Seattle Marathon, Sunday 12/1/13

Quick reminder: the Seattle Marathon will close many streets around Capitol Hill on Sunday 12/1/13: assorted times between 5:30 AM and 4 PM.

Useful links:

• Marathon homepage
• Map of affected streets (as below)
• Neighborhood impacts tabulated

Proposed changes to #12 bus

Hey Neighbors,

If you haven't seen it already, Metro is proposing a bunch of service cuts, including eliminating bus service on 19th Avenue.  I would encourage you to send an email or call Metro and tell them to keep running the 12 on 19th all the way to Galer.

Summary of Metro service cuts:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/future/

Proposed changes to route 12:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/future/PDFs/changes/route-012.pdf

 

(via a neighbor: thanks, neighbor )

Thoughts on the Greenway / 23rd Avenue issue

Hello All --

Guillaume, here. I wanted to post a few useful links with information and thoughts on the plans for a 23rd Ave redesign. In the next few days I'll also post a letter we're drafting, requesting a meeting with someone from the Mayor-elect's new team.

Here's the SDOT page on the 23rd Ave redesign, including slides from a presentation outlining the plan. There have been several public meetings to date on the redesign (e.g., here's one announcement), but since these applied to the redesign between Jackson and John streets, only Central District residents were specifically notified.

From what I can tell, it sounds like the original plan included a dedicated 2-way bike lane along 23rd Ave, but that this idea was scrapped in response to community pressure. The proposed Greenway(s) (see other descriptions here and here) are a compromise solution, in which 23rd is intended to remain dedicated to cars, with bike lanes along parallel residential streets.

In terms of traffic volume, the lights along 23rd will be timed to improve traffic (a big improvement from what we have today), including some mechanism for timing the lights for city buses. Also on the table are increases to bus service and there will eventually be a light rail station at I-90 and 23rd, connecting us to Bellevue and Sea-Tac.

There is precedent for all of these changes, which have been implemented elsewhere in the city, and my personal opinion is that this is an opportunity to make our neighborhood safer, more cohesive, and more pleasant. (I also think it's a good bet that reducing traffic volumes and adding greenways can improve property values -- maybe for the same reasons :).

Please feel free to add information or comments below.

-Guillaume

p.s. -- here's a cool graphic a friend just sent me, illustrating the benefits of increased bus service.

p.p.s (from Andrew): The comments section of the Central District News version of the "What exactly will the 23rd Ave greenway be"  post has a long and very interesting discussion of the greenway, the 23rd Avenue street project and the implications of both. The Capitol Hill Seattle version also has an interesting discussion in the comments. And here's a Capitol Hill Times article about the Greenway open house: "Greenway rendered useless by changes to 23rd Ave"

"Miller Park Neighbors" first meeting: Monday November 11th

The "Miller Park Neighbors" group is coming to life! The inaugural meeting will be at 7PM on Monday, November 11th at the home of Tamara Broadhead, 310 21st Avenue East, garage entrance (street level).

• A small group of us agreed this Spring to start a new neighborhood group, which we named "Miller Park Neighbors", to represent our collective assorted concerns and interests.
• Our borders will be (roughly) Madison to Aloha and 19th to 23rd.
• Our initial interests will include Meany School renovations and the 23rd Avenue Greenway, and will surely include traffic and parking! 
• The long-dormant "Miller Park Neighborhood Association" will be officially put to bed

To keep updated on what we're up to, you can visit this blog (http://millerparkneighbors.blogspot.com), and/or join our listserv to receive meeting announcements and other urgent messages.

To join the listserv send an E-mail to:

MILLERPARK-subscribe-request@talk2.seattle.gov

and act on the instructions in the E-mail you receive. Your E-mail address will not be displayed in any messages we send to you and other interested neighbors, nor will it be shared with others.

Below is a simple flyer to share with others (via electrons or paper):

23rd Avenue Corridor Neighborhood Greenway: Nov. 6th Open House

Many (most?) of us got mailings from the City Department of Transportation about their Wednesday, Nov 6th Community Open House to discuss the proposed 23rd Avenue Corridor Neighborhood Greenway. Meeting will be from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in Nova High School auditorium (300 20th Avenue East). Presentation will be at 6 PM.

The Greenway is described on a City website: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/23rdgreenway.htm

In brief (from their website):

Neighborhood greenways are residential streets where directional signage guides people along the route and traffic calming measures reduce traffic speed and volume, discouraging drivers from avoiding arterials by cutting through on neighborhood streets. Greenways can be especially beneficial for families, children and seniors who might find these routes more comfortable than busier nearby streets. Local access to homes along neighborhood greenways is always preserved, and there are usually minimal, if any, changes to on-street parking.

