Due to financial shortages, the City of Seattle has had to cut costs in many departments, including the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT.) So far, the projected cuts do not directly affect the Fremont neighborhood, but we can expect the shortage of services to be felt at the Center of the Universe soon too.
One program still being funded and expanded is Stay Healthy Streets. Again, none of these street closures, that significantly limit vehicles access to local only, are currently in Fremont, but there is an effort to convert the residential parts of 6th Ave NW. Please give your input, and information about your use of these streets for bicycles, pedestrians and other non-vehicular, outdoor access, on a Survey Monkey questionnaire (click here.) Plans are progressing to convert these temporary restrictions into permanent, so it would be a good time to voice your opinion on them.
Fortunately, the bus bulb project at Phinney Ave N & N 36th had advanced enough that SDOT will complete it – landscaping will be done next week. A vital project – repairs to the seawall along N Northlake Way – is expected to proceed.
However, SDOT has put ‘pause’ to many other projects. Information is very clear that these projects are not cancelled, just paused. One is the NW Market Paving project, and another are the bike spot improvements as part of the N 40th St (Greenlake/Wallingford) Paving Project. All proposed bike rack installations for 2020 are paused, as are some street cleaning and tree & landscape maintenance. A program already cancelled for 2020 was the Your Voice, Your Choice process for street and neighborhood improvements.
The Department of Neighborhoods has also reduced its Neighborhood Grant funding for 2020, postponed a new Healthy Food Fund grant program, and shelved plans for capital investments in existing P-Patch community gardens.
In addition to these cuts, Seattle Mayor Durkan has proposed cutting $20 million from the Seattle Police Department budget, and asked all other departments to evaluate changes that they can make to further address the budget gap. She has also proposed expenditures to address economic downturns disproportionally impacting people of color, such as rental assistance, a grocery voucher program, and expansion of hygiene services to those experiencing homelessness. Read more about these proposals on the Durkan.Seattle.gov webpage (click here.)