Fiestas Patrias in South Park!
Bike info for families and fitting helmets from Cascade Bicycle Club to kids and adults. And, cumbia, salsa, mariachi, banda, hula and belly dancing right next to us! With Theresa, Jason, Kathy, Bob and Don.
South Park Progress!
South Portland Street storm sewers and paving are happening in South Park!
West Duwamish Trail connection into the north end of South Park will change from S Holden St to S Portland St after an extension of the trail is built along West Marginal Way S from S Holden to S Portland.
Bob Winship and others in WSBC have been working with the South Park Neighborhood Association’s Transportation Committee, ECOSS, South Park industries and SDOT to make this a win for all. Not just paint on pavement. This is flood control, storm water management, roadbed rebuilding, and complete streets for all users including freight haulers. Hoping for improvements without gentrification. The people who live, work and
own businesses in South Park need South Park.
After this link is completed, we need action with King County on the miserable missing link at the south end of South Park to the Green River Trail, and improvements on the West Duwamish Trail north and south South Park, so kids can ride safely to school in West Seattle, and everyone can connect from West Seattle to South Park and south to Des Moines, Tukwila, and Renton.
A Welcome Traffic Alert for East Marginal Way S
Traffic Advisory September 12, 2014 -from SDOT
Lane closures on East Marginal Way next week [N of Hanford]
Crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation will pave [YAY!!!!] from Hanford north to 2200 block on Wednesday, Sept. 17 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Thursday, Sept. 18 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., weather permitting.
On Wednesday, bicycles may use the designated bike lane. On Thursday bicyclists may ride on the sidewalk, being cautious of pedestrians and giving pedestrians the right of way.
Contact: Marybeth Turner, Public Relations Supervisor, 206.684.8548
Saturday 9/13 Fiestas Patrias in South Park
Fiestas Patrias
is this Saturday in South Park. It is a great community celebration! We’ll be there with helmets from Cascade Bicycle Club and bike info — would you like to volunteer for a couple of hours? We’ll be at SeaMar Plaza 11-4
Especially would be good to have Spanish speaking volunteers.
Reply here or send email to westseattlebikeconnections@gmail.com
Tuesday 9/2 WSBC monthly meeting
6:30 to 8:00 pm at HomeStreet Bank on SW Alaska Street near 41st Ave SW just east of the West Seattle Junction.
Open meeting – you are invited to meet, plan and report on activities and share your ideas about bike transportation in, to and from West Seattle.
We can use new volunteers for Greenways, for safe routes to schools, for commuting routes and trails advocacy, for social rides and events, and for bike parking at local businesses. Please join us in creating a more sustainable and sociable West Seattle. No dues, no fees, no obligations – participate as much or as little as you wish.
Sad day downtown for all of us
A tragic day in a week filled with mayhem caused by lawless and inattentive driving of motor vehicles. Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Sher Kung, killed on Second Avenue today in a crash with a truck whose driver did not see her and failed to yield the right of way.
So sad that this is a week before physical lane separation and new signals with no-left-on-red for motor vehicles while bikes have green to go through will be in place.
Memorial ride next Thursday or Friday late afternoon is in the works.
Yesterday in Bonney Lake a pickup driver drifted off the roadway while texting and hit a 40 year old man who was riding a bike on the shoulder, the WSP reports. Monday, two drivers hit two boys riding bikes across Airport Way in Georgetown,
Mayor Murray and Scott Kubly, SDOT Director, have already received letters that cruelly take advantage of this tragedy to push anti-bike agendas, claiming bike riding is too dangerous for city streets.
But yesterday, three people were injured in a hair salon in Columbia City and three others were injured in the restaurant next door when the driver of an SUV plowed into the salon. The building was in danger of collapse. Can a bike rider cause this kind of damage?
Eating in a restaurant is not dangerous.
Getting your hair cut is not dangerous.
Riding a bike is not dangerous.
