Social housing is not a panacea for Seattle’s ongoing housing affordability crisis. But it is one more tool the city can use to help alleviate ever-climbing rental prices. We need every possible solution we can get our hands on if our city ever hopes to be a more affordable place to live.
Vote YES on I-135. Ballots are due February 14, and this one only has this single issue, making it the easiest ballot to complete in years.
The social housing concept is simple. If a public agency were in charge of leasing more homes, then fewer people would be harmed or trapped by the exploitative rents charged by for-profit landlords and, increasingly, rental market speculation companies. There are plenty of cities around the world where a lot of the housing available for rent is owned and operated by a public agency, but the concept is somewhat unfamiliar around these parts. This is a chance for Seattle to be a leader.
I-135 does not include funding (state law prohibits ballot measures from doing multiple things in the same initiative). Instead, it would create the Seattle Social Housing Developer, a new public agency with the power to buy, build and maintain housing. Efforts to fund the agency’s work would need to come in a future step. So let’s approve I-135 to get the agency on its feet.
The W Marginal temporary bike lane on its first day of operation in early January.Map from the SDOT project webpage.
As we reported earlier this month when the Spokane Street Bridge to West Seattle reopened, SDOT removed the temporary bike lanes they constructed on 1st Ave S in response to the closure but kept the Duwamish Trail connection on W Marginal Way. Now the department has reaffirmed that trail connection is here to stay.
After extensively studying the impact of repurposing one lane along the west side of the street to create a two-way bikeway, SDOT found only positive impacts on traffic. Travel times increased by 2 seconds, but that is a good outcome because it is the result of a 12% decrease in average vehicle speeds from 43 mph (13 mph above the speed limit) to 37 mph (7 mph above the limit). This is a good reminder that bike lanes improve safety for all road users, including people in cars. It’s not a zero sum calculation where people biking get something at the expense of people driving. Safer roadway designs are better for everyone.
SDOT’s blog post about the project this week does not note an anticipated construction timeline for a final version of the bikeway, though it does confirm that the current bikeway will remain in place. And technically, it is not news that the lane is definitely happening since the department previously stated that they would build it “after the high bridge reopens in 2022.” But some members of the Freight Advisory Board have continued to resist the project, so it is good to hear that SDOT remains committed to it.
The trail connection has been needed for decades, but the most recent effort to build a bikeway on W Marginal Way came from two different places: Requests for safe crosswalks to the Duwamish Longhouse and the surprise closure of the upper West Seattle Bridge. In order to improve safety for people crossing the street to and from the Longhouse, SDOT restricted the width of the roadway by reducing southbound traffic to one lane. This project raised the question of why that lane reduction couldn’t be moved further north to create the bikeway. At the same time, the West Seattle Bridge closure led to big increases in traffic on W Marginal Way, exacerbating safety issues there. So a bikeway was proposed as a way to mitigate the new safety issues, but SDOT under Mayor Jenny Durkan unfortunately chose to delay the safety improvement until after the bridge reopened.
The time has come to finally complete the Duwamish Trail.
Seattle will receive a $25,654,000 grant from the USDOT’s Safe Streets for All program, Senator Maria Cantwell announced. Under the city’s $30 million proposal (PDF), the bulk of the funds would have focused on SoDo and Rainier Valley with spot improvements mostly focused in and near downtown, First Hill, Capitol Hill and the U District.
Ryan Packer reported on the Seattle proposal for the Urbanist in October. Their request was for the maximum amount under the grant program and “would be supplemented by a $7.5 million local match,” Packer reported.
In total, the city proposed 111 signalized intersection treatments, 6 unsignalized intersection treatments, 4 miles of protected bike lanes (part of the Georgetown to Downtown bike route), 1.5 miles of new sidewalks and 4.5 miles of arterial traffic calming. Here is the proposed budget breakdown if granted the full $30 million:
Now Seattle will need to decide whether to cut $4.3 million worth of projects in the proposal that do not have funding commitments or if the city will increase their match to compensate and build the whole proposal.
