Category Archives: Development

KIRO/7 features story on Mini Park Porta-a-Potty

KIRO/7 recently did a story on the Lake City Mini Park Port-a-Potty (video embedded below). The story said that North Settle Chamber of Commerce members want the toilet moved from the highly-visible location. The story also says that moving the toilet to a new city-owned property on 33rd Avenue NE across from God’s Lil Acre was rejected without explanation by the city.

The toilet has always been known as a haven for drug users —and an unsightly element in the center of a neighborhood working to define its’ identity.

Despite its visible presence in the center of the Lake City business community, neighborhood groups such as Douglas Park Cooperative that do litter patrols regularly find areas in the commercial core where people defecate and leave strong smells of urine.

Recently during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new 33rd Avenue NE, a contributor to Lake City Live witnessed a middle-aged, seemingly intoxicated man urinating behind Value Village, exposing himself to a group of six children that had just participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony. When approached and asked to not pee in the neighborhood or expose himself to children, one of the other men said to the people complaining, “I’m gonna shoot you,” as he rustled through his backpack. The police were called during the incident.

Even with the highly-visible public toilet offered by the City of Seattle, people still defecate and urinate in the business core.

When KIRO showed up to do their report, the reporter, Henry Rosoff, found a used hypodermic needle on the ground in front of the Port a Potty. This despite a sign on the door notifying drug users where to dispose of the needles.

You can see the KIRO/7 report below:

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Mayor, local leaders kick off repaving of NE 125th Street

Mayor Mike McGinn speaks during to kickoff of a project to repave NE 125th Street and Sand Point Way. (Photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com, used with permission)

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and other local leaders kicked off the repaving of NE 125th, Sand Point Way NE and a section of NE Roosevelt Way on Monday morning with an event near where 125th becomes Sand Point Way.

Officials from the Seattle Department of Transportation and others working on the project were joined by Annette Heide-Jessen of the North Seattle Chamber of Commerce and co-owner of Kaffeeklatsch bakery and coffee shop during the event. Mayor McGinn said the event also served to highlight work being done on aging local streets and the importance of a local funding options bill to state leaders in Olympia.

The orange barrels are going up on NE 125th Street and Sand Point Way as a repaving project kicks off. Expect to see more of these. (photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com, used with permission)

The project will repave about 5 miles of roadway in NE Seattle, offering improvements for drivers, transit riders, freight and cyclists.

The deteriorated roadway has long been a sore point at community meetings where city officials are often grilled by residents about the state of the road. An earlier project that added bike lanes and re-channeled traffic with the addition of a center turning lane has been successful at slowing traffic and giving people a safer way to cross the busy roadway, said McGinn after the event. Data on the effect that project has had on traffic is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

You can read Lake City Live’s previous coverage of the repaving project here to see how it will impact you.

Annette Heide-Jessen speaks during to kickoff of a project to repave NE 125th Street and Sand Point Way. (photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com, used with permission)

Mayor Mike McGinn stands near a sign highlighting the Bridging the Gap funding used as part of the money allotted to repave NE 125th Street and Sand Point Way. (photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com, used with permission)

Mayor Mike McGinn to kick off repaving of NE 125th Street on Monday

On Monday morning Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, representatives of the Seattle Department of Transportation, and local Lake City business leaders, including owners of Kaffeeklatsch, will hold an event detailing the Northeast 125th Street and Sand Point Way Northeast paving project.

You can read our previous report about the project here to see how it will affect you.

This $3 million project kicks off Monday and will repave nearly five miles of roadway between I-5 and Magnuson Park on Roosevelt Way, NE 125th Street and Sandpoint Way.

The Mayor and other officials will gather for a 10 a.m. kickoff on Monday, June 10, at 3920 NE 125th Street, Seattle.

The deteriorating roadway has long been a sore point for neighborhood residents.

Major repaving project on NE 125th starts Monday

Seattle’s Pothole Rangers work hard repairing NE 125th, but often they are unable to keep up with the aging roadway.

