By SUSAN PARK

When the Sierra Club held its meeting last month to discuss how Thornton Creek could be adversely affected by Northgate Mall's plans to expand on its south parking lot site, Peter Steinbrueck made sure to attend both as a concerned City Council member as well as a concerned neighbor of the mall.

Steinbrueck, who lives a few blocks northeast of the mall, voiced his views on the subject in an interview with the Jet City Maven a few days after the meeting.

"It's great to see that enthusiasm," said Steinbrueck of the large turnout for the meeting. "I was inspired by the interest of the citizens who attended."

While many of his peers on the City Council have chosen to remain silent on the subject, Steinbrueck is not afraid to express his opinion that Northgate Mall's owner, the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, should daylight the stretch of Thornton Creek that once flowed through the south parking lot site before it was diverted into an underground pipe and paved over in the early '70s.

"You can find all sorts of practical excuses for not doing something," he said of the mall's owners, who have insisted that A) it is not to their economic advantage to daylight the creek and B) there is no compelling legal reason for doing so either.

With regards to the economic factor, Simon, the nation's largest shopping center operator, makes no effort to disguise its priorities: the company describes itself in its press releases as a "real estate investment trust which ... is engaged in the ownership, development, management, leasing, acquisition and expansion of income-producing properties, primarily regional malls and community shopping centers."

Steinbreuck comments: "The creek isn't perceived (by Simon) to bring in more dollars in terms of the investment."

Therein may lie the key to changing Simon's mind, according to Steinbrueck: by appealing to the mall owner's own self-interest. By daylighting the creek, "I think they could construct something entirely unique that could attract people to the mall. They could create a highly attractive environment where small businesses could flourish."

With regards to the legal aspect, it is true that the City's current Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan, which sets development guidelines for the area, does not specifically address Thornton Creek.

Nevertheless, Steinbrueck says: "I would like to see the City get more aggressive in the effort to daylight the creek."

He adds that "I also have been pitching the idea of (holding) a citywide urban creek summit. I've been hearing all over the city on the issue of urban creeks and having them restored."

Steinbrueck attributes much of the current problem to the fact that for a good part of last century, the City routinely allowed developers to fill in wetland areas and to pave over urban creeks.

But just because mistakes were made in the past, that doesn't mean people shouldn't try to correct the matter today, particularly when opportunities present themselves as with Simon's proposal to redevelop its Northgate Mall south parking lot site.

"We need to look at creeks as an urban resource instead of as a problem in that they have been buried and tunneled," he said.

"Northgate's jumping into the (Thornton Creek) Watershed is an example of how un-environmental our practices have been," he said of the City's decision in the early '70s to allow the mall's then-owners to pave over Square Lake and the stretch of Thornton Creek that crossed what is now the south parking lot.

The result has been devastating to Thornton Creek and its many tributaries, which comprise the city's largest watershed. The acres of pavement in the Northgate area have dramatically increased the amount of polluted storm water runoff that has caused flooding, particularly in the low-lying Meadowbrook area to the east, as well as killing off most of the fish that once spawned plentifully in Thornton Creek.

Whether Simon can be convinced to do what is best for the community remains to be seen.

Steinbrueck acknowledges the difficulty in appealing to the better nature of an out-of-town owner. He saw what can happen when a group of New York investors attempted to seize control of the Pike Place Market in the late '80s - a move that threatened to destroy the character of one of Seattle's most beloved landmarks.

Steinbrueck, whose late father Victor, led a grassroots citizens' campaign to save the Market from a developer's wrecking ball in the late '60s, suddenly found himself thrust into a similar position, helping to lead a fight that ultimately prevailed in blocking the New York investors' attempt.

"My subjective bias is that local money is better than outside money," says Steinbrueck. To an out-of-town investor, increasing profits is the sole motivating force, he says.

"People who are looking for altruism (from out-of-town owners, like Simon) are fooling themselves," he said.