By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The backbone of Ravenna is its community association, which dates back to the 1920s. Not known for shirking, it has taken on the city and state transportation officials.

Ravenna is the neighborhood that helped sink the plan for the proposed R.H. Thompson freeway, which would have destroyed several Seattle neighborhoods had it been built in the 1960s.

Eileen Farley, its president, is a former public defender. Her husband, George Finkle, is a King County Superior Court Judge.

While some neighbors fret about car prowls, Farley says, crime is not a hot issue in Ravenna, nor has it been from many years. Although some criminal activity does occur in Ravenna Park, including drug use, it is not a huge problem, he notes.

What sets residents off is traffic. And the granddaddy of all traffic fights -- over state Route 520 -- is getting under way again. A new study has been launched by the state in its quest to ease traffic congestion over the 520 bridge.

Ravenna and Montlake fear the bridge eventually will be expanded and more drivers will seek shortcuts through their single-family neighborhoods. Neighbors say they won't allow Ravenna to be carved into little "islands" surrounded by rivers of fast-moving traffic. Already during Husky football games, 25th Avenue Northeast is blocked off and converts to a one-way exit so northbound fans can reach Interstate 5.

Similarly, residents near University Village complain that UW students park their cars on residential streets and bike to school on the Burke-Gilman trail. It's so bad that people can't find parking even near their own homes.

The dislike of traffic can best be illustrated by the story of Seattle's most scenic footbridge, which spans the ravine at 20th Avenue Northeast.

In about 1970, the city suggested 20th Avenue ought to be a north-south thoroughfare. But to do that, the city engineers said, they would need to rebuild and widen the bridge over Ravenna Park.

When the neighborhood objected, the city threatened to shut the bridge down altogether to car traffic and turn 20th street into a dead end. Rather than complain, residents embraced the idea.

Now, if anyone were to even think about reopening the footbridge to auto traffic, there would be an uprising, jokes Farley.

A walk across the footbridge is to appreciate what it must be like for biologists who study the upper reaches of forest canopies, she says. The maples, evergreens and redwoods rooted in the ravine below top out at about the height of the bridge. A walk across it provides an up close view of the highest reaches of the forest.

When the trees leaf out in the summer, the view of Ravenna Creek below all but disappears under a lush canopy. In autumn, as the colored leaves fall, the creek reappears from the vantage of the bridge.

While the view is impressive, it's not what it once was. One of the tragedies about Ravenna Park was played out decades ago when towering old-growth trees were logged. (See related story for more on the history of the park.)

Continued:

• Area is quintessential Seattle
• Volunteers pitch in to build up community
• Area's diversity more in religion than in race