SDOT’s School Road Safety Action Plan WikiMap

Welcome to SDOT’s School Road Safety Action Plan WikiMap! Please use this tool to note specific locations where there are improvements needed to make walking and biking to your school safer and more comfortable. The information you and your neighbors provide will be used to help prioritize locations for engineering improvements or possibly other interventions. For more information about the Seattle School Road Safety Action Plan please visit:

http://www.seattle.gov/be-super-safe/school-road-safety.

Link to map:
http://wikimapping.net/wikimap/SeattleSchoolRoadSafety.html

Free Naturopathic Clinic at Aegis on Madison

I wanted to share that we have a great benefit in conjunction with Bastyr University as they offer a Naturopathic Clinic free of charge to anyone in the community here every Friday afternoon.  Sign-ups are first come and first serve.  Would love to get the word out to the neighbors.  People would need to call our Concierge at 206-325-1600 to set things up.

All the best,

Rob

Rob Liebreich

Aegis on Madison

Assisted Living and Memory Support, Come Visit!

Located at 2200 E. Madison Street

Seattle, WA  98112

206-325-1600

More Madison Bus Rapid Transit meetings

YES these meetings are again mostly during the day and hence unavailable for most working people. I emphasized this issue to the SDOT staff at the last meeting. Andrew Taylor

For questions about the Madison BRT Design Workshops please visit the planning study website, email madisonbrt@seattle.gov, or call Sara Walton, Senior Planner, 206-386-4645.

Greetings – Thank you for your interest in the Madison Corridor BRT Study.  SDOT is excited to announce four upcoming design workshops – three neighborhood workshops and a corridor-wide workshop and open house.  Please keep reading to learn more.

Neighborhood Design Workshops

On November 19 and 20, SDOT will host a series of three interactive, neighborhood-focused, and site-specific workshops to develop design ideas for the Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Study. Each workshop will focus on one or two key locations in each of the three corridor neighborhoods - Downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill/Central Area.

The goal of these intensive workshops is to develop design ideas that reflect the needs, opportunities, and desires of the local community. These ideas will serve as the foundation for the corridor-wide alternatives to be evaluated in the Madison Corridor BRT Study. We’ll present these ideas at a corridor-wide workshop and open house on November 20, 5 – 7 PM, at the Silver Cloud Hotel, for broader community review and refinement.

Neighborhood Design Workshops

Capitol Hill/Central Area:              November 19, 9 AM - Noon

Downtown:                                        November 19, 2:30 – 5:30 PM

First Hill:                                               November 20, 1 - 4 PM

Each event will last three hours and will include a site visit and facilitated design exercise. SDOT is seeking participation from a broad cross-section of community interests, including property owners, employers, community leaders, and individual members of the community.  To allow for an interactive dialogue among participants and thorough development of design ideas, these workshops are designed for 25 participants. Participants are requested to commit to the full three-hour event and be willing to focus on the development of design ideas for key locations.

If you’re interested in attending a design workshop in your neighborhood, RSVP to madisonbrt@seattle.gov.
 Please let us know what workshop you are interested in and whether you need any interpretation services or accommodations.  We will provide a confirmation and location details one week prior to the design workshops.

If you are unable to attend, but have ideas or questions, please attend the Open House (info below), send an email to madisonbrt@seattle.gov, or call Sara Walton, Senior Planner, 206-386-4645.

Corridor Design Workshop and Open House

Thursday, November 20, 5-7pm, Silver Cloud Hotel  
[Silver Cloud at 1100 Broadway, I presume. That's where the last one was. Andrew]

Please join SDOT to develop design ideas for the Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Study. 

This community workshop will be organized around interactive design stations focused on each neighborhood in the corridor - Downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill/Central Area.  At each station, we’ll present community-developed design ideas that focus on key intersections or a potential station location within each area. Each station will be staffed with engineers, planners, and urban designers to allow for an interactive conversation and sketching of design ideas to capture community ideas and feedback. 

Please be part of the community process to refine design ideas developed in preceding neighborhood-based design workshops and develop additional ideas.  These ideas will serve as the foundation for developing corridor-wide bus rapid transit alternatives to be evaluated in the Madison Corridor BRT Study. 

For questions about the Madison BRT Design Workshops please visit the planning study website, email madisonbrt@seattle.gov, or call Sara Walton, Senior Planner, 206-386-4645. 

