If only the north end of Seattle had a bike- and pedestrian-friendly mayor who lived in their neighborhood...

SCREW Tom Rasmussen. He's already campaigning in his district, is what he's doing. And he's screwing over Northgate in the process. That bridge is critical to the full functioning of the Northgate transit center and the neighborhood. That's why it's had priority. They've tried to kill it a hundred different ways before, but it was finally a done deal -- until Rasmussen stuck his dick in where it's not wanted. Fuck Tom Rasmussen.

And fuck West Seattle. This is what you wanted, district proponents: sections of the city in open war with each other for every goddamn penny. No more city-wide planning. Just grab-grab-grab, me-me-me.

It's interesting that this is focusing on the two of the three most neglected and overlooked by officials parts of Seattle: West Seattle, north Seattle, and the other being Southeast Seattle.

How much money has been dumped by the City into other parts of the city to the detriment of those areas? Look at the schools in the southeast. Look at the complete lack of sidewalks across wide swathes of the north. The City of Seattle makes pregnant women and little children walk in the street up there. West Seattle has almost comically bad transportation currently compared to the rest of the city.

@2, thank you. Though "involuntarily conjure an image of Tom Rasmussen's dick" was NOT on my Friday to-do list.

Why not ask the North Seattle resident who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars shoving a fourth initiative on districts down our throats to pick up the tab?

Obviously, it's too much for the Stranger to concede after the fact that districts might actually be a really, really stupid idea.

BTW, the Sound Transit Northgate station is not scheduled to open until 2021. Why the hell is their drop dead date 2015? A lot can happen in six years. That's how long it took to fight World War II. What a load of crap.

It would be better for transit (which loops down to 90th and back to reach the college from the mall) if thus was a bus/ped/bike tunnel. It also seems easier engineering, the freeway is on an elevated berm, meaning the bridge has to be twice as high.

But the bridge should be a done deal since it has the momentum without being a pawn.

I was amused to see this interview with Faye Garneau which assumes that council districts will help neighborhoods prevent the construction of aPodments.
http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/2013/1…

The Stranger's pie-in-the-sky endorsement of the district plan is looking sillier and sillier.

@2 Thank you Fnarf. I tried to tell them. You've done it better, but now it's too late.

What @1 and @2 said.

Districts suck for many people. Tried to tell you that, but you'd all never lived in a district-based city, so you had no idea what it's like.

Who will do well? Neighborhoods that play to win at all costs.

Who will lose? Places that are easily distracted ... like, say, District 3.

Sound Transit's money goes away in 2015. It's not a construction timing issue, necessarily, but without that money (which many people fought hard to get) building the bridge is then 100% on the City.

@2
Maybe you and WIll In Seattle should get together for a private cry baby session.

P.S.
West Seattle = Best Seattle

@12 "Mr Fnarf and others have said that when cities go to districts, they then turn around in a few years and undo the damage."

What major cities? Only a handful have at-large councils. Districts/wards are the norm in most parts of the world and United States.

Has anyone seen figures, analysis, reality/based thinking, to justify the ped bridge?

My sense is that it won't work. Too isolated. Too wide. People will avoid crossing it. I'd like to read the analysis which suggests that it will work.

The only thing which might make it work is if NSCC allowed a lot of housing to be built there. Basically the campus is dull, dead, boring. No there, there. Only thing to save it would be to build build build housing on the campus.

NSCC is totally 100% dead on weekends and between semesters. I'll go back and check but that amounts to -- what do you think? -- 180 days per year? Half time.

Sounds like a weird way to spend $10 million.

Pedestrian advocates? What's next Nap advocates?

It's not just the college there. It's also Northwest Hospital and other stuff as well. It's a no brainer to create a better way to get across the highway to that stuff. Some community colleges have also started building dorms as well. NSCC seems like it could be a prime candidate for that. Moreover, anyone who is basing their opinion of this project on how the west side of I-5 looks right now isn't really using their imagination very well. If there is a reasonable path to the train, there's going to be a lot more stuff up there in the long run.

I just drove past Fauntleroy last night. It would be great to have a nice boulevard there in the long run. It's empty out right by the new Whole Foods. But that just does not seem like an urgent problem to me. I don't live in either of these neighborhoods, but from the outside looking in, I can't see any situation where the Northgate project isn't considerably more important. If it's all locked and loaded and ready to go, then it will be on-line when the station opens in 2022. Six years in not a long time in the development of light rail, especially in a city with our topography. It from 1946-1972 to get the first BART train running. The train to SFO took another 25+ years.

@19

I live in Maple Leaf.
I take some classes at NSCC so I have spent quite a bit of time there.

I'm open to learning more about the ped bridge. I think that there are better alternatives to ped bridge such as a car/ped bridge. Reconnect the street grid.