Many articles summarize the complex issues associated with Seattle’s viaduct-replacement/deep-bore tunnel debate.
Such articles are often accompanied by a cross-section supplied by the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), illustrated here.
Inspired by the WSDOT cross-section and ongoing discussion of applicable transit modes, the embedded myurbanist commentary below graphically focuses on but one question along the way.
Bellevue, Washington has been alive with debate about planned light rail alignments in and around its downtown this year, with Sound Transit, the regional transit agency, often at loggerheads with local elected officials about the preferred route to be selected for study and eventual implementation.
Last month, Sound Transit selected a segment adjacent to a close-in residential neighborhood for further evaluation in the project Environmental Impact Statement.
The situation remains a textbook application of the challenges which Paul Symington and I addressed in our recently republished report, “Urban Centers and Transit-Oriented Development in Washington“, (the “Barriers Report“), downloadable here. In keeping with our discussion of political, organizational and interagency implementation challenges, the Bellevue City Council and many residents oppose Sound Transit’s preferred alternative.
On the ground, opposition is clear from the landscape of signage, and from an imaginary train ride captured below–well over a decade before completion of Sound Transit’s East Link. Regardless of which alignment is chosen and constructed, consider rides with memories of where planning-era signage was located along the way!
Street performance in a public space is one feature of high urbandwidth.
Here, we return to Seattle’s Occidental Park, (also featured here and, by Dan Bertolet, here), to walk with A.K. “Mimi” Allin, for a strolling read of a complex novel, merged with the notion of enhanced mutual ownership of public space.
Click here to read more about Allin and 4Culture’s site-specific performance exhibit, “Walking in War in Peace”.
Click below for a multimedia tribute to “little places”: the industrial grates and covers which have graced urban rights-of-way since Roman times. These street-level barriers provide public safety and maintenance gateways to the inner workings of infrastructure. Like coins, they carry symbols and patterns from industrial process, often symbolizing local heritage or factory name.
Spinola Bay in St. Julian’s, Malta, is an icon of compact development in the small island country south of Sicily.
Thanks to photo-manipulation, this historic locale of fishing boats and pirate ships also yields the urbanist fantasy community of “Density Bay”.
Enjoy the visit, and view in full screen mode with sound on, if possible!