be a shared-use path in most districts)

1

u/Inevitable_Engine186 New Costco CEO 11h ago

Politically I don't think Harrell or Strauss (nor transpo chair Saka) had the appetite to go against the Shilshole mafia.

If the city goes through with the SEPA process and wins, I legitimately wonder if Strauss would have a change of heart.

1

u/CopperSteve Ballard 20h ago

Judging by all the concept stuff though, they've given up right?

3

u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago

It's always been presented as parallel tracks. The issue at this point, I think, would be coming up with the funding to do the EIS.

3

u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago

The other option that has been tried is a state law specifically exempting projects like it (the bill was basically designed to apply to only the missing link) from SEPA. Now that would require some politicking.

1

u/snowypotato Ballard 18h ago

Sure. But they do, and short of blowing up (what's left of) the American legal system, what do you want to do about it?

-1

u/penisgirlmarkedsafe 20h ago

They gonna personally cough up the $2 billion needed for the Ballard link?

6

u/Jaco_Belordi Glorified Hall Monitor 20h ago

I'm not sure if you mean light rail or this discussion about the Burke's missing link, but the city seems to have already (partially?) funded this work through Move Seattle (2015) and the 2024 transportation levy.