It’s no secret that NE 125th Street has problems. The state of the heavily used, and aging roadway almost always comes up at community meetings and has become a sore point for many residents of Lake City. Arguments about road diets and potholes on the street seem to be required conversation anytime a City of Seattle official visits Lake City.

Well, staring Monday, June 10th, the Seattle Department of Transportation will kick off a major repaving project on the road.

Nearly five miles of asphalt roadway will be repaved during the project from Roosevelt Way at I-5 to NE 125th Street, through Lake City on 125th, and on to Sand Point Way NE all the way to NE 77th Street (just south of the northern entrance to Magnuson Park). The project is shown on the map below.

The traffic lanes are planned to keep their current configuration, with two minor changes:

A right-turn-only lane will be created on westbound NE 125th Street between 30th Ave NE and 28th Ave NE (just before the library).
There will also be an island built in the median of NE 125th Street just west of 20th Avenue NE and a north-south crosswalk marked at that intersection.

The project includes:

Repairs to the surface below the asphalt pavement to better withstand traffic loads
New asphalt pavement which provides a safer, smoother ride
About 85 new or upgraded curb ramps to meet current accessibility standards
Two new bus shelters
Addition of three bio-retention structures to the storm-water system

A map shows the zones of the project

On Monday construction will begin in zones 2 and 3 (see map at right).

Work will start with road grinding, saw cutting and base repair before finishing with road paving and re-striping. The road grinding and paving will take place primarily in the night time hours so if you live close to the roadway you may want to shut your windows at night or buy some earplugs to keep down the noise as you try to sleep.

125th and Roosevelt are wide enough to allow two-way traffic during construction, so traffic in this area will generally be maintained in both directions. However, 125th east of 35th Avenue NE and nearly all of Sand Point Way is too narrow for two-way traffic to safely pass around some of the work areas. In those areas there will be periods where detours and single lanes of travel will be in place.

When paving is done, a project to add sidewalks on the north side of 125h from 35th Ave NE to 40th Ave NE will begin. You can find out more about that project here.

Navy plans ‘time critical’ cleanup of radioactive contamination at Magnuson Park

Rep. Gerry Pollet answers questions from the public Wednesday evening at the Mountaineers.

Anxious residents and park users gathered at Magnuson Park Wednesday evening for an open house with government officials and representatives of the U.S. Navy to discuss the cleanup of low-level radioactive contamination only recently disclosed to the public.

The meeting was unusual, with a few tense exchanges between officials, and lots of explaining from government officials.

In an email circulated among Lake City neighbors earlier in the week announcing the meeting, some in the email chain expressed disbelief that officials would know about contamination and not disclose it to the public sooner. Some even debated its authenticity. The park is a popular destination for people in NE Seattle.

Sandpoint Naval Station in 1937. (Seattle P-I photo)

The low-level radioactive contamination was first discovered in 2009 after blueprints were discovered with an area labled radium room. The contaminated areas disclosed by the Navy includes the south shed attached to building 27 and adjacent soil and catch basins. Building 2 and and 12 also had adjacent contamination in the soil, while building 2 had contamination inside. That structure is currently vacant.

Many people have expressed concern, specifically surrounding the fact that children use the adjacent gym at building 27 through the Li’l Kickers soccer program. But Rep. Gerry Pollet, who has pushed for the contamination to be publicly acknowledged by the Navy, said he feels the area is safe enough for his own kids.

Radiation measured around building 27 has been measured above the level that federal law requires cleanup. Areas around Magnuson Park tested by the Wasington State Department of Health registered in the range of 4-10 microrem, according to the Department of Health. The EPA requires cleanup at any site with more than 15 mrem per year. Radium-226, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 were discovered at the site.

During the meeting representatives of the Navy said the removal of contamination is “time critical,” largely because the buildings where it is located are not maintained and have fallen into disrepair. Time critical means there is less time for public input on the plan.

They expect the project to take fewer than six months. Public comments can be sent to the U.S. Navy via Cindy O’Hare, 1101 Tautog Circle, Room 203, Silverdale, Washington 98315-1101 or emailed to: cindy.ohare@navy.mil

Here is a story about the contamination from the Seattle Times.

