By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Big equipment and Eastlake go together like fleece-lined jackets and Seattle. Lately, the neighborhood "looks like London after the 1942 bombings," grouses Excell, who owns a view home he bought in 1977 for $43,500.

The latest dust-up is over a $16 million storm water and sewer line being installed through the middle of Eastlake. Streets are being ripped open. Rows of orange traffic cones have drivers zigzagging.

Eastlake residents are not complaining too loudly. Most realize they have contributed to the 101 million gallons of sewage-tainted storm water runoff that drains into Lake Union each year.

When the city-county pipeline project is done, only about 1 million gallons of diluted sewage and rain water will enter the lake -- a major reduction, says Pamela Miller, the city's project manager.

As if the sewer project were not quite enough, Metro has been busy planting giant aqua-colored power poles in Eastlake so it can run its cleaner, quieter electric buses on Eastlake Avenue.

There is a silver lining to all the construction mess, thanks to neighborhood leaders like Chris Leman and the Eastlake Community Council. At least $140,000 was extracted through a variety of sources, some relating to the construction work. The money will pay for landscaped street medians, cool public artwork and a new greenbelt.

"Eastlake was ready to capitalize on the project," Miller says. "They should be real proud."

The city will spend $50,000 converting its construction site at the busy intersection of Eastlake and Harvard avenues into a greenbelt. It also will install landscaped medians on Eastlake Avenue near University Bridge. Leman says that should make the street appear more like a boulevard and encourage drivers to slow down.

The street work can't be finished soon enough to suit Mimi Iwami, who owns the nearby stained-glass studio, Wild Iris. Traffic on Eastlake Avenue is dangerous, she says, especially for people like her who use wheelchairs.

"I try to shop in Eastlake, to support the local businesses, but it's hard unless they have parking," Iwami says.

Continued:

• Feisty colony of houseboaters anchors unique community
• Activists have scored key land-use victories
• 'Commuter drag' is blossoming into real community