A number of Magnolia residents are circulating petitions around the neighborhood calling on Metro to forget about making changes to Bus Route 24.
Those who signed the petitions, and there are hundreds who have, are expected to pack the next meeting of the Magnolia Community Club, to be held at 7 p.m. on April 12 in the cafeteria of the Catharine Blaine K-8 School (2550 34th Ave. W.). The meeting will be a chance for residents to hear more about the proposed changes and to tell officials how they feel about the proposed changes.
One petition had already received more than 240 signatures as of the last week in March and it was continuing to circulate. Other petitioners were also going door to door to get signatures from area residents who use the bus. Many of those on the bus are commuters going to work, students going to area schools and the elderly, who often use the bus throughout the day to go shopping, visit the doctor or see friends and relatives. It is their ticket to independence.
“Most of the people in this area rely on the bus,” said one Magnolia resident who lives near 28th Avenue West, but wished to not be named for this article. “Just like my situation: my husband doesn’t drive and I’ve got problems with my knee. We need a bus to go to the doctor and get groceries. We need the bus to get out and go places. We don’t want to move because this is where our home is and this is where our heart is.”
The main complaint centers on the proposed elimination this fall of bus No. 24 servicing the residents along Magnolia’s West Viewmont Way West and 28th Avenue West. King County Metro is proposing that during peak hours, bus riders who live near West Viewmont Way West use Route 19, which would include only four morning trips as well as five afternoon and evening trips. There would be no bus service provided to West Viewmont Way West during off-peak hours.
For 28th Avenue West riders trying to go to downtown Seattle, they would have to catch the northbound No. 33 bus and ride to 22nd Avenue, where they would transfer to the southbound Route 33. Metro explains that the distance from current stops to the proposed new stops would be four-tenths of a mile.
Metro said they are proposing the changes because those sections of the route have very low ridership and they are trying to develop more efficient ways of designing the bus routes. Metro officials say they are still weighing the comments from the various open houses they have run in recent months and no final decisions have been made.
However, the route changes would force the elderly who use the bus along West Viewmont Way West to either walk the hilly streets in often wet or sometimes icy weather or to get a ride from friends and family if they need to make an appointment not during peak bus hours. Residents near 28th Avenue West would either have to walk in bad conditions or transfer from the No. 33 bus to the No. 24 bus in order to get to the Magnolia Village.
All these proposed changes have been a major topic of conversation throughout Magnolia Village, including at Laurie’s Village Salon on West McGraw Street.
Sitting on the counter of the salon is one of the local petitions. The staff at Laurie’s said that customers have so far filled up three or four pages of the petition with signatures.
“We hear about it at least a couple of times a day,” said Jacquie LeClech who works at the salon. “The bus is how many of our customers get to the doctor or go places. It is a big concern on their part.”
Salon owner Laurie Forsberg said the customers have heard that Metro wants to make the changes because of low ridership. But they wonder why Metro doesn’t put a smaller bus on the route.
“They have seen an articulated bus on the route,” Forsberg said. “But many residents are saying why not have a shorter bus running more often?”
One Magnolia resident fears for the health of the local business community.
“If [Metro] doesn’t have a bus going down to the Magnolia Village, it will be a ghost town,” said the resident who wouldn’t give her name. “How will we be able to go down and support the businesses in the village?”
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