Senator Cantwell was instrumental both in creating the Safe Streets for All grant program and getting it funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Below is the full press release from Senator Cantwell’s Office: (more…)
Illustration from WA Bikes.Both the state Senate and House are holding hearings on what Washington Bikes is calling “#WrongOnRed,” an effort to ban turns on red near certain locations like schools, parks, hospitals, senior centers and other areas with lots of walking activity.
You can “sign in” on the record to voice your support for the bills as they begin their journeys through each body’s Transportation Committee. Sign in Pro now on HB 1582 and SB 5514. The Senate will hold their public hearing 4 p.m. Tuesday (1/31), and the House will hold their hearing 4 p.m. Thursday (2/2).
It is officially the middle of declare your candidacy for City Council season, and I’m sure many more are on the way. Open seats tend to draw a lot more candidates than races with an incumbent, and Districts 1, 3, 4 and 5 are all open seats this year. The August primary ballot could be a long one.
While Seattle Bike Blog won’t have a post about every new candidate, a particularly notable candidate entered the District 3 race yesterday: Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Alex Hudson. Before going to TCC, Hudson was Director of the First Hill Improvement Association and played a major role in negotiating the “Community Package” of investments as part of the Convention Center expansion project. That package included funding a series of protected bike lanes, including sections of Pike and Pine Streets as well as the currently-under-construction 8th Ave project.
Hudson is also proudly car-free, which is always a big plus in my book. When is the last time we had a fully car-free Councilmember? And through her work at TCC, she is one of the leaders of the current effort to decriminalize so-called “jaywalking” statewide.
This is not an endorsement of Hudson. It is far too early for that. Her opponents so far include Ry Armstrong, Andrew Ashiofu and Joy Hollingsworth, but that list will likely grow quickly. Candidates also need time to put together their transportation platforms, especially if they don’t come from the transportation advocacy world like Hudson (though Ashiofu’s campaign website already includes calls for bike lanes among other safety and multimodal priorities as well as noting support for the Move All Seattle Sustainably Coalition). Additionally, Seattle Bike Blog endorsements are not just based solely on whether we agree with a candidate. They also need to demonstrate the ability to lead an effective campaign and grow a supporter base, skills needed both to win an election and to be effective at passing bold policies once in office.
However, it is great news that transit and safe streets will necessarily be a significant part of the Council 3 race now that Hudson’s presence all but forces the issue. As we noted in our post about outgoing Councilmember Kshama Sawant, District 3 always goes the hardest for local transportation measures, including the Move Seattle Levy in 2015 and all the Metro and Sound Transit votes. Bold transportation measures that prioritize walking, biking and transit win by overwhelming landslides in District 3, a fact candidates would be wise to note. With the Move Seattle Levy expiring at the end of 2024, the new City Council will play a major role in determining the scale and priorities of the replacement funding package that will likely go to voters at the end of next year. We will be looking for someone who wants to go as big and bold on transportation funding as possible.
Project map for the now-defunded east segment of the Thomas Street Redefined project, which would have build a traffic signal at Thomas and Dexter.
Jaahnavi Kandula—a 23-year-old student from Adoni in the Andhra Pradesh state in India who was studying at the South Lake Union campus of Northeastern University—was walking across Dexter at Thomas Street in a marked crosswalk when a police officer driving an SPD SUV struck and killed her shortly after 8 p.m. Monday evening.
Seattle Critical Mass announced via Instagram that their Friday ride will head to Dexter and Thomas to hold a vigil for Kandula. Riders will meet 6:30 p.m. in Westlake Park. People can also go directly to the fatal location to wait for riders to arrive. More details from Seattle Critical Mass:
This Friday, January 27th 2023, we are going to hold a moment of silence and vigil for Jaahnavi Kandula at Dexter Ave North and Thomas Street. A 23 year old community member who was killed after being hit by a police officer in a speeding squad car. It has finally come out that Kandula was crossing from east to west in the crosswalk when she was hit!
