By ROB TAYLOR
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Resident Warren Dawson traces the community's activism to 1963, when Interstate 5 was bulldozed through the eastern fringe of the neighborhood. For mitigation, highway developers built a noise barrier and carved out Northacres Park just west of the freeway and north of 125th Street, which has a popular playing field, children's playground and wading pool.

What irked residents was that the city widened 130th Street to boost east-west traffic through the neighborhood.

The project sparked complaints that residents got more noise and traffic, and had to pay for shortening their own front yards.

The community club drafted a plan to protect Haller Lake's single-family homes and quiet streets. The Seattle City Council didn't approve it, but, according to Dawson, the plan proved handy for fighting city projects.

First came a proposed garbage transfer station at North 128th Street and Stone Avenue North. The club fought that proposal in 1965, and the city backed down. In the 1970s, and again in the 1980s, the club rallied against Metro plans to build a bus barn on Aurora Avenue. Eventually, Metro relented and put the barn just off Interstate 5 in Shoreline.

To be sure, the neighborhood has lost some battles. The city operates a vehicle maintenance yard and service station a block east of Aurora. Lincoln Towing's lot nearby is filled with towed cars. And small businesses along Aurora are being picked off by huge warehouse stores and parking lots.

Today, the community club has slowed down a bit. Many of the residents have been there for decades, and as they die or move to nursing homes younger families move in. The club's aging activists are struggling to attract new, younger members. But that hasn't stopped some in the community from taking on two new causes.