MUKILTEO — Better hold off on ordering new signs for Mukilteo Speedway
The mayor’s proposal to change it was officially nixed this week.
“The renaming of the Mukilteo Speedway, I don’t know whose great idea that was. Maybe mine,” Mayor Joe Marine said unabashedly at Monday’s council meeting. “That’s what happens when you stay up too late thinking of things.”
The stretch from Beverly Park Road to First Street is officially part of Highway 525, but has been designated Mukilteo Speedway for decades.
“I’ve been here almost 30 years now and it always seemed odd to me that our main street was named the Speedway,” Marine said.
It made sense, he said, “to have our main road be something that reflects Mukilteo and its history.”
Marine reached out to the city’s Historical Society, Chamber of Commerce and the Tulalip Tribes for input before asking council members in an April work session to discuss the public survey as a first step. He got the green light.
A post on the city’s Facebook page for feedback about renaming the road got a whopping 600 comments, nearly all opposing. Turns out people like the name and don’t like change. Everyone is still going to continue to call it the Speedway anyway, many said.
The city launched a public online survey in May that received about 2,000 responses. Not bad for a town of 21,000, though the poll wasn’t restricted to residents. After all, a lot of the traffic on Mukilteo Speedway, where the posted speed is 25 to 40 mph, is from those outside the city.
The city’s online survey included ranking four name suggestions: Mukilteo Lighthouse Parkway, Mukilteo Point Elliott Highway, Mukilteo Salish Highway and Mukilteo Salish Sea Parkway.
It also asked for write-in name suggestions. Mukilteo Speedway won by a landslide.
The question whether to change the name drew a polarized response.
“The good news is we’ve engaged our community,” Marine said. “The bad news, or good news depending on how you look at it, is that 77.35% of the people said ‘No’ to renaming it.”
That obviously speaks loud and clear, he said.
“The recommendation of the administration is that we embrace Mukilteo Speedway,” Marine said. “What do they say, ‘Be careful what you ask for?’”
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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