By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Community-group meeting seldom have surprise endings. Wednesday night’s District 1 Community Network meeting did, as a scheduled discussion about logistics quickly pivoted into a disbandment decision.
More on that later. First, here’s what else happened:
HIGHLAND PARK WAY HILL PROJECT: James Le from SDOT, who led the project presentation and discussion at HPAC last month (WSB coverage here), did the same at the D1CN meeting. He was joined by project teammate Willow Russell. We’ve written about this project several times since it emerged four weeks ago – four years after SDOT decided to shelve a possible uphill bike lane for the stretch. Le recapped the three options – all of which would replace the current outside downhill vehicle lane: A protected bike lane, a multi-use path, or eventually both. This was the last scheduled public presentation during the feedback period, which is scheduled to close in a week.
After a relatively short presentation, the SDOT reps fielded questions.
One question was about current bicycle volumes on the hill; Le hadn’t brought those numbers but pointed to the WSB followup in which we published them, after following up on a similar exchange at the HPAC meeting. From SDOT as featured in that WSB story:
Other questions:
How many people have given feedback so far? Russell said 1,600 had answered some or all of the survey questions, including 300 who said they bicycle on the hill. Who are the “key community members” referred to by SDOT as having been consulted for feedback? Russell listed a variety of local groups and institutions, including Pioneer Industries, a large business at the bottom of the hill, and South Seattle College. Why is this a priority if there have been only two serious-injury crashes in five years? Le cited the 43 mph average speed (18 above the limit) and the presence of bus stops in the area (although his presentation had noted they are low-usage, “a handful of people”), plus the department’s commitment to Vision Zero. “We have to do this because it’s part of our city’s safety goals,” he said. He reiterated SDOT’s description of this as a “self-enforcing design” to slow traffic. How would traffic flow be handled if a downhill vehicle broke down and blocked that one lane? “People will have to slow down and drive around,” replied Le. Had they talked to SPD about it? “No, it’s very early, we’re at like 5% or 10% design. We’re talking to you guys before we talk to them.” (Two SPD reps were at the meeting, one offering questions and comments, including hope that SDOT is studying traffic in multiple seasons before making a final decision on this.)
More questions:
Could traffic be slowed with photo enforcement and expansion of the existing path instead of lane reconfiguration? “Typically we look at all our engineering options” before camera enforcement is considered. What about a disaster, if this is the only exit route, how are people going to get out? “Highland Park Way is not the only path out (of West Seattle),” said Le. “Well, Myers Way, but that doesn’t get to hospitals,” was the participant reply (although that would point people toward Burien, which does have a hospital). Could a one-month trial be done to see how it works, before making it permanent? Le said, “That’s a good comment, I could bring it back and flesh that out some more.” Has SDOT evaluated how capacity would be affected? Le said that at the top of the hill, there’s already enough capacity in the narrowed intersection, but then people are sideswiping each other as they get to the four-lane hill. “It’s very early – we could modify things at the bottom of the hill too.” Meeting facilitator Deb Barker stressed that broader outreach was important; Russell said they’d sent a mailer to a mile radius of the project zone. “Peninsula-wide would be good,” suggested Deb Barker. The SDOT survey remains open until June 15.
PORT UPDATES: Kate Nolan brought the same updates she’d presented at the May West Seattle Transportation Coalition meeting – she noted that both Terminal 5 berths are now operational, and that the Quiet Zone is now about six weeks away from completion – by end of July. She also discussed the project to work toward zero-emission drayage (short distance) trucking in cargo operations.
COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Georgetown Carnival is on Saturday, noon-10 pm … Rethink the Link‘s light-rail-route walk is Sunday, 10 am … The Alki Community Council‘s Summer Celebration is 5-8 pm June 20 … The Morgan Community Association‘s Morgan Junction Community Festival, 10 am-2 pm on June 15, will include Bubbleman emerging from retirement, and vendors will be back, behind the Zeeks/Whisky West building, as well as Morgan Junction All-Wheel Association showing ideas for the all-wheel spot in the future park … This part of the meeting is where Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Nate Shopay mentioned what we’ve already reported separately, that the precinct has been working with the Traffic Unit to get some spot enforcement patrols around this area.
D1CN DISBANDING: Final agenda topic of the night looked on the surface like a matter of logistics, with this message from Larry Wymerte, the longtime administrator, handling behind-the-scenes details like assembling and circulating the agenda:
With major changes in the make-up of the City Council, it is even more important that we all work together to help to make D1CN a vibrant and impactful organization. He’d love to work with you to help strengthen and expand our outreach to all relevant community groups and leaders. D1CN strives to be a bottom up organization (i.e. no board, no officers, etc.) to provide a forum and opportunities for District 1 Community groups and leaders to communicate with each other. With this in mind, we look to all of you who are on our email distribution list to help out if and when you can by organizing and leading a meeting. We work best when we all take turns taking the gavel as a MEETING FACILITATOR. Let me know if you are interested in at least discussing the possibility.
Back when D1CN launched five and a half years ago, lining up facilitators hadn’t been so difficult, but at some point post-pandemic-peak, Deb Barker wound up as default facilitator for most if not all meetings. And when Wednesday night’s discussion started, she and Wymerte said they really needed to disengage. But no one stepped forward to offer to facilitate future meetings (the group had already cut back to alternating months) – so the discussion quickly turned into, is this the end? And no one put up much of a fight.
Though it didn’t launch uptil early 2019, D1CN had its roots in then-Mayor Ed Murray‘s 2016 decision to cut city support for neighborhood district councils. West Seattle had two at the time, Southwest District Council and Delridge Neighborhoods District Council. Both carried on for a while without official city support, but toward the end of 2018, some local advocates came up with the idea of a unified group (explained here). It launched in early 2019; later that year, the Delridge council went on “indefinite hiatus,” and the Southwest council officially disbanded. D1CN’s end leaves the area without a general-purpose coalition; a review of which neighborhood- and issue-specific groups remain will be a topic for another night.
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