Yesterday 11 neighborhood projects were selected and funded by Bridging the Gap (BTG) through the Neighborhood Street Fund Large Project program. These projects will be designed and built over the next 3 years. The Lander Festival street project was on of the projects built during the last three year funding cycle.

The 11 projects are:

• Fairview Ave E and Fairview Ave N Intersection
• Garfield Superblock 23rd Avenue East
• N 143rd St between Palatine and Aurora Ave
• Maynard Ave between S Jackson St and S Dearborn St
• Ravenna Ave NE between 85th Ave NE and Lake City Way
• 13th Avenue NW between NW 90th Street and Holman Road
• S Orcas Street between Beacon Ave S and MLK Jr Way
• 25th Avenue SW from SW Brandon St to SW Juneau St
• S Othello Street between Seward Park Ave & Chief Sealth Trail
• California Ave SW at SW Holden, SW Othello, SW Frontenac and SW Findlay Sts
• 33rd Avenue NE between NE 125th St and NE 130th St

The press release after the jump: Continue reading “11 Neighborhood Street Projects Funded”

For the record, although I wouldn’t endorse every statement in it, I broadly agree with Fnarf’s prescription for the waterfront. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the winning presentation, which seemed to acknowledge that Seattle is a city and that we’re unlikely to transition to wilderness over two blocks.

Perhaps I merely heard what I wanted to hear. All of the presentations were vague enough that it could happen. However, Bertolet is right that there should be some private purposes on the waterfront, and that it’s not the architects but the City’s guidance that might cause problems.

What’s frustrating is that the anti-density rhetoric is frustratingly vague about what the real problems would be, instead relying on ambiguous analogy. First, City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw:

“I’ve heard many people ask, ‘Are you going to allow giant condominiums and hotels along the waterfront?’ The answer is, no, and that is something I’ve been working to prevent, frankly, for years,” Bagshaw said. “We believe the [existing buildings that now face the viaduct] will turn toward the waterfront. … We do not want this to become Miami Beach. This is Seattle: We want to see the water and touch the water.”

Also, People’s Waterfront Coalition leader Cary Moon, who did a lot of good work on behalf of the surface/transit/I-5 option:

If we don’t give this opportunity the attention it deserves, staying focused on the public interest, our worst tendencies for laissez-faire development will likely prevail. The result could come out feeling like downtown Bellevue or a new subdivision in Dallas.

Leaving aside the “Dallas subdivision” example, which strikes me as silly, I don’t see any problem with hotels and condos. Having people live on the waterfront is better than alternative places for them to live, and guarantees that people are there year-round. Hotels, of course, generate jobs and tax revenue. And of course, the City profits from the sale of land in the first place.

As for Downtown Bellevue, for all its faults it’s much better for the region than another Enumclaw, and here in Seattle we know how to do better. And of course the most obvious urbanist critique of Bellevue — that the blocks are too large — is the single thing most easily controlled by the city.

It is true that this is not a terribly large piece of land. A bad decision here will not fatally wound the city. But we are spending $700m to build this space, in effect, and it makes sense to make the most out of this investment that we can.

The RapidRide A line is coming. There’s also a new route 910, some 520 money mandated through the State’s transit property tax legislation, more Transit Now service partnerships, and continued “efficiency” service cuts.

[Update: Specific route details are available on Metro’s website.]

For the record, trip planner shows the current trip from Federal Way to TC to TIB station on the 174 as taking 47 minutes in the middle of the day. RapidRide A will be 45 minutes at the same time of day.

From the press release:

• New routes – RapidRide A Line will connect Federal Way to Tukwila. Route 910, in partnership with the city of Auburn, will provide service between north and southwest Auburn.

• Added service – Trips will be added on Seattle-area routes 5, 7, 30, 60 and 75 through Transit Now partnerships. There is additional SR 520 service this fall on Metro routes 265 and 271 and with new ST 542. And, in other areas of the county, there is increased frequency of service on routes 164, 168 and 245.

• Discontinued – Route 174 is being replaced by RapidRide A Line.

• Closed – Parking at the Burien Transit Center will close Oct. 2. Interim parking will be available at 1st Avenue South and South 148th Street. That lot will be served by routes 121, 122, 123, 131 and 132. There is no change in bus service at the transit center.

• Routing and schedule changes, including some deleted trips – Routes 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 53, 57, 65, 66, 68, 101, 105, 110, 113, 121, 123, 125, 129, 134, 139, 148, 149, 152, 164, 168, 177, 179, 182, 190, 196, 202, 209, 210, 212, 214, 232, 242, 245, 251, 255, 265, 266, 271, 304, 331, 342, 345, 346, 372, 600, 903, 919 and 925.

See also Pierce Transit.

[UPDATE: ST tells me there’s a typo in the booklet. Info on Routes 578 and 590 revised below.]

