By reporter Steven Smalley
Some news for the do-it-yourself car wash buffs ? The Brown Bear self-service location on 15thAvenue West near the Ballard Bridge is closed. In quick time, crews removed any semblance of washing facilities except for the giant bays which stand like white garages waiting for their rides. Vacuums, spray nozzles, coin change machines ? they?re all history.
A spokesman for Brown Bear sent Magnolia Voice an email with this explanation: ?We actually sold that site several years ago and were just leasing the property to continue our operations since the developers to whom we sold the site were not yet ready to develop the property. The work?is actually us completing the final preparations to vacate the site. As such there will no longer be a Brown Bear self-serve operation at that location.?
Customers are invited to visit other Brown Bear facilities in Ballard, Interbay, and Fremont.
Grow up. This is a public, community forum.
No comment on your post…I’ve grown tired of addressing the pre-adolescent comments…someone else can talk about it.
For those who don’t want their wax job ruined by going through the regular Brown Bear car wash and the damage done by the flapping strips… but have their hoses disconnected for the winter, I’ve had good luck keeping my beloved car clean by filling one plastic trash can with water, putting McGuire’s in another pail, and washing and rinsing my car in my driveway for virtually no money, no stress on my wax job, and about 30 minutes worth of exercise on the water hauling/rinsing part. For those of you who still keep a winter hose connection…who needed the drive through anyway? My son used it for his sports car and said it cost $10 each time. Virtually free works better.
It isn’t about the cost. Brown Bear’s soapy water is reclaimed and cleaned before it goes into the storm rains. In your own driveway (or at a charity car wash), the soapy water goes right into the storm drain and into the Sound (or Pipers Creek in parts of Ballard). Hint: fish don’t like to eat soap. Please don’t wash your car in your driveway.
Good point, where is an alternative place close to us that is a car wash that reclaims the water, is a drive through but does not damage the car’s finish the way the Brown Bear on 15th does? (The self serve kind uses way more water than I do).
wash your car in the grass
Thank you…that is a good compromise.
Salmon lover, you are making the assumption that everyone’s water runs into a storm drain. Both at my house, and my fathers, our driveways run onto our lawns, so this is allows the earth to act as the filter, and no nasty soap runs directly into the Sound.
Just so you know, this fake post was put up by someone else, NOT ERIC SMITH. So you see, you could sign on with anyone’s name and put up false info. As long as this is true, I will no longer be on this blog, good news to the illiterates out there, but less fun for those who liked to interact intelligently about community issues.
Good riddance.
Oh my, our savior is leaving….what will we do now that he is not here to defend us?
Guess we will have to remove the pedestal now?.LOL
Always love a know-it-all ??NOT
G’bye!
Really? I have actually seen someone in that area.
OOH GOODIE! I’ll bet the investors can’t WAIT to get their hands on that property and start building another mixed use 4 story overpriced crappy condos and lame businesses down below. More out-of-state socially handicapped med/tech workers crowding up my beloved corner of the region. Now what am I gonna look at when I’m at La Palma?