Category Archives: Walkability

Events, Sustainability, Transportation, Walkability

Health, Equity, & Transportation Forum

Health, Equity, & Transportation Forum

Wednesday, May 26th, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Yesler Community Center
917 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122

This forum considers the impact transportation choices have on communities from a health and equity perspective. Moderated by C.R. Douglas, a panel of community members will discuss questions such as:

  • What do you see in your own neighborhood that makes you walk, bike, ride transit?
  • How do peoples’ neighborhoods/built environment affect their health?
  • How are different people affected differently? Why is this?
  • What does the future look like, if we do it “right”?

Panelists include:

  • Jen Cole is the director of the Safe Routes to School Program at Feet First. Safe Routes to School programs aim to increase the number of students walking and biking to school safely.
  • Dr. Ben Danielson is a pediatrician at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. Located in Seattle’s Central District, the clinic provides medical, dental and mental health care under one roof to all families regardless of their ability to pay.
  • Ed Ewing is the director of the Major Taylor Project at the Cascade Bicycle Club, which has the mission of creating a multicultural bicycling community where teenagers have equal opportunity to spend time outdoors and on a bicycle.
  • Carla Saulter, “Bus Chick”, blogs for www.seattlepi.com. Carla is a third-generation Seattleite (on her dad’s side) and is one of a growing number of Seattleites who have chosen to live without a car. She takes the bus everywhere she goes.
  • Anne Vernez Moudon, Dr. es Sc., Professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. She also directs the Urban Form Lab, which studies neighborhood and street design, non-motorized transportation, and physical activity.
Land Use/Zoning, Walkability

Walkable Crown Hill Project Report Available

The Walkable Crown Hill Project (http://walkablecrownhill.org) in Spring 2008 received a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to examine ways to make our un-sidewalked streets a little more pedestrian friendly. One of the project goals was to develop a tool kit of alternatives to the traditional gutter-curb-planting string-sidewalk system used in most areas of the city.

As part of the grant, a consultant (Makers Architects) was hired to assist with holding public involvement meetings, and developing the tool kit. In consultation with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), they suggested we draw up some more traditional projects as well and prioritize those.

We held two public design charrettes in which over eighty Crown Hill residents participated to come up with alternative (hopefully less expensive) means of getting a more pedestrian friendly environment in Crown Hill.

The final report of the project is now available at http://www.walkablecrownhill.org/docs/CH_Ped_Plan_Final.pdf

A big thank you to all who participated in the process. And an extra special thank you and appreciation goes to Bert Hopkins who volunteered many hours of his personal time to shepherd the contract and the process.

Announcements, Events, Parks & Greenspace, Public Notices, Special Events, Transportation, Walkability

Holman Road Median Study Meeting

December 10 at 7:00pm
Journey Church , 9204 11th Ave NW

On Thursday, December 10 at 7:00pm CHNA and the Crown Hill Business Association will host a community meeting to review designs for a series of planted medians for a section of the Holman Road / 15th Ave NW corridor.  Produced by a team of students from the University of Washington’s Community, Environment, and Planning Program, these designs reflect the feedback received from over 290 Crown Hill residents through an online survey, as well as conversations with SDOT, Metro transit officials, and business owners along the corridor.

The student team will present several options for your comment.  Feedback from the December meeting will be used to produce their final design recommendations.  Far from being merely an academic exercise, it is our hope that together we can create a design that will actually be implemented. The Holman Road / 15th Ave corridor is a dominant feature in our community, and improvements to the corridor have the potential to make our neighborhood safer for both drivers and pedestrians, nicer looking and greener.