Followup: New lighting at Beach Drive’s Emma Schmitz Overlook

| Crime | Safety | West Seattle news

Two weeks ago tonight, Seattle Police and Parks personnel joined concerned community members (WSB coverage here) for a “safety walk” through Emma Schmitz Overlook Park. They heard again what had been voiced repeatedly in the two-plus months since the still-unsolved Beach Drive murder of Greggette Guy – the request for more lighting in the viewpoint area. As Beach Drive Blog first reported yesterday, their request has been granted – new lights have gone up. Surprisingly, this happened without a formal announcement, which you might expect when government agencies take action on a high-profile request from citizens. So we contacted the Seattle Parks media team this morning to follow up; at day’s end, spokesperson Karen O’Connor told WSB that police “recommended added lighting and ran it by Robert Stowers, our Southwest manager”; from there, Seattle City Light put up the lighting on existing poles. We asked O’Connor if more safety measures are planned; she expects to have that information on Monday

dsa June 15, 2012 (11:50 pm)

This is *good* news, and good to read.

miws June 16, 2012 (7:03 am)

It’s nice to see this happen so soon. I’m not one to “City bash”, but it’s so often understandably frustrating that the process takes so long to implement safety measures, and that’s if they are even finally approved.

Mike

LivesInWS June 16, 2012 (10:11 am)

Very odd that the city didn’t announce this, as it makes good publicity.

Mr. Smith June 19, 2012 (7:16 am)

How dare the city not go through a lengthy public process!

This needed lengthy community meetings in uncomfortably warm or cold rooms where miscellaneous nutcases could get up and speak in non-sequiturs.

It needed a citizen’s advisory committee to evaluate the various options before finally rejecting all of them.

And it needed a grand unveiling with a children’s choir and a salmon blessing, to give neighborhood cranks a chance to complain about what a waste of taxpayer money it was.

Don’t the citizens have a part in the process anymore?

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