You could almost hear the unofficial slogan of the neighborhood — “Don’t Phuck with Phinney!” — resonate through the halls of Ballard High School last night as the Northwest Design Review Board met to discuss the Condo That Nobody Wants in the school library.
(Disclaimer: Yeah, I live on Phinney. But I wouldn’t doubt this kind of thing is coming to a corner near you soon!)
About 80 people, civil but mightily ticked off, gave the board an earful from the get-go, including a white-haired senior who told Mr. Whisper, the board chair, that nobody could hear him — to a chorus of affirmation. Mr. Whisper, who spoke so quietly that I could not begin to even hear his name, responded by raising his voice slightly while seated in the opposite direction of the audience. Deirdre Bowen, a neighbor of the proposed project, finally had to specifically ask that he rise and face the people that the board had so graciously encouraged to attend.
It was a rocky start to a rough evening.
The four-story, 19-unit, big, imposing and many would say ugly condo (correction: apparently the project is now for apartments, although it was earlier identified by the city as condominiums) apartment project is proposed for 6010 Phinney, the corner of Phinney and 61st. Existing structures that house popular neighborhood businesses — not chains, by the way — including Chef Liao, the Daily Planet, Phinney Ridge Cleaners and Roosters cafe, would be torn down. The businesses would also go away, to be supplanted by ground-floor commercial space. Maybe an office or two, perhaps yet another tanning salon or nails boutique.
Beyond its address, the project seems not to have a name (unlike the Roycroft, across the street, and Fini, north on the ave). One occurred to us: Mondo Non-Condo. It is such a mish-mash of design cacaphony, and towers so insultingly over its neighbors, crowding pedestrians on Phinney Avenue and shadowing homes all around, that you can’t help but hate the thing.