http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2008/12/22/whose_streets_1 Comments On: Whose Streets? by Eli Sanders en-us Copyright 2009 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:30:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by wallydanger]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:50:10 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Lord and Taylor]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:14:09 -0800 The Stranger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-6hBe2gq…
Posted by a]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:46:33 -0800 The Stranger We should encourage further destabilization of our habitual modes of moving through urban spaces. I love the idea of closing Pike and Pine on Friday nights. The fact that the celebration occured there naturally, as opposed to elsewhere, on Obama Night should be taken as indication of the corridor's inherent potential.
Posted by dmoser]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:38:36 -0800 The Stranger Posted by oldsalty]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:33:27 -0800 The Stranger Posted by watchout5]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:06:35 -0800 The Stranger

Posted by factoid]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:23:35 -0800 The Stranger
You think I'm going to go babysit Critical Mass? Are you fucking kidding? If your mother didn't raise you right, I sure as hell can't fix you now.
Posted by elenchos]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:47:50 -0800 The Stranger
Check out the street life where I'm from. You won't need a parka, but you'll definitely need your kevlar.


Posted by Brian]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:48:39 -0800 The Stranger
That really bites if Seattle has few to no neighborhood parks and open spaces where people can play. Washington D.C., which I spent most of my life either in or near, and which I would not willingly drive in unless I had no other choice (which thankfully I mostly do) has tons of open park space. And not just on the Mall, but also, and more importantly, in the neighborhoods. You can't walk more then a few blocks without coming across a small park or open space.

Here in Baltimore, once upon a time, the rowhouse developers used to build their tightly packed neighborhoods to a plan that began around a small park. The rows surrounding the park would be the most nicely equipped and pricey. Further back the rows got plainer and plainer, and the lots smaller and smaller, but more affordable (there were usually street car lines involved in the plan too). The net result is that Baltimore has tons of these little neighborhood parks scattered all over the place. Alas, crime makes many of them dangerous. But they're there and when it snows out here they become busy playgrounds. But then, where the crime isn't bad, those parks are busy playgrounds all year long. I can walk to two really nice ones from where I live, one of which is on my way to work.

I'm surprised that Seattle doesn't have much open space, other then the roads. What happened that it developed like that? I'm guessing the Seattle doesn't have very much experience with snow either. Yes, it's kinda fun when everything grinds to a halt. For a while.


Posted by Bruce Garrett]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:11:52 -0800 The Stranger This sort of thing does look bad for the festive, but .. at least not so bad or obvious when it's getting covered in snow as people are sledding. To me at the time it was hard to tell there was much trash around. Should've been taken care of though!!
Posted by briotron]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:46:26 -0800 The Stranger
I was here and shot this video, and on my youtube page for this video (of the motorist confrontation) I lay out what happened, and the sledders were very very clearly in the right. But many people here hate it when others celebrate in or hang out in the streets, even if the police are OK with it.

This hill, Denny all the way down to across I-5 overpass bridge, was CLOSED. For the hour-plus I was here, no car tried to drive down the road. Because it was CLOSED. and DANGEROUS. 1 block away from where the 2 busses almost flew onto I-5 because the road was so a)slick, b)steep, c) aimed closely enough toward I-5 below a high retaining wall.

This driver was taking a man to the airport for hire. He tried to go down this road anyway. There were many sledders below. There was a crowd of people where you see them in the vid, but he was literally driving into what was a larger crowd directly in front when people began screaming and yelling and all of us in the crowd became very worried, instantly. He did not care that the road was closed and was very, very pissed off at all of us on Denny (CLOSED to CARS). Note: Bellevue traffic was not blocked. This guy's passenger was so disgusted that he got out and turned down his ride to the airport, and then called this driver's company to complain (putting it lightly).