Maria Koengeter

Transit Strategic Advisor, Policy and Planning Division

City of Seattle Department of Transportation

O: 206.733.9865| F: 206.684.3238 | maria.koengeter@seattle.gov

Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Study - Upcoming Community Events

Hello – I am writing to let you know about two upcoming community events related to the Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project Definition Study:

Friday, September 19^th, 9am – 3pm:  The Madison Corridor BRT Study team will host a Park(ing) Day 2014 parking-spot event in order to talk with corridor users and share information about the Madison Corridor BRT Project Definition Study.  We will be located in a parking space along the south side of Madison, just east of Boren, past the existing Metro bus stop, near GNC.  We will have a comfortable place to sit (bus seats!), a bike rack to practice loading your bike on the bus, and study information.  Please stop by to visit with SDOT staff, share your experiences with the Madison corridor and learn more about the study. 

Tuesday, September 30^th, 5-7pm:  Please join us for the first Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Project Definition Study Open House.  This open house is the kick-off to a year-long study of bus rapid transit along Madison from Colman Dock to 23^rd Avenue East. Come to learn more about the study, bus rapid transit, and to share your knowledge of the corridor with the project team. We want to hear from you about how transit can be improved along Madison, as well as about key opportunities for pedestrian and bike connections and streetscape improvements.

Tuesday, September 30^th, 5-7pm

Brief Presentation at 5:30

Silver Cloud Hotel

1100 Broadway, Seattle 98122

For more information about the Study, please visit the website at:

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/MadisonBRT.htm

Note: You’ve received this email because you have expressed interest in the Madison Corridor BRT Study.  If you would like to be removed from future emails on this topic, please reply with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line.

Sincerley,

Maria

Maria Koengeter

Transit Strategic Advisor, Policy and Planning Division

City of Seattle Department of Transportation

O: 206.733.9865| F: 206.684.3238 | maria.koengeter@seattle.go

Greenway update

Thank you for attending the recent Central Area Neighborhood Greenway open houses on August 26 and 28. We had great turnout and really enjoyed speaking with all of you.

I wanted to let you know that all of the open house materials are available on our website: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/centralgreenway.htm

Design of Phase 1 of the greenway (between S. Jackson and E. John streets) is complete, and we will begin implementation later this fall. Design for Phases 2 and 3 (the south and north ends, respectively) will begin this month, and we anticipate completing those phases by fall 2015.

Thank you again for your attendance and your valuable feedback.

Sincerely,

Maribel Cruz

Maribel Cruz

Sr. Communications Advisor

City of Seattle Department of Transportation

O: 206.684.7963 | F: 206.615.1237 | maribel.cruz@seattle.gov

Miller CC BBQ Wednesday Sept. 10th

Central Area Neighborhood Greenway Open House Thursday, August 28, 4:30 – 6:30 at Miller

Please join us at an open house next week to learn more about the Central Area Neighborhood Greenway most promising routes for Phases 2 and 3 (the south and north ends of the greenway, respectively) and share your input. We will review the evaluation criteria of previously studied routes, the most promising route from Rainier Avenue S. to E. Roanoke Street, and some of the design elements that may be applied.

Open House Dates & Locations

Phase 2: South Jackson Street to Rainier Avenue South

Tuesday, August 26, 4:30 – 6:30

*Presentation begins at 5:30

Garfield Community Center - 2323 E. Cherry St.

Phase 3: East John Street to East Roanoke Street

Thursday, August 28, 4:30 – 6:30

*Presentation begins at 5:30

Miller Community Center - 330 19^th Avenue East

Please feel free to come to either meeting, as we will have staff available to answer your questions and hear your feedback about all phases of the project. In addition, representatives from the 23^rd Ave Corridor Improvements project will be there to answer questions about upcoming construction.

Mathematically, we live in the perfect place

(see on CHS blog).

This guy, using the formula below, found the perfect place to live:

Sadly he doesn't live here, but we do!

Greenway Information and comment forms available online

A big thank you to those who attended our recent drop-in sessions for the Central Area Neighborhood Greenway! We heard a lot of great comments and enjoyed talking with you about this exciting project.

If you weren’t able to attend, all of the boards and materials are available on our website:http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/centralgreenway.htm. You’ll see that we’re considering route options for Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the greenway (the south and north ends, respectively).

Your feedback is important now, as we’ll be making final route decisions by the end of August in order to begin design in the fall. The comment form used at the drop-ins is posted on our website along with other event materials. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please submit comments by August 8th.

