Murray on one of Seattle’s new Pronto share bikes at this week’s unveiling of 2nd Ave safety upgrades (Image: Office of the Mayor)
We found him this weekend on the frontline of SPD’s anti-crime push on Capitol Hill — having a drink with local business owner Dave Meinert. In a community walk next week, Mayor Ed Murray will be out and about in his home neighborhood to take on some of the other, perhaps less exciting aspects of public safety. A Capitol Hill “Find It, Fix It” walk is scheduled for the night of Wednesday, September 17th. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said details for the Capitol Hill walk won’t be readied until closer to the event. The mayor has participated in a series of the gatherings that involve neighbors, business owners, and community representatives going out onto neighborhood streets together to talk about problems from drug use to potholes. Murray’s next session is Thursday in the International District starting at 6 PM. City Council member Bruce Harrell, Seattle Chief of Police Kathleen O’Toole, and “department representatives” will also be on hand:
At the events, community residents, police, and city officials walk together to identify physical disorder and solve it. As a result of these walks, Seattle City Light, the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Department of Planning and Development, and Seattle Public Utilities have worked – and continue to work – to make improvements in Seattle’s neighborhoods. Watch videos, view photos and read actions taken as a result of these walks at: http://murray.seattle.gov/finditfixit
At next Wednesday’s planned Capitol Hill walk, Murray is expected to include the central E Pike core in his tour and Cal Anderson Park. Expect talk about Pike/Pine’s dumpsters and Cal Anderson’s trees and lighting. Also expect a community safety focus following the assignment of gang units and stepped up patrols to the area following a spike in street crime. In a message on Twitter Tuesday night, the department said foot patrols in the Pike/Pine area were continuing.
SPD says its approach to quelling Capitol Hill crime will be data-driven — here are some hotspots for crime
UPDATE 9/16/2014: The mayor’s office is out with the official itinerary:
Neighbors invited to Capitol Hill ‘Find It, Fix It’ Community Walk SEATTLE (Sept. 16, 2014) – Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s ‘Find It, Fix It’ Community Walk, focused on several crime hotspots, makes its way to Seattle’s Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sept. 17. This is the eighth walk hosted by the mayor in neighborhoods around the city. At the events, community residents, police, and city officials walk together to identify physical disorder and solve it. As a result of these walks, Seattle City Light, the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Department of Planning and Development, and Seattle Public Utilities have worked – and continue to work – to make improvements in Seattle’s neighborhoods. Watch videos, view photos and read actions taken as a result of these walks at: http://murray.seattle.gov/finditfixit Capitol Hill Find It, Fix It Community Walk: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. E. Olive St. and 11th Ave. Meet at Cal Anderson Park Shelterhouse (Map) 6:30 – 6:45 p.m. Short program featuring Mayor Ed Murray, Seattle Chief of Police Kathleen O’Toole and department representatives. 6:45 – 8:00 p.m. Walk commences along the following route:
- East on E. Olive St.
- South on 12th Ave.
- West on E. Pike St.
- North on Broadway
- East on E. Howell St.
8:00 p.m. Walk concludes and department representatives are available for follow-up questions. For more information on Murray’s public safety strategy for Seattle, visit http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/public-safety-strategy-for-seattle.
UPDATE: In a session designed to “complement” Wednesday’s walk, Chief O’Toole is on the agenda for September’s Capitol Hill Community Council meeting — Thursday, September 17th starting at 6:30 PM in the Cal Anderson Shelterhouse:
We look forward to seeing you at this week’s Capitol Hill Community Council meeting, this Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Cal Anderson Park Shelter House. This month’s meeting we have invited representatives from the police department and the mayor’s office to discuss crime and safety on Capitol Hill. We believe the community response and community building work will help in making our neighborhood more safe and a more positively livable experience. Police and the city have a major responsibility, but so do we.
I hope Pike & 12th is on the mayor’s walking route. It would be nice to have the badly broken pavement in the west side crossing of Pike repaired before someone trips and hurts themselves.
You could try reporting it through the “Find It, Fix It” app, spearheaded during McGinn’s mayorship, but I don’t think anyone is actually responding to reports through it anymore. Murray should just acknowledge that his administration doesn’t care about it anymore.
