Tag Archives: superblock

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 →

$$$ for a Capitol Hill Superblock? 2024 city budget includes cash for ‘public space activation concepts’

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The mother of the Capitol Hill Superblock is hoping she has left a lasting final gift to the neighborhood’s pedestrianization dreams.

Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says a portion of $600,000 carved out of the city’s 2024 budget with revenue from the JumpStart tax on its largest employers will go to creating “public space activation concepts” including a $300,000 pedestrian and bike friendly effort on Capitol Hill.

“I’m very excited about the $600,000 in Jumpstart economic revitalization funding included in the 2024 budget for public space activation in Capitol Hill, Mt. Baker, and Rainier Valley,” Mosqueda told CHS in a statement on the earmark. “This funding will build on the years of community organizing and advocacy in Capitol Hill and beyond—led by organizations such as the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict—for healthy, activated, pedestrian-oriented public spaces, to begin to actually implement public space activation concepts inspired by leading cities like Copenhagen.”

Mosqueda, who will be leaving Seattle City Hall in the new year to take the seat she won in the November election on the King County Council, has been supporting the efforts around a so-called Capitol Hill Superblock for years and sponsored the budget amendment this fall “to build momentum and lead to tangible improvements in these neighborhoods.”

“This is exactly the type of investment we envisioned for the JumpStart economic revitalization dollars to create healthy, safe, vibrant spaces in our neighborhoods that support small businesses, and provide places for the community to enjoy,” Mosqueda said. Continue reading →

Officials backpedal on Capitol Hill Superblock plan — UPDATE

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Mayor Bruce Harrell was at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market Sunday as part of a tour of the neighborhood (Image: CHS)

City officials and the Capitol Hill community advocacy group behind the initiative are backing off a report that any plans for a so-called Capitol Hill Superblock pedestrianization plan for Pike/Pine are moving forward.

Mayor Bruce Harrell was dispatched to the neighborhood Sunday for meetings with local businesses to hear from some of the bars, restaurants, and stores that would be impacted by the plans. Harrell’s office said the visit was part of the mayor’s new “One Seattle Community Connections” efforts with stops in more neighborhoods to come.

Erin Fried, deputy director of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict advocacy group that organized a late October tour with new Seattle Department of Transportation director Greg Spotts to discuss the Superblock concept which would transform the core streets of the Pike/Pine nightlife and retail district around venues like Neumos and stores like Elliott Bay Book Company into a car-free, parking-free walking zone, says a report from development and safe streets advocacy and media outlet The Urbanist detailing plans for the Superblock has set off conversations — but little else, at this point.

Fried said talks about pedestrianization in the Pike/Pine core are “a need being surfaced over and over again” but said her organization and backer affordable housing developer Community Roots Housing “need to connect with small businesses” to make the initiative happen. The EcoDistrict “doesn’t use the term superblock,” Fried said. Continue reading →

Garfield Super Block selected in catch-up round of Neighborhood Street Fund grants

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(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. Continue reading →

How $150K ‘Public Life Study’ could be start of creating a Capitol Hill pedestrian and bike-only superblock

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It took two decades of community planning to guide the affordable housing and community space-rich “transit oriented development” set to open above Capitol Hill Station in 2020. Proponents hope a new community-driven plan will play out faster to grow the neighborhood’s Capitol Hill EcoDistrict and — ultimately — create a pedestrian-and cyclist-first “superblock” in the middle of the neighborhood.

The start of this new “Public Life” plan began this summer in Copenhagen and will, officials hope, take a small, $150,000 step forward this fall as the Seattle City Council puts its touches on the city’s next fiscal budget. The discussion will begin Friday in council chambers.

“It’s about focusing on the EcoDistrict to make it more pedestrian friendly and a model for sustainability,” citywide representative Lorena González tells CHS about her proposal to add funding for a “Public Life Study” of Capitol Hill and the longterm hopes for the plan to shape the neighborhood: Continue reading →