MEET AT WESTLAKE PARK 6:30pm
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Sadly this isn’t the first vigil we’ve held. It really hurts that Critical Mass knows all the steps to put these on. That means so many of our friends and family have passed on Seattle Streets.
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Like always, emotions are high!
Let them show through your voices! Be honest with yourself and look out for one another. Critical Mass is a safe place to express yourself. With that said, violence of any kind will not be tolerated.
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
TAKE THE LANE
TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
SHUT IT DOWN
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Details from police about what exactly happened have been limited. The post on the SPD Blotter noted only that the officer was driving northbound on Dexter in a marked patrol vehicle when he struck Kandula as she walked westbound in the crosswalk. The Traffic Collision Investigation Squad reports often take a while before they are released. This incident is likely to get extra public interest since a police officer was behind the wheel, which means TCIS will be investigating the actions of a fellow officer. You can listen the police radio recordings from the incident online (overdose call starts at 8:00 PM, and the first mention of the collision comes at 8:05 PM), though there are not many more details in the audio.
Dexter/Thomas has a sad and frustrating history
This will unfortunately not be the first memorial for someone killed in traffic at Dexter and Thomas. Mike Wang died there while biking home from work in July 2011 when Erlin Garcia-Reyes struck him with an SUV and then fled the scene. Along with Adonia Lugo and Davey Oil, I helped organize a memorial ride in 2011 that included Dexter and Thomas. It was an experience that changed my life by forcing me to come to terms with the scale of the heartache and pain traffic violence causes for entire communities of people every time someone is lost.
Dexter has since been significantly redesigned, with SDOT adding protected bike lanes and attempting to reduce the effective width of a very wide street that was once envisioned as the grand boulevard into a new civic center that the city never built. With the opening of the new SR-99 tunnel in 2019, Thomas Street was reconnected and became a major walking and biking route between South Lake Union and Seattle Center. With the urging of then-Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, neighbors and SDOT drew up plans to improve the walking and biking environment on this new street as part of the Thomas Street Redefined project. The project website still lists the “interim schedule” for the planned “Dexter/Thomas Protected Intersection” as slated for completion in early 2021, but the project was delayed under Mayor Jenny Durkan as the pandemic understandably threw many city projects off their pre-pandemic timelines. Mayor Durkan tried to cut the project’s funding in the 2021 city budget, but advocates fought the cut and the City Council voted to restore its funding. The city then tried to divert the Thomas Street funding to pay for the Stay Healthy Street program, but the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Boards pushed back to protect the project. The project was never prioritized, however, and as Publicola reported, Mayor Bruce Harrell cut $2.2 million from its funding in his 2023 budget. This time, the City Council did not restore it. The most recent update on the east segment, which includes a traffic light at Dexter, was posted in February 2022. Its “target project schedule” would have had Thomas Street under construction starting in 2022 and extending through 2023.
It should not be this difficult for the people of Seattle to convince the city to invest in safer streets. Organizing over and over to try to save the same short safety project is exhausting. We have known for a decade that Thomas Street would become a primary walking and biking route once the old highway trench leading to the defunct Battery Street tunnel was filled in. I first wrote about what was then called the “Thomas Green Street” 12 years ago, writing, “We need a street from South Lake Union to Seattle Center and Queen Anne that, at its core, exists at a walking and biking pace.” At the time, there was no funding to build the concept, but the idea was to have the redesign in place by the time the streets were reconnected. That didn’t happen, and now it is once again unfunded. Neighbors and safe streets advocates will surely organize once again to try to convince city leaders to make Thomas Street the safe and inviting walking and biking route it should already be, but this time they will do so with broken hearts.
Celebrate the Buck Moon by adorning your bicycle with blinky & twinkly lights. It’s the height of summer – warm nights and easy riding with friends. Saturday July 20 Parking Lot at Mercer St &[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
