Organizers planning to move Eva's rocks Saturday morning (June 1st)

Recently we wrote about Eva Sismaet, a resident that lives on NE 130th Street and 27th Avenue NE. Because of a sidewalk that will soon be installed in front of her home, the retiree will have to move the garden that she has spent years perfecting along her property.

Read the full story here.

Eva moves the rocks in her garden.

Eva created the garden to deal with runoff that was draining onto her parking area and to beautify the drainage ditch alongside her property on 130th. She also worked to beautify the area for her, and our enjoyment.

She was told by city officials that anything left in her garden once construction of the sidewalk starts would be swallowed up by heavy equipment.

The outpouring of support and offers to help to move the large amount of river rock that serves as drainage along her property were inspiring. Dozens of neighbors offered to help. So many people offered help that people organizing the effort consulted with Eva and decided they did not want to overwhelm her yard with too many helpers. About 10 of the first people that volunteered were organized to help with the rock relocation.

The volunteers plan to start moving Eva's rocks Saturday morning (June 1st) at 9 a.m.

Neighbors are still encouraged to stop by and say hi, and to help carry a few buckets of rocks if you feel like getting some exercise. Rock movers probably also wouldn't mind some refreshments or snacks as they form a bucket brigade to help move her rocks.

Mrs. Sismaet has also offered her elephant ear plants to neighbors that are willing to give them a good home.

Eva's beloved garden needs to be moved for new sidewalk, neighborhood plans parade of wheelbarrows

Eva moves a rock in her garden on NE 130th Street.

Eva Sismaet is proud of her hard work. And she should be.

Like so many streets in Lake City, the road on both sides of her corner lot lacked basic infrastructure. There is no curb. Runoff from the street on the west side of her property would pool on her blacktop driveway, turning the area into a dangerous ice rink during the winter.

On the north side, along NE 130th Street, the ditch cut into the shoulder of the road would become a mucky, overgrown and litter-filled mess when it rained.

The retiree on a fixed income decided to act and beautify her little slice of our community.

Eva, who has lived in her home with her husband Romeo for 33 years, turned the mucky ditch into a rock-lined garden. She planted elephant ear plants, kept down the overgrowth with tree bark and added colorful plants into the visually appealing mix that lines her property.

Eva

Most days she can be seen out there, with a wide brimmed hat, meticulously keeping her garden manicured for her —and our— enjoyment. (If you ever stop to chat she will engage you in friendly conversation)

Eva gardens to keep her mind from the troubles she has faced in recent years. Her husband, a veteran of the Vietnam War that served in Saigon, battled lung cancer and now suffers from coronary obstructive pulmonary disease. Things got worse when her home was recently burglarized, robbing her of a sense of security that we should all be able to enjoy in our homes, our havens.

Change comes to Eva's garden

The stakes with pink surveyors flags were the first indication of what was going to happen to Eva's garden.

You see, members of our community have been advocating for needed sidewalks for decades. Recently, funding for a new sidewalk on NE 130th, right in front of Eva's home, was secured.

The new sidewalk is part of efforts to have a safe path for students to walk from Olympic Hills Elementary to the Lake City Library. The sidewalk and curb will bring drainage and a safe path to an area that Eva created drainage and beauty in her own makeshift way.

The City of Seattle has told Eva that she needs to remove the years of work she put into her garden before sidewalk construction begins this summer. Once construction starts, anything left behind from her beloved garden would be swallowed up by tractors and dump trucks.

Eva then started to move her massive garden and drainage. Rock by single rock.

Offers of help

Recently a neighbor approached Eva as she was in front of her home lifting rocks. The neighbor suggested she ask the community for help.

At first she was unsure and said she didn't know what community the neighbor was talking about. When approached later by another neighbor, offering the same help, she became emotional.

You see, neighbors are for so much more than politely waving to occasionally or visiting with once a year at a block party —or telling that their dog barks too loudly. (This is where you enter this story)

"I am really fortunate to find out that the community we're living in has people with helping hands. I am proud of you guys," Eva said of the neighbors that have offered help. She also offered her elephant ear plants to anyone that wants to give them a good home.

Parade of wheelbarrows

So here is what WE can do.