The proposed greenway runs along 21st or 22nd Avenues: the first phase built will be from the south terminus to East John Street. It sounds as though the neighborhood changes will be minor, and the inconveniences few, but I hope you will join me in learning more at the meeting.

Some personal observations:

•  The 22nd Avenue route seems to cross Madison by going straight through the Safeway! It crosses Madison at 22nd where there is no traffic light.
• The 21st Avenue route does not acknowledge that the 2 blocks of 21st between Harrison and John are southward-bound one-way streets. 
• We need to ensure that their plans acknowledge the neighborhood impacts of the (soon to be finished) Aegis Living senior housing on 22nd, and the planned redevelopment of the "Deano's" and "Twilight Exit" sites adjacent to (and kitty-corner to) the Madison Street Safeway (expected within 2 years).
• The (old) Miller Park Neighborhood Association engaged in an SDOT traffic survey over a decade ago. Few of the measures proposed in the report have been implemented, and the traffic & parking problems have continued. Should we suggest that these issues be readdressed as part of the Greenway discussions. A possible solution to traffic/parking/cut-through issues would be to make 21st and 22nd Avenues 1 way streets in alternate directions.

 

Meany School renovations

(Timeline for the rebuilding of Meany school will presumably be impacted by the refusal of the  present users of The Horace Mann School, to which Nova will return once it is renovated, to vacate the building, as they had agreed).

Seattle Schools will be extensively renovating the Meany Middle School building to open it as a new Middle School for 850 students in (?) 2017. The building presently houses two programs.  Nova alternative high school is due to return to its original home, the Horace Mann building in the Central Area, when the building is renovated and the sharing issues with the present residents are resolved (see Central District News for information). The World School will move to the TT Minor Building in the Central District.

The Schools website (http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/meany-middle-school/
details what we know about the plans. Several neighbors applied to join the School Design Advisory Team and will report to us on what they learnt.

BTW the Schools website initially contained references to their plans for the play field and parking lot. My correspondence with Parks (see below) confirmed that both are in fact Parks property


Some links to Capitol Hill Seattle blog articles, with the (few) details we have of what's being planned:

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/10/school-notes-ugly-hazing-incident-at-garfield-pushback-on-meany-busing-plan/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/09/proposed-capitol-hill-elementary-school-border-shifts-address-more-kids-new-middle-school-in-2017/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/09/schools-says-with-community-issues-sorted-out-14-2m-plan-moving-forward-to-re-open-hill-middle-school/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/02/talk-with-kay-smith-blum-about-plans-for-meany-school-modernization/

Dear Director Williams,

The Meany School building, immediately adjacent to Miller Community Center and Playfield, will be renovated and rebuilt to house a new, large (850 student) middle school.

Neighborhood outreach efforts for the planning are starting soon, and I write for clarification on several points.

1) Is the Parks Department actively involved in the planning process? If so, can we get the name of the Parks Department staff member involved?

2) The school website (http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/meany-middle-school/ ) contains this statement:

"

• Site work including playfield renovation, installation of new building signage and energy-efficient lighting, and resurfacing and restriping of the parking lot.

Questions:  

a) is Parks aware of and  involved in those renovations?

b) Is the playfield Parks or School property? (I suspect it's Parks)

c) Is the parking lot Parks or School property?  Our understanding had always been that it was Parks property, but was used during the school day by school staff (by common assent), a use which has worked well over the years.

We would appreciate speedy answers to these issues, as the public involvement process starts very soon.

Many thanks,

Andrew Taylor

Andrew,
Good to see you are on continuing your involvement in these issues and being ever vigilant !
I have talked to the School District’s Project manager Vincent Gonzales and he will see to it that the relevant web site regarding the Meaning Middle School is corrected to delete reference to both playfield renovation and the parking lot, both of which as you note are in fact owned by the Parks and Recreation Department.

In response to your other question:


1)      Is the Parks Department actively involved in the planning process? If so, can we get the name of the Parks Department staff member involved?

While we are not actively involved yet there have been several brief conversations with the School District. I plan to attend at least the first meeting School Design Advisory Committee and as I understand it Trevor Gregg and Thomas Hargrave  from the community center will be on the committee.



Donald M. Harris
Manager, Property and Acquisition Services
Planning & Development Division
Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation
800 Maynard Avenue South, 4th floor
Seattle, WA 98134-1336
Ph 206 684 8018

Fax 206 233 7038