This man seriously endangered the lives of people in this crowd and sledders below, I only wish I got more of this on tape, and the plate number, and this guy's name, and the name of his company. But, of course, when people are hanging out in the street, even a closed street dangerous for drivers, the uptight of this otherwise amazing city will assume 4 wheels in the street good, 2 legs in the street, bad (slight twisting of animal farm there).
His SUV almost sustained some broken windows, only because sledders almost sustained serious injury or death, as was obvious to anyone at the scene.
Posted by briotron]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:25:40 -0800 The Stranger
I do sort of wish that the trash and stuff hadn't marred the scene. That was one of the great things about Obama Night, was that people picked up after themselves. That needed to stay an unspoken rule, rather than a unique thing. (Also, if you stole the Dumpster lids from businesses up the hill, you might consider bringing them back.)
Posted by Kristin]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:06:19 -0800 The Stranger Posted by levide]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:41:42 -0800 The Stranger And start creating neighborhood squares with closed off abutting streets on the weekends - places where people can stroll through local outdoor markets. I have always thought why should I have to drive to an open air market down on Pike when I prefer to walk to one near my apt!
Posted by jackseattle]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:12:09 -0800 The Stranger
"Wow, just a couple of weeks ago I was walking down the middle of that road to Westlake, and here life is upended again."

Saturday night didn't find me at the sledding party, but rather reflecting on how great it was to go to Cal Anderson Park at midnight on Saturday and be surrounded by other revelers, the walk both ways going down, by, or through snow covered roadways with temerity.

As the circle begins to close, I admit to being one of the few who decided to brave the roads in a single occupancy vehicle today. To be honest, I was actually disappointed to get to 15th and see the car swarm begining again.

Obama's win, like nothing I'd see. Now this, same again.

And ohh, the lack of car sound; that sure was nice.

dp
Posted by Derek]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:17:43 -0800 The Stranger Instead of being an ignorant whiner why don't you actually join a Critical Mass? First of all, you'd learn just how wrong you are, and in the rare case that you did see someone acting out of line you can make them stop.
Posted by luther blisset]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:57:53 -0800 The Stranger
If I were still in my twenties I would be out their with them, but now that I am in my forties I would be pretty upset if those noisy kids kept me up all night (which is why I moved off Capitol Hill in my thirties).

Also, after I watched a few more of the videos, my empathy of their harmless fun, which included a snowball fight, started pelting a cross country skier with snowballs for daring to use their street for his bourgeois brand of fun.
Posted by elswinger]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:20:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Eric F]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:59:54 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Sir Learnsalot]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:58:39 -0800 The Stranger Posted by shub-negrorath]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:52:13 -0800 The Stranger
In the last couple of months I've really gotten into livable streets blogs:

http://hembrow.blogspot.com/
http://www.streetsblog.org/
http://www.copenhagenize.com/
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/
http://www.streetfilms.org/?popular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMgEsUbMH…

After reading them for a while it really opens your eyes. A lot of what you take for granted as city living is more or less a historical accident. We didn't have to turn 1/3 of our city over for cars. If you take a top-down look at Seattle and a lot of American cities, it comes down to:

- cars. driving and parking
- buildings
- people walking
- people biking

If you care about climate change, if you care about quality of life, if you care about reducing stress, our priorities are exactly backwards.

The funny thing is that pretty much anywhere that's walkable and livable is overrun by tourists. People travel thousands of miles to experience what they ought to have just outside their front door. We just need to make more nice spaces. There are plenty of good examples to copy from. We just need to do it.

For all the good press Greg Nickels gets, Seattle is nowhere near the cutting edge in creating more nice spaces. And all the recent townhouse development is just making things worse: ugly, anti-pedestrian, and still car-centric. Sharrows don't count either. The time for hyper-timid incrementalist bullshit is over.
Posted by c m]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:32:37 -0800 The Stranger
The sledding families tend to take over the whole hill and are visibly uneasy about, say, a group of teenagers they don't know joining in. And if you're a 30-something kid like me showing up with his own sled, they look at you like you're a child molester.

Then there are the young folks looking to use parking lots--or whatever--for brodies. I saw some very stupid older teenagers in a Chevy doing brodies right in the middle of the intersection of Ravenna Ave and 80th NE, surrounded by sledders of all ages. Very dangerous and douchebaggy.

But really, why not use the street for that? Who says the sledders get to use it? And who says the sledders have to be sober, happy families with young kids and not older, rowdier folks with a few beers in them?

It's anarchy, but I think I like it.
Posted by schmacky]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:22:31 -0800 The Stranger People hanging on to the driver's back bumper and sort of water-skiing behind the car . . . .Otherwise known (in Montana, at least) as "hooky-bobbing" or (in Alaska, at least) as "ski-jogging." Eli, meet snow. Snow, Eli. Now go have a good time together.
Posted by kk]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:19:09 -0800 The Stranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_spac…, or google "mental speed bumps."
Posted by michael mcginn]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:15:39 -0800 The Stranger