Working to keep our community in the eye of the mayor’s
office, Emily Hine, Mark Koenig and I met with Mayor Greg
Nickels to discuss our houseboat community’s concerns on his
recent tour of South Lake Union. Starting off on a positive
note, Emily thanked him for the work to get the fireboat on
Lake Union and for continuing to work with the fire and police
department unions to ensure shorter fire response times. Then
we moved onto other meaningful topics: the increasing neighborhood
density and its effects, parking issues, and discussions
of keeping the lake a working lake. Mark, a Westlake
houseboater, spoke eloquently to the fact that as density increases,
infrastructure, and parking issues need to be addressed
so parking problems are not pushed into the neighborhoods.
My task was to ask for clear proposals for the Floating Homes
to respond to — to which a challenge was issued: What do we
want our community to be? We need to define it for ourselves,
make our own proposals, and work towards that vision.
Board members meet with Mayor Nickels
The call to action got us thinking, that for the first time in
our history, we are no longer fighting to stay on the lake. We
are an integral part of Seattle, we are a tourist attraction, some
homes are among the highest price per square foot real estate in
the city, yet, at the heart, we are a little bohemian community
just trying to dip a toe in the water. The city is changing around
us and as we move toward the future, the questions will be
posed: What do we want for the floating homes community?
How can we work with our dockmates and people in the neighborhoods
to embrace the change that is happening and make it
work for us? With this in mind, as the new website kicks off,
please participate in the discussions and let us know your
thoughts!
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