Mayor Nickels' recent visit to the Northgate Chamber of Commerce lunch was welcome. Northgate is grappling with several challenging issues as it tries to evolve into a genuine urban center, with new employment and residential opportunities cheek-by-jowl with the area's historical retail core.

A plan to improve the Fifth Avenue NE streetscape and a new library and community center are but the most immediate projects ahead of us.

But we need to look beyond simply correcting the past deficiencies and current inconveniences, which have accumulated over the years and have prevented us from truly becoming an identifiable community and a "downtown center" for North Seattle.

One of the long-range challenges facing Northgate is the arrival of light rail. (Of course, I'm assuming it will happen, but bear with me here.)

What will light rail service to Northgate mean to the traffic congestion problems we currently face? Well, consider these numbers. Today, Metro Transit data shows there are 3,500 daily transit boardings in "greater Northgate." Metro runs almost 700 daily buses up and down Fifth Avenue NE - and they provide about 1,400 park-and-ride spots. Virtually all of that traffic - and a whole lot more - badly congests Northgate Way, especially at intersections like Fifth Avenue NE.

When light rail comes, the number of daily transit boardings at Northgate will triple to 10,600. Does that mean 2,100 daily buses will be running up and down Fifth Avenue NE?

Does it mean a tripling of space given over to park-and-riders? In short, what does that mean to Northgate?

Another issue is the poor quality of east-west transit service in and around Northgate. Right now, there is NO bus route along Northgate Way that actually crosses Fifth Avenue NE. So someone boarding a bus in Victory Heights cannot travel along Northgate Way and get off in front of Target. Nor can they ride to Seattle neighborhoods west of I-5 - not even to Northwest Hospital - without being "dragged" down to the Northgate Transit Center and forced to transfer to another bus.

These are just some questions we need to find answers for.

-TOM HELLER, Olympic Hills