by Lizz Giordano
With the opening of the West Seattle Bridge on Sunday, Sept. 18, the Duwamish Valley is counting down the days to fewer vehicles passing through the neighborhood and regaining its streets for slower uses.
Continue reading Duwamish Valley Hopes for Quieter Streets as the West Seattle Bridge Reopenscurated by Emerald Editors
It’s a week for hearings, local and national. These include the first inquest hearing into the 2017 death of Charleena Lyles, which is a judicial inquiry that lays out and ascertains the facts of the case. Nationally, the fourth of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings has also just passed; the fifth takes place Thursday morning, June 23. Recent flickers of white nationalist groups making hyperlocal plays and targeting LGBTQ+ communities can’t help but feel like echoes of insurrection.
But there is still some levity to be found. Pride events continue this weekend — see our guide — including Lavender Rights Project’s Black Trans Comedy Showcase tonight!
—Vee Hua 華婷婷, interim managing editor for the South Seattle Emerald
Continue reading NEWS GLEAMS: Majority of 2021 Fatal Crashes in South End, Taste of White Center, & Moreby Lizz Giordano
More than five years after a subsidized fare launched on light rail trains, the transit agency says the $1.50 price might still be too high for some.
Continue reading Lower Low-Income Fare Coming to Sound Transitby Lizz Giordano
In the seven years Seattle has worked toward achieving Vision Zero, the goal of eliminating traffic deaths has never been so out of reach for the city. Especially in the South End, which absorbed more than half of the fatalities on the city’s streets last year.
Continue reading Funding ‘Solutions Not Studies’ to End Seattle Traffic Deathsby Ashley Archibald
(This article originally appeared on Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
Rebecca Saldaña and her kids had a choice.
It was Wednesday. One of the children had a dance class in Burien. The other had a taekwondo class in the Mt. Baker neighborhood. That’s a lot of back and forth.
Without a car, it was pretty difficult to get to both. Fortunately, the kids took pity on Saldaña. Rather than take the bus from the South End to Burien and back to Mt. Baker, her daughter chose to forgo a dance class.
“We are simplifying our day,” Saldaña said.
Not so simple for an elected official, of course. Saldaña still needed to make it home for a community meeting.
Saldaña, along with more than 100 other elected officials and transportation professionals, participated in a “Week Without Driving,” an event created by the Disability Mobility Initiative (DMI) — a project of Disability Rights Washington — to show the difficulties that non-drivers face in a state and country planned around cars.
Continue reading ‘Week Without Driving’ Challenges Leaders to Reimagine Transit and Accessibilityby Lizz Giordano
For more than a decade, light rail trains have whizzed through the Rainier Valley, but the development along the corridor that many expected would follow has lagged behind.
The 2008 recession combined with a negative perception of the South End by developers are both blamed for some of that lethargic growth around the South End stations. Though the pace of development has picked up in recent years, swaths of land still lie vacant near many stations. Meanwhile, frustrations over Sound Transit’s decision to build the line along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South at street level linger because of increased safety concerns.
“The big story with light rail is that some parts of the corridor saw the kind of development that was anticipated and some didn’t, notably Rainier Beach,” said Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales. “The things that were anticipated were delayed substantially, but they are coming.”
Continue reading Light Rail in the Rainier Valley, 10 Years Laterby Ben Adlin
A groundbreaking ceremony in Madison Valley this week marked the official start of construction of a new RapidRide bus route — the G Line — expected to carry nearly 12,000 people daily along Madison Street between downtown and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
The 2.3-mile transit expansion, projected to open in 2024, will include major upgrades to roads and sidewalks, including 240 curb cutouts to increase accessibility, new traffic signals, more visible crosswalks, signs that show real-time bus arrivals, and raised-curb stations designed to make it easier to get on and off buses — which will come every six minutes at peak times and have doors on both sides.
In the short-term, the $133 million project will likely mean a snarl of construction traffic on Madison, only adding to the region’s growing pains. But the investment of time and money will eventually mean a more connected, built-out transit system that links some of the city’s densest neighborhoods, speakers at Thursday’s, Sept. 30, event said.
“In some cities, the best lines of communication are from the city center to the suburbs,” said the Rev. Patricia Hunter of Mount Zion Baptist Church, where the groundbreaking ceremony was held. “But in Seattle, one of the best lines of transportation will serve those within the city, all along Madison.”
Continue reading Construction Begins on RapidRide G Line to Open in 2024by Mark Van Streefkerk
For Seattle to meet its carbon-neutral goal, we need to take an honest look at how we get from one place to another. Burning fossil fuels, like gasoline and diesel for motor vehicles, emits greenhouse gasses. In Seattle, roadway transportation makes up 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. For the U.S., emissions from transportation account for 29% of total greenhouse gases. Reducing our reliance on cars and gasoline plays an important role in reducing our carbon footprint. The good news is that everyday choices to walk, bike, scoot, or roll instead of driving can significantly reduce the greenhouse gasses we produce. Earlier this year a study found that ditching the car for one day out of the week can reduce personal carbon dioxide emissions by a quarter. Swapping even one trip in a car with walking or rolling makes a significant impact over time.
Continue reading The South End Guide to Reducing Our Carbon Footprint: Safety to Walk and Rollcurated by Emerald Staff
If you haven’t yet been vaccinated for COVID-19, you can receive it free by contacting your doctor, or by visiting one of several south King County pop-up clinics run by Public Health – Seattle & King County:
Friday, July 9, 1:00–5:30 p.m.
Lutheran Community Services NW – Refugee, 12608 SE 240th St., Kent, (in partnership with Lutheran Community Services and Masjid Al-Quba)
Vaccine Offered: Pfizer
Monday, July 12, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Multi-Service Center, 1200 S 336th St., Federal Way, (in partnership with Multi-Service Center / Medical Teams International)
Vaccine Offered: Moderna
Wednesday, July 14, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Multi-Service Center, UW Valley Medical Center, 515 W Harrison St. Kent.
Vaccine offered: Pfizer
For more information on getting a COVID-19 vaccine in King County visit, https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/vaccine/schedule.aspx or call 206-477-3977.
Continue reading NEWS GLEAMS: South King County Vaccine Pop-Ups, Composting Classes, & More!by John Stafford
The Washington State legislature is in the middle of its 2021 session, a 105-day session that convened on Jan. 11 and will end on April 25. This year’s session is being conducted via Zoom and will generate three budgets — an operating budget, a transportation budget, and a capital budget. These budgets are two-year documents. They will be created this year (2021) and then again in 2023. In addition to the budgets, more than 1,000 bills are being introduced and debated for potential passage. There are a series of cutoff dates for bills, and we have just passed the Mar. 9 deadline for bills (other than revenue bills) to pass their chamber of origin in order to remain alive.
Continue reading The 2021 Washington State Legislative Session: A Midway Review
