Category Archives: Getting Around

Getting Around

Going places on light rail: Columbia City station

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(As the big opening day for light rail is this Saturday, we want to post a bit about the stations that aren’t on Beacon Hill. Much of the coverage of the rail line focuses on using it for commuting to and from work, and many of us will be doing that. But even more than getting to work, Link is going to be useful for visiting places throughout Downtown and Southeast Seattle without a car. With this in mind, we’ve created a few posts about some of the station areas.)

The pictogram representing the Columbia City station is a dove. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
The pictogram representing the Columbia City station is a dove. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)

The Columbia City Station is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, just on the western edge of Columbia City. The station site itself is just south of a new development, Rainier Vista, a former public housing site originally built in the 1940s to house defense workers, and recently redeveloped as a multi-income community inspired by New Urbanist principles.

Walk from the south end of the station east on South Edmunds Street, and after about one-third of a mile you’ll emerge on the neighborhood’s main drag, Rainier Avenue South, just south of Southeast Seattle’s only full-time movie theater, the triple-screen Columbia City Cinema. Further north on Rainier is the recently-expanded Columbia Branch Library, a Georgian Revival-style Carnegie Library building from 1915. The library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A train leaves the Columbia City station while Mount Rainier dazzles in the background. Photo by Wendi.
A train leaves the Columbia City station while Mount Rainier dazzles in the background. Photo by Wendi.
The wider Columbia City business district is itself a Seattle Landmark District (one of seven historic districts in the city) as well as a National Register Historic District, and includes a variety of interesting commercial buildings, houses, churches, and apartment buildings. The Seattle.gov website has a Historic Tour of Columbia City that you can print out and follow as you explore the neighborhood.

Restaurants in Columbia City are plentiful and you can choose from cuisines including Caribbean, barbecue, Neapolitan Italian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, and more. There is also a brewpub, the Columbia City Ale House. (CC Ale House doesn’t actually brew, but they do have a fairly large selection of local and regional microbrews — Ed.)

The Global Garden Shovel sculpture is impossible to miss, on the northwest side of the station. Photo by Wendi.
The Global Garden Shovel sculpture is impossible to miss, on the northwest side of the station. Photo by Wendi.
If you feel the need to eat before walking to the heart of Columbia City, much nearer the station is the Japanese fast-food restaurant Maki & Yaki, serving teriyaki, sushi, bento boxes, and more just north of the MLK and South Alaska intersection.

Like the other light rail stations, Columbia City Station is surrounded by public art, including Victoria Fuller’s Global Garden Shovel, a giant bronze shovel molded with the shapes of fruit and vegetables. In Norie Sato’s Pride, the south plaza of the station is guarded by lions customized to reflect the diversity of the neighborhood. When you are riding the train north from Othello Station to Columbia City, look to your left between Dawson Street and Hudson Street to see Sound of Light, by artist Richard C. Elliott, made of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of reflectors arranged in overlapping, symmetrical patterns. (See this one in both day and night, if you can.)

Sound of Light by the late Richard Elliott, as seen at night, lit up by the lights of passing cars. You can only see this artwork while traveling north on MLK. Photo by Wendi.
Sound of Light, by the late Richard Elliott, as seen at night, lit up by the lights of passing cars. You can only see this artwork while traveling north on MLK. Photo by Wendi.
Getting Around

Going places on light rail: Othello station

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(As the big opening day for light rail is this Saturday, we want to post a bit about the stations that aren’t on Beacon Hill. Much of the coverage of the rail line focuses on using it for commuting to and from work, and many of us will be doing that. But even more than getting to work, Link is going to be useful for visiting places throughout Downtown and Southeast Seattle without a car. With this in mind, we’ve created a few posts about some of the station areas.)

The pictogram representing the Othello station is a stag. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
The pictogram representing the Othello station is a stag. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
The Othello Station is located in a neighborhood on the verge of great change. Though the area currently has a few empty lots and what the Seattle Times recently called “a weary row of shops,” the station is already spurring new transit-oriented development in the area: a 420,000 square foot mixed-use project is breaking ground right next to the new light rail station. The New Holly redevelopment of the former Holly Park public housing project is just up the hill, and the similar Othello Station planned community is next door. The station area bears the weight of heavy expectations, perhaps more than any of the other station locations.

A Link train arrives at Othello Station. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
A Link train arriving at Othello Station, last fall. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
Attractions and destinations nearby include the Chief Sealth Trail, which also comes close to the Rainier Beach Station, Othello Playground, the New Holly library, and the Bumblebee Boxing Club. And while certainly nothing to write home about, this stop brings the nearest Safeway to any of the stations although it’s also quite possibly not going to be a Safeway for terribly much longer. The Rainier Valley Post reports today that the store has a $3 million makeover coming in January.

The public art around the station includes Roger Shimomura’s Rainier Valley Haiku, an exploration of Asian identity and culture in 21st Century America; Brian Goldbloom’s Stormwater Project, granite catchbasins inspired by Japanese stonework; and Augusta Asberry’s Come Dance With Me, in which eight stylized women dance along the edge of MLK in colorful dress.

Othello neighbors enjoyed the MLK Safety Street Fair last year, but this Saturdays celebration promises to be even more festive. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
Othello neighbors enjoyed the MLK Safety Street Fair last year, but this Saturday's celebration promises to be even more festive. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
“Downtown” Othello has a fair number of restaurants to choose from, mostly ethnic food, including the much-loved Tacos El Asadero bus on MLK between South Othello Street and Renton Avenue South. Olympic Express has lamb curry, gyros, and halal meats, along with Asian fast food such as pho and teriyaki. Rose Petals serves up southern food: greens, ox tails, cornbread, and fried chicken, “like fife and drum music for my stomach,” according to one Yelp reviewer.

The Othello Station area will be particularly festive on Link’s opening day, July 18, when a free community festival to celebrate light rail’s arrival will be held at MLK and South Othello Street. There will be food, art, commemorative souvenirs, “Undriver’s Licenses” for everyone, and entertainment including Massive Monkees, the Lion dancers, Big World Breaks, Ruby Shuz, and more.

The Come Dance With Me sculpture by Augusta Asberry dances in front of a forlorn retail building, since torn down to be replaced by a mixed-use development. Photo by Matthew Rutledge.
The "Come Dance With Me" women by Augusta Asberry danced in front of a forlorn retail building last winter, since torn down to be replaced by a mixed-use development. Photo by Matthew Rutledge.

Updated with new information about the Othello Safeway remodel.

Getting Around

Going places on light rail: Rainier Beach station

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(As the big opening day for light rail is this Saturday, we want to post a bit about the stations that aren’t on Beacon Hill. Much of the coverage of the rail line focuses on using it for commuting to and from work, and many of us will be doing that. But even more than getting to work, Link is going to be useful for visiting places throughout Downtown and Southeast Seattle without a car. With this in mind, we’ve created a few posts about some of the station areas.)

The pictogram representing the Rainier Beach station is a heron. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
The pictogram representing the Rainier Beach station is a heron. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
The Rainier Beach Station location has an oddly rural appearance, due to its location near the Chief Sealth Trail and the large Thistle Street P-Patch. There is not yet any kind of high density development in this area, and the City Light power lines that rise over the trail and p-patch will prevent those areas from being developed in the future. This area was rural well-within living memory, and in fact, Seattle’s last working farm, Sferra Farm, is fairly close by.

Several blocks to the east is Rainier Avenue and Rainier Beach High School. Another few blocks get you to Beer Sheva Park on the shore of Lake Washington. Just over a mile’s walk south on the Chief Sealth Trail from the station will get you to the famous and lovely Kubota Garden.

The Chief Sealth Trail undulates down Beacon Hill to the Rainier Beach Link station. Photo by Wendi.
The Chief Sealth Trail undulates down Beacon Hill to the Rainier Beach Link station. Photo by Wendi.
Beaconians, still without any pizza restaurants on the hill (unless you count the Domino’s on the very lowest part of the hill on McClellan, but we don’t), might find the Link train to be their pizza express, since the Rainier Beach station is only one long block away from Vince’s, where they’ve been serving pizza and gnocchi and spaghetti for 52 years now. Dinner at Vince’s is like stepping back in time; dark, with Sinatra on the sound system and checkered cloths on the table, it’s a classic old-style Neapolitan-American restaurant, probably not much different from the way it was in 1957. Comfort food doesn’t get much more comfortable than this. (There’s a bar, too.) If Italian food isn’t your thing, there is a taco wagon about half a mile north of the station on MLK.

Dragonfly above the Rainier Beach Station. Photo by Wendi.
"Dragonfly" above the Rainier Beach Station. Photo by Wendi.
The station itself, like most of the other Rainier Valley stations, is a platform station. Metal panels by artist Eugene Parnell are embossed with hieroglyphics and other forms of writing and stand throughout the platform. An aluminum creature, “Dragonfly” by Darlene Nguyen-Ely, soars over the north entrance. Nearby is Buster Simpson’s “Parable,” meant to be pear halves that reflect the farming past of the Valley, with cables and rails to symbolize the encroachment by urban Seattle that changed the neighborhood. This, however, is one of the less-successful artworks at the stations, as at a glance, it just looks like a pile of rusty junk left over from the station’s construction. A better evocation of old farming Seattle is just across MLK, where the P-patch farmers continue an old South Seattle tradition.

Artwork by Eugene Parnell on the station platform. Photo by Wendi.
Artwork by Eugene Parnell on the station platform. Photo by Wendi.
Getting Around

Going places on light rail: Tukwila International Boulevard station

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(As the big opening day for light rail is this Saturday, we want to post a bit about the stations that aren’t on Beacon Hill. Much of the coverage of the rail line focuses on using it for commuting to and from work, and many of us will be doing that. But even more than getting to work, Link is going to be useful for visiting places throughout Downtown and Southeast Seattle without a car. With this in mind, we’ve created a few posts about some of the station areas.)

On Link maps and printed materials, each station has a symbol. Tukwila Station's symbol is a canoe, to refer to its history on three rivers and future as a transportation hub. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
On Link maps and printed materials, each station has a symbol. Tukwila Station's symbol is a canoe, to refer to its history on three rivers and future as a transportation hub. (Courtesy of Sound Transit.)
Of all the stations on the Link light rail line, Tukwila International Boulevard Station is the most frustrating, at least, from the perspective of anyone who doesn’t live or work in the area. Of all the stations, it has the fewest neighborhood attractions to visit. What it does have that none of the other stations do is one thing: a 600-space park and ride.

Even Sound Transit’s own promotional materials struggle to find nearby attractions for this station. The Discover Link Neighborhoods Interactive Map gives as this station’s nearby attractions Southcenter Mall (about 1.75 miles away), the Interurban Railroad (historically interesting, but there really isn’t anything left of it to see), and the Museum of Flight, a whopping five miles away on East Marginal Way. (If you really want to see the Museum, and you’re willing to hoof it a bit, don’t take the train to Tukwila — get off at Rainier Beach and walk two and a half miles to the Museum, which is less than a mile away as the crow files, but is on the other side of I-5.) Other “points of interest” mentioned elsewhere by Sound Transit include Fort Dent Park (a couple of miles away) and Boeing Access Road (several miles away near the Museum of Flight, and not an “attraction” per se). In other words, there’s not much there there, near the station itself. We could all use a little more walking, but if you are willing to take the train to Tukwila only to walk 5 miles to get to the Museum of Flight, you’re a more intrepid walker than I.

The Tukwila station as seen from International Boulevard. Photo by Wendi.
The Tukwila station as seen from International Boulevard. Photo by Wendi.
What there is to see at this particular station is the station itself. Larger than most of the other stations, its design is big, glassy and modern. The roof soars above the station at an angle for takeoff, and the tracks elevated high in the sky make you think of a monorail instead of an earth-bound light rail.

Like the other Sound Transit stations, Tukwila has its share of art, including a giant milk drop caught in mid-splash, A Drop of Sustenance, and a huge brightly-colored molecule, Molecule of Tukwila, both by Tad Savinar. Outside the station grounds, though, there is not much art, but instead a suburban auto-oriented highway-strip neighborhood of the type that grows up around all old highways (in this case, it was formerly part of US 99, then SR 99): a gas station, McDonalds, KFC, a former casino, a Pancake Chef, bars and strip clubs populate the strip. There are nearby halal grocery shops, and a post office that stays open until late at night to accept your packages. Until the SeaTac Airport station opens in December, there will also be a shuttle bus waiting here to get you to the airport.

Molecule of Tukwila, as seen from outside the station. Photo by Wendi.
Molecule of Tukwila, as seen from outside the station. Photo by Wendi.
Ben Schiendelman commented recently on one of my photos of this station that “It’s a terrible place for a station this year, but not in 20 years. And it’ll be around for 150…” With luck we won’t need to wait that long for a reason to visit.

Getting Around, Health and Safety

Rollover accident at Beacon & Spokane

Photo by Joel Lee
Photo by Joel Lee
Earlier this evening, around 8pm, there was a radio report of a blocking injury accident in the 3600 block of Beacon Ave S. We couldn’t make it out there to check it out ourselves, but Joel Lee did and sends in this report and photo:

As far as I can tell everyone is fine, but there was just a roll-over accident on the corner of Beacon and Spokane. They are still cleaning it up and traffic is moving through the area except for part of Spokane which is still shut down.

Thanks for the report, Joel!

Getting Around, Local Events

More about Link light rail opening festivities

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A Link train arrives at Othello Station in Rainier Valley. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
A Link train arrives at Othello Station in Rainier Valley. Photo by Oran Viriyincy.
We mentioned the Link Light Rail opening weekend festivities the other day. Here’s some more information about the celebration. Opening Day is Saturday, July 18, with free rides from 10:00 am – 8:00 pm. There will also be free rides on Sunday, July 19, from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. (After opening weekend, Link will be on its normal schedule.) There will be a Welcome Portal located on South Lander Street, just north of the station plaza. Staff will be on hand there to answer questions.