Another pair of drop-in sessions is being scheduled for late August to present the final selected routes for Phases 2 and 3. We’ll be in touch with you again once dates and times have been finalized.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Maribel Cruz

Sr. Communications Advisor

City of Seattle Department of Transportation

O: 206.684.7963 | F: 206.615.1237 | maribel.cruz@seattle.gov

(My personal take was that the 22nd Avenue route could have advantages:
• The traffic calming features could help with the cut-through traffic that uses 22nd after turning off 23rd
• mixing 2 way bike traffic, school buses and cars on 21st by the school seems problematic. 
Andrew Taylor)

Block Party, Tues Aug 5th, 6-10pm

We've reserved our block (21st Ave between Republican and Thomas) for Seattle Night Out. What's Night Out? This is the annual night when neighborhoods around Seattle can close their streets to cars and use the space to play, bbq, and mingle.

This will be our second annual "Miller Park" block party. Like last year, it will be a potluck / BYOB affair. We'll have a bbq out for anyone to use.

What: Night Out Seattle

Where: 21st Ave E between Republican and Thomas st.

When: Tuesday, August 5th, 6-10pm
Who: You and your friends/neighbors.
Bring: Food to share, drinks for yourselves, and any games you think would be fun.

In the meantime, we're looking for volunteers who would like to pitch in. Please let me know if you could help with any of the following:

- Games. Anything that you think would be fun (e.g., sidewalk chalk, water balloons, etc.)

- Chairs / Tables. We'll have a few, but not enough -- anything you could contribute would be great.

- Plates / Cups / Napkins / Utensils. You get extra points if you bring your own non-disposables :).

My email is: guillaume_mauger (at) yahoo (dot) com

We had a lot of fun last year, including a (non-emergency) visit from the fire department, and cute toddler dancing.

Hope to see you there,

Guillaume

Drop in Info Session for Central Area Greenway: July 17th

Please join us at a drop-in session next week to learn more about the Central Area Neighborhood Greenway and share your input. Since our last public meeting in February, we have refined route options for Phases 2 and 3 (the north and south ends of the project, respectively). Phase 2 is from South Jackson Street to Rainier Avenue South, and Phase 3 is from East John Street to East Roanoke Street. Each drop-in will correspond with a phase of the project.

Drop-in Dates

Phase 2: South Jackson Street to Rainier Avenue South

Tuesday, July 15, 4:30 – 7 PM

St. Mary’s Church School House (611 20^th Avenue South)

Phase 3: East John Street to East Roanoke Street

Thursday, July 17, 4 – 6:30 PM

Miller Community Center (330 19^th Avenue East)

Please feel free to come to either session, as we will have knowledgeable staff available to answer your questions and hear your feedback about all phases of the project.

If you can’t make it to a drop-in session, please feel free to email me with any questions, comments or concerns you may have regarding the project. You may also view our website for more project information: www.seattle.gov/transportation/centralgreenway.htm

Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit: your thoughts?

Next Wednesday morning I will be interviewed about the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for East Madison Street. I would like my replies to reflect the views of the neighborhood, and invite you to submit your thoughts as comments on this post. All I know is contained in the original E-mail (below) and the link in it: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/madisonbrt.htm

I presume we will be able to invite them to a meeting if it becomes reality, but it would be good to register our views early.

My personal view is that Bus Rapid Transit only works well if there is a dedicated bus lane. Present Seattle BRT efforts appear to me to be mostly window-dressing: buses painted a different color and marked "Bus Rapid Transit".  See this Lake Union Trolley example I saw recently:

Good afternoon, Andrew –

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is now getting started on the yearlong study of options for bus rapid transit (BRT) service along the Madison Street corridor. Madison is one of five corridors identified in Seattle’s Transit Master Plan as a priority for investing in high-capacity transit service.  Better, higher quality service is needed to keep pace with the growing demands of businesses, major institutions, and residents along and around this corridor.

An Important Land Use Code Issue, from "Concerned Blanchet Neighbors"

(This arrived unsolicited by E-mail. I know nothing of this group, and pass the information on for your consideration Here's the file they supplied with their E-mail and here is their website )

Notes: 1) Their Lawyers (Gendler and Mann) are probably a descendent of the Law Firm (Bricklin and Gendler) that Miller Park and friends used in the early 90's to prevent a 1000' TV tower being built on Madison (see our newsletters from 1991 and 1992). I note this as an example of a successful neighborhood appeal.

2) I was a member of the Joint Athletic Facilities Development program process (see lawyers' letter).

