Three park and street improvements are coming to Ballard, thanks to a city program that allows residents to vote on projects to enhance the community. It’s called the Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks & Streets program, in which 51 projects around the city were chosen based on votes from residents. According to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, 7,200 people voted in this year’s program.
The 51 projects came from a pool of more than 1,000 ideas submitted in February from residents around the city. Five-hundred city volunteers evaluated each submission, and city departments then worked to provide cost estimates for the proposals. The official vote started in June, allowing residents ages 11 and above to choose which projects should be funded.
The city’s budget for the 51 projects is $3 million, with a maximum of $285,000 allocated for each City Council District.
The projects chosen for Ballard include the following:
- Crossing Improvements at 15th Ave NW and NW Market St (Cost: $35,000, Total Votes: 377)
SDOT will install two new poles and eight accessible pedestrian signal (APS) push buttons for the intersection with audio for the visually impaired. According to the project submission, it’s currently unsafe for visually impaired to cross the intersection to get to nearby bus stops.
- Improvements on 8th and Leary (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 379)
The project includes the installation of a green box and green bike lane across the intersection of 8th and Leary. According to the submission, the project was suggested because, “the southbound bike lane gets cut off by the Metro bus and other large vehicles taking wide turns.” The improvement will also help bikers headed south on 8th Ave NW to safely cross Leary to get to the Burke Gilman Trail.
- Improvements at Salmon Bay Park (Cost: $12,550, Total Votes: 307)
The city will replace existing benches and tables and install more along flat grass at West entrance to playground.
For a full map of the submitted projects and ideas, click here.
Photo courtesy Seattle.gov
Painting green boxes on the pavement costs $90,000?! And it only took 379 people to vote on spending the money out of 16,713 Ballard taxpayers. Where do you vote to object?
As a biker, I’m quite excited about these improvements. We voted, you lost.
@ Burt: when is it you and the tiny % of cyclists actually pay YOUR fair share and pony up with registration and a license plate? As in “pay for play”? Or are you just too cute and special? Arrogant and smug R U. And speaking of voting here; my vote never counts here any longer, being a conservative. Your hero Obama did say “elections have consequences, and I won”. Yup, and so did Trump.
@Scott: When will single occupancy commuters pay for their fair share? Currently, SOVs are very heavily subsidized.
Also, wake me up when the percent of SDOT budget going towards cycling facilities equals the percentage of people that bike.
Sorry bub!
Scott, I agree with your frustration over the city spending $90K for painting some lines! But i think you are just plain wrong about the “pay for play” for cyclists. If we actually paid the full cost of driving our cars, including the costs for the pollution caused, it would be a LOT more than we are paying now. Moving people out of cars and onto other modes of transportation, including bikes, actually makes things better for everyone. Less traffic for you to deal with when you are in your car, for one thing. And can we leave Trump and Obama out of this?
I agree that this will be a good improvement for cyclists at that intersection. But I do have to agree with josh – why does it cost 90,000 to paint some lines on the road? That makes no sense.
How about finishing the 14th Ave park, first?
SDOT’s engineering solution is to paint boxes on streets for $90,000 instead of actually FIXING the streets. It’s unfortunate that SDOT is owned by the Cascade Spandex Club. Our crumbling infrastructure is a result of all of this wasteful bicycle spending. What a joke. We need some real traffic engineers at SDOT, rather than a bunch of bike activists that do not have kids (no…dogs do not count) or own cars. I assume the next SDOT director will be worse than Scott Kubley, so more bike lanes for the 3% of the population!
I own a car and a bike and have a kid and a dog. Is that so hard to imagine?
Do you take your dog to doggy massage and doggy day care? How do you like the condition of Market Street? Do you pay taxes to register your bike? Didn’t think so.
City streets are paid for by property taxes, not gas taxes or license plate taxes.
The More You Know
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The streets are in poor condition because cars and trucks tear them up. People not driving cars and trucks subsidize those that do.
the project at 8th and Leary is a pretty significant re-striping, redesign and includes a new overhead sign. All these items likely contribute to the total cost.
*ding* *ding* *ding* We’ve found the correct answer!
That doesn’t fully explain the cost. A private entity would never pay $90,000 for that amount of work.
That is one of the worst arguments I’ve ever heard. This is not a case where you can compare what a private entity vs public entity would pay for something.
A private entity wouldn’t pay anything for this work or pretty much 99% of any other transportation infrastructure work (or any public infrastructure work for that matter), because there is no profit to be made. That is why we rely on the government and our taxes to pay for and construct this stuff.
It’s also clear you don’t understand the construction costs of items. The crosswalk striping needs replacing, which by itself probably costs $10,000. They’ll need to grind out the existing road paint before applying new paint. A lot of the existing striping to remain badly needs touch up. And anything in traffic? Add minimum 25% to the cost. Labor isn’t cheap.
Personally, I would like to see the neighborhood rally behind a crosswalk at 11th and Market to better connect the West Woodland neighborhood to Gilman Park. Maybe next year…
Seattle voters are idiots for the most part. Do they really believe the elected officials know how to allocate money properly? That’s why I vote no on all tax increases.
These people waste so much money on so many stupid projects. I’ve never seen such wasteful government. Cost overruns on everything.
Yeah, making our community more accessible and livable!? These kids and their bikes and their walking! Am I right? What a bunch of malarkey!
I thought Ballard want to fence up commons park for remodel for a dog park ? You know Dogs need more care and assessable safe space then you and your kids…..ha ha
IMO, anything they do to improve traffic patterns for cars, bikes, and pedestrians will be an improvement on 8th NW and Leary. This area, all down 8th NW to Market and down Leary has hardly kept up with the increased traffic (often speeding) and the need for more crosswalks. I’m all for it.
If bicycle infrastructure was better and safer, more people would use their bikes as transportation. Regardless, our often ignored little neighborhood bears a lot of brunt but doesn’t get many perks. I’m grateful.
What about fixing the playground at Loyal Hights!