Transpo Event on Saturday, Possible Changes to the 36 Next Year

This Saturday, Sustainable South Seattle is hosting a "hands-on event where you and your neighbors work with transportation experts for a climate-friendly future." Register for free attendance at http://www.climatedialogues.org.

Here's the deal:

More walkable neighborhoods. Better Bus Service. Dedicated Bike Lanes. Regional Rapid Transit.

Build support for transportation improvements underway in your neighborhood. Imagine and plan for an economical and environmentally-friendly transportation future. Learn about key climate actions regionally and nationally. Learn how to make your voice heard by elected officials and policy makers.

"This is a great opportunity for Southeast Seattle to take a leadership role." -- Senator Adam Kline

When: July 12, 2008, 10 am - 2 pm (doors open 9:30 am)
Where: New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave S. (4 blocks south of S. Alaska)

Food and drink provided (bring your own mug!)
Free admission – Donations accepted.

Space is limited. Please RSVP online at http://www.climatedialogues.org to reserve your spot.

Climate Action Labs are a project of the Seattle Climate Dialogues and Northwest Environmental Education Council, with help from WSU Extension and TGreen Consulting.

Participants to include:

Bikes: Virginia Coffman of SDOT/Bike Master Plan
Ped: Lisa Quinn (ED of Feet First)
Transit: Jack Whisner (senior transp planner at KC Metro and also Sierra Club/TCC activist)
Funding/Tolling: Michael McGinn (ED of Seattle Great City Initiative)
Land Use: Sara Nikolic (Urban Strategies Director at Futurewise)
Climate: Phil Mitchell

In other transpo news, Roger Pence, a community outreach coordinator for Link light rail, recently wrote to the Beacon Hill Slumberland mailing list about some Route 36 changes that Metro is contemplating to go along with the opening of light rail next year. Here's the bulk of his comments:

Metro is contemplating moving the south terminus from Rainier Beach to the Link station at MLK & Othello. Southbound Route 36 buses would turn east on Myrtle to a new turnaround loop at the Othello Station. The trolleybus wires would be extended for this connection.

Given that travel time to downtown on the rail will be half or better than that of the 36 bus, it is reasonable to expect that many riders will voluntarily transfer, whether at the Beacon Hill station (at Lander St.) or at Othello Station at MLK & Othello. But for those who don't mind the leisurely ride, a direct bus ride will still be there. Riders transferring at Lander St. should also provide more empty seats on the 36 for those riders on the north end of the hill. The elevator ride down to the trains will take about 20 seconds, and the trains will arrive every 6 minutes during rush hours (10 minutes midday). Riders will voluntarily decide whether the transfer is worth it to them. Travel time on the rail from Beacon Hill Station to the Pioneer Square Station, estimated 8 minutes. To Westlake Station, estimated 12 minutes.

If the south terminus of the 36 is moved to Othello Station, the south end of the 36 (south of Myrtle) would be covered by another route, most likely the 106. Every Beacon Hill bus rider would still have available a direct, no transfer ride, to downtown. And the contemplated changes in the 38 would lengthen and strengthen that route (but it won't be extended to First Ave. until we get an overpass over the railroad tracks at Lander St.; otherwise the buses are hostage to BNSF train traffic).

And no, Route 36 ridership does not exceed what is expected on the rail line. The most recent data I've seen show about 9,000 daily riders on the 36. Sound Transit is projecting 42,000 daily riders on the initial segment of Link light rail, a projection made, btw, when gasoline was running below $2/gallon.

Baja Bistro Bar

I hadn't been to Baja Bistro in months and months, so Tuesday was the first time I'd seen their new bar. Looks nice!

Help Improve the 36

I would be eternally grateful if Beacon Hill residents joined this board and advocated for much-needed improvements on the 36 route.

http://transit.metrokc.gov/up/announce/soundingboard.html

Metro Transit, Sound Transit seek advisory group members

Help form recommendations about bus service and connections to Link light rail

King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit invite you to apply to serve on a community advisory board.

Metro and Sound Transit are considering changes to bus routes in the I-5 south corridor and in areas served by Link light rail, which will begin service in the summer of 2009. Changes might be made to provide bus connections to Link stations from neighborhoods, to improve bus service frequency and coverage, and to avoid duplication of service.

The transit agencies are forming two community advisory groups, called Transit Connections sounding boards. One sounding board will be in southeast Seattle (Rainier Valley, Skyway, West Hill and nearby areas), and one will be in southwest King County (Burien, Des Moines, SeaTac, Tukwila and nearby areas).

The sounding boards will provide advice early in the planning process about what changes would be best for local communities. They will make recommendations to transit agency staff and elected policymakers.

Approximately 30 transit riders and other community members will be selected to represent a broad cross-section of people who live, work, or go to school in the project areas.

The sounding boards will meet together on September 4 and 11, 2008. Then the boards will meet separately from October 2008 through February 2009. The sounding boards will meet together in March 2009 to make recommendations.

Bus routes in the project area: Metro Transit routes 7, 8, 9, 14-South, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42, 48, 60, 106, 107, 126, 128, 140, 154, 170, 174, 175, 180, 190, 191, and 194; and Sound Transit routes 560, 574, 577 and 594
How to apply

To apply for membership on a sounding board, please complete the application below and submit it by Thursday, July 31, 2008
The role of sounding board members

King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit are committed to working with communities as we consider possible changes to transit service in southeast Seattle and southwest King County. Sounding board members will play an important role throughout the planning process by:

* Participating in sounding board meetings between September 2008 and March 2009.
* Attending additional public meetings hosted by Metro Transit in local communities.
* Reviewing communities' transit needs with staff and providing transit riders' perspectives.
* Working together with other sounding board members to arrive at consensus recommendations about changes to bus service.
* Rainier Valley/Skyway/West Hill Sounding Board Meetings
6:30-8:30 p.m. at a location in the Rainier Valley unless otherwