Activist community has plenty of issues to debate

By DON CARTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As might be expected in a community of activists, Shoreline has no shortage of disagreements. At the moment, there's a flap between residents who like a trail in Saltwater Park and nearby property owners who want the trail removed. In Richmond Beach, a group promoting a new library is at odds with those who don't want it built in a city park.

At city meetings over development of a new comprehensive plan, there are disagreements between those who want denser housing and those committed to preserving the remaining open spaces.

On Aurora Avenue, many merchants fear that city officials' dreams of making the avenue into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard may mean carving into the merchants' limited retail space.

In the fall 1997 elections, three 18-year-olds filed for City Council positions, complaining that Shoreline hasn't done much for teenage recreation. The three teens lost, but King says their message has been heard at City Hall. A skateboard park and some kind of teen center, "a safe place for them to talk and visit," are among the city's priorities, King says.

Then there is the Sugar's matter. When Shoreline passed an ordinance last fall prohibiting nude dancers from getting closer than four feet from their customers, the city's only nude-dancing cabaret took umbrage. With a paid petition drive, Sugar's forced a vote that could change the city's form of government.

Shoreline residents will vote March 10 on whether they want to keep their present city manager-council government or elect 15 freeholders to design a new form of government. Sugar's representatives have said they hope the latter would result in a government that would protect their freedom of expression.

The nude dancers' attempt to redesign the city government got national media attention, including some snickers by Jay Leno.

More helpful, perhaps, was the national spotlight focused on Shoreline in January 1997. Vice President Al Gore stopped through to gaze down the dramatic Shoreline sinkhole created by mudslides in the Innis Arden area.

Shoreline got about $1.5 million in federal money to patch the hole.