District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka was apparently taken by surprise by the announcement by the Seattle Department of Transportation that in addition to converting back in angle parking at Duwamish Head to parallel parking, they planned to add an additional 150 waterside parallel spaces. Saka released a statement about this on Thursday.

"I want to clarify my position regarding SDOT’s recently announced proposed parking changes at Alki, that was attributed to work being done by my office.

For background: During last year’s Council budget review, I supported converting diagonal to parallel parking at Duwamish Head in response to ongoing community concerns about nightly street racing and loud gatherings that have disturbed neighbors year-round. The Council appropriated $175,000 for this change. I strongly support this first aspect of the project pertaining to Duwamish Head reconfiguration only.

However, this week’s SDOT’s announcement referenced an additional out-of-scope project to add 150 new parking spaces along the waterside of Alki Avenue—which apparently was a revival of an unpopular proposal from 15+ years ago—and indicated my support for it.

To be clear: I unequivocally DO NOT support this proposal to install 150 new parking spots and I sincerely regret this confusion.

I had a productive meeting with SDOT this week where I reaffirmed my support for the Duwamish Head changes. I also expressed strong opposition to the second phase of the project to add 150 new spaces. We ultimately aligned on a shared goal of moving forward with mutual understandings and to ensure full transparency and tighter coordination in the future. I appreciate the department’s collaboration here, along with their efforts to bring to life my original intent of reconfiguring Duwamish Head parking only.

For further questions on the project details, please contact SDOT Customer Care at 206-684-ROAD (7623) or email 684-ROAD@Seattle.gov."