Photo by Charles Willgren, via Creative Commons.A “people-powered” celebration is coming to North Beacon Hill on May 21 when cyclists, pedestrians, park fans, and other neighbors take part in the People-Powered Park Parade and Lewis Park Celebration.
The PPPP is a bike and walk parade that will tour the proposed bike boulevard on 17th and 18th Avenues S. The parade will include a bike decoration contest with prizes, and a pedal-powered float! Paraders should meet at Jefferson Park Playground at 11:30 a.m. The parade will leave the park at noon, and arrive at Lewis Park at 1 p.m. You can see the parade route at this PDF link.
When the parade arrives at Lewis Park (904 Sturgus Ave. S.), the event turns into a celebration of the park’s restoration from 1-5 p.m., featuring free food and BBQ, entertainment, park tours, and urban forest restoration information.
This event is organized by Beacon Walks and Bikes and Friends of Lewis Park, and funded in part by a Neighborhood Matching Fund award from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. For more information, contact Dee Dunbar at dd1377@gmail.com or Dylan Ahearn at dsahearn@gmail.com.
This month’s North Beacon Hill Council meeting on Thursday evening at the library includes a workshop about emergency preparation, information about bicycle/pedestrian activities, and more. Here’s the agenda, as forwarded from the Council:
7:00 Hellos and introductions
7:05 SNAP presentation – this is a one hour workshop that will enable all of us to better prepare our homes for emergencies.
8:05 Questions and answers
8:15 Dee Dunbar – Lewis Park Pedestrian and Bike Parade and Celebration
8:20 Announcements
board elections in May (four positions open)
neighborhood coordinator
community information center
8:30 Regular meeting adjourns; Board meets in Community Service Center
The meeting is this Thursday, April 7 at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. All are welcome.
Beacon BIKES is hosting Love Your BIKE!, a Valentine’s Day open house at the Beacon Hill Library, with special guest speaker, KUOW commentator, Adventure Cyclist columnist, and Beacon Hill neighbor Willie Weir. Weir will tell “Tales of Bicycle Love,” including stories of his many cycling adventures and destinations.
The evening will also include an open house discussion of the current plans and ideas to improve pedestrian and bicycle circulation on the Hill, and sweet and savory Valentine treats for all.
The event is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 14, and is open to all, including children. The Beacon Hill Library is located at 2821 Beacon Avenue South.
Judith Edwards of the North Beacon Hill Council sends this information about this month’s NBHC meeting:
Come join the North Beacon Hill Council at 6:30 pm, Thursday, December 2 in the Beacon Hill Library Community Room. No speakers, just food and a chance to meet your neighbors! We’ll do a bit of bragging about what has happened in the past year, thank the Board members for their hard work, and enjoy spending time together. Pizza, salad and water provided by the NBHC Board. Plan to join us!
St. George School is holding their annual Holiday Bazaar on Sunday, December 5, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in the school hall, 5117 13th Avenue South. The bazaar will feature over 25 talented jewelers, artists, crafters, and Fair Trade and commercial vendors from the local community. There will be a continental breakfast available for $3.00, and entertainment will be provided by students, family, and friends of St. George. There will also be a themed gift basket raffle.
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The Pedestrian Advisory Board needs you! Photo by Wendi.The Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board is accepting applications for new members. This volunteer board plays a role in implementing Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan, and also advises the Mayor and City Council, participates in planning and project development, and evaluates policies and makes recommendations to all city departments including the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Board members serve two-year terms; they must be Seattle residents who are not city employees, and should be frequent walkers of any age, level of mobility, area, or “walk of life.”
Interested? Email a resume and cover letter explaining your interest by December 17 to Brian Dougherty at brian.dougherty@seattle.gov. For more information, call Dougherty at 206-684-5124, or send e-mail to the address above.
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Registration is now open for Adult Beginner to Intermediate Spanish classes at El Centro de la Raza. The classes will run from January 11 through March 17 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Information and a registration form is here.
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A new restaurant is having their grand opening this weekend in the Valley near the eastern edge of Beacon Hill: St. Dames, a “neighborhood joint for vegetarian fare and spirited care” in the old Maki and Yaki location at 4525 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, just a block north of Columbia City Station. They promise “Food, drinks and fun for the whole family!
Friday 12/3 Happy Hour all night long! Drink specials through the weekend!”
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The Goodwill Job Training and Education Center just north of the Hill at 1400 South Lane Street is holding registration this month for free classes that will be offered in January and February. Classes will include a nine-week Retail and Customer Service Traing Program, Community College 101, English for Speakers of Other Languages, basic computer skills, writing, math, and cashiering.
Registration will be held from December 13-17 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. For class availability and enrollment information, call 206-860-5791.
Can you identify this landmark? If so, you should enter our contest. Photo by Wendi.You can still win a NAMSAYIN #36 bus t-shirt and a $50 gift card to The Station coffee shop (and, folks, that’s a lot of potential caffeine!) if you’re the first person to identify the 16 locations pictured in our contest post from earlier this week. Better work fast, though — we already have some guessers who are very close to getting all of them.
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The Seattle Department of Transportation wants to know “what you think about transit in Seattle and how it could be better.” You can tell them by taking their survey. It’s fairly short.
You might have noticed sheep baa-ing somewhere on Beacon Hill lately.
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Dylan Ahearn mentioned it the other day, but here’s a reminder: Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Walk & Bike Beacon Hill Neighborhood Transportation Summit. It’s a neighborhood meeting to discuss ways to improve safety and mobility while walking and biking on Beacon Hill. The event is from 10:00 am to noon at Beacon Hill International School, 2025 14th Avenue South. Activities will include designing safe walking and biking routes, learning about bike safety for children, and more. Refreshments will be served. All ages are welcome. For more information, please contact Frederica Merrell, frmerrel@seattleschools.org.
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If you’re already thinking ahead to Christmas, you might want to get your Christmas tree right here in the neighborhood. No, don’t chop one down in the Cheasty Greenbelt, please. Instead, you can get one from El Centro de la Raza. Trees will be available at their lot Wednesday through Sunday, starting November 26 and running through December 19. Order before the 26th and there will be a discount. There will be 2′-7′ Grand and Noble Firs, live trees, and 20″ and 30″ wreaths. Purchases will support El Centro’s many programs. El Centro is located at 2524 16th Avenue South.
On July 7, Mark Holland and I (representing Beacon BIKES) met with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and Sound Transit to discuss options for improving the pedestrian crossing in front of the light rail station. As it currently stands the crossing is not very safe. The crossing distance is very long, people do not use the crosswalks, traffic moves too fast, and the bus stops complicate the foot and vehicular traffic patterns. Add to this the surge of people coming from the light rail station and we have an accident waiting to happen. You can see a previous post about the dangers of the crossing here.
Sound Transit was planning to repave the section of Beacon between McClellan and Lander without improving the pedestrian crossing. Beacon BIKES got wind of this and arranged a meeting to discuss options for pedestrian improvements as part of the repave. SDOT was instrumental in setting up the meeting and convincing Sound Transit that this crossing needed to be improved (Thanks Sam Woods!!). Based on our meeting SDOT came up with the following design. The SDOT draft plan for Beacon Avenue. Click the image to load a larger, more-readable PDF of the plan.
The major features of the new design are a planted median, widened crosswalks at either end of the block, and narrowed travel lanes. The narrowed lanes would mean that buses stop in lane. In lane bus stops are being implemented all over the city as a means of speeding up the bus system. The median would have a tasteful barrier down the middle so people could not stream across the street at mid block. Instead, they would be directed to the wide crosswalks at the corners to cross. With the widened sidewalks the crossing distance would be shortened making for a safer pedestrian experience.
The design that Beacon BIKES put forward did not have in lane bus stops but did include a raised crosswalk at mid-block. Our logic here was that everyone wants to cross at mid-block to get to the bus, so why not give them an avenue to do that instead of forcing them around (also the raised crosswalk would act as a speed table and slow traffic down). SDOT did not like the mid-block crossing idea because of the relatively short distance between McClellan and Lander, but we are still hoping they will reconsider. 🙂
As is apparent from the rough nature of the design sheet, the plan is not finalized, so this is your chance to come up with an inspired idea that will make this pedestrian crossing safe and inviting while still accommodating bus, bike, and vehicle traffic.
In the meantime check out Beacon BIKES on Facebook, and come to our next meeting to join the fun. The meeting is on Monday, November 15, at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reports that they have temporarily closed the public stairway that runs between 18th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South at South Lucile Street, through the greenbelt east of Cleveland High School. During the next two months, SDOT crews will rebuild a lower portion of the stairway which does not meet current standards. A pedestrian detour is in place.
On Wednesday, Mayor McGinn announced eleven neighborhood projects that will be constructed through the Neighborhood Street Fund Large Project program, funded by the Bridging the Gap transportation levy. One project is of note to Beacon Hill residents: South Orcas Street from Beacon Avenue South to the Chief Sealth Trail will receive new sidewalks, lighting, and other improvements. Other changes would be made between the Trail and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, including making room for new sharrows on that part of the road.
The original project application stated that sidewalks on Orcas are currently “badly degraded or non-existent. Pedestrian access to Dearborn Elementary School is dangerous, especially when it is non-daylight hours. If the improvements are made, many will walk safely from Beacon Ave South to Lake Washington.”
