Top Urbanist Action: Tell PSRC How to Spend Millions on Bikes and Pedestrians

Help influence $17.5 million in transportation spending: The Puget Sound Regional Council is planning to dole out $17.5 million for pedestrian and bike grants. The comment period for these projects ends on Thursday, January 25th. There are a lot of great projects being considered. Some examples include non-motorized improvements to the future RapidRide H Line and safety improvements for bikes and pedestrians on Bell Street.

Only seven days left to voice support for affordable housing at Fort Lawton: There’s been a lot of coverage over this development. Since all you awesome urbanists swarmed the public meeting, the Magnolia community council has voted to approve the project. If you haven’t gotten your comment in, make sure you do so.

Apply to review a zoning modification for an elementary school: If you’re an urbanist close to Daniel Bagley Elementary School, you could be a critical voice. The school is asking for a zoning modification that would allow renovations. The modification would increase heights and reduce parking requirements for the school, allowing it to expand capacity and avoid wasted money on unneeded parking. Now, if only our city’s laws and politics allowed all schools to also use their land to also build dense housing or other critical facilities.

Get your comment in on bus hubs: These are pretty exciting projects that will improve our streetscapes while also providing better amenities for bus drivers. The long-term implications could be even bigger, which further investments in the future. We’ve covered some of the details about what bus hubs are and the land use code and design process.

Attend SDOT’s public forum on N 34th St: The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will be sharing data and preliminary designs for modifications to N 34th St at Stone Way. This follows previous design and changes within the vicinity that we’ve covered before. If you can’t make the meeting, drop your comments to SDOT using their online survey.

If you’re young, live in Beacon Hill, and care about urbanism, join a board: The city is seeking members to join a board that will review mobility in North Beacon Hill. This sort of effort typically reviews how people access major nodes, like the light rail station. The city is specifically seeking young members who are not English speakers in order to get a full range of perspectives.

Attend a workshop on the Equitable Development Fund: The city is still seeking project applications for this fund. We covered the fund last week and strongly encourage participation. If you want to learn more about it, you can join the workshop at Yesler Community Center on Monday, January 22nd or the South Park Neighborhood Center on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Attend Building Black Wall Street: Africatown-Central District is hosting an event to discuss economic development. It will be an opportunity to learn about how to encourage effective economic development and get involved with Africatown Community Economic Development Organization.