Category Archives: Other Neighborhoods

BH in the News, Getting Around, Other Neighborhoods

Don’t hate the station, hate the game

16 Comments
Beacon Hill Station. Photo by Wendi.
Erica C. Barnett calls Beacon Hill’s gain the rest of Southeast Seattle’s loss in a Publicola article titled “South End Screwup”:

Today’s loser: Residents of Southeast Seattle who might, had Sound Transit not decided to build an expensive (and over-budget) station through Beacon Hill, have had two more light-rail stations in their part of the city.

Barnett’s analysis appears to be in error, however. She claims that:

…The distance between stations on the south end of the line is much longer than in the central, north, and (planned) east portions of the line: Nearly two-and-a-half miles from station to station, compared to just over 1.5 miles for the north section and just over a mile for the central portion.

However, the 2009 Seattle Transit Blog article in which she has found this statistic is not referring to Southeast Seattle when it describes “South Link.” The existing light rail line, from Westlake south to Sea-Tac, is known as “Central Link,” and is listed on the STB article with an average station distance of about 1.2 miles. “South Link,” on the other hand, is used in the STB post to refer to the extension of the line from Sea-Tac to Tacoma (or Redondo/Star Lake — it’s unclear which version of the proposed line is being referred to here). The distance between the Rainier Valley stations actually averages (very roughly) 1.25 miles.

Also mentioned in the Publicola article is a statistic from the February 2010 Metro/Sound Transit rider survey (also discussed on Seattle Transit Blog), showing low ridership numbers at Beacon Hill station, with only two percent of riders boarding at Beacon Hill. To put the number in context, this total was just above SODO and Stadium stations (one percent or fewer), and just below Mount Baker, Othello, and Columbia City (each of which accounted for three percent of daily boardings). SeaTac/Airport (30%) and Westlake (23%), unsurprisingly, accounted for the highest number of boardings.

More recent numbers released by Sound Transit last month (February – June station activity based on actual boarding data instead of survey responses as was the February survey) found here and here show Beacon Hill Station with more boardings than Columbia City, Othello, Rainier Beach, SODO and Stadium, and more deboardings than all of the above plus Mount Baker, and only a few short of Pioneer Square.

Neighborhood Pride, Other Neighborhoods

Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Fund award winners announced

Updated with the new award information.

Neighborhood Matching Fund Small and Simple Award winners have been announced by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Projects for Beacon Hill that received matching funds:

  • Beacon Hill Family Bike and Pedestrian Circulation Planning – $15,000 in matching funds
  • Lewis Park Reforestation Phase II – $17,000
  • Cinco de Mayo Festival – $7,125

For more details on the projects and information about projects elsewhere in the city, consult the Department of Neighborhoods’ NMF Award Winners PDF which includes brief descriptions of each project.

The next round of applications for funds are due on July 12. Requirements and application info are at the Small and Simple Projects Fund page.

Thanks to the sharp-eyed Dee for alerting us to the outdated info.

Crime, Other Neighborhoods

An open letter to the Seattle Police Department

5 Comments

Perhaps I am being grumpy, but we have enough crime in our neighborhood already. We don’t need to take responsibility for everyone else’s. I would consider it a simple mistake, but this is not the first time I’ve seen it happen.

Hello,

I have a concern about a post on your SPDBlotter website, titled “Shooting in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”

The shooting was on Beacon Avenue, but it was not on Beacon Hill or in any way in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Beacon Avenue continues well-beyond Beacon Hill, all the way to Renton. But Beacon Hill itself does not extend east of MLK way (which runs through the valley east of the Hill). The shooting site was southeast of even the most southern portion of Beacon Hill.

The Seattle city map calls that neighborhood Rainier View, and the shooting was near Rainier View Elementary School.

As someone who lives on Beacon Hill, it is frustrating to see crimes listed in our neighborhood that didn’t even happen here.

We would appreciate it if you would post crimes with more precise locations, and not give us “credit” for crimes that didn’t happen in our neighborhood.

Thanks!
Wendi
Beacon Hill Blog

Update: A suspect in the above mentioned shooting was arrested yesterday in the 5600 block of Beacon Avenue South — which is Beacon Hill.

Update 2: As of April 22, the headline on the original story has been changed to “Shooting in the Rainier View neighborhood”. Thanks, SPD!

Other Neighborhoods

Updated: Our SODO neighbors had a blog

5 Comments
SODO at sunset. Photo by Wendi.
SODO at sunset. Photo by Wendi.
(Editor’s note, Feb. 26: Only two days after SODO Agogo went live, a post on that blog today says it’s shutting down. Perhaps someone else in the neighborhood will pick up where SODO Agogo left off.)

We’d like to welcome the folks at the SODO Agogo blog to the Seattle neighborhood blogosphere! Many of us pass through SODO on a regular basis, so a blog for that area should be useful to Beaconians. It may end up with a different feel than other neighborhood blogs, since it’s not really a residential neighborhood, but it has lots of businesses, restaurants, and entertaining.

(On another topic: I wonder why people spell it SODO. Why not SoDo since it was, originally, “South of the Dome” and now is “South of Downtown”? Sometimes I spell it with lower-case letters anyway because I don’t like the all-caps version.)