You can read more here from the Washington Dept. of Ecology or here in our previous story.

Here is a link to the Navy’s Action Memorandum (May 2013)

Here is a fact sheet from the Navy and Dept. of Ecology

Here is the Navy’s Radiological Remedial Investigation Report

Below is a report from KOMO/4

Coffee Talk #3 Tonight

Join the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance for the last in their Coffee Talk lecture series. Tonight’s talk focuses on “taming” Lake City Way and creating a safe pedestrian environment in Lake City. If you’re interested in the Pierre property redevelopments, this is a great way to develop your vocabulary & expertise to better advocate for your neighborhood.

Tonight, May 28th 6:30-8:30pm

Lamb of God Lutheran Church, 12509 27th Ave NE (This is an ADA accessible facility)

Tonight’s speakers will help explore state highways as main streets, shared and complete street concepts,and improving pedestrian mobility and connections throughout the neighborhood. Speakers include:

Kevin Shively, Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Assoc., Associate Project Planner
Paula Reeves, Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) Manager, Community Design, Highways and Local Programs
Staff, Seattle Dept. of Transportation
Planning and Urban Design Team

Come for coffee and talk with these experienced professionals and your neighbors about strengthening the Lake City’s design and identity for the future. The Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT) is co-hosting a series of “Coffee Talks” for the Lake City community with the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance.

Survey gathering data for School Road Safety Initiative

Seattle Public Schools is partnering with the City of Seattle on the School Road Safety Initiative, a project announced by Seattle Mayor McGinn earlier this month. The goal of the program is to increase safety on streets near schools and make it easier for children to get to and from school safely, however families choose to travel.

This initiative will include a School Road Safety Plan, which will look at the environment on streets near schools as well as the other things that involve safety, like education, enforcement, encouragement, and more.

If you’re a family with children going to school in Seattle (public or private), please help by filling out this survey of questions related to road safety by clicking one of the links below. This survey should take between 6-10 minutes and will close on June 30.

English
Spanish – Español
Chinese – 中文
 Vietnamese – Tiếng Việt
Korean – 한국의
Somali – Af Soomaliga (Luqadda af Soomaliga)
Tagalog

If you have questions about the survey, please contact SchoolRoadSafety@seattle.gov.

Community celebrates completion of 33rd Avenue pedestrian improvements

A parade of happy residents make their way along a new sidewalk on 33rd Avenue NE. (Photo courtesy Janine Blaeloch)

Neighborhood residents came out to celebrate on Saturday after improvements on 33rd Avenue NE were finished recently. The project was completed in 2012 but the celebration was planned for spring, when the newly-planted vegetation would bloom.

A ribbon cutting and parade of residents celebrated the improvements on the road behind Value Village and one block off Lake City Way. The road, like many in Lake City, was inhospitable to pedestrians before the improvements. This despite a concentration of people living in the immediate vicinity, including many children, elderly and disabled people in wheelchairs.

The project was paid for with Bridging the Gap funds after a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant helped pay for design of the project.

The project was taken up by community leaders who advocated for funding and guided the effort after recognizing a need in the area. The improvements include new sidewalks, drainage, curbs, lighting and landscaping.

A community fair with tasty desserts and sandwiches provided by the Lake City Bakery followed the ribbon cutting and parade.

The City of Seattle’s Department of Transportation said the changes “improve the pedestrian environment by providing a landscaped buffer from traffic; improve drainage and lighting as well as traffic calming the street.” A future project might include a mid-block crosswalk and Greenways elements to further calm traffic.

Photos below show the newly improved area (left) and how it looked before the improvements (right).

Overgrown vegetation and a lack of sidewalks used to push pedestrians into the middle of a busy street.

The area immediately behind Value Village and Aurora Rents shows the lack of drainage in the area, now improved.

Before, right, pedestrians would not walk in the muddy mess on the shoulders and were forced into the street.

The area now is much more pedestrian friendly and is likely to encourage more walking and pedestrian activity.

