Getting Around, Urban Planning

Parking changes coming soon to light rail station area

Signs like the one at the bottom might become familiar soon on North Beacon Hill. Photo by Joe Goldberg.
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.

If you have an opinion about the changes, there are several ways to tell SDOT what you think. An open house is scheduled for Saturday, January 10, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South. Other open houses are scheduled to be held at New Holly and at the Starbucks building in Sodo.

You can take an online questionnaire about the parking plan. Read the mailer, then fill out this questionnaire.

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.

Weather

Things to know amid the ice and snow

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Icicles on Beacon Avenue. Photo by Wendi.
Icicles on Beacon Avenue. Photo by Wendi.
It’s looking like an ugly commute and a good day to call in “snowsick.”

If you do need to get out and about, Metro’s Ice and Snow service status page may help.

Other information that might be useful today:

  • The branch libraries are open only 1:00 – 5:00 pm today because of the weather. (The Central Library opens an hour earlier, at noon.)
  • Some King County services have closures or reduced hours.
  • Seattle Parks and Recreation’s School Age Care Winter Break Camps at all community centers are closed today. Regularly scheduled programming at Seattle Parks and Recreation facilities has been cancelled, but the facilities will be open.
  • The University of Washington, Seattle’s community colleges, and just about every other college in town are closed. Most of the K-12 kids are already on winter break.
  • Monday garbage pickup is delayed one day. Put it out on Tuesday (unless they delay it again!).
Life on the Hill

Neighborliness and snowstorms

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Yesterday we were keeping warm and enjoying the snow. I was working on pulling together some things to post on the blog, and getting ready to go out and take some photographs and see what people were up to in the snow.

Then we got a phone call from our friend Kristen, telling us she was worried about her cat. I went to Kristen’s and saw that her 7 month old kitten Julius was indeed very ill, and needed to visit a vet immediately.

But there were 11 inches of snow outside, and none of us had chains, snow tires, four wheel drive, or anything else that would be helpful for driving to a vet. Additionally, there are no emergency vets in Southeast Seattle. We would have to go to West Seattle, Wallingford, Bellevue, or Lake City. I guess you can’t call 911 and get an ambulance for a cat, can you?

So we turned to the Internet. We posted on Twitter: “Trying to find emergency vet transportation for someone, to Wallingford from Beacon Hill. Sick kitten who needs a vet, and we have no chains”. We also posted an appeal on the Beacon Hill mailing list.

And soon someone did reply. I don’t know if he would want us to mention his name for this, so I won’t, but a kind Beacon Hill neighbor drove Kristen and Jason up to the emergency vet, and waited there with them until they were able to see the vet and then come home.

It is nice to know, that despite some of the neighborhood problems, that people are still neighborly and help each other out. Thank you to the neighbor who helped save Kristen’s cat.

(The kitten turned out to have an intestinal blockage. He had surgery last night and apparently the blockage was caused by eating part of a cat toy — one of those small fur-covered little mice. The surgery went well and Julius is resting now.)

Weather

Brrrrrr!

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Very cold flamingos. Photo by Bridget C. from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
Very cold flamingos. Photo by Bridget C. from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
So far the snowstorm has dumped a bunch of snow on us, but not a horrible amount of wind on North Beacon Hill. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t get worse. With all the snow we’ve gotten, though — and it’s been falling steadily since yesterday afternoon — getting off the hill today is likely to be extremely difficult.

Please let us know what it’s like in your part of the Hill — traffic getting around OK? Particular places to avoid? Storm damage?

A little while ago I saw some folks skiing up Beacon Avenue. There’s always that method of getting around.

We’re not sure how much snow we’ve got this time — I just measured 7″, but I’m not sure how clear the spot I measured was before this storm, or if blowing snow has affected it. I would say we probably got at least 4″, though. That may be a conservative estimate.

We hope you are all keeping warm and being safe tonight!

Crime

Do you recognize this car?

A hit-and-run driver in a dark-colored Chevy Suburban hit Michal’s car at 18th and Hinds on Friday morning at 4:13 pm. The driver might have thought he or she would get away scot-free, but the crime was recorded for posterity.

Here are two videos; the first shows the car that did it, the second shows the actual crime. If you know who this was, please email Michal at furchin@gmail.com.

Thanks Michal for posting to the mailing list — hope this helps you find the culprit!

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: skiing in the park, hiking to the store, and eating Cajun food

Photos

More snow pictures (and a video)

More snow pictures that people have uploaded to the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. We’d love to see your snow pictures too!

Photo by Matthew Bates.
Photo by Matthew Bates.
Photo by Bridget C.
Photo by Bridget C.
Photo by Matthew Bates
Photo by Matthew Bates
Photo by K. Shuyler.
Photo by K. Shuyler.
Sledding video by Bridget C.

About the above video, Bridget says “This is a mostly safe place for kids to sled down. Cars aren’t really around so if you’re in the ‘hood check it out. The entry is across the street and north a little bit from the tennis courts at the Beacon Playfield.”

Weather

Storm warning in effect

The National Weather Service has a Winter Storm Warning in effect for us from 4:00 pm Saturday to 4:00 pm Sunday. Here are some relevant excerpts (punctuation and lower-case added to make it more readable):

“A strong frontal system will spread precipitation inland over western Washington starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through much of Sunday. A combination of blizzard conditions, heavy snow, strong winds and ice buildups are expected…

“A major winter storm is on tap this weekend. Heavy snow is expected to develop along the coast on Saturday afternoon and then spread into the interior of western Washington early Saturday evening…

“Along the I-5 corridor north of Tacoma, including Seattle and Everett, storm-total snowfall of 4 to 8 inches is expected. In general, lighter amounts will occur near the Cascade foothills with heavier amounts further west along the shores of Puget Sound.”

The winds further east in the foothills are supposed to be extreme, and our winds, though less strong, will not be fun either. Be prepared.

Getting Around

Snowboarding Holgate

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Snow surfing across the freeway on the slopes of Beacon Hill
You may have seen some photos at the Rainier Valley Post of snowboarding down Holgate. Now, thanks to our Beacon Hill neighbor Olav, here’s some video!