Chronology:

Eons
- Glacier moves, ravine-cutting water flows.

1911
- Green Lake lowered 7 feet to provide public park grounds.

1916
- Lake Washington lowered 9 feet as part of Ship Canal connection between Lake Washington and Puget Sound.

1948
- City of Seattle routed Ravenna Creek into North Trunk sewer, disconnecting it from Union Bay.

1991
- Metro makes plans to reconnect to Union Bay via pipe.

- Community proposes daylighting as an alternative.

- Working Group formed representing UW Fisheries, Landscape Architecture and local community councils.

- Presentation to city staff, community, local businesses and UW representatives of the Preliminary Feasibility Study developed for the Working Group.

1992
- January. 3-day charette held at UW, involving 20 professional landscape architects and engineers (pro bono) and 60-odd students from a variety of departments. Classes in the Dept. of Landscape Architecture were canceled for the purpose. Presentation to public at completion. Public support grows through series of public events.

- June. PR event at U Village for 9 days: interactive fiberglass structure (The Big Fish) from Wild Olympic Salmon.

1993
- Incorporation of the Ravenna Creek Alliance as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.

1994
- Standing committee formed, with representatives from county and city governments and Ravenna Creek Alliance.

- March. Master Plan initiated by a dozen design professionals working pro bono with RCA.

- October. Permission received from Robert Frost's executor to use Frost's "A Brook in the City" along the daylighted creek route.

- November. Master Plan presented to an audience of 150. Initial favored route to flow through University Village Shopping Center, as have most previous proposed routes since 1991.

1993, 1994, 1996
- Ravenna Creek Festivals held at the south end of Ravenna Park in May of each year, considerably enhancing local community support; thousands of names added to petition started in 1992.

1995
- Engineering Feasibility Study commissioned by Metro.

1997
- February. Draft engineering feasibility study released.

- March. Route 3 along the Burke-Gilman proposed by Ravenna Creek Alliance.

- October. County allocation of $3 million for daylighting Ravenna Creek, with two years available (to end of 1999) for leveraging those funds to total needed for complete route to Union Bay.

Testimony is on the RCA website at

http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek

- November-December. Exchange of letters between City of Seattle and King County executives regarding the current availability of $3 Million from the County for daylighting Ravenna Creek and two years during which to leverage those funds to put together the full amount required for daylighting the Creek to Lake Washington's Union Bay.

1998
- February. RCA designated to receive United Way donations.

- April. RCA proposes draft City-Community-County Agreement.

- July. Additional ½ million appropriated by Sen. Gorton's Interior Committee.

- August. Letter received from City Hall saying technical difficulties can be dealt with, but the City chooses not to, and proposing a concept rejected by the County and Ravenna Creek Alliance a year ago: create a water feature within Ravenna Park and send the Creek down the drain again, into a new pipe to Union Bay.

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For indications of public support see the September 1996 Open Space Bond Voting Pattern in precincts adjacent to the daylighting project. The King County Open Space Bond which the public voted on September 19, 1996 failed to obtain the required 60% majority. However, analysis of the voting pattern in the vicinity of Ravenna Creek shows that immediately adjacent precincts came in as high as 85% in favor of the bond. None of the nearby precincts had a ballot ratio of less than 60%. The bond contained an allocation of two million dollars for Ravenna Creek.

For an indication of political support, see Seattle City Council Resolution 28867 supporting the daylighting of Ravenna Creek, which was adopted January 31, 1994 unanimously.