Untrue…my husband and I have reported several things in our neighborhood using the Find It, Fix It app since Murray has been mayor, and they’ve all been found and fixed.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT!?!?! Ridiculous. Send him in there from 11pm to 1am on a Friday or Saturday night at least.
Or would that be too dangerous?
I think Wednesday makes some sense. Some of the days I feel most uncomfortable is when the streets are completely empty late on off-nights. Though I don’t have the data for what days are actually the most dangerous (per person on the street).
Well, that’s curious. I tried using the “Find It, Fix It” app to report that street light at Olive & Denny that was stuck on. My report was ignored for over two months, then disappeared from the system, and it was another month or so before it was finally fixed. I thought this was an educated, progressive city that cares about responding to citizen concern about deteriorating infrastructure and minimizing energy waste. But apparently I’m naive. Murray has things to do, places to be seen spooning with his husband.
The one on the island with the palm tree? I reported it, too. Included a bunch of reference information – was contacted by phone by Seattle City Light and gave more information. Eventually I was given a ticket tracking numbers. A few weeks later it was fixed.
I guess they just picked only one report to work from.
On the broader topic of safety, I believe we need more marked crosswalks on the hill, particularly along 12th and 15th. Most drivers do not otherwise stop for pedestrians, even though it is the law. Last year, I put in a request online with the city to add one at 15th AVE E & E Roy St, where there is a ton of foot traffic during peak commute hours, and only months later got a response that they did not think it was needed, and/or people should not cross there, even though there is a crossing sign posted there, bus stops for route 10 on both sides of that intersection, and a USPS mailbox.
I see people on a daily basis speeding through this area, ignoring the commuters and kids walking to/from school, trying to cross. But the city will not put some paint on the street to make it safer to cross. I also tried the Find it Fix It app two years ago for a broken streetlight on Aloha, which was never addressed.
I realize these are small issues compared with the street crime happening elsewhere on the hill, but they are also more easily addressed. My experience tells me that the city is just not responsive to regular citizens’ requests, only those of business owners. I’m glad the business owners are speaking up about the safety issues.
It’s really frustrating when SDOT claims there is no need to make changes to an obviously dangerous spot. They seem to need a history of accidents before they will even consider taking action. Whatever happened to “accident prevention”?
you are absolutely correct, if there aren’t significant accident reports then sdot will do nothing.
i’ve complained often about needing a crossing light at the south pedestrian crossing of olive and i5; but have been told there isn’t significant accident history to warrant it (yet the north crossing gets one where speeds are slower). even though there’s not a day that goes by that some driver doesn’t come speeding off the freeway and literally runs into the breakdown area of the off-ramp to get around me as i edge into the crosswalk. all sdot would need to do is send someone out to monitor the location for a week and they’d see the need.
this city isn’t into prevention it’s into reactionary measures from the safe confines of a publicly funded desk job.
That’s hilarious! Of course, I wonder how the accident stats are reduced by the number of people — like me — who simply DO NOT WALK THROUGH THAT INTERSECTION ANYMORE because it’s horrifying and deadly?
Everyone should remember the industrial safety pyramid. It’s only in a culture of apathy and negligence that you wait until the fatalities to do anything, when you have plentiful instances of near-misses and at-risk behaviors.
http://www.jmcampbell.com/tip-of-the-month/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/figure-1.png
There is a marked crosswalk near my house and I wrote to the mayor about the same issue. An officer called me and said they could do nothing about it since there are only a couple of traffic cops who deal with the whole city.
I think they could rake in a bundle from tickets given to people who disregards pedestrians in crosswalks.
The best online place to report almost any problem to the city is this: https://seattle-p1csrprodcwi.motorolasolutions.com/ServiceRequest.mvc/SRIntake
This is a one-stop site which accepts reports/complaints to most City agencies, such as SDOT and SPU. One of the choices is the Customer Service Bureau, which has really helpful staff who will investigate further if a complaint is not getting a response.
Oh wow … Capitol Hill gets a whole week of notice? The Central District was given a day to cut time out of the middle of the week to hang out with the mayor so he could look like he cared.