Archives for March 26, 2015

Your Busy Weekend in Northeast Seattle, March 27-April 2

March 26, 2015 by 1 Comment

The forecast calls for rain this weekend with temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. The sun might peek through Sunday afternoon.

FRIDAY, March 27

  • Play board and card games with coffee and treats.
    • Games will be available or bring your own to Game Night with GeekGirlCon at Wayward Coffee House, 6417 Roosevelt Way NE. Second and Fourth Friday, 7-11 PM. No cover.

SATURDAY, March 28

  • View and shop the work of talented northwest artists and craftspeople. 
    • Best of the Northwest 2015 Spring Show, Magnuson Park, Hangar 30. More than 100 local artists, local food vendors, live music, and free arts table for the kids. Parking is free. Saturday, 10 AM-6 PM. Tickets are $6 at the door or $5 in advance online. Children 12 and under are free.
  • Shop spring plants at your local Audubon Society. 
  • Attend a workshop with a local zine artist. 
    • Drawing workshop with Owen Curtsinger. Owen will share his new self-published graphic novel, Myths of the Tusk, about the mysteries of the Narwhal.

SUNDAY, March 29

  • View and shop the work of talented northwest artists and craftspeople. 

MONDAY, March 30

  • Listen to a science talk with adult beverages. 
    • Science on Tap at Third Place Pub, 6504 20th Ave NE. “Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance: The Myths, The Reality and Hope for a Treatment,” with Ingrid Swanson Putlz, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington. 7 PM. FREE.

THURSDAY, April 2

Anything else to add? Garage sale? Fundraiser? Lemonade stand? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the post!

Want to promote an upcoming NE Seattle weekend happening? Email us ahead of time, or use our online comment form to tell us about it.

We publish these Busy Weekend posts at noon on Thursdays.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Northeast Seattle Link Connections open house (LIVE COVERAGE)

March 26, 2015 by 7 Comments

The University of Washington and Capitol Hill Light Rail Stations are now just one year a way from opening to trains and passengers. How is transit going to get you to those stations?

Ahead of the University Link light rail extension opening in the spring of next year, King County Metro is proposing a slew of changes to Northeast Seattle Metro routes to better integrate service with the next link in the light rail chain: the University Link.

Tonight, Thursday, March 26, from 6-8PM at University Heights Center, Room 209 (5031 University Way NE), King County Metro holds their last open house meeting about these proposed changes (previous open houses were held on Capitol Hill on March 19 and the Eastside on March 25).
 
You can see the changes proposed (and the two alternative route change plans) here on King County Metro Online. Additionally, the Seattle Transit Blog has an overlapping, interactive map illustrating the differences (more on this below).
 
We will be at the open house, and plan to provide live coverage below this post.
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The question for Northeast Seattle transit users regarding proposed route changes appears to be (generalizing here): Are we willing to trade in under-performing routes and stops for increased frequency?

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We asked around, and this Metro stop sign, with the daisy logo in the lower left corner, dates to at least the mid-1990s. (Stop #38000, west-bound on NE 65 Street and Ravenna Ave NE).

 

For example: Could you imagine life without the good ol’ 71 Express? It’s tough, especially for residents in Wedgwood and View Ridge where service would be reduced. But what if it were replaced by a heavily revamped Route 16 that arrived every 15 minutes (instead of the 71’s 30 minutes) and created an enhanced east-west transit corridor from Green Lake all the way to Sand Point Way? Are residents willing to walk a little further for changes like these?

More on the map I mentioned above: For a visual, flipbook-style look at present service and proposed changes, we recommend checking out the map found in this Seattle Transit Blog post. Hover your cursor over the map image found there, then click and hold the vertical white line. Move the line left and right to see the changes.

The Seattle Transit Blog posted their take on the changes proposed for Northeast Seattle routes earlier this month. If one is looking for more detail about the proposed changes (and what the differences between Alternate 1 and 2 mean), their post is a good read. Included in the post is a list of route-by-route changes for riders wondering what their new alternatives would be.

UPDATE (6:39 PM): Alternative 1 Montlake Triangle Vicinity Routes map:



Filed Under: Civic Envolvement, Light Rail, Live Coverage, Meeting, Northeast Seattle, Sound Transit, Traffic