The new ST schedule book, effective October 2nd, is out. Changes:

Route 510: Minor schedule adjustments
Route 542: New service operating between Redmond and the University District
Route 550: Minor Saturday schedule adjustments and trips added
Route 556: Trip added to relieve overcrowding
Route 574: Trips eliminated and schedule adjustments to better match ridership
Route 578: New bay assignment at Federal Way Transit Center;
Route 590: Trips eliminated and schedule adjustments to better match ridership
Route 592: Significant schedule adjustments serving DuPont Station.
South Sounder: Minor schedule adjustments

The 542 is peak-only, but it’s a 7-hour peak with 15 minute headways.

• Spokane Transit mulling a 7% service cut in 2011. There’s no talk of new taxes yet, but they’re at 0.6% so there’s room for that.
• Seattle parking tax going up 2.5 points to 12.5%, Transportation Benefit District formed with $20 vehicle license fee is likely. Mayor McGinn to ask for more transportation taxes but the council probably won’t go for them.
• The Mayors of Seattle and Portland will be at a Worldchanging event on October 1 to “dialogue about the Cascade Region’s most pressing issues,” with a focus on climate neutral growth.
• Sounder’s 10 year anniversary was yesterday.
• Peak West Seattle Water Taxi service to be year-round.
• Some in Fauntleroy haggling over RapidRide C details, after complaining that bus improvements would impede traffic.
• The OneBusAway iPhone App has been updated.
• Use the Internet more, and cars less.
• Virginia man murdered after he got a speed bump installed on his street.
• Not really transit-related, but this map of race and population in Seattle is really interesting. See also this map of tourists vs. locals. The author’s photostream does have some good transit content, and will wre ck your productivity.
• Beer bottle caps for Slats.

This is an open thread.

The city has chosen james corner field operations (sic) to design Seattle’s new waterfront, reports PubliCola.

New York City-based field operations was widely seen as the flashier of the two leading contenders for the contract to overhaul more than 20 acres of waterfront space when the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down […]

During his public presentation last week, Corner—a native of Manchester—said he wanted to integrate the waterfront’s “gritty” industrial feel into his waterfront design. “We found the work James Corner did to be compelling and relevant to the waterfront,” said SDOT central waterfront project manager Steve Pearce.

JCFO is probably best known for designing New York City’s Highline, and has a history of delivering beautiful and innovative urban park projects. We hope they do something great with the waterfront once the Viaduct is torn down.

We continue to question how an unactivated section of town is going to be activated by just a park. Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, wrote in the early sixties that urban parks that aren’t surrounded by diverse uses will inevitably have problems; they are “volatile places.” A park along the waterfront may face these problems if the only commercial activity along its edges are daytime tourist traps — every Cal Anderson needs its Capitol Hill, after all. PubliCola asked about commercial development, and the response isn’t great:

Asked whether the city’s current waterfront “guiding principles”—which say that city-owned land that will be opened up on the waterfront must remain public—will inhibit development (and effectively force the design team to propose a linear park), DPD director Diane Sugimura said, “That’s one of the challenges: How do you make this a real urban area for all the people of the city … and something that’s not just a big park.” However, Sugimura said, “At this point we’re not looking at private development per se,” although the waterfront design could include things like pavilions with restaurants inside.

Perhaps a pavilion for all the quality restaurants that want to sit on city-owned property? Right.

Unless the city, and JCFO, recognizes that people must live, work, and play on the waterfront for it to really click, the waterfront will no doubt be visually impressive but still fall short.

Although details will have to wait until staff are done with the October 2 service change, Metro is going to change service in Sodo and downtown for several years, until the viaduct sorts itself out, and various other construction projects happen:

Desmond said the construction projects are expected to be disruptive for all traffic, including buses. Although the road closures and construction projects will be phased over many years, Metro thinks it is best for bus riders if their routes change as few times as possible.

With that in mind, starting next February Metro will divert much of its downtown service away from First Avenue between Edgar Martinez Drive and Broad Street. Most of these bus routes will move to Third Avenue. It will also result in some changes for bus travel on Second and Fourth avenues, as some routes are moved there to accommodate the bus changes on First and Third.

The extension of Amtrak trains 513/516 to Vancouver B.C. will end on October 31st, indefinitely truncating the trains back to Bellingham. The Canadian Border Services Agency was unwilling to relent upon their demand for roughly $550,000USD in annual border clearance fees, and neither WSDOT nor Amtrak is willing to pay the fee.  WSDOT issued a press release criticizing the decision and has urged CBSA to reconsider.  The Bellingham Herald reports that the B.C. government wished to see the trains continue without a fee but was overruled by CBSA on fiscal grounds.  Approximately 73 people per day rode 513/516 between Vancouver and points south over the life of the extension, with the Olympics and the summer months averaging roughly 100 per day.

More after the jump…

Continue reading “2nd Cascades Train to Vancouver B.C. Canceled”

If three hours is too much for you, you can peruse the PowerPoint here, although the slides are professional enough to be hard to follow by themselves.

The City of Seattle will announce the lead designer this morning at 11:00.

Update 11:40: Via SDOT’s Twitter feed “We are pleased to announce James Corner Field Operations as the lead designer for Seattle’s Central Waterfront. ” Their presentation here.