12 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: 2017 sidewalk projects you won't see until 2018"

• MJ December 14, 2017 (12:36 pm)

  The cost of sidewalks needs to be shared with the abutting land owners.  I know new developments are required to install sidewalks, this cost is passed on to buyers.  Thus when someone buys a property with a sidewalk they pay more than if no sidewalk exists.

  Fairness and equity dictates that all abutting property owners be required to share in the cost of the sidewalk.  

  With cost sharing the City could add more sidewalks!

  • Spooled December 14, 2017 (3:40 pm)

    No, MJ, it doesn’t.  Please speak for yourself.  I own a home in Highland Park and am against any sort of sidewalks being added.   If one is  eventually installed, the very next thing being built is the tallest privacy fence the codes will allow me.

    If
    you want to be fair and equitable then how may I opt-out of paying for
    schools, bike lanes, and Metro Transit?  I have no use for them yet I’m stuck paying ever increasing amounts based on an arbitrary value of my home assigned by the same city that does the collecting.

  • D Del Rio December 14, 2017 (4:00 pm)

    The sidewalks they have already completed in Arbor Heights are horrific. They did not pipe the drainage ditches or lay the sidewalk in a straight line. When I am walking down 35th Ave, it is terrifying; the side walk is right next to the street with cars whizzing by in some stretches. If the city is going to do this, I wish they would do it right, or not do it at all.  Another thing is that all homeowners do share with the costs for the sidewalks. It is called the taxes that they have been paying for every year. We also pay for road diets on streets and bike lanes on roads that are falling apart, and then some. Another thing, is that the vast majority of us do NOT use these bike lanes. I do agree that when a new home is built, that the builder should install sidewalks where there are none. I have seen this done in other states. 

• MJ December 14, 2017 (5:13 pm)

  Spoiled – I lived in Highland Park for years and walked all the neighborhood streets many without sidewalks that did not bother me per se

  My point is the people screaming the loudest for sidewalks in front of their homes need to be requested to participate in the cost like homeowners with sidewalks have via the cost of the sidewalk being passed on to the buyer.

  D Del Rio – as far as I know all new developments are required to install sidewalks, thus the buyer in essence is paying for the sidewalk.  Homes that have sidewalks have the cost incorporated.  

  • WSB December 14, 2017 (5:33 pm)

    Before this goes any further on a faulty assumption – this is NOT a case of people screaming for sidewalks.
    These are Safe Routes to School projects. Surely you would support government money being spent on safety for schoolkids?

    https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/safety-first/safe-routes-to-school/35th-ave-sw

    • sam-c December 15, 2017 (10:34 am)

      With that 35th safe routes to school project, hopefully they will widen the paved right of way a bit ?  Along some of that stretch, the buses encroach on the oncoming/ opposite lane of traffic in order to avoid sideswiping the boats and cars parked along the ‘planting strip’

• MJ December 14, 2017 (5:43 pm)

  Agreed school walk routes should be the priority

• brian December 15, 2017 (12:16 pm)

  lol @ complaining about paying for schools like it’s some undue burden on you. real nice.    

• SickofSDOTcorruption December 15, 2017 (12:57 pm)

  Speaking of sidewalks. Whatever happened to SDOT saying to the WS Blog last year when they laid down the black asphalt sidewalk by Fairmount Park Elementary last year that it was a “budget” thing and that they would be re-pouring a concrete sidewalk to match the rest of the City in 2017.  It is now almost the end of 2017 and it is still black asphalt.  The city makes homeowners use a prescribed list of contractors for sidewalk or road repairs necessitated by side sewer work – but, then the city doesn’t follow its own rules and masks the cover-up with budget smoke and mirrors?  The city should follow its own rules or reduce the red tape burden for the citizenry.

  • WSB December 15, 2017 (1:18 pm)

    Good question!

    Last year’s story
    https://westseattleblog.com/2016/08/why-half-the-new-sidewalk-by-fairmount-playfield-will-be-replaced/

    I so far am not seeing anything online for that stretch. Will add to our followup list and ask SDOT Monday. Someone asked a while back about the trees, whose removal preceded the sidewalk change and which were supposed to be replaced, eventually …

    https://westseattleblog.com/2014/08/why-the-street-trees-by-fairmount-playfield-are-being-cut-down/

    so we’ll tack that on. – TR

• anonyme December 16, 2017 (6:32 am)

  I live on a stretch of 35th where sidewalks will be installed.  They will be covering over the drainage ditches and relocating the in-ground water meters as part of the project.  This concerns me, as “accidents”, such as water and sewage lines being damaged during construction, are often blamed on the homeowner – which they are then billed for.  I know a couple of people this has happened to.  The only one who was able to prevail against the City had had their line recently scoped and a report proving no breakage prior to the work.

  While “safe routes to school” is a good idea, there are very few kids who walk down 35th to school – if they walk at all.  It remains to be seen if sidewalks will improve that, or what the impact will be of the parking that will be eliminated on that stretch.

  Sam-C, I know the boat you’re talking about.  That property has been reported for various violations, including abandoned vehicles, but it never seems to do any good – even though the boat is blocking traffic. 

• Jason December 20, 2017 (9:37 pm)

  I’m hoping with the removal of Mr. Kubly, the new SDOT director will hold the department to planned schedules of improving safe passage for kids to schools rather than just pushing bikes onto arterials.  Given their lack of timeliness and moronic budgeting policies (see the Fairmont Park sidewalk and you can’t help but wonder which half brain approved a plan to pave only half the sidewalk with a failed promise to finish the rest next year), I’ll believe the sidewalks when I see them.  As for why you don’t see kids walking that route right now, maybe it’s because the sidewalk stops four blocks short of the school and kids would have to dodge between parked cars and traffic along a heavily rutted gravel parking strip.  I wouldn’t want my kids to play Russian roulette with traffic, would you??

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