Andrew Taylor

***********************

To:  Various Community Organizations, incl. you relatively near us to the south:

• Wallingford Community Council c/o Lee Raaen
• Sustainable Wallingford c/o Cathy Tuttle
• Fremont Neighborhood Council c/o Stephanie Pure
• FAWN - Fremont, Aurora Wallingford Neighbors c/o Linda Clifton
• Greater Madison Valley Comm Council c/o Lindy Wishard 
• Miller Park Neighborhood Association c/o Andrew Taylor
• Madison Park Community Council c/o Gene & Liz Brandzel

We are writing you to alert you to a recent Federal District Court decision against the City of Seattle’s Land Use Code that could have important impacts on zoning issues throughout many of our neighborhoods.  I encourage you to write to City Council encouraging them to appeal the decision to the Federal 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals as described below.

This ruling originated from an appeal by our local neighborhood group, Concerned Blanchet Neighbors. We successfully contested that variance conditions were not met in a Blanchet application for a lighted football stadium in our area. Blanchet countered that public institutions are exempted from such variance and they should receive the same exemption, and the court agreed.

The issues:

The federal “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000” (RLUIPA) prohibits city zoning from treating “a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution.”

Well-established principles of land use law recognize that public facilities enjoy a special status that justifies their exemption from generally applicable zoning regulations.  Traditionally, and under Seattle’s code, public facilities are exempted from many zoning regulations.

The district court’s decision ruled that since some public facilities are exempted from certain provisions of the code, similar exemptions should apply to religious institutions.  This seems to greatly expand the reach of RLUIPA and potentially would allow religious institutions such as schools, universities, and other church-owned institutions to evade many zoning restrictions that apply to other private entities.

Cayton Corner (19th & Madison Park) Meeting: 7/2/14

This little park is next to the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center, across form Mount Zion Church.

The group planning its development is having a meeting tonight, July 2nd:

Hi Andrew....

Could you pass this along to the miller park community email list?  We just got another small grant from the office of neighborhoods and will be entering the next phase of the design process. 

We are currently going to be meeting at the miller park community center at 6:30 pm. on the first Wednesday of the month.  A couple members of our steering committee have left for life changes, such as going back to school, so we are looking for new core people for our steering committee.  We have subcommittees in design, fundraising, interim use and outreach, so can use the help.

We are also doing a night out at the park on tuesday August 7 or 8th ....whichever is tuesday and would love to invite people to attend.

Thanks

Karen Portzer <portzerkd@msn.com>

Our next monthly meeting is in one week on July 2nd at a new meeting location in the Miller Community Center (www.seattle.gov/parks/centers/miller). Meeting time is the same at 6:30 PM, we are in the multi-purpose room. I have sent this meeting announcement to our regulars and recent volunteers - please feel free to forward to anyone else you think might be interested. Please reply to me (not reply-all so our mailboxes won't get too full) with anything you'd like to talk about and I'll try to put together a general agenda to send out the day before the meeting.

- discussion from the July 1st meeting (design cost proposal, etc.)

- August 5th night out

- do we like this new meeting space at Miller CC?

- mural? (leah)

- printed swag? (allison)

- meeting with Ed's colleagues later in July

Thanks, see you soon!

-Allison

--

Friends of Cayton Corner Park

Cayton Corner Park (Facebook page)

Cayton Corner Park (Seattle Parks site)

Miller Playfield lights will be on: July 3rd & 4th

Edward B. Murray, Mayor

Christopher Williams, Acting Superintendentwww.seattle.gov/parks

                                                           

For immediate release                                                                                              July 1, 2014                                                               

Contact:          David Takami, 206-684-7241

                        david.takami@seattle.gov

Lights will be turned on at synthetic fields July 3, 4

Seattle Parks and Recreation will turn on field lighting on synthetic ballfields throughout the city on the evenings of Thursday, July 3, and Friday, July 4, to protect the synthetic surfaces. The ballfield lights will be turned on at 8:45 p.m. and will be turned off at either 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., depending on the field.

The lights will be turned on to discourage the use of fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in the city of Seattle and will destroy the artificial turf on the fields. The approximate replacement cost for the synthetic surface based on per average full-size field (110,000 square feet) is $1.2 million. All the fields have been renovated in the past several years and benefit field users including players of soccer, football, baseball, Ultimate Frisbee and lacrosse.     

The fields will be monitored by security from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Lights at the following fields will be turned off at 11 p.m.:

·         Bobby Morris at Cal Anderson Park, 1635 11th Ave

·         Delridge Playfield, 4458 Delridge Way SW

·         Garfield #1, E Cherry St & 23rd Ave

·         Genesee Upper and Lower Playfield, 4316 S Genesee St.

·         Georgetown Playfield, 750 S Homer St.

