A new vision for walkable, bikeable Aurora Avenue North (Seattle: apartment, condos)

[homesinseattle]

Interesting! Article link here: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/...transportation

“Local leaders want to transform Aurora Avenue North from a roaring freeway into a walkable, European-style boulevard. Why it matters: Historically, much of Aurora has been known for cheap motels and prostitution, but the urban highway is well served by transit, has easy access to downtown, and borders several vibrant residential neighborhoods, causing city and state officials to view it as ripe for redevelopment.

What's happening: State officials are spending $50 million to turn a 15-block stretch of Aurora into the Champs-Élysées — or at least, that's the goal, said former state Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle). The money, contained in last year's transportation budget, is directed toward projects that would slow the speed of traffic along Aurora from 90th to 105th streets, while also making the area more walkable and bikeable.

That could mean integrating improvements such as protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, street trees, and traffic-calming measures like speed humps. What they're saying: The idea is to demonstrate what is possible, said Carlyle, who helped secure the money in last year's budget. While he said comparing Aurora Avenue to the Champs-Élysées in Paris may seem "annoying and rhetorical," he thinks it's a future that's within reach.

"Right now, Aurora is a scar that people don't want to cross," Carlyle said. "It doesn't have to be that way." He argued that if you can morph Aurora into a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare, you'll prove it can be done anywhere. Curbing pedestrian injuries and fatalities is a priority for people who live in the area, said Tom Lang of the Aurora Reimagined Coalition.”

[Ruth4Truth]

Not to be a party pooper, but who's to decide which is more important: having a pedestrian and bike-friendly zone with wider sidewalks (=narrower streets, note), or a very effective arterial providing a functional alternative to clogged freeways for cars and transit? I suppose, if this is mainly a crime-deterring strategy, the loss of traffic mobility is justified, but I think some people won't be happy about eliminating lanes and lowering speed limits significantly, to accommodate pedestrians and bikes.

I was impressed a few months ago, as to how well Metro whisks people from the northern suburbs to downtown via Aurora. It's faster even, than driving on the freeway. The trip will take longer after the proposed changes, due to lower speed limits.

I also was impressed with Aurora as it goes through Lynnwood. I know it has a bad reputation, but I didn't see anything that would confirm that. It already is a shopping district out there, with grocery stores and other shopping, and a few coffee shops on or near it. I walked part of it on several occasions. IDK, maybe it's different at night.

[rjshae]

My impression is that it could benefit from more greenery. Right now it's very drab and utilitarian.

[pnwguy2]

I see both sides of this. My guess it will eventually end up a compromise. From the Aurora Bridge to the Tunnels the road likely will stay close to what it is today.

[primaltech]

A road going through a city can and should be friendly for all modes. Lots can be done to make it more inviting for pedestrians, without taking much away from the driving experience.

The Champs-Élysées has, like, 8 lanes of traffic, but it also has super wide pedestrian plaza sidewalks along the sides of it, with a row of nice trees separating the two areas.

[Arcos]

I’m guessing there will definitely be a loss of speed (since that’s the intent of the refurb) so car commutes will get longer, but that is part of the intent, since it will divert more people to the Metro, which I assume will continue to have bus lanes and hopefully make good time.

I do value Aurora for the connectivity but I also like the restaurants. They are often much less expensive than the nicer ones in surrounding neighborhoods, so gentrification will increase prices in the medium term. Hopefully, short term construction will not force too many out of business.

What I would like to see in areas where Aurora needs an uplift is a buildout of 4 story apartment buildings with businesses at the ground floor, and wide sidewalks. Less expensive housing for medium income folks. That already seems to be the norm further south. However, it needs to happen strategically if it is going to be viable to walk between businesses and not have to drive from point to point.

[rjshae]

Originally Posted by primaltech

A road going through a city can and should be friendly for all modes. Lots can be done to make it more inviting for pedestrians, without taking much away from the driving experience.

The Champs-Élysées has, like, 8 lanes of traffic, but it also has super wide pedestrian plaza sidewalks along the sides of it, with a row of nice trees separating the two areas.

Wide roads are also useful for quelling domestic disturbances, per Napoleon III.

