We know your vacation is booked, so now is the time to set dates for upcoming events throughout the New Year. Please click to register at the bottom of the page.
Testify at the Seattle budget meeting on Monday, November 21
east seattle is approaching its final budget and some major decisions are still being made. At 9:30 a.m., the budget committee will discuss the changes and the meeting will include an opportunity for public comment. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has a few helpful talking points and one letter writing tool if you can’t do it. The Urbanist agrees with Seattle Greenways’ four main demands:
The priorities of the solidarity budget include for four key transportation priorities to ensure the budget better reflects our city’s values:
- Keep traffic app split in SDOT, don’t put it back in SPD: The division should remain within the SDOT to allow for greater collaboration make our streets safer by using more strategies than just ticketing. (Lily Patrick Taylor’s platform for more.)
- Fund protected bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements in District 2. “Since the mayor released his proposed budget in late September, seven people have been beaten and killed while walking, rolling or biking in Seattle, and more than half of these deaths came to D2,” Greenways wrote. “These deaths are a political choice the city has made over the years by refusing to invest in safe road infrastructure in the South End. Council should shift funding from automotive infrastructure and neighborhoods that have historically seen high investment in street safety projects to fund protected cycle lanes and pedestrian safety improvements in D2.
- The expansion of automatic speed camera enforcement must be fair. “Speed cameras are effective in encouraging drivers to slow down in school zones, and better than armed police officers. In reality, 95% of drivers who receive a ticket never get a second ticket at this location. However, there are oversight issues, and high ticket costs are disproportionately hard on low-income residents. In the long term, please study tiered ticketing based on income. In the short term, this program must issue warnings instead of tickets for first offenses and create alternatives for people who cannot pay.
- Reverse cuts that make our city less accessible to people with disabilities. The balancing program cuts $4 million in sidewalk maintenance and $1.5 million in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance in parks. “Uneven and crumbling sidewalks pose extreme mobility challenges for people with disabilities and create tripping hazards – especially for older people – and many of our parks are extremely inaccessible,” Greenways explained. “Even at the current rate of funding, it will take Seattle ages to fix the more than 150,000 sidewalk issues the city is experiencing. The Council should not cut funding for these vital and already grossly underfunded programs.
Globally Important Meetings
The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is hosting a series of community meetings for the comprehensive plan update he is working on for 2024. See our alphabet for the latest plan information and check out our speak with Matt Hutchins, Member of the Planning Commission for much more depth. Here is the schedule for the four remaining community meetings the OPCD has scheduled in Seattle this winter. The agency is also accept an online comment.
- Thursday, December 1 – 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.:
Langston Hughes Institute for the Performing Arts
104 17th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144
Metro Bus: 8 and 27 - Thursday, December 8 – 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.:
South Seattle College, Brockey Center
6000 16th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106
Metro Bus: 125 and 128 - Monday, December 12 – 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.:
Loyal Heights Community Center
2101 NW 77th St, Seattle, WA 98117
Metro Bus: Line D and 40 - Tuesday, January 10 – 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.:
Meadowbrook Community Center
10517 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98125
Metro Bus: 65
Registrations for the Urbanist event
Ray Dubicki is a stay-at-home dad and on-call parent to take care of general school and neighborhood duties around Ballard. This allows him to see how city planning is working (or not) during the hours when most people are locked in their office. He is a lawyer and urban planner by training, with experience in nut soup planning, from code enforcement to university development to drafting zoning ordinances. He enjoys using PowerPoint, but only because it’s no longer a weekly requirement.
