19 Replies to "STAY HEALTHY STREETS: Events on Wednesday for High Point, Alki Point feedback/updates"

• V. Mussen November 8, 2021 (8:41 pm)

  If only there were some sort of paved areas adjoining these motorways so that people could safely walk on the sides of the streets instead of right in the middle of them.  Maybe we could call them “Walk Sides”.

  • flimflam November 9, 2021 (6:15 am)

    Lol!

• trickycoolj November 8, 2021 (9:29 pm)

  Maybe SDOT should have their event on Graham and 31st to see how ridiculous their setup is. 

• Kathy November 8, 2021 (10:21 pm)

  The sidewalks (when they exist) are usually way too narrow in this city and many of the streets are way too wide and frequently used for the storing of people’s private vehicles. With increasing density, more and more people are getting outdoors to walk, gather socially, exercise their pets, and roll on scooters, bicycles, tricycles, and skateboards and with mobility devices like wheelchairs. I wouldn’t begrudge them the extra space. That would just be stingy.  Have you ever noticed how all the street furniture (lampposts, street signs, hydrants, benches, bike racks and paper vending machines) are usually placed in the sidewalk right of way and never in the street? If you are a pedestrian you are always having to dodge these obstacles while sharing this space with others including those who are legally allowed to roll on the sidewalks if they don’t feel safe sharing the road with drivers. So carving out a little extra space from the street for the use of others besides vehicles is actually a very good idea.

  • alki_2008 November 10, 2021 (11:19 pm)

    The sidewalks on Alki Point are not full of obstacles.  No one ever wants to use the north sidewalk, because they want to get the view that’s available from the south sidewalk. The south sidewalk does not have any driveways or other obstacles you mentioned. There is plenty of room for pedestrians.

• Adam November 9, 2021 (8:13 am)

  Since it seems Guadalupe already owns the portion of Myrtle between 34th and 35th and does with it as they see fit, I don’t see why we don’t just gift them 34th between Myrtle and the community center. I mean I get it. Theres kids at that school. That’s why I’m totally ok with pushing traffic from in front of that beautiful church where they’re bugged by the annoying presence of a (gasp!) street for automobiles to over near where other ppl’s kids are going to another school. Let them deal with it. I can’t imagine this will increase the burden on nearby streets. 

• OLG Neighbor November 9, 2021 (1:57 pm)

  Stay healthy streets are supposed to be for the neighborhood, not a safety instrument for Our Lady of Guadalupe School. OLG already has speed cams on 35th Ave. SW and closes the street you mention at will. OLG parents race through the neighboring residential streets to pick up/drop off their children. I live two blocks from OLG and work from home and watch them haul ass up and down my street every morning and afternoon for drop off/pickup. Parents are obviously avoiding speed cams installed on 35th. The City would like to permanently close 34th Ave SW (abutting OLG) so people can exercise in the middle of the street, a street that abuts Walt Hundley Park. Aren’t parks places to get exercise and be outside? We are fortunate to have a huge turf soccer field, tennis courts, baseball fields, wide open spaces, community center with basketball hoops. Why do we need to block off a road to be outside? Highpoint also has a lot of pedestrian friendly open green space, parks, and trails as well. Taking 34th Ave SW between Webster and Myrtle has made it unsafe for the people who live on the neighboring streets due to increased traffic and unsafe speeds. I get how taking streets back in neighborhoods without green space is important, however, closing of 34th near OLG was a knee-jerk reaction because of COVID (completely understandable). It should not be made permanent. 

• Kathy November 9, 2021 (3:04 pm)

  Limiting through traffic on 34th Ave SW makes it the safest and least elevation challenging space to commute by bicycle between High Point and Westwood/White Center. 35th is too busy with car traffic and too steep in many places. 36th is also very steep in many places. I support keeping the closure on 34th to provide some connectivity of safe bike routes in West Seattle. Making it just a standard greenway without the closure signs would take some major redesign of the street to keep it from becoming a shortcut for speeding car traffic (which it was before the closure).

• zark00 November 9, 2021 (5:09 pm)

  Stay Healthy Streets are a complete joke and and an abject failure. Nobody uses them except the people who live on them, it’s a free private drive for the lucky few. A handful of people across all of West Seattle use them, at most. They are empty of anything but cars 99% of the time. They are an excellent example of city leadership completely ignoring the will of the people. SDOT completely ignores any negative feedback. 

  • Pessoa November 10, 2021 (6:53 am)

    An inane, hare-brained scheme in a city overflowing with parks and greenery. Social engineering at its finest.

