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In the Hall

Walking the Walk

by Erica C. Barnett

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NICK LICATA

Mayor Greg Nickels boasted in his budget address on Monday that the city had "added more sidewalks than any recent administration" under his leadership.

But Council Member Nick Licata, who is up for reelection in 2009, says the city has redirected millions of dollars that should have been spent on improvements for pedestrians and cyclists in places like Southeast Seattle to vanity projects serving Vulcan's office complex in South Lake Union—projects that include more than 30 blocks of new sidewalks, or nearly twice as many blocks as were built in the entire city in 2008.

In contrast, Licata noted at a meeting of the Othello Neighborhood Association in Southeast Seattle last Tuesday, the mayor's much-touted Bridging the Gap transportation levy, passed by Seattle voters in 2006, has built just one block of sidewalk in Southeast Seattle, just south of I-90.

"It's right here," Licata told the sympathetic crowd, gesturing to a map of the city. "I've circled it."

Licata is a longtime opponent of Nickels's $200 million Mercer Street proposal, which would widen the street through South Lake Union and turn it into a two-way boulevard. Recently, several neighborhood groups that used to support "fixing the Mercer mess" have also turned against the mayor's proposal; on October 1, a group of Mercer corridor stakeholders planned to hold an early-morning meeting with city officials and Vulcan representatives—an effort, sources said, to bring prodigal supporters back into the fold.

Although Licata traveled to Othello to excoriate the mayor's $200 million proposal to widen Mercer Street—a project that would, Licata contends, take a disproportionate share of Bridging the Gap money—it's not the only neighborhood getting short shrift. When the mayor sets his priorities, wealthy donors get first crack, followed by everybody else. In contrast, Licata says, he would take a big chunk of the money the mayor is spending in South Lake Union—$20 million of $43 million being raised by a new tax on commercial parking—and "spend it on sidewalks throughout the city."

And speaking of sidewalks: Although Nickels's budget does include $3.5 million, over two years, to build new ones, it also cuts two major pedestrian-safety projects near and dear to the hearts of pedestrian and sidewalk advocates. First, Nickels's proposal slashes funding for pedestrian and cyclist safety on Aurora Avenue north of 110th Street. Second, it eliminates most funding for improvements to Linden Avenue North, where residents have complained for years about nonexistent sidewalks, inadequate bike markings, and a road so marked with potholes it can only be traversed at a few miles an hour.

"Where are the city's priorities?" Licata says.

That's an easy one: They're in Paul Allen's back pocket, along with our mayor.