We know your holidays are booked, so it’s time to get some dates set for upcoming events through the New Year. Please click through for sign ups at the bottom of the page.
Testify at the Seattle Budget Meeting Monday Nov. 21
Seattle is nearing its final budget and some big decisions are still in flux. At 9:30am, the budget committee will be discussing changes and the meeting will include a chance for public comment. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has some helpful talking points and a letter-writing tool if you can’t make it. The Urbanist concurs with Seattle Greenways’ four key demands:
The Solidarity Budget priorities include for four critical transportation priorities to make the budget better reflect our city’s values:
- Keep the traffic enforcement division in SDOT, don’t move it back to SPD: The division should stay within SDOT to allow greater collaboration to make our streets safer using more strategies than just ticketing. (Read Patrick Taylor’s op-ed for more.)
- Fund protected bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements in District 2. “Since the Mayor released his proposed budget at the end of September, seven people have been hit and killed while walking, rolling, or biking in Seattle, and more than half of these deaths came in D2,” Greenways wrote. “These deaths are a policy choice the city has made over the years by refusing to invest in safe street infrastructure in the South End. Council should shift funding from car infrastructure and from neighborhoods that have historically seen high investment in street safety projects to fund protected bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements in D2.”
- Automated speed camera enforcement expansion needs to be equitable. “Automated speed cameras are effective at getting drivers to slow down in school zones, and better than armed officer enforcement. In fact, 95% of drivers that receive a ticket never get a 2nd ticket at that location. However, there are surveillance concerns and high ticket costs are disproportionately harsh for lower income residents. In the long term, please investigate tiered ticketing based on income. In the short term, this program must issue warnings instead of tickets for first violations and create alternatives for people who can’t pay.”
- Reverse cuts that make our City less accessible for disabled people. The balancing package cuts $4 million for sidewalk maintenance and $1.5 million for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance in parks. “Uneven and crumbling sidewalks pose extreme mobility challenges to people with disabilities and create tripping hazards – especially for elders – and many of our parks are extremely inaccessible,” Greenways argued. “Even at the current rate of funding, it will take centuries for Seattle to repair the 150,000+ sidewalk issues that the city knows about. Council should not cut funding to these vital and already extremely under-funded programs.”
Reach the entire city council at council@seattle.gov.
Important Comprehensive Plan Meetings
The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is hosting a series of community meetings for the Comprehensive Plan Update it is working on for 2024. See our primer for the latest information about the plan and check out our talk with Planning Commission member Matt Hutchins for a lot more depth. Here’s the schedule of the remaining four community meetings OPCD has planned throughout Seattle this winter. The agency is also accepting comment online.
- Thursday, December 1 – 6:00-8:00pm:
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
104 17th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144
Metro Bus: 8 and 27 - Thursday, December 8 – 6:00-8:00pm:
South Seattle College, Brockey Center
6000 16th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106
Metro Bus: 125 and 128 - Monday, December 12 – 6:00-8:00pm:
Loyal Heights Community Center
2101 NW 77th St, Seattle, WA 98117
Metro Bus: D Line and 40 - Tuesday, January 10 – 6:00-8:00 pm:
Meadowbrook Community Center
10517 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98125
Metro Bus: 65
The Urbanist Event Signups
Ray Dubicki is a stay-at-home dad and parent-on-call for taking care of general school and neighborhood tasks around Ballard. This lets him see how urbanism works (or doesn’t) during the hours most people are locked in their office. He is an attorney and urbanist by training, with soup-to-nuts planning experience from code enforcement to university development to writing zoning ordinances. He enjoys using PowerPoint, but only because it’s no longer a weekly obligation.