DRIVING A MOTOR VEHICLE IS DANGEROUS,
and that is where the focus should be for safety, for lower speeds, for law enforcement and for protection of everyone else.
photo from Lars Halstrom
Another Public Meeting for White Center Bike Corral
Good turnout of merchants and customers at White Center public meeting on the bike corral 8/26. Thank you to Sili Savusa, Executive Director of White Center Community Development Association, for leadership and Sokha for moderating the lively discussion. Thanks to Theresa and Jason Beaulieu, Lyanne, Joe, Marlowe, Isabel, Charity and family, Matt, Aaron, Gregg, Alex, Billy, Lynn, Don, and others who showed up to support the owners of Proletariat Pizza and Cafe Delia and let the other merchants know why a bike corral will make it easier to be their customers and will add customer parking to the business district on 16th.
This was a repeat of the required public meeting held at Luso’s on June 17 for the grant that was awarded in March.
Several
merchants have concerns about losing two car parking spaces, As Joe pointed out, if 12 customers park bikes instead of parking cars, in the same space as two cars, that actually frees up 5 to 10 car parking spaces for others to use.
Merchant concerns, especially from Smoke Town tobacco store and Stan’s Adult Superstore, were loss of car parking; the number of vagrants in the alley that make it feel unsafe for employees to park there; the lack of County enforcement of the 2-hour time limit that results in non-customer all day car parking in many spaces on the block. Some of the all-day parking is by shop owners and employees who choose not to park away from the businesses. Brian, who owns the record store, went out looking this afternoon and sketched two alternative bike rack locations at curb bulbs,
Sili Savusa described next steps to reach a community solution, including sitting down with Theresa and Brian to look at the design that was submitted for the grant that was approved last March (!) and comparing it to the ideas from Brian and others tonight.
All agreed that there are deeper issues of law enforcement, homelessness, crime, lack of Sherriff Department staffing and county neglect of White Center business district that go way beyond the bike parking issue. Elizabeth Gordon invited participants to attend an upcoming North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting with the Sherriff’s office to give them the message of what White Center wants to see most to address the issues.
Waiting and Wondering – Five Ways
The little island at SW Chelan / West Marginal / Spokane/ Delridge 5-way intersection was crowded this morning. The signal to go SE from Chelan seems to be skipping us sometimes, not responding to the push button. Gives us some time for wondering when SDOT and consultants will share notes from the brainstorming workshop that happened six months ago, and when they will produce some design proposals.
Tues 8/26 White Center Bike Corral Public Meeting – Again
Tuesday, August 26 at 6:30 PM
at the Sherrif’s storefront, 9609 16th Ave SW, White Center across from Caffe Delia and Proletariat Pizza
Second public meeting about the proposed bike corral in front of Proletariat Pizza and Caffe Delia Coffee on 16th Ave SW
Caffe Delia and Proletariat Pizza want to swap 2 car parking places for 12 bike parking places in front of their businesses. Good for them and all of the WC business district. Support is needed at this meeting! Please come if you can! Some businesses are opposed, not realizing that people arriving on bikes are customers just like people arriving by car, bus or on foot. This does NOT take away customer parking! It ADDS customer parking. Additionally, some of the car parking is not really customer parking, because there is no parking fee or enforcement of any time limit. Caffe Delia, Proletariat Pizza and Theresa Beaulieu have obtained a grant to pay most of the cost of the bike racks. Just need to convince King Co and the CDA that this is needed and has community support.
We have been through all this before! Help us bring this ill-defined process to resolution!
Heavy Haul Corridor – Ready or NOT
Freight Advisory Board 8/19 meeting highlight:
The proposed Heavy Haul Corridor on West Marginal, East Marginal, Hanford, and Spokane will allow >25% heavier axle loads on these streets that are substandard construction on crappy fill soils and are way past due for complete roadbed rebuild.
Pavement disintegrates already. We ride the unswept gravel paths that result. The oil dripping onto the roads drains directly into Puget Sound.
What will the new plans do for safety? Nothing.
What will they do to rebuild the road? Nothing.
What WILL they do? Charge a couple hundred bucks for a permit to be over legal, with the revenue to pay for a cop to check that they’ve paid their fee.
It is important for our port to be competitive with Vancouver, Tacoma and Oakland. But not with a short term “solution” that destroys the roadway and compromises safety. Why should this be allowed before the road is rebuilt for truck loads and bike safety, including bike lanes with concrete barriers, from Spokane to Atlantic on East Marginal and south of Spokane to the Federal Center? We need investment upfront in roads for freight and bike traffic, equal to the quality of the Atlantic St crossover and Portside Trail, all the way south.