Four and a Half Million Bucks

The City of Seattle is spending that much money on neighborhood-proposed street improvement projects.

The Central Sector, which looks like it is defined as between the 520 and 90 bridges from the Sound to the Lake, has about 20 projects proposed ranging in cost from a few hundred grand to five million bucks, which would get you a wider road, retaining wall, improved storm/sewer infrastructure from 11th Ave E & Delmar to E Lynn & Boyer.

One of the proposed improvements near where I live is traffic calming near Jackson Place, which would be to install curb bulbs or chicanes at various places on arterials getting onto Ranier Ave S and S. Jackson. I had to look up what chicanes were... they're the S-shaped roads you see up North in a few places such as NE 98th street. There is a study which does show reduced speeds on these streets.

Citizens are asked to vote for the projects they like the best and consider them based on a number of criteria. Two of the criteria are broad public support and whether the proposal is included in a neighborhood plan as measured by SDOT.

I like this overall idea very much, but the voting and decisionmaking does not seem to be data-driven or the biggest bang for the buck. From what I can tell, it seems more like the neighborhoods that are most organized will be most successful at getting capital improvements done.

If anyone has more insight into how the City is going to make a decision, please comment.

[where: 98122]