(Image: Garfield Super Block)

Backers of an effort to improve the public space around Garfield High School and the Garfield Community Center are celebrating another funding win for the Central District project.

A Seattle transportation levy oversight committee has chosen the Garfield Super Block program for a $475,000 grant in the latest round of the Neighborhood Street Fund. Unlike past years, this year’s process focused on clearing a backlog of NSF nominations. The project was one of nine selected by the committee on the basis of community support, equity, safety, and cost, and the only one in the bunch located within Kshama Sawant’s District 3.

The funding joins past financial infusions into the effort including $188,000 to help support planning in last year’s city budget. Estimates of the full cost of planning and construction for the Garfield Super Block project range around $6 to $7 million.

CHS reported here on the Garfield Super Block effort that would fulfil a promise to improve the sidewalk and streets made back when the public high school was undergoing a major renovation that opened in 2008 and cost the district over $100 million.

A center of these improvements will be the Legacy and Promise Promenade. This pathway would fulfill the long-envisioned goal of connecting Horace Mann School, now home to Nova High School, just on the other side of E Cherry, with the Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center in the core of the campus. Along the promenade would be artwork that represents and honors eight cultural groups whose history is integral to the Central District: the Duwamish people, and the Jewish, Black, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Italian communities.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, there is revived energy — but not any new cash, yet — for a different kind of superblock. CHS reported here in 2019 on hopes for a six-block area on Capitol Hill dedicated to pedestrians and bicycling. Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda has continued to back the plan also supported by Capitol Hill EcoDistrict head Donna Moodie. New Seattle Department of Transportation director Greg Spotts visited the Hill last month for a tour with Mosqueda and community members to discuss the ideas behind the possible Pike/Pine “Superilles.” So far, the effort has remained mostly ideas with a small $150,000 study in fall of 2019 getting the ball rolling on deeper planning.

The community is #Hungry for #Change and a #SuperBlock! Thanks to @Spottnik for your interest and optimism about what could happen! pic.twitter.com/jHrDlPQhKE

— Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (@CMTMosqueda) October 24, 2022