By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

"You have people of all perspectives who meet up and talk there, all disagreeing, of course," observes Martin Cobb, a technical writer, editor and Eastlake resident.

He and his wife, Carol Eychaner, are part of Eastlake's network of neighborhood activists. Eychaner helped found Vision Seattle, a citywide neighborhood group with clout.

Over the years, the Eastlake Community Council and Floating Home Association racked up an impressive string of favorable land-use decisions that helped lower building heights and thwart over-the-water development, Eychaner says.

The neighborhood still boasts of the "Battle of Roanoke Reef," led by the likes of Pettus and architect Victor Steinbrueck, who is remembered for his work helping save the Pike Place Market from the wrecking ball.

In a case that went all the way to the state Supreme Court, Eastlake residents in 1973 stopped a five-story, 112-unit condo from being built along Fairview Avenue East. Residents rightly reasoned that if the condominium went in, others would surely follow and forever block off views and access to the lake.

"There is a lot you don't see in Eastlake because of the role of the Community Council," Echanyer says.

Given her passion, it seems only natural that her courtship with Cobb caught fire at Eastlake Community Council meetings.

They married at Terry Pettus Park, a charming little waterside nook named for an Eastlake hero, socialist, union leader and journalist who led the crusade to save Lake Union's floating homes in the 1960s and 1970s.

Eychaner said that on the day of their wedding, the pile-driving company that operates next door to Pettus Park thoughtfully moved their heavy equipment out of sight.

Continued:

• Feisty colony of houseboaters anchors unique community
• Today it looks like a war zone but tomorrow ...
• 'Commuter drag' is blossoming into real community