Sep

12

Two Neighborhood Greenways Events (9/14 and 9/22)

Filed Under Bicycling, Streets For People, Transportation | Leave a Comment

Are you planning or thinking about a Greenway in your neighborhood? Meet with Neighborhood Greenway organizers from across Seattle (Ballard, Beacon, Wallingford, University, NE) at a dinner potluck meet-up Wed, 9/14 6:30-8:30pm. Mosaic Den 4401 2nd Ave NE in Wallingford (behind Dick’s on 45th)   http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159675627448629

Speakers: Frederica Merrell of Beacon BIKES presents tips on organizing and success stories for community organizing. Seattle City Council Member Sally Bagshaw reflects on political organizing.


Hold the Date!: We just found out yesterday that Greg Raisman & Mark Lear (the “dynamic duo” behind Portland’s Neighborhood Greenways program) will make a public presentation, while they’re in town for an SDOT visit. Thursday 9/22 @ 7:00 PM at Savery Hall Room 264 on the University of Washington campus. RSVP at: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105586422882727

If you’re interested in plugging into the Neighborhood Greenways network, you can join the google group at  http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-greenways-organizers

Aug

16

New policy expands sidewalk café options for restaurants and bars | West Seattle Herald / White Center News

Filed Under Streetfood, Streets For People, Transportation | Leave a Comment

We’ve blogged about our ideas for reforming sidewalk cafe rules before, noting that it would take a change at the state level to put sidewalk seating in smarter locations from a mobility and accessibility standpoint. We’re thrilled to learn, via the West Seattle Herald, that a new interim rule does just that:

The Washington State Liquor Control Board this week adopted an interim policy allowing Seattle restaurants to establish sidewalk cafés in more locations. Existing rules limit sidewalk café alcohol service to areas immediately adjacent to a building. In many cases, sidewalks in these areas are not wide enough to allow for both pedestrian travel and a café. The new rules give restaurants more flexibility, including an option for curbside sidewalk cafés.

“This rule change is a big win for our local businesses and neighborhoods,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “We worked closely with the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Department of Planning and Development, and the Liquor Control Board to get this done. Allowing more sidewalk cafés will help improve urban vitality and give restaurants and patrons more choices.”

“We support the City of Seattle’s efforts to make outside dining more accessible,” said Washington State Liquor Control Board Chair Sharon Foster. “This has been a collaborative process that we hope will be positive for licensees choosing to participate. While the effort was shouldered by the City of Seattle, this interim policy will apply statewide.”

“We’re really excited about this new rule change,” said Josh McDonald, of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance. “This will help bars and restaurants expand and provide a better climate for new customers, and will also help with the city’s plan to activate outdoor spaces including sidewalks, plazas and parks.”

Restaurants with an on-premise liquor licenses will be able to extend their food and alcohol service to the curb side of a sidewalk public right-of-way areas if their request to the Liquor Control Board is approved and if they are given a permit from the City of Seattle.

This new policy supports Seattle’s comprehensive Nightlife Initiative, which aims to maintain public safety and provide businesses with greater flexibility to adapt to the market demands of residents and visitors. Last month Mayor McGinn took the first step toward changing state policy to allow extended service hours. More information about the Nightlife Initiative and its components can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/nightlife/.

via New policy expands sidewalk café options for restaurants and bars | West Seattle Herald / White Center News.

Aug

11

The Agile City

Filed Under Land Use, Transportation | 2 Comments

We are big fans of ASLA’s The Dirt, and big fans of thinking big-picture on climate change. Instead of simply looking at new technologies that will allow us to do more of the same (use lots of energy in our daily lives driving everywhere we need to go and living and working in inefficient buildings – minus the pollution) we think the inefficient land use and transportation patterns of modern life are not only problems worth solving to save the earth, but also to improve our quality of life. As this book points out, transportation and buildings are the number one and two sources of climate-disrupting emissions. Transforming land use and transportation will make our cities not only more sustainable but more adaptable, according to Bloomberg’s architecture columnist. Read on for more.

Out with the Old: The Agile City

08/11/2011 by asladirt

The agile city would evolve out of innovative policies that “deploy regulations straightforwardly, balancing them with incentives. Rules will reward performance (energy, water, and emissions saved) rather than prescribing what lightbulbs we’ll use and what cars we’ll drive.” These regulations will also boost well-being and produce economic values that gross domestic product (GDP) fails to measure, like increased real estate values from repaired natural systems and health care costs saved from reduced rates of cancer.

In The Agile City: Building Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change, James S. Russell, architecture columnist for Bloomberg News, argues against taking a mainstream, business-as-usual-approach to addressing climate change in the U.S.  The current global warming debate focuses on harnessing “alternative energies” strategies, like hydrogen-powered cars and biofuels, clean coal, and reinvented nuclear that Russell calls speculative technologies that may not prove viable, require significant investments and have large environmental effects. He proposes a different approach, one that could have manifold benefits and achieve faster and more effective results than making massive alternative-energy investments that amount to tax gimmicks. There is just one sticking point: they would require the U.S. to move away from the “normalcy” of overconsumption.

Russell’s solution for adapting to climate change and achieving carbon neutrality is based on proven efficiency measures and some renewable energy. He targets buildings and transportation, the two largest sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that respectively account for 40 percent and 28 percent of emissions. Addressing them simultaneously with denser, energy conservation-oriented and transit-centered development, Russell says, could result in more agile cities, those that are able to adapt to constant change, simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions while coping with climate-change effects  …More

Mar

31

Westside light rail

Filed Under Streets for All, Transit, Transportation | Leave a Comment

We’ve had a lot to blog about in transportation news and commentary lately…

This is, by far, the most exciting nugget we’ve had to share. While it is just a start, it is movement in the right direction:

A light ballot measure for westside light rail

Unbowed by the gloomy budget news he dispensed this week, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is still working toward his 2009 campaign promise to offer rail transit, linking West Seattle and Ballard to downtown.

The latest strategy, outlined in a letter from McGinn to a transit advisory group, suggests asking voters this year to approve just $10 million — enough money to complete 15 percent of the design for an 8-mile line. Taxpayers already are being asked this fall to double the Families and Education Levy right after a recession.

“The level of design work funded would allow us to seek federal grants for construction, as well as develop a timetable for a larger ballot measure to fund construction,” says McGinn’s message to Kate Joncas, Downtown Seattle Association director, and Ref Lindmark, a King County transit planner who helped plan the 2006 “Bridging the Gap” measure to improve city roads and bicycle-pedestrian travel.

via Politics Northwest | A light ballot measure for westside light rail | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Mar

30

Volunteer & Internship Opportunities with Transportation for Washington: Futurewise Opportunity – VolunteerMatch

Filed Under Transportation | 1 Comment

Here’s a great opportunity to join a crack team on an exciting mission to transform transportation across the State of Washington:

Volunteer & Internship Opportunities with Transportation for Washington

Address: 814 Second Avenue, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98104

Great For: Teens, 55+, Groups (up to 10)

Interest Area: Advocacy & Human Rights, Environment, Politics

Date: This is an Ongoing Opportunity.

Minimum Age: 16

Volunteers Needed: 30

via Volunteer & Internship Opportunities with Transportation for Washington: Futurewise Opportunity – VolunteerMatch.

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