• namercury November 9, 2021 (6:25 pm)

  I looked at the “sandwich board” sign at 63rd and Alki that purports to show the options for the long term designation of the street.  I note that it conveniently does not include the option of turning the street back to a standard street without special restrictions effectively making the area a semi-gated community. 

  • AG November 9, 2021 (8:48 pm)

    I noticed that too — the three options presented are Bad, Worse, and You Gotta Be Kidding Me. I live on Alki, I walk on Alki, and I *still* think these are horrible, short-sighted perversions of proper space management. Not sure who’s whispering in SDOT’s ear to convince them these are good, community-representative, highly utilized choices, but it’s simply not true.

  • Kathy November 9, 2021 (9:41 pm)

    If you have business on a residential street there are no special restrictions from using it. Otherwise, drivers should not be cruising through the residential street, but should rather be using the arterial. This is why we have separate designations for different types of streets. It just happens that on these streets SDOT has added signage to remind people of this. They were candidates because they were areas subjected to a lot of cut through traffic. Maybe they should add these signs to all residential streets if people driving can’t be relied on to be respectful.

    • Reject this proposal November 10, 2021 (5:50 am)

      “If you have business”????!!!  Wow, Kathy, exclude much?  This terrible elitist proposal (well said AG, all three choices are awful) will actually exclude actual people from Alki.  Kathy seems to think only people who live there or “have business” being there deserve the privilege to access Alki by a vehicle.  What snobbery.  Just stunned such brazen elitism isn’t run out of town.  Does anyone speak for the people?  For the public?  Or do we truly cater and bow to the elitist Kathys of the world?

      • Kathy November 13, 2021 (4:41 pm)

        Legitimate business on this street includes visiting Constellation Park or the Lighthouse when it is open for tours. I don’t live on this street, but I do live in the Alki neighborhood and I use this street all the time to walk the dog and visit the park.  I don’t have to drive there, but if I had to, I could drive in, park and visit the park. There are many on this thread that don’t seem to understand the concept of “local access only”. That does not mean “private access only”. So there is nothing elitist about it. Before the closure there was plenty of cut through car traffic in cruising season on sunny days. Then they’d get backed up trying to get back onto the arterial, making a very unpleasant traffic jam for those trying to enjoy the park. Not to mention the pollution caused right next to a marine park by all the idling engines. Granted, SDOT could improve the language on the sign, because that seems to be what is confusing a lot of you. 

    • alki_2008 November 10, 2021 (11:26 pm)

      @Kathy.  Alki Point is not a short cut to get anywhere. Can you help me understand how the Alki Point street was being used for “cut through traffic”? Where was the cut through traffic going that going around Alki Point was a quicker or shorter path?

      The Alki Point street did not have a problem of “cut through traffic” but of people from outside of the Alki neighborhood loitering in their cars on the south side of the point.

• Reality Chick November 9, 2021 (6:47 pm)

  It remains unclear how these streets were determined to be designated by SDOT as candidates. If you research in to this, which I did, there is verbiage that suggests that, in tandem with the Parks Dept.,  these were ad hoc/temporary measures during the pandemic. Now, SDOT seems to be putting forward these decisions as de facto with no actual community outreach on which streets should be included (their site says ‘we have heard people like these” but nothing about opposition nor the process by which SDOT identified which streets should be closed off for all but who live there). Yes, I have done a deep dive in to this and while I fully support traffic mitigation IN ALL NEIGHBORHOODS, this selectiveness is disingenuous at best and goes against all City of Seattle policies that say its foundation is equity for all. With the bridge timing this seems so calculated and dishonest. SDOT and the city at large, you must do better. 

• Jade Kelly November 9, 2021 (10:15 pm)

  The elitism that drips off of these proposals is awful. Your effectively extend each property line that’s on the street. At least they isn’t any bodies on the curb anymore. You know, unlike the horror scene it was before these magical safe streets were put in place. When I think of the lives that have been saved……. Ahhh sarcasm. It’s the best. 

• WS resident November 10, 2021 (5:42 am)

  Strongly against this ‘stay healthy’ nonsense.  At Alki, it is a straight up land grab by the 1% landowners living there and owning high value property adjacent to these areas trying to exclude others and protect “their” view of the water.  Brazenly trying to jack their own richness and enhance their own property values by excluding riff raff poor people and their cars, this nonsense is catching on big among the far left.  Seattle has already handed over the vast majority of waterfront land to private landowners and developers — but it should have been preserved for the public free and clear.  Chicago kept the lakefront open for the public.  Seattle didn’t, and efforts like these seek to worsen the problem and wedge further the wealth divide.  Yes this is a class and wealth issue.  The Alki proposal is garbage and needs to be rejected.

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