[margaretBartle]

When the Liction Springs Urban Village was created in the '90s, we were promised a walkable Aurora Ave, with tree-lined streets filled with coffee houses and a nice retail core.
Instead, we get several hundred-units in mid-rise developments for homeless people and drug addicts. We get a tiny-house village, a sketchy bar for the kind of people who I see walking up and down the street, looking into yards, garbage cans, around cars.
We got two mid-rise U-Store-it facilities.

The few retail shops we had - a Starbucks and a supermarket, are greatly diminished. Actually, the Starbucks closed down, replaced by a more expensive coffee house, and the shelves on the HT Market are half-empty That used to be a robust grocery store.


We were lied to.
We are still being lied to.

The city's Urban Village designation was a dirty trick played on people who thought they were buying into a quiet neighborhood. We watched as every house was taken down, the trees and landscaping removed, and replaced by lot-line to lot-line devlopment. The end of song birds, the end of a leafy neighborhood. I can't host my family any more for holidays because there's no place for my guests to park, since the new rules for urban villages doesn't require parking.

There is more housing being planned for skid-row type populations on Aurora Ave itself.
The bums that used to hang out in downtown Seattle had to go somewhere when the million-dollar condos went in, so they moved them to Aurora Ave No. You notice in the article Axios printed that there was no mention of removing the prostitutes from Aurora.
We've got a "neighborhood association" that is run by a development company. I guess I should say the ringleaders of the neighborhood group are employees of a large international development company. They argue against the neighbors trying to get rid of prostitutes because there is no where else the prostitutes can go and be safe.
So we get pervs driving up and down the streets. Maybe that's part of the rationale for putting in speed bumps and slowing traffic?


There is a reason why the landscaping ends at 85th street, and picks up again at 130th.
The area they are taling about has been designated (in private discourse) as Seattle's new Skid Row, and this proposal is the next step in realizing that agenda.


I attended a community meeting where the head of Washington Dept of Corrections addressed the attending neighbors. He said the reason the state was sending so many sex offenders to our neightborhood was because the motel owners there knew how to handle this population, and the state likes having the released offenders in one place, where the State can keep an eye on them.

(I just saw an article about how the state is now handling released offenders, so that policy may have changed, but I don't want to get off-topic.)

This is just part of Seattle's War on Cars. I don't know what these planners have in mind now, but you can bet it won't make the neighborhood any better for walking or for the citizens who live here.

All it will do is drive more traffic into the residential streets.

Don't fall for it.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by margaretBartle

All it will do is drive more traffic into the residential streets.

Don't fall for it.

Superb post, thanks for giving us the background info/history! (And actuality)

The thing about driving more traffic onto the residential streets is, that many residential streets have had roundabouts put in over the last 20-30 decades, precisely to prevent people speeding through streets kids play on and seniors cross on their daily walks, from causing accidents. Many residential streets are no longer available as "short cuts" between one arterial and another (think: Lake City Way east of Victory Heights and Pinehurst, and 15th Ave NE going through west Pinehurst/Vic Heights: people would speed on NE 115th to get from Lake City Way to 15th NE and N'gate Way).

That's very concerning what's happening in your neighborhood. I remember awhile ago when I rode the bus along Aurora, noticing neighborhoods off the west side of it, that looked like they were once beautiful, leafy, and thriving neighborhoods full of old Craftsman houses, some of them of an elegant size and design. They looked sad and bedraggled as I passed, and I wondered what they were really like now, and what they were like before. Now I have some of the story.

But there are a number of neighborhoods like that around Seattle; blocks and blocks of run-down Craftsman houses that flippers could probably refurbish and sell for a good profit, but no one's bothered (not that flipping is a good thing, IMO), and current and past residents apparently can't afford even a paint job, let alone some repair or refurbishing. There are areas like that in Wallingford, closer to the freeway. It's sad.

[Hemlock140]

I really don't anticipate the interest in "walkability" in that area. Should that get done, it's likely to remain pretty empty except for maybe the current "walkers".

Roundabouts and even speed bumps do not defer traffic as they were designed to. In fact, it can make it worse for the residents, as people take advantage of the opportunity to zoom around or get a little air. We have a road we call "speed bump hill" that I used some times just for fun, and when the main road was under construction it became the detour. Since then it has more traffic than the main road, people discovered it and now a quiet little residential road is a major arterial despite being steep with deer crossings, and 5 speed bumps. No one goes 15MPH.