PEDESTRIAN SUMMER

"Pedestrian Summer," a campaign I initiated to promote walking and the safety of pedestrians, began in May and will continue through "Walk to School Day" in early October. With the support of the Council, Mayor, City Departments, community organizations, and businesses, the campaign hopes to increase safety through education, engineering and enforcement, and to promote walking by sponsoring community events throughout the summer.

The goals of the campaign are to foster more respect and civility between pedestrians and motorists and to improve driver behavior by increasing awareness about pedestrian safety. Our ambition is to transform driving culture in Seattle by making motorists aware of pedestrians, and to help walkers learn how to keep themselves safe. The long-term goal is to get people more excited about walking by creating a safer and more pedestrian-friendly cityscape.

This campaign also demonstrates the City's commitment to walking as a vital mode of transportation, a healthy form of exercise and a fun way to build community. Having more people walking reduces pollution, cuts traffic congestion, and helps promote public safety. The Pedestrian Summer campaign ties together various public and private programs to encourage walking and pedestrian safety, in four components:

Pedestrian Summer officially kicked-off Saturday, May 24 at the Rainier Valley Runaround fun run with the unveiling of a new pedestrian safety brochure and the Columbia City Map, the fifth neighborhood walking, biking and busing guide produced by the Seattle Department of Transportation.

David Grossman, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center points out that on average, a pedestrian is injured by a motor vehicle every seven minutes in the U.S. Harborview is supporting Pedestrian Summer with the conviction that we have a unique opportunity to take pedestrian safety to a new level by concentrating our efforts in a campaign like this.

It is crucial to remember that when pedestrians and vehicles come into conflict, it is the pedestrian who suffers the damage. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2001 there were 4,882 pedestrian deaths, and 78,000 pedestrians hospitalized due to traffic crashes. On average, a pedestrian was injured every 7 minutes. Of children ages 5 9 who were killed in traffic crashes, 22 percent were pedestrians. Most pedestrian deaths (69%) occurred in urban areas.

In Seattle, for the period January 1996 to June 2002, there were 923 hospitalizations of pedestrians who were hit by motor vehicles, an average of 142 hospitalizations per year. Five percent of those who were hospitalized died.

You can avoid being a statistic by walking safe and driving safe. As a pedestrian, your responsibility is to cross at corners, look before you start to cross or into the next lane, obey traffic signals (a flashing "Don't Walk" means don't start across the intersection, not "Run"), and use good judgment to stay safe, no matter who has the right of way.

As a driver, you must keep in mind that every intersection, whether marked or not, is a crosswalk, and pedestrians have the right-of-way. You should avoid passing other cars stopped at crosswalks and wait until all pedestrians have cleared the intersection. Obeying the speed limit will leave you the time to stop safely and prevent an accident.

Pedestrian Summer is a City of Seattle program, and is also co-sponsored by PEMCO Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Vulcan, Safeco, Puget Sound Energy, Turner Construction, the Washington Traffic and Safety Commission, and Flexcar. More information and a listing of events can be found on www.pedsummer.org

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HIGHPOINT PLAN APPROVED

On Tuesday, May 28, the City Council unanimously approved legislation to enable the redevelopment of Seattle Housing Authority's High Point community in West Seattle. Under the redevelopment plan, the existing 716 low-income units will be demolished and replaced by a mixed community of 1600 new units.

High Point is the third of SHA's major housing projects to be redeveloped. Like the others, it was originally built during World War II as worker housing, and the buildings are poorly constructed and deteriorating. High Point was also designed to be separate from the rest of the community, with minimal community facilities.

The new High Point will have a mix of income levels, including homeownership, a restored street grid that connects to the larger city grid, and a new community center, community clinic, park, and library, along with neighborhood retail spaces. It will also be a significant step forward in sharing the benefits of sustainable design with low income households, with green building principles used in the housing units and a completely new natural drainage system that is cutting edge in its design and minimal in its impact on the environment.

As with the other SHA redevelopments, the low-income housing units will be fully replaced either on or off site, and an additional 109 units will be supported through Section 8 vouchers, with all residents receiving relocation benefits.