Follow Lake City Live on Facebook here for updates in your Facebook feed. Follow us here on Twitter for the latest and for breaking neighborhood news.

What’s New at Lake City Community Center?

Lots! Since January, the Lake City Community Center has been under new management. While the building itself looks much the same, the operations inside are expanding and changing.

One exciting change is that the Lake City Community Center staff is working with the University YMCA to begin offering programming at the center this summer. To kick it off, the Y is hosting a “Y Showcase Event” on June 1^st, 1-4pm at the Lake City Community Center. This free drop-in event will offer sample Zumba, Yoga, Barre, and Salsa classes with concurrent free childcare. There will also be a drop-in hip-hop production studio for teens.

Give Your Feedback!

The Y would like your feedback as they plan for future Lake City programming. Please take their Lake City YMCA Program Survey. It takes less than 5 minutes and will help the Y in determining various programs, childcare, and pricing for the Lake City neighborhood.

Communication and the Arts

Artist Yvonne Palka leads a sumi brush painting lesson.

The Lake City Community Center (LCCC) also now has an active website, including descriptions of upcoming events and a linkable calendar. Just today at the center, a group of homeschoolers was enjoying this sumi brush painting lesson with artist Yvonne Palka.

Coming up on June 15th is a mosaic class with Nancy Cubbage, a mixed media fine artist and Lake City local. Ms. Cubbage will be offering a series of different mosaic classes for youth, teens and adults at the community center. Visit the LCCC website and sign up to create a beautiful birdhouse like the one pictured here.

A sample bird house by artist Nancy Cubbage. Come create your own June 15th at the Lake City Community Center

But wait… There’s more!

A new Cultural Arts Program is also in the works at the Lake City Community Center. Called The ARTery, this group’s vision is to create and support artistic opportunities for everyone in Lake City. Visit their website here to learn more.

City hoping to bring ‘Portland Loo’ public toilets to Seattle, LC a possible candiate

Just as Lake City has once again taken up the issue of the need for a public toilet —versus the toilets often becoming a haven for negative behaviors such as drug dealing and use— Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is hoping to bring a new type of public toilet to Seattle neighborhoods that deal with public urination and defecation. The Mayor is hosting a public meeting today, May 15th, to share details about use of a new kind of public toilet in Pioneer Square.

The “Portland Loo” is a public toilet that Atlantic Cities said “was built to be as inhospitable as possible.” The semi-private environment discourages lingering and are made of steel. They do not have a mirror or sink inside and they have an open air feel about them as people on the outside can see feet when someone is inside.

Portland seems to love its loo. From Atlantic Cities:

The soulless receptacle for bodily waste has its own blog, Twitter account and Facebook page. When a loo hater set one ablaze last June, Facebook denizens flocked to its defense. “The Portland Loos rock! What other city can boast public restrooms that are fire proof. ” wrote Laura Mears, while Charlie Clint chimed in with, “I’m always sending someone to use one of these – and it’s great to hear how sturdy they are! (woo hoo).”

The Mayor specifically is working to bring the Portland Loo to Pioneer Square. But the need in Lake City is similar. Pioneer Square is also one of the other few public locations with a city-funded, semi-permanent Port a Pot, like the one at the Lake City Mini Park.

From the Mayor:

There is an ongoing need in many neighborhoods for safe, accessible public restroom facilities. One neighborhood in particular has been active and vocal about the need for this service – Pioneer Square.

To address the need, City departments partnered with the Alliance for Pioneer Square to map current publicly accessible restrooms and identified a big gap in the middle of the neighborhood where the need is greatest. We analyzed several alternatives and concluded the best option was the regionally famous Portland Loo, which is designed specifically for the needs of urban neighborhoods.

If a Portland Loo was installed in the Mini Park, it still wouldn’t solve the problem brought up by many residents about having a highly-visible toilet in the most visible area of a neighborhood searching for an identity. The Port a Pot currently there is one of the most obvious features of an area already struggling with litter, loiterers and increasingly empty storefronts.

You can see more photos of the Portland Loo below.

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