Fund your ideas for neighborhood improvements

Posted by Geeky Swedes on January 29th, 2009

From now until Feb. 27th, you can submit an application with the city to request funding for small-scale (up to $90K per project) street or parks improvements. Some examples of funded projects in Ballard over the last couple years include traffic circles, sidewalk repair and speed bumps. One of the largest projects is soon to get underway: sidewalk upgrades and repair along Ballard Ave. Construction will begin on Monday, February 9 — resulting in some pedestrian detours and parking restrictions in Old Ballard — and is expected to last 4-5 weeks. More information on the project here.

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Guest

can we get speed bumps around the traffic circles too?

kim

wayne--

you're one of THOSE drivers

kim

i hate the fact that the post a traffic circle when you need to basically have someone killed at an intersection before one will be approved. then you have to jump thro the hoops to get this funding. at least that's been my experience.

clamster

Cool, maybe I can apply to get enough funds to build a giant fan (or wind turbine perhaps) to blow all the stinky fireplace smoke back onto my neighbors property. For some reason it all cascades over to my place and activates my allergies. This would keep my air clean and generate a few power watts at the same time!

Nordic Woman

From a purely historical perspective, here are some of the projects Ballardites embarked on in the past:
Paving the parking lot at the locks.
Completing Shilshole all the way to Golden Gardens. (they had to build up a seawall; previously it ended around Ray's Boathouse.)
Building the changing rooms at Golden Gardens
Building the Park at Sunset Hill
Building the breakwater at Shilshole

I would love to see a park put in on the city property at 65th and 32nd where they took out the substation.

cdc

@3 - I'm with you, but you're thinking too small. What Ballard really needs is a new freeway - at least six lanes, if we can afford it - from one end of Market Street to the other. That'd definitely improve traffic flow in the area.

Joshua

That's a good one Joey! If people obeyed the law we wouldn't have this problem in the first place since they wouldn't be speeding!

BlackSheep

Anything to slow down the cars on my street would be welcome. I have no kids, and indoor-only pets, but I live in fear of having to scrape up somebody else's kid or pet. Slow down, please!

Joey

Wouldn't it be cheaper for the city to install yield signs as opposed to traffic circles?

Traffic circles are annoying and impede emergency service vehicles.

Joshua

Actually my block has more then a dozen young kids on it. A traffic circle would make things a lot safer since right now people fly down our street. Which is crazy because we live one block from 24th, which is a main street specifically made for driving fast on. Why would you drive 40 down a side street when a real road is 100 feet away?

b lite

Hey Wayne,
Are you the guy that speeds down my residential (20mph speed limit) block & then slams on your brakes at the traffic circle? Please take an arterial before you run over a child chasing a ball. Note to all other Ballard drivers; just because a street is wide (former trolley street) does not make it an arterial. The speed limit for residential streets is 20 mph.

The Raven

Oh, hey, maybe I won't have to fly out of the way of so many cars!

BlackSheep

Is this where I apply for my pony?

wayne

Good grief. We don't need any more traffic circles or bike paths or stoplights or stopsigns or crosswalks with stoplights or anything else to further impede vehicle traffic in this city. How "green" can it be to cause cars to take twice as long to get somewhere? Enough already!

Miller

I was going to post something about eating the yuppies, but Rusty's brilliant plan has made me see the light of day. The only way I could perfect his otherwise inspired scheme would be to suggest that we should ride unicorns to work (thereby sticking it to Big Oil) and power our houses with rainbows (thereby sticking it to rainbows).

Rusty

what about removing the fences in some blocks turning them into enclosed social blocks where sharing of hand for Permacultural food production the top priority?

Funded mini-grid development with shared investment on wind turbines here on our coastal cliff?

also maybe take a vote for worst neighbor on the block and turn their backyard into the compost bin?