The High Point plan received overwhelming community support, and had so little controversy that few have noticed its truly revolutionary design. The new High Point will add more than 800 units to Seattle's housing stock, create a new community integrated with those surrounding it, and extend the benefits of sustainable design to low and moderate income households. This will be a truly extraordinary project, and one that all Seattle will be proud of.

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MONORAIL: SEATTLE CENTER AND LANDMARK ISSUE

As the monorail moves forward with further planning and design, the City Council will have to decide a number of contentious issues, two of which are currently very active. It's important to remember that the City of Seattle is not constructing the Seattle monorail, which is under the management of an independent authority, the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority (SPMA). As the monorail plan is developed in detail, I believe that the City should fully cooperate with the SPMA, and not obstruct the SPMA in carrying out its responsibilities as agreed to by the voters.

However, the City does have the responsibility for ensuring that the interests of the City are thoroughly reviewed and protected during the development process. Since the City owns the Seattle Center, it has the ultimate decision making power as to whether or not to grant the SPMA the ability to construct the monorail on this property (the SPMA has the authority to condemn private property, but not city property). The City Council also has the ultimate authority to determine what will be required to be protected under the historical designation of the current monorail.

In the area of the Seattle Center, there are now four alternative routes being considered, two of which cross the Center. I am concerned that the construction of the monorail across the Center grounds may not be compatible with the environment of the Center's open space. There are other issues to consider as well, including the loss of tree cover, construction difficulties, and the relationship of the proposed route to other Seattle Center activities. At the same time, it is important that the monorail stations serve the Center and that the merits of the alternatives be given objective review.

I believe that the alignment that goes around the Seattle Center on Mercer Street meets the community's interest in a station that is convenient for Uptown, offers a much more productive station on the east side of the Center, and avoids conflicts on the Center grounds, and I would strongly lean towards the Mercer Street route. However, I am willing to consider the merits of other routes if it can be demonstrated that they clearly alleviate concerns about the impact on the Seattle Center. Fortunately, the Council does not need to make a decision until the Environmental Impact Statement is completed.

With the designation of the existing monorail as a landmark, legislation will soon come before the City Council identifying what elements of the monorail should be preserved. I support preserving the vehicles and memorializing the route, but I do not support keeping the columns and beams on Fifth Avenue. The vehicles and route are an appropriate way to commemorate the historical significance of the monorail, while the cost and impact on the urban environment of preserving the columns and beams outweigh the added value of retaining them.

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MAPLE LEAF COMMUNITY GARDEN

At last, years after being identified as a high priority in the neighborhood, Maple Leaf and the Northgate area will have a community garden. In late April an agreement was signed by the heirs to the property owner and the City for the purchase of a vacant lot on NE 103rd just east of 5th Ave. NE. The property is close to numerous apartments and condominiums, an ideal location for residents who need garden space. The property sale should be finalized in August.

"The community is thrilled to know that this site will be preserved as open space and will soon be developed into a community garden where neighbors can grow produce and also make new friends," commented Barbara Maxwell, a Maple Leaf resident who led the planning effort. "It has been a longstanding dream since this property was first nominated for acquisition by the Maple Leaf Community Council in 1988."

My office has worked collaboratively with the neighborhood for the last four years to make this happen. The Maple Leaf Community Council developed the initial design for the community garden. The funding for the land purchase is a combination of money from a Neighborhood Matching Grant, a Pro Parks Levy Opportunity Grant, the King County Conservation Futures Fund and private donations.

The combination of persistent and committed effort on the part of the community and great support from City staff, especially Deirdre Grace of the Department of Neighborhoods and Lise Ward and other staff in the Parks Department, made it possible to achieve one of this neighborhood's dreams. Together with the pending construction of a library branch and community center, the garden will represent further steps toward implementing a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood revitalization that was envisioned in the community plan approved by the Mayor and Council in 1993.

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QUOTE:
"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."

-- James Russell Lowell

DEEP THOUGHT:
"Some friends I have lost to death, others by the sheer inability to cross the street."

-- Virginia Woolf

Citizen participation and engagement are critical for maintaining democracy -- fostering it is a key task of elected officials. It's my hope that this newsletter will inform you about issues, inspire you to get involved, and that together we can make things work better in this great city. Please send me your feedback, so we can keep things lively, interesting, and useful. And please forward it along to friends who might be interested.

Richard Conlin
Your Seattle City Councilmember

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