Seattle’s new transportation plan makes a big deal about making the city’s sidewalks better and adding new ones to the remaining areas without. Cal Anderson Park is out in front on things.

Capitol Hill’s central park is starting spring with its buckled eastern edge lined by a smooth new sidewalk and new solutions to help save the space’s Red Sunset Maples. Meanwhile, city officials are meeting with area business representatives and organizations with hopes to address larger questions around public safety on the park’s west side.

On the east, the Seattle Department of Transportation’s three-block project combined a variety of strategies including moving some areas of sidewalk, installing metal sidewalks that can leave more space for roots, and planting more trees along the park in an effort to replace cracked and buckled sections of sidewalk while preserving the park’s canopy.

Work began on the north end of the park and proceeded south one block at a time over the winter. In some portions, the sidewalk was adjusted to wind around the trees up to two feet west of the current sidewalk and away from the curb. “The sidewalk will end up zigging and zagging to give trees more room,” an SDOT spokesperson told CHS about the work.

In other portions where there is no room to zig or zag along Bobby Morris field, SDOT crews is installing metal plates instead of new concrete sidewalks. SDOT says the metal plates allow for a “non-skid” walking surface under 1 1/2 inches thick. The slim profile reduces impacts on roots, letting the trees stay where they are while ensuring the sidewalk is accessible — and apparently not too slippery.

SDOT says it will also plant three new trees to fill in gaps and “create a more consistent tree-lined edge on the east side of Cal Anderson.”

The 11th Ave sidewalk project comes amid ongoing questions around other elements of the park and promised community and safety investments in the wake of CHOP. Cal Anderson has also been a center in the city’s homelessness crisis.

Big questions also remain about addressing public safety issues on the west side of the park along Nagle.

City officials are looking at the area and meeting with nearby business representatives this week to address complaints about drugs, vandalism, and graffiti as well as poor lighting. The “closed and inaccessible bathrooms in Cal Anderson park” are also a problem.

Seattle Parks, meanwhile, has continued other work to improve the park including a near annual effort to repair the park’s water features and fountain and a small project improving the Cal Anderson playground last year.

But the department has made little progress in reclaiming the area cleared by the removal of the Black Lives Memorial Garden late last year. Seattle Parks said the garden needed to be removed for a planned “turf restoration” project in the park’s grass bowl area that officials said is needed “to host gatherings and large events” as part of its “intentional design as a natural amphitheater and proximity to electrical and water hook-ups.” The area remains fenced-off from the public.

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