Last week, Laura Onstot of the Seattle Weekly’s Voracious food blog visited Beacon Hill’s Despi Delite Bakery on the way to the airport on Link, and posted about her experience there.
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The new crosswalk on Beacon Avenue in front of the library is now complete and functional. When pedestrians pass between the sensors on either side of the street, flashing lights activate in the crosswalk to alert drivers.
The lights do not seem terribly bright; they are invisible during bright daylight and even in the evening, not as bright as we expected. But they should help make evening and nighttime pedestrians a bit more safe at that intersection.
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Neighbor Ray writes: “I found this guy this morning wandering and looking lost at the corner of S. Oregon and 10th Ave. S. He has no tags and no chip. I can be reached at 206-349-3147.” Is this cute lost dog yours?
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Camp Fire groups are forming in the area, with activities for boys and girls aged 3 to Grade 12. Groups can be all boys, all girls or boys and girls together. Parents decide where, when and how often to meet. For more information contact Janelle Kitson at 206-826-8910 or by email at janellek@campfire-usa.org.
As the City Council works to balance the city’s 2011-2012 budget, they are seeking input from residents to develop a budget that best reflects the needs of the city. To do this, the Council is inviting everyone to participate in this year’s budget process in one of the following ways:
Attend one of three public hearings. The dates and locations are listed here. Unfortunately, none of the meetings are in Southeast Seattle, but there is one in West Seattle at SCCC, and one at Seattle City Hall.
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The Beacon Hill P-Patch needs volunteers on October 2 for a clean-up work party. Volunteers will weed and aid in brush removal in the upper slope of the P-Patch, and afterward gather for food, drinks, and socializing.
Nearly 800 freshmen and transfer students at Seattle Pacific University will be volunteering on Beacon Hill on Saturday, September 25 as part of SPU’s “CityQuest” program. From 10:30 am until 2:30 pm, SPU student and staff volunteers will be working on an orchard and a public garden at Dr. Jose Rizal Park, helping Operation Nightwatch with a community clean-up, and clearing out invasive plants at Lewis Park.
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Because of an all-staff meeting, all locations of the Seattle Public Library will open late on Thursday, September 30. All library locations will open at 1:00 pm that day.
People waiting for the library to open in the morning. On Thursday, September 30, library patrons will have to wait a bit longer because the library will open late. Photo by Jason.
Bike paths like this one on North Beacon Hill may soon be added further south on 15th Avenue. Photo by Wendi.Your comments are needed Tuesday at an Open House for several proposed street reconfigurations in Mid-Beacon Hill. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is planning changes for several roads in Mid-Beacon to address safety, provide traffic calming, improve pedestrian crossings, and install bicycle facilities. These changes will implement a “Complete Streets” approach, in which the street is redesigned to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, and drivers, as well as children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
15th Avenue South between South Bradford Street and South Oregon Street (the red line on the map below) currently consists of four travel lanes with parking restricted at the morning and evening peak rush hour. Motor vehicles often travel significantly faster through this corridor than the speed limit of 30 mph. SDOT is proposing to remove on-street parking from both sides of the street, remove one northbound travel lane, widen the travel lanes and install dedicated bike lanes in both directions.
15th Avenue South between South Oregon Street and Swift Avenue South (the green line on the map) currently consists of one travel lane in each direction with parking on both sides of the street. There are marked school crosswalks at South Dawson Street and South Shelton Street for Maple Elementary School and St. George School as well as a school speed zone for Cleveland High School. SDOT is proposing a combination of a bicycle lanes where the road is uphill and sharrows where the road is flat or downhill. On-street parking would be removed from the east side of the street between South Lucile Street and South Dawson Street, and from the west side between South Dawson Street and South Angeline Street. Removing street parking in this alternating fashion will provide some traffic calming at the school crosswalks.
South Columbian Way between Beacon Avenue South and South Alaska Street (the blue line on the map) currently consists of four travel lanes. SDOT is proposing to remove one downhill lane and install dedicated bicycle lanes in both directions.
These proposals, when completed, will create continuous bike facilities from downtown Seattle and North Beacon to Mercer Middle School, Cleveland High School, Mid-Beacon Hill and Columbia City. If approved, these changes would be implemented in 2010. This project is funded by the “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy approved by Seattle voters in 2006.
You are invited to stop by the Open House and view project plans, provide feedback and chat with the project team. The event is Tuesday, August 24 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at the Jefferson Community Center Meeting Room, 3801 Beacon Avenue South. You may also email your comments to walkandbike@seattle.gov or call 206-684-7583.
(Much of this article is adapted from SDOT’s press release describing the project. Thanks to Peg Nielsen for sending it along.)
