FOLLOWUP: Here’s how Councilmember Saka’s survey about transportation-levy priorities turned out

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

ORIGINAL THURSDAY NIGHT REPORT: As a City Council committee led by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka continues reviewing the proposed transportation-levy renewal/expansion, Saka has released results of his survey about levy priorities. We published the participation link back in early April. He told his email-newsletter list today that more than 1,800 people took the survey; here’s how that broke out geographically:

Here’s how he wrote about and showed the results:

Of the high-level survey responses, the categories of “Street Repaving” (including filling potholes!), “Bridge Maintenance and Repair” (not surprising given the extended closure of the West Seattle bridge!) and “Safe Crossings, More and Accessible Pedestrian Signals, Better Lighting, Safe Routes to Schools” tied for the top combined first, second, and third choices of respondents.

I do understand that the categories of Personal Safety, Pedestrian Lighting at Stops, and, More Transit Routes & Stops, and New Sidewalks also ranked high and is strongly corroborated by the many qualitative comments.

And while other categories may not have ranked as high, they will likely be included in the final proposed Transportation Levy package – all which will be ultimately for the voters to decide on this Fall’s ballot.

The graph below shows the categorization of some of the major qualitative comments received. I read the many comments which, together with the quantitative survey results, will help inform my Office and guide my decisionmaking as we move forward together.

Soon, I will be sharing my draft “Chair’s Amendment” to the Mayor’s proposed Transportation Levy renewal package and this information will be available on Council’s website.

In the meantime, Councilmember Saka notes that one public hearing and four other meetings – all of which also include public-comment periods – remain for levy consideration:

June 4, 9:30 AM | Committee Meeting

June 4, 4:30 PM | Second Public Hearing

June 18, 9:30 AM | Committee Meeting

July 2, 9:30 AM | Committee Meeting

July 9, 2:00 PM | Full Council Meeting – Final Adoption of Proposed Levy Package to go before Voters in November 2024 General Election

Agendas explain how to comment, and will appear on this page when posted.

ADDED FRIDAY AFTERNOON: A new council memo details key points of Saka’s aforementioned levy amendment, though the specific text is not yet available.

Meeeee May 31, 2024 (3:30 am)

In other words, the Councilmember Saka didn’t like the results.

D-Mom May 31, 2024 (7:15 am)

Really depends on where you live too. New sidewalks are a high priority to me in Arbor Heights since we don’t have any, but guessing that most of West Seattle doesn’t care about that since tthet have sidewalks. Same goes for improved transportation. Not as much an issue in the junction, but we are limited on bus access in the neighborhood.

Arbor Heights Resident May 31, 2024 (9:43 am)

Arbor Heights really needs better infrastructure. I’d love to see more sidewalks, but also some safe bike paths. I grew up biking around here and had way too many near misses. The recent fatal accident should be a wake up call, nothing like that should be allowed to happen again.
- Steve May 31, 2024 (3:08 pm)
  
  How do you think you can stop accidents from happening?
Nitro May 31, 2024 (3:07 pm)

That would be great to help streets and neighborhoods that do not have sidewalks or safe routes for people to walk, bike, navigate a stroller or wheelchair. Arbor Heights is a great example. Instead, Seattle is going to spend the money on the Alki Point Healthy Street- which already has sidewalks and infrastructure in place. So incredibly frustrating.
1994 May 31, 2024 (9:49 pm)

I think sidewalks would be great in AH but seems like walking in the streets is considered healthy these days…..plus it may slow down drivers on the AH streets. AH does the healthy streets thing without all the SDOT bluster and wasted money.

Jeepney May 31, 2024 (7:28 am)

Thank you CM Saka for seeking input from your constituents, this is a refreshing change.

Denden May 31, 2024 (8:46 am)

The survey about
transportation-levy priorities the results are in, the people have spoken. To
me it seems clear what the people want their tax money spent on. At least
district 1.

What is the point of
all the polling, surveys and community “involvement” meetings? I find it troubling to read the last article posted
on the WSB about the Beach Drive Healthy Street additions ‘not responsive to our concerns’.
And the latest proposal involving the Highland Park Way hill project. A lot of
time and money is spent on involving the people whose money is being spent,
only to have their opinions ignored. I for one will be paying close attention
to these issues which will influence the
way I will be voting in the next election.

Jenna S May 31, 2024 (2:05 pm)

FYI there were multiple years of outreach and surveys regarding the Alki Point Healthy Street and the street designation and improvements are a direct result of that. Those improvements are also consistent with the data in CM Saka’s survey where top concerns included: “Personal Safety, Safe Crossings and More Bike Lanes.” So not only are those changes in alignment with the outreach that SDOT did, they’re in alignment with this survey by CM Saka. I too will be watching closely and will vote accordingly. Thank you CM Saka for your support of safety and access improvements to the Alki Point Healthy Street, now and in the future.
- Kyle May 31, 2024 (8:47 pm)
  
  So the changes are mostly due to a previous special interest group lobbying for the changes. Mostly because they couldn’t get traction on getting police to respond to illegal activity, so they want to reduce access for everyone via SDOT. The survey was pretty much a farce that only had drastic change options presented.

ITotallyAgreeWithYou May 31, 2024 (9:10 am)

So the survey shows that West Seattleites were well informed (thank you WSB) that this survey existed while the city council could have done a much better job getting the word out to the rest of the city. I wonder what resources they used to get the word out and I wonder how many of the non-WS residents are WSB readers. Certainly a portion of Georgetown and South Park residents would be. While West Seattle matters to me greatly, it appears this could and should be a better balanced survey.

Foop May 31, 2024 (12:43 pm)

This was a district 1 survey, not “the rest of the city” fyi.
- K May 31, 2024 (1:59 pm)
  
  I assumed he meant “district” and I couldn’t agree more. The residents of South Park, Georgetown, and Pioneer Square deserve to be heard just as loudly as West Seattleites, but Saka seems very slow to realize that his district isn’t just West Seattle. I imagine some of these categories would ran differently if non-west Seattleites were represented equally in this poll.
  - WSB May 31, 2024 (2:20 pm)
    
    West Seattle’s population is not overrepresented if you just break this down by population. The city says WS is 80K of the district’s 105K (I tend to think 80K is an undercount but don’t have data to throw at that belief, so we’ll go with the city number).
    
    P.S. A memo breaking down his aforementioned amendment is now out
    https://seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12993957&GUID=0471D821-B607-449E-99D2-973D2936B871
    though the specific text still is not.

Elaine May 31, 2024 (9:38 am)

Thank you, Tracy and Patrick, for keeping the community informed!

Josh May 31, 2024 (11:42 am)

It is interesting that the top vote getters has the least amount of qualified comments. Personally I would put much heavier weight on the input from the people who took the time to explain their rational and the real need of a preference over someone just clicking a button. Traffic calming and increasing transportation option including transit and improved cycling infrastructure are the most needed things as they contribute directly to safety, health, sustained transportation access, and quality of life much more so than the other options.

Gaslit May 31, 2024 (9:29 pm)

I guess Josh, that you don’t quite understand how surveys and democratization work. You don’t get to subjectively decide to skew the results just so they fit your preferences.

Admiral-2009 May 31, 2024 (5:35 pm)

People need to read the SMC 15.72.010, .020, .030 that identifies that the installation and maintenance of sidewalks is the responsibility of the abutting property owner, not the City except when the City is the abutting property owner.