Sound Transit tells us that there will be lines, and you should be prepared to wait. They expect from 50,000 to 100,000 riders to ride Link that weekend. (To give you an idea of how big that number is — the population of Seattle is 602,000. So potentially one in six Seattleites will ride Link on opening weekend.) Because of the large crowds, South Lander Street will be closed to vehicle traffic between Beacon and 17th; it’s been closed for several years already for construction, so we should be used to it.

If you need to ride the bus somewhere during that weekend, be aware that buses will not be using the tunnel, and tunnel buses will be on their surface routes instead.

Though rides opening weekend are free, after that you will need to pay. Consider getting an ORCA Card soon. You can use the ORCA on the bus, train, and ferry. (You can still pay with cash, but you’ll have to buy tickets in the train station. There won’t be fareboxes on the trains.)

A bit of station trivia: Each station has an icon, or “pictogram” that represents the station and its area, visually. Beacon Hill Station’s pictograph is a kite, representing “a sense of light and air, as well as community spaces and summer picnics, items that play prominent roles in Beacon Hill’s neighborhood plan and history.” See more about the pictograms and their meanings in this PDF from Sound Transit.

Getting Around

County Council adopts Metro route changes

The changes to southeast Seattle bus routes that have been discussed for the past several months have now been adopted by the Metropolitan King County Council and will be in effect September 19, 2009.

The changes include: (emphasis mine)

  • Revise routing on ten routes (8, 9 Express, 14, 36, 38, 39, 42, 48, 106, 107).
  • Provide more frequent service on six routes (8, 38, 39 [Sundays], 48, 106, 107).
  • Expand the hours of service on two routes (8, 60).
  • Discontinue routes 32 and 42 Express and provide fewer trips on routes 7 Express, 34 Express, 39, and 42.
Getting Around

The RPZ is coming soon

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If you see this in your usual parking area, youll need to get a pass. Photo by Wendi.
If you see this in your usual parking area, you'll need to get a pass. Photo by Wendi.
In the last couple of weeks, new signs have been posted around the light rail station areas, with parking limitations “except by zone permit.” New Restricted Parking Zones (RPZs) are going into effect in July, to prevent people from using the neighborhoods immediately around each light rail station as unofficial park-and-rides. Park too long in an RPZ without the official city sticker declaring you as a resident, and you’ll get a ticket. (No, your “BeHi” sticker won’t help.)

The zones are in effect from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm on weekdays, limiting parking to two hours unless you have an RPZ pass. General information on the RPZ passes and how to apply may be found here, along with specific information for the zones at Beacon Hill, Mount Baker (McClellan), Columbia City, Othello, and Rainier Beach.

Pass fees are waived until spring 2011 for residents near the light rail stations, limited to two free resident passes and one free guest pass per household. There is a cost for additional permits.

Getting Around

Art underground

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Artwork by Dan Corson at the Beacon Hill light rail station. Photo courtesy of Barbara Luecke at Sound Transit.
Artwork by Dan Corson at the Beacon Hill light rail station. Photo courtesy of Barbara Luecke at Sound Transit.
What is this? Is it a microscopic view of a virus, or pollen? Nope, it’s some of the gorgeous artwork in the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station. Barbara Luecke, the art program manager for Sound Transit, has posted a series of wonderful photos of the station artwork (along with other Link light rail art) on Flickr. The Beacon Hill pictures are on page 2 of the photo set.

In other station news, the Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom discusses Mount Baker Station just down the hill, in the latest of an ongoing series about the rail stations.

Getting Around

Columbian Way closed due to fallen tree, wire in road

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Columbian Way South (and part of South Alaska Street) is closed between Beacon Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, due to a tree that fell and took some power lines with it in the 2500 block at 1:27 am. It’s expected to be closed until at least 8:30 this morning.

(Edited to add: a later story at KIRO has an overhead picture of the fallen tree. Wow, that was a big one!)

Power was out for about 3,000 folks on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in Southeast Seattle, including the VA Hospital. Power has since been restored to all but about 300 City Light customers, and the current expectation is that the power will be fully restored by noon. Here at the BHB, we noticed two power flickers at the time of the outage, but power stayed on in our part of the Hill.

According to City Light, the area now affected is bordered on the north by South Hinds Street, on the south by South Ferdinand Street, between 4th Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.

(Thanks to West Seattle Blog for tweeting useful info and more!)


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This is the approximate location of the downed wires and tree on Columbian Way South.