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Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

More Bike Racks at Melrose Market. Please.

Opinion   August 16, 2010 at 10:36 am Josh Feit

I was going to be Bertolet or ECB or Josh Cohen and file a little green living, C is for Crank, BikeNerd of my own today—criticizing the new Melrose Market development on Melrose between Pike and Pine for its lack of bike racks.

It’s a bone headed move that there are so few places to lock up—especially given that the urban market was designed by Liz Dunn (a green architect who Erica and I once named a “One-to-Watch” Stranger Genius back when ECB and I were at the Stranger and they gave out political genius awards.)

But my pro-bike rack rant got complicated. I mistakenly left my bike at the Melrose development on Friday night after hitting the CD shop and the bar, locked awkwardly to a makeshift rack, the handrail leading up the steps to Sonic Boom. I went out of town this weekend and my bike sat there over 48 hours.

I forgot about it until this morning, and when I dashed over there on my way to work to grab my bike, I found this note:

Please,

Do not lock your Shitty bike to our handrail. It is unsightly and an eyesore and may make it difficult for our older customers to enter our store. There are many places on this block where you can lock up. Look!! across the street!! A Bike Rack!! Have some respect Please. Thnx. Management.

My apologies to the management. And I do know what a drag it is when someone leaves their bike like that. (Someone locked their two bikes up to the rack outside PubliCola’s office for over two months without moving them.)

But honestly, there aren’t “many places” to lock up at the new (supposedly) urban development on Melrose. There is one of those small converted-parking-meter lock ups that holds two bikes max (it was full on Friday night), but that’s it.

And for what it’s worth: I’m one of your older customers. I bought an ’80s Sonic Youth record at your store on Friday night.




  • misha

    I think Melrose Market knows their clientele. They have a ridiculously comprehensive spreadsheet on their website with all of the nearby car parking options with easy access from I-5, but they say bicycles are “unsightly” and “eyesores.”

    Melrose Market is for tourists from the suburbs who read about what’s “hip” in Seattle Magazine. Nobody who lives on Capitol Hill is going to their lame wine bar, lame fake speakeasy, lame foie gras restaurant, lame cheese shop, lame corpse boutique, or lame Quizno’s clone, and we have better places to buy vinyl.

  • price all vehicle storage…

    Well, our zoning laws reqwuire automobile parking spaces for businesses, apartments and condos, but not scotter spaces, Smartcar mini spaces, not motorcycle spaces, and not bike spaces.

    Our SDOT provides free car storage rampantly across the city, using city streets, but is behind on bike storage spaces. Also their car storage spaces a/k/a parking spaces are uniform in size, are usually sized for a larger SUV and thus help subsidize the larger vehicles more leaving scotters and bikes out of the picture.

    Oh and you're paying for it even if you bike to a store as of course the costs of the “free” parking for autos are built into the prices you pay (true in general, don't know if Melrose market would be thankfully exmpted from providing free car storage spaces).

    You're already paying for vehicle storage in other words, it's just that the game is rigged in favor of the biggest most polluting planet killing transportation devices available.

    Now if we only had bike licenses….minifees for parking bikes…well then we could have charged you for your bike storage space and revenue would help pay for more of them…and we could have charged you a penalty for usurping the space for an entire weekend….were you a car you'd be looking at a $29 fine for sure, perhaps multiple ones or perhaps towing charges….. but of course bikes cannot be licensed fined regulated taxed as anything that's “good” cannot be licensed fined regulated or taxed, right?

  • Matt
  • Josh Feit

    Oh my!

  • voter

    I believe Melrose Market is in discussions with SDOT to install an on-street bike rack.

  • DOUG.

    Wouldn't it be good for business if Sonic Boom requested a bike rack for its store from the city instead of writing asshole notes like this one?

  • http://hans.gerwitz.com hans.gerwitz

    I have another picture of that sign, if you'd like to collect them and make a collage.

  • Ty

    I disagree with the note, I have seen shittier bikes.

  • Liz

    Josh it's Liz — we've been waiting for our bike rack from SDOT for MONTHS. We've ordered a huge one that will go in the street like the one in front of Stumptown on 12th. Every time we go back to SDOT and ask where it is there's something they have to check/move/do…. We hear about it from customers every day and don't know how to expedite things. Any suggestions??

  • Barleywine

    Maybe they meant “city bike.”

  • DOUG.

    Yeah, while waiting for the “huge one” maybe you could order a regular rack. I've done this a couple of times and it's taken less than a week.

  • http://www.charlesredell.com/blog Charles

    From attending SBAB meetings for months and hearing about the bike rack back log at all of them, I'd say that's what the hold up is.
    They have way more requests for on-street bike racks than they can keep up with and, once the summer roles around, SDOT crews get assigned to doing work on the streets (like painting sharrows and bike lanes on Nickerson) and bike racks fall to the bottom of the list.

  • steveseattle

    Actually zoning laws in Seattle do require bike parking both long term (e.g. for employees) and short term (e.g. customers). The requirements are in Table E, Section 23.54.015 of the Seattle Land Use Code.

  • bryan_p

    Josh, What are you a 16 year old drunk. That was an asshole move.

  • http://43rddemocrats.org Michael M.

    As already mentioned, this got picked up over on Slog. I think this comment from my friend Erik said why it was a shitty thing to do best:

    No, this shit does suck. When I ruined my knee earlier this year and needed to use a handrail to get up stairs, this would have been a huge pain in the ass. Walk your lazy ass down the block and lock it to a stop sign or something.

    ____

    Personally, I tend to be injury prone, especially to my right knee (how I make softball so intensive is beyond me), and regularly find myself relying on hand rails to make sure I don't fall down stairs while limping all pansy-like. Hand Rails =/= bike rack. Ever.

  • http://43rddemocrats.org Michael M.

    On a separate note – how the hell did you forget your bicycle? I mean…were you totally stoned or something? I'm kind of impressed.

  • sich

    I agree with bryan on this. Not cool, locking to handrails. While 'cola may not understand that some people have to use handrails as a matter of course for whatever reason (mobility impairment, general dizziness and instability), with all the “last night” posts and others extolling inbibing of alcohol, you'd think that they'd understand their usefulness as they stagger around drunk.

    As for the “management”, two things…1) confrontational notes such as these don't do anything more than pissing people off (take a note from Whole Foods @ SLU, they put a note on bikes locked to the handrails politely informing the riders of where there are racks, and that they cannot be locked to hand rails for safety reasons. 2) DO NOT TAPE THINGS TO OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF!!! If you need to affix a note to the bike, wrap it around the tube and tape it paper to paper.

  • DOUG.

    Doesn't Barnett continually forget her bike on Metro buses? You two are made for each other.

  • Josh Feit

    Liz,
    Thanks for response. I think all you can do is keep bugging them.

  • mike archambault

    Yeah, there's nothing quite as lame as local small business owners and renowned chefs following their passion and opening shops in rejuvenated old buildings that could otherwise be awesome, vacant, neighborhood eyesores.

  • Barleywine

    Careful, Misha…

    People are going to rag on you if you keep this up.
    I mean, even more.

  • SoniaRz

    @Steve – how exactly is that section of the code enforced?