Tag Archives: e barbara bailey way

What should Capitol Hill’s new ‘Low Pollution Neighborhood’ streets look like?

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Capitol Hill residents and business owners will have their first chance this month to shape the future of their streets and public spaces as Seattle kicks off community outreach for its $9.2 million Low-Pollution Neighborhoods pilot program.

The Seattle Department of Transportation will host an in-person public workshop on Sunday, September 27, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Cathy Hillenbrand Community Room, located above Capitol Hill Station on 10th Ave E. The event is free and open to all, featuring food, project information, and opportunities to talk directly with city planners.

The meeting comes after Capitol Hill was selected alongside Lake City and South Park/Georgetown for the citywide pilot. Backed by $8 million in local transportation levy funds alongside federal support, the initiative is aimed at cutting car exhaust, cooling heat-island concrete, and making crossing the street safer.

“Pedestrianization and these types of streets are an ingredient to making a whole neighborhood that encourages use of transit, walking, cycling, and other modes,” SDOT climate officer Radcliffe Dacanay told CHS earlier this year. “It isn’t that a pedestrianized street reduces all emissions all at once. It’s part of a broader collective of efforts that are combined to make that impact on reduction.”

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Despite U District cancellation, efforts around car-free space on Capitol Hill rolling forward with Seattle Streets Alliance party

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E Barbara Bailey Way will host the Seattle Street Alliance’s 15-year anniversary party Saturday

A University District block party seen as inspiration for a new wave of efforts to pedestrianize key areas of the city — including a stretch of Capitol Hill — was supposed to shut down The Ave to car traffic this weekend but was denied permits and canceled.

UW’s The Daily reported on the city’s Special Events Committee denial. “Because this event is happening in the heart of a business district with complex and unique business needs, mitigating anticipated event impacts will be critical for this activity in the public right-of-way,” officials wrote.

The Seattle Times reported here on business pushback on the event including a petition effort led by the owners of Shultzy’s and the Sweet Alchemy ice cream shop which also has a location on Capitol Hill inside Chophouse Row. In the Times report, the business owners make it pretty clear they weren’t opposed to the event as much as the broader effort it represented around eventual permanent pedestrianization.

So far, the new efforts around car-free space on Capitol Hill are still rolling forward. Continue reading →

As The Ave prepares to close one block this summer, Capitol Hill organizers set sights on Barbara Bailey Way

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E Barbara Bailey is already closed to traffic every Sunday for the farmers market

By Anna Hull, UW News Lab

As the U District experiments with closing one block of The Ave to cars, Capitol Hill organizers say their neighborhood could be next if the city can balance business concerns, programming costs and climate goals.

It might feel like a blast from the past.

More than a decade ago, organizers closed a stretch of E Pike to vehicles for three Saturday nights in 2015. The Seattle Department of Transportation’s Pilot Report listed four goals in the experiment: traffic management, safety, economic vitality and activating the public space.

While many community members celebrated the pilot and other small tests of the concept in those years, some business owners voiced concerns about vehicle-carried consumers losing access to retail and restaurants. And according to SDOT’s Pilot Report, 2015’s closures only saw a 9% increase in pedestrian activity.

“I thought it was successful, but it felt like it wasn’t ready for prime time,” Brie Gyncild, the co-chair of Central Seattle Streets for All, said. “When you do a pilot like that, and I’m really curious to see what happens with The Ave, because one of the things that I think happens when you open a street to people is that it needs to be something that becomes part of daily life.” Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Farmers Market’s summer season of Tuesday markets begins with a bonus for food workers

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The return of the Tuesday night Capitol Hill Farmers Market this summer will be especially sweet for neighborhood food and drink workers:

To celebrate the seasonal opening of our Tuesday market in Capitol Hill, we will be offering Farm Bucks for local food workers. If you work as a barista, cook, or wait staff, stop on by the manager’s tent for $4 in NFM currency to spend at the markets! You can take advantage of this promotion every first Tuesday of the month through September.

Tuesday night, June 3rd marks the start of the weeknight season for the market joining the year-round Sunday markets. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Turn right on E Barbara Bailey Way

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If you are meeting friends at the southern entrance of Capitol Hill Station near Cal Anderson, you’ll now want to tell your phone to head to E Barbara Bailey Way. The new street name to honor the longtime Broadway business owner is now official after a Tuesday afternoon ceremony attended by Mayor Jenny Durkan and city officials.

Calling Bailey and “LGBTQ+ activist civil rights champion,” Durkan announced the plan to honor the founder of the long gone but not forgotten Bailey/Coy book shop earlier this summer. Bailey passed way last September at the age of 74.

The new street name replaces a stretch of E Denny Way that was updated as a “festival street” appropriate for closure for festivals and events near the light rail station.  The festival street was designed as both a one-way traffic route above the center of the underground Capitol Hill Station facility and through the development, plaza, and the AIDS Memorial Pathway that will open at the site in 2020. Continue reading →