Grease up the wheel of your wheelbarrows, get your shovels and work gloves ready. Douglas Park Cooperative is planning a parade of wheelbarrows to move the massive amount of river rock in Eva's street-side garden into her yard.

This is not an easy task as there is quite a bit of large river rock in her garden. But with enough man-woman-kid power we should be able to knock this out in a few hours.

We are still working on a date to accomplish this in the next couple of weeks, before construction of the sidewalk starts. It will likely be a weekend day in the middle of June. So check back here and we will post all the info when we have a date firmed up with Mrs. Sismaet. We will post the info on our Facebook Page, on our email list-serve and here, on our blog.

So who is ready to rock Eva's rocks and move them into her yard?

Mayor McGinn looks to spend part of Spokane Street Viaduct savings in Lake City

Mayor McGinn after a recent bus tour of LC.

The City of Seattle's recently-completed Spokane Street Viaduct, a $163 million project in Sodo, came in under budget. In March Mayor Mike McGinn announced that part of the $11.75 million saved would be invested in other Seattle transportation, infrastructure and pedestrian-related projects.

McGinn, who in recent weeks participated in a bus tour of Lake City, has announced that he hopes to invest $1 million of that money in Lake City.

"This funding will allow the City to begin design work on pedestrian projects currently being identified through the Lake City Way Traffic Safety Corridor Project and other community processes, and additional pedestrian mobility improvements along the length of the corridor and intersecting streets," McGinn said to community members in a recent email.

The $1 million would be written into McGinn's proposed 1st Quarter Supplemental Budget. The City Council will likely be considering this proposed supplemental budget in May.

Meeting Tuesday night about proposed sidewalk on NE 130th Street

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Seattle's Department of Transportation will be presenting plans for a new sidewalk in our neighborhood at a meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday, December 4th) at 6:30 PM in the Olympic Hills Elementary School lunch room. The meeting is open to the public.

The new sidewalk segments are proposed for the south side of NE 130th Street from 25th Avenue NE to 28th Avenue NE. The plan is for the sidewalks to include curbs, planter strips, street trees, and public art.

The development plans will be available for residents' comments and we can also provide SDOT with additional feedback regarding the safety of school routes.

There will be snacks at the meeting and it is expected to be approximately 1 hour long.

The sidewalk is expected to be completed next summer.

Road alert: New stop sign by Fred Meyer

Monday night a car was seen running a stop sign in front of Fred Meyer on NE 130th Street. The driver seemed to notice the red stop sign at the last minute and briefly hit the brakes in the middle of the intersection and swiveled his head around before letting off the brake pedal and continuing in an eastbound direction of travel.

Fortunately no one else was in the intersection at the time.

Usually we wouldn't write about a driver running a stop sign, but the sign on NE 130th at the intersection with 33rd Avenue NE in front of Fred Meyer is new and easily catches drivers off guard. The signs are also in an intersection busy with cars and pedestrians.

So next time you are running to the store for milk or bananas please pay attention to the new signs and avoid an accident.

Cow, headstone on traffic circle in our neighborhood

Traffic circles in our neighborhood are not particularly interesting to look at. A few have obviously been cared for by nearby neighbors but many could use a bit of landscaping —or they are just capped with asphalt.

It also appears that many people in Seattle neighborhoods do not know how to use our traffic circles, used at many intersections in place of stop signs as a speed calming device.

Well apparently someone has given some personality to one of the circles in our neighborhood.

A one foot-tall cow and a silly headstone have mysteriously popped up on the circle at NE 130th Street and 23rd Ave NE.

The odd objects are fun to look at while slowing as you approach the circle and can offer a smile during a drive home or to Fred Meyer for milk. Kids walking to Olympic Hills probably also notice the oddities as they cross the intersection in the marked crosswalk.

Could they be the beginning of a new guriella art installation in our neighborhood?

See photos below.

By the way, the proper way to use a traffic circle is to travel to the right, counterclockwise, even when making a left turn. Please try to use them properly.

A foot-tall dairy cow has popped up in a traffic circle.

A headstone on a traffic circle.

Neighborhood Greenways effort taking shape in Lake City

Residents wrote popular routes and difficult areas for pedestrians and bicycles on a map of Lake City.

The Lake City Greenways project recently had its kickoff at local coffee shop and bakery Kaffeklatsch. About 20 neighbors gathered for a presentation and to brainstorm about how the innovative pedestrian and bicycle program could be applied to the Lake City neighborhood.

Residents listen to the presentation.

Greenways are essentially residential streets, generally running near main arterials, with low volumes of auto traffic and low speeds, where people who walk and ride bicycles are given priority over auto traffic. Streets are reconfigured with speed calming devices and pavement markings.

Greenways are a more affordable option to sidewalks, an important part of infrastructure lacking in Lake City and much of North Seattle.

According to the program, sidewalks cost from $1 million to $3 million per mile to build; Greenways typically cost $100,000 to $300,000 per mile.

More from the Seattle Greenways project:

• Greenways provide safer bicycling and pedestrian connections.  Pavement markings alert people driving to expect people walking and bicycling. Improved crossings and curb ramps make walking easier and safer.
• Greenways help people across busier streets. Improved crossings at main streets help people walking and bicycling get across streets.
• Greenways guide people along the route to get them where they are going.  Markings on the pavement and signage let you know where your Greenway goes and what’s nearby, such as parks, schools, and business districts.
• Greenways reduce auto cut-through. Speed bumps and traffic diverters can keep cars trying to avoid main streets from speeding through on neighborhood streets.
• Greenways reduce auto speeds. Speed bumps and other road treatments can help to slow automobile traffic on greenways.
• Greenways provide more "eyes on the street." More people out on the street walking and riding their bicycles makes for a safer and friendlier community.
• Where is the "green" in "Greenways?" Biking and walking can be a form of transportation that is relaxing, pleasant, and inclusive. Greenways provide easy access to open space and have many park-like functions that can be very climate-friendly. New trees, public art, rain gardens, and gardens are an integral part of evolving our streets to be pleasant places to bike and walk.

During the Lake City meeting residents mapped their walking routes, flagged difficult intersections, brainstormed possibilities, and shared information.

A street mural in Seattle

As a kickoff to the program in Lake City, planners hope to create a neighborhood street mural, a tool some Seattle neighborhoods have successfully used to calm neighborhood traffic and make drivers aware that they are driving through an active community.

Lake City Greenways organizer Janine Blaeloch said the best sign of success during the kickoff "was a lot of sentences starting with 'What if...?'"

Below is a video shown during the presentation about Portland's successful Neighborhood Greenways program.

You can learn more about Neighborhood Greenways in this publication:

Open publication - Free publishing - More bicycle

New sidewalk coming to NE 130th Street

A grant has been awarded by the Washington State Department of Transportation to continue a sidewalk from Olympic Hills Elementary to the Lake City Library and Community Center.

The sidewalk is being built as part of the 'Safe Routes to School' program. Many community members have been asking for a continuous route between the school and library for decades.

The $440,000 project is still in the design stage and will be unveiled to the community in the fall. But it tentatively includes a curb, sidewalk and street trees. It will be on the south side from 25th Ave NE to 28th Ave NE.

The grant also provides funding for surveys of parents and students at the school, pedestrian safety classes and education, a basics of bicycling class and a Bike Rodeo.

You can see the grant application after the jump:

Notes from DPC April 9th meeting

Below is a PDF  with notes from the April 9th meeting with Sally Bagshaw regarding Parks & Recreation in Lake City.

A few things to note:

- The major recent Parks expenditures in our area are:

1)  ~$800k for the purchase of the Varsity Building on 33rd, which will be torn down to make a park / open space. The land area is 10,000 sf. This was funded through the Parks and Greenspace Levy.
2) $500k is earmarked for improvements to the Cedar Park Playfield using funds from the Parks and Greenspace Levy. 

- It was emphasized that if we want a community center or any other major acquisition / development that we need to be able to clearly say what we want and say it with a unified community voice. This applies to sidewalks and greenways as well.

- To get programmed events up here at our current center, the best way to match the programming to what the community wants is to set up a Lake City Community Center Advisory Council with ARC and work with them. They can also act as a fiscal sponsor and accept donations for projects that we are working on getting matching funds for.

- The "Greenways" concept is very interesting and CM Sally Bagshaw  is very supportive of this. There are online tool kits for communities to use in developing a Greenway and funding is available from many sources.