First-year Seattle Mayor Charley Royer sent this photo to City Councilmember Jeanette Williams following the opening of the first section of the Burke-Gilman Trail in 1978. On it he wrote, “Jeanette — If they get one with training wheels, I’ll race you home. — Charley.”
Williams died in 2008, and now Royer died Friday morning, the Seattle Times reported. He was 84.
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2 responses to “The photo Mayor Royer sent CM Williams after the opening of the Burke-Gilman Trail”
That was a great day for Seattle cyclists. We’d been waiting for the trail to be completed for years. Charlie Royer appointed me to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, a few years after that. I’ll have to dig up my certificate to document the date, but it would have been ca. 1982. Angel Rodriguez was the Chair, but he resigned over the Spokane Street bike path design. He wanted the route put on the new high level bridge. We all thought it was too dangerous and too circuitous then, and we expressed our concerns in a letter to SDOT and the mayor – but it got done the way you see it today anyway in spite of our objections. I’m not sure that putting the path on the high level bridge would have been safer but I still think the current route is seriously flawed.
Does anyone know who that is next to Royer? Or the fellow behind him with the orange bike?