From the very start, the city’s revamped neighborhood parks and street funding process was a victim of its own success. Early outreach generated around 900 projects ideas from community members.
This was a huge increase in participation compared to the previous process, which went through the Neighborhood District Councils. But with only $2 million to go around, very few of those proposed projects could become reality.
In other words, the limited budget all but guaranteed a lot of people would be disappointed.
Well, the list is here (actually, I’m a bit slow to post it). Funds were divided evenly across City Council Districts, and the final projects were narrowed down after rounds of professional study and public voting.
There are some great projects here. And the process was certainly more transparent than the old Neighborhood District Council process, where projects could be approved or killed on the whims of individual District Council members.
Since this was the first year for Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks and Streets, I would love to hear from you all. Did you participate? How did it go?
DISTRICT 1
- Delridge: Crossing Improvements at Delridge Way SW & SW Oregon St (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 477)
- Westwood/Highland Park: Bus Stop Improvements at Delridge Way SW & SW Barton St (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 470)
- High Point: Walkway Improvements on SW Orchard St between Delridge Way SW & Sylvan Way SW (Cost: $80,081, Total Votes: 425)
- South Park: Crossing Improvements on S Cloverdale St (Cost: $85,700, Total Votes: 396)
DISTRICT 2
- Hillman City: Sidewalk improvements on 39th Ave S (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 870)
- Rainier Beach: Lighting Improvements on S Henderson St between MLK Way S & Renton Ave S (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 558)
- Hillman City: Accessibility Improvements along 39th Ave S (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 530)
- Rainier Beach: Lighting & Landscape Improvements at Rose St and Rainier Ave S (Cost: $57,319, Total Votes: 394)
DISTRICT 3
- Capitol Hill: Crossing Improvements at I-5 Exit on to Olive Way (Cost: $75,000, Total Votes: 240)
- Central District: Traffic Calming on 17th Ave S between E Yesler Way & S Jackson St (Cost: $15,000, Total Votes: 200)
- Judkins Park: Improved Connections to Judkins Park from S. Dearborn St (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 173)
- Capitol Hill: Crossing Improvements at 19th Ave E & E Denny Way (Cost: $83,000, Total Votes: 171)
DISTRICT 4
- Wallingford/Fremont: Crossing Improvements near Gasworks Park (Cost: $8,000, Total Votes: 262)
- Wallingford: Crossing Improvements on Green Lake Way N & N 48th St (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 257)
- Wallingford: Crossing Improvements on N 40th St (Cost: $45,000, Total Votes: 228)
- Ravenna/Bryant: Crossing Improvements on NE 55th St at 30th Ave NE (Cost: $8,770, Total Votes: 193)
- Wedgwood: Crossing Improvements on 35th Ave NE at NE 80th St (Cost: $80,000, Total Votes: 188)
- Magnuson Park: Accessibility Improvements between Sand Point Way NE & “A” St (Cost: $45,000, Total Votes: 170)
- Bryant: Crossing Improvements on NE 55th St at 35th Ave NE (Cost: $2,500, Total Votes: 151)
- Magnuson Park: Crossing Improvements in Magnuson Park (Cost: $6,000, Total Votes: 141)
DISTRICT 5
- Lake City: Crossing Improvements on 35th Ave NE & NE 130th St (Cost: $75,000, Total Votes: 686)
- Meadowbrook: Traffic Calming along Ravenna Ave NE near NE 98th St (Cost: $88,200, Total Votes: 633)
- Pinehurst: Crossing Improvements near Hazel Wolf School (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 630)
- Broadview: Walkway Improvements near Broadview-Thomson K-8 (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 584)
DISTRICT 6
- Ballard: Crossing Improvements on Leary Way NW & 20th Ave NW (Cost: $5,000, Total Votes: 590)
- Wallingford/Woodland Park: Crossing Improvements on N 50th St & Whitman Ave N (Cost: $6,000, Total Votes: 317)
- Phinney Ridge/Woodland Park: Crossing Improvements on N 50th St & Dayton Ave N (Cost: $75,000, Total Votes: 315)
- Green Lake: Crossing Improvements at N 80th St & Corliss Ave N (Cost: $75,430, Total Votes: 310)
- Crown Hill: Traffic Calming on 14th Ave NW between Holman Road NW & NW 95th St (Cost: $40,000, Total Votes: 301)
- Sunset Hill: Accessibility Improvements on 24th Ave NW & NW 70th St (Cost: $9,000, Total Votes: 249)
DISTRICT 7
- Queen Anne: Crossing Improvements at Several Locations in Queen Anne (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 376)
- Queen Anne: Crossing Improvements at upper N. Raye St & 4th Ave N (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 285)
- Uptown: Crossing Improvements at 1st Ave N & Thomas St (Cost: $45,000, Total Votes: 264)
Comments
2 responses to “The 2017 Your Voice, Your Choice recipient projects”
From the Your Voice, Your Choice web site “We are blown away by the response with 7,737 community members voting for projects in their neighborhoods! We are so grateful to everyone who participated”
I blown away by any organization that thinks that selecting projects based on input from only slightly more than 1% of the city’s population is evidence of strong community support.
Furthermore, while funds are normalized so that they are distributed equally between districts, this program is biased in favor or projects proposed by reasonably affluent residents who have time to lobby their neighbors to vote.
I attended a District 2 meeting where neighbors were asked to further filter projects that would be presented for public voting. Our instructions were to focus on disadvantaged areas/neighborhoods so while I agree that more affluent residents were more likely to submit projects for consideration, the selection criteria for finalist projects made it really hard for fancier areas to get selected (which seems appropriate given the context of dissolving the District Councils). Thus, speed humps along waterfront Lake Washington Blvd didn’t get passed on to finalist status as an example.
As someone who participated in the process I’d say the biggest thing I’d improve is that proposed projects often made a concern clear (speeding traffic or improve crossing safety) but what would actually get built was extremely unclear. I think more staff time to define what might actually address the issue is needed. Since there was only about $90k for each project those that were clearly defined, seemed like they were needed, could possibly be designed and built for $90k AND were in a relatively poor area made the final cut.