Photo from Seattle Municipal Archives.Metro has adjusted the bus service changes they proposed a few months ago, and they’d like to know what you think about the latest version. There will be several community meetings in the Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley area this month:
Wednesday January 7: Sounding Board Meeting at Holly Park Community Church, 4308 South Othello Street, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Saturday, January 17: Information Table at Rainier Beach Safeway, 9262 Rainier Avenue South, 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm
Tuesday, January 27: Open House at Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Thursday, January 29: Open House at Rainier Community Center, 4600 38th Avenue South, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Unfortunately, Metro’s website doesn’t yet seem to show what the new proposals are. We hope they will rectify that as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you need more information, you can email Sarah Luthens, Metro Community Relations Planner, at sarah.luthens@kingcounty.gov.
The Beacon Hill Blog started publishing in October, so we don’t have a whole year’s worth of stuff to look back at as 2008 passes into history. We do, though, have the last quarter to reminisce about. Here are some photos of the Hill this autumn and early winter from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. We would like to add special thanks to the folks who have posted photos to the pool so far. Beacon Hill has some amazing photographers and we appreciate your vision and generosity in sharing that vision with all of us. Happy New Year, everyone! A lot of us can identify with this one. Photo by Bridget C.Shop on Beacon near Van Asselt. Photo by Wendi.Election Day at El Centro. Photo by Wendi.Photo by Bridget C.The Hanford Steps being restored. Photo by Jason.Mural behind Victrola. Photo by Wendi.Comet Lodge Cemetery. Photo by Wendi.Photo by Matthew Rutledge.
Some buses will be slightly harder to catch for the next few days. Photo from Seattle Municipal Archives.
Did the “holiday” changes to Metro bus schedules this week catch you by surprise? Here is the information about the schedules through Wednesday. Note that the 38 is on a normal schedule, and the 36 and 60 are on “reduced weekday schedule.” To find out how the reduced schedule affects you, go to http://metro.kingcounty.gov/ and enter your route number, then look for the trips marked with “H”; those trips are cancelled.
Photo by Bridget C. We are emerging from our snowed-in kitchen full of Christmas cookies and leftover food, to find that, for the first time in a couple of weeks, we can actually see our lawn again. There hasn’t been too much to post about for the last couple of days; “the streets are still slick, drive carefully” and “UPS still hasn’t brought our Christmas presents” seem to be the most common topics around here.
Now that we are able to leave the Hill without fearing for our lives on icy roads, however, it seems like a good time to look back at the last couple of weeks and talk about how it went. What did you think of the city’s handling of the snow and ice? How about Metro? Did you have to make extreme changes to your holiday plans? Did you enjoy the snow? Did you hate it? Tell us what you think, please. Continue reading It’s melting!→
The snow is melting, but it’s not gone yet, and things could still get worse before it’s gone. While we’re still in this mess, the folks at the Rainier Valley Post are helping organize a network of Southeast Seattle neighbors with reliable snow-friendly vehicles to help people with critical travel needs. They have volunteers in several areas, but still need people with chains or 4WD in Brighton/Othello, Rainier Beach, and Beacon Hill. We hope they won’t be needed for long, but wet snow is very slick, so lots of people are still stuck at home. If you can help, please do.
If you put your garbage out today, you can bring it back in. The city sent us this statement:
“Residential garbage, recycling, food and yard waste collection has been delayed in Seattle today, Wednesday, Dec. 24, due to dangerous road conditions. Wednesday residential customers will be collected next Wednesday Dec. 31.
“The city’s collections contractors have been running limited commercial routes around the clock this week, providing service urgent commercial accounts where containers are accessible. Service priorities include hospitals, health facilities, grocers and other accounts with severe capacity constraints…
“…Residential collections were suspended Thursday Dec. 18, through today, Wednesday Dec. 24, due to snow fall and road conditions. Limited commercial routes have been run Monday through Wednesday this week reaching approximately 30 percent of the businesses accounts in the city. Contractors are continually inspecting all neighborhoods throughout the day for service opportunities.
“Due to the Christmas holiday on Dec. 25, Thursday and Friday customers will be delayed one day. Thursday customers will be collected Friday, Dec. 26, and Friday customers will be collected Saturday, Dec. 27.
“Customers whose collections have been delayed by a week can set out double their normal amount of garbage at no additional charge. When setting out extra waste, customers are encouraged to place perishable food items in their collection containers and set bagged non-perishable items next to the containers. Customers who have had their collections missed two weeks in a row can also take their waste to Seattle’s Recycling and Disposal Stations, where it will be accepted at no charge.”
There was reason to be concerned. Beacon Hill is about to lose its only Zipcar site on top of the hill, as well as the nearby site at 29th and Columbian Way. Zipcar members recently received this email:
“The Zipcar location at Beacon Ave S/Lander St is being closed December 31, 2008, but have no fear — there’s a Zipcar located just down the street at S Charles St/Hiawatha Place.”
Just down the street? That’s a long walk for Beaconians, roughly 1.4 miles. See the map below, in which doomed Zipcar sites are marked in red, and the remaining site at Charles and Hiawatha is marked in green:
Zipcar’s website currently does not mention that these sites are going away, so some folks might have planned Zipcar memberships as Christmas gifts, only to find that their local Zipcar will be gone after New Year’s Eve.
This change seems extremely short-sighted, given the forthcoming opening of the Beacon Hill light rail station across the street from the Beacon/Lander Zipcar (which is currently in the Red Apple parking lot), and the Columbia City light rail station a block or two away from the Columbian/29th Zipcar. The locations would seem to be ideal for use in conjunction with transit.
You can tell Zipcar what you think by writing their Seattle General Manager, Carla Archambault, at Zipcar, 380 Union Street, Seattle, WA 98101; phoning 206-323-3539, or faxing 206-682-1657. The email address they give is company-wide (not just Seattle) so it may not be useful, but it is info@zipcar.com.
Signs like the one at the bottom might become familiar soon on North Beacon Hill. Photo by Joe Goldberg.The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has released a preliminary proposal for neighborhood parking around the Beacon Hill light rail station. You should receive a mailer about the proposed plan soon. Note that the current proposal will be for a restricted parking zone, or RPZ, in the roughly 1/4 mile area around the light rail station, with some exceptions in front of businesses and around the library and Stevens Place (Triangle) Park that will have a time limit instead.
The parking changes will be installed on a rolling basis this Spring, and should be complete by the time the light rail begins service in July. To park in the RPZ without penalty at that point will require an RPZ pass, which will cost $45/two years, with a discount available for low-income households.
We note something interesting in the FAQ about these changes: “Enforcement will also increase to help those new regulations function properly. Increasing enforcement will affect all types of parking violations, including vehicles parked too close to driveways or blocking fire-hydrants. Please obey the law.” The new RPZ may have some unexpected consequences for some people in the area who have become accustomed to relatively lax parking enforcement in this neighborhood.
Additionally, you can email your comments and questions to lightrailparking@seattle.gov, or comment by phone at 206-684-8186. You may call Sound Transit’s language lab hotline at 1-800-823-9230 for translation if you need to speak in a language other than English.