·         Hiawatha Playfield, 2700 California Ave. SW

·         Jefferson Playfield, 4165 16th Ave. S

·         Lower Woodland Playfield #2 and #7, 5201 Green Lake Way North

·         Walt Hundley Playfield, 6920 34th Avenue SW

·         Washington Park Playfield, 2500 Lake Washington Blvd. E

Lights at the following fields will turned off at 10 p.m.:

·         Loyal Heights Playfield, 2101 NW 77th St

·         Magnuson #5 (Rugby), #6, #7, 7400 Sand Point Way N.E.

·         Miller Playfield, 330 19th Ave. E

For more information please call Seattle Parks and Recreation Security Manager Marlan Teeters at 206-684-7088.

# # #

Local Crime Reports, via Madison Valley Blog

Lowell Hargens is a Madison Valley resident and former University of Washington professor of sociology specializing in the statistical analysis of data. He posts monthly crime digests on the Madison Vally blog, with very helpful maps. He includes the Miller area.

Here's his April 2014 posting  and here's a link to all his crime reports

.

Bite of Greece: May 30 to June 1st

 This weekend is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption’s Second Annual Bite of Greece Seattle! This is an awesome event, with all the delicious and authentic Greek foods you love: Gyros, Souvlaki, Tiropita, Greek Salad and much more!  And don’t forget about our famous Greek Pastries!  All of these delectable delights are made by our parishioners from ages-old top secret recipes from their ancestral homes in Greece.

So come, enjoy the food, drink some wine and listen to live music in our Taverna. Our Greek dancers will perform and might get you up to dance! No experience necessary!

Don’t forget to visit our Import and Gift Marketplace featuring imported Greek deli items, imported gift and jewelry items!

• FRIDAY, MAY 30, 4:00 to 10:00
• SATURDAY, MAY 31, 11:00 to 9:00
• SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 12:00 to 6:00.

GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION

1804 13th Ave.

Seattle, WA 98122

                                                                            

biteofgreeceseattle.com

Takeout is available!

​

​Enjoy!​

​

-- 

Stephanie Tschida

cheeda11@gmail.com

Miller Fountain opens May 24th; Volunteer Park wading pool opens June 21st

Your little ones will love the cool, shallow water and you can cool your own grown-up toes too. We

will operate 15 wading pool sites this summer, and there are 10 parks with spray features to enjoy. Please note that the pools take about an hour to fill and drain each day, as required by law. Some wading pools are open on June 21 and the rest will be open the following week. Closing dates vary from mid-August to Sept. 1. See http://www.seattle.gov/parks/SummerGuide.htm. Wading pools are open on days with sunny skies and warm temperatures. Call the hotline at 206-684-7796 by 9 a.m. each day for find out whether pools will be filled. All spray features are open from May 24 to Sept. 1.

Daily Wading Pools (all are open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

• Volunteer Park, 1400 E Galer S

Daily Water Spray Parks (all are open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.):

• Miller Community Center, 330 19^th Ave. E

Monday 5/12/14 presentation about virtual village for elders

Denise Klein will be at the East District Council meeting (6PM Monday May 12th at Capitol Hill library) to discuss this intriguing new venture.

Links from the poster (below):

• http://www.nestseattle.org
• http://www.vtvnetwork.org
• http://www.phinneycenter.org/village/index.html

Chance to testify about proposed Metro bus cuts

King County Council seeks public testimony on Metro cuts

Metro and county leaders have been working for more than five years to reduce costs and achieve stable funding to preserve transit service. However, given our current finances, we have no choice but to reduce service levels to balance our budget. County Executive Dow Constantine recently sent the County Council a proposal to delete 72 bus routes and reduce or revise another 84 routes. (Learn more)

This proposal is now being reviewed by the Council, whose Transportation, Economy and Environment (TrEE) Committee will host three public hearings beginning next week:

Tuesday, May 13 @ 5:30pm – Union Station (Ruth Fisher Boardroom) 401 S. Jackson St., Seattle
Thursday, May 15 @ 5:30pm – Bellevue City Hall (City Council Chambers) 450 110th Ave. NE., Bellevue
Tuesday, May 20 @ 5:30pm – Renton Pavilion Event Center 233 Burnett Ave. S., Renton.

In addition to hearing public testimony at these events, the Council is accepting online testimony via a web form from residents who can’t come to a hearing. 

• Here's information about the funding shortfall
• Here's the web form for comments
• Changes to #8 : eliminate the part of route from Group Health to the CD
• Changes to #11: end service earlier
• Changes to #12: eliminate service on 19th Ave E., and on Madison east of 15th.
• Routes 10, 43 and 48 are unchanged. Route 48X is eliminated