In the latest update to an age-old battle, MyBallard reports that business owners have filed a new appeal to stop the city from paving over the Burke-Gilman Trail’s long controversial “missing link”—a nonlethal dedicated path for bicyclists and walkers—between Ballard and Fremont.
The Phinney Neighborhood Association blog brings us some unexpectedly heartwarming news from Aurora Avenue, where the Aurora Commons, a community-run “neighborhood living room” has just opened. It offers free art and yoga classes, monthly community meals, and counseling and parenting resources for neighborhood families. “You see home-owning families sharing the table with families from nearby motels, a homeless woman chatting it up with someone visiting from out of town, a hopeless veteran mingling with an optimistic college student,” Carlson writes. “You leave your status at the door.”
And in Maple Leaf residents will hold a meeting on March 20 to discuss plans for a neighborhood street mural on the street at the intersection of 12th Avenue Northeast and NE 96th Street, reports Maple Leaf Life. They’ve been inspired by the Wallingford Turtle, but want to address questions and concerns from neighbors before they get their own cute little friend to drive around on.
Aren’t we having enough financial woes? Isn’t the bike trail paving, right now, an expense we can’t afford if we’re cutting salaries and pay everywhere else?
@1 I feel the same way about repairing roads, street lights, etc. Times are tough, people are going to get hurt.
It’s probably time to cut taxes for the rich and businesses again.
@1 actually, bike paths are much cheaper than roads – the difference between a few inches (bike path) and many feet (car path) – plus bikes cause less damage.
@2 Are you going to try to turn this into a car vs bike debate? Because, really…that was a poor job. 3/10.
@2 I stand corrected, WiS got caught in it. 6/10
@3 I didn’t realize this was an issue of WE HAVE TO PAVE SOMETHING, ANYTHING, RIGHT NOW!
What I’d like to see is someone doing something, anything about that fucking walk signal by the Ballard Locks. Not only does the thing not automatically turn to green when the light for cars turns green, pedestrians have to walk across the bicycle thoroughfare to press that fucking walk button.
@6 kind of like a lot of the pedestrian walk signals – they only react to cars that want to cross, making pedestrians wait an extra 90 seconds.
A lot of people just dart across – wonder how much the potential lawsuit for the city for that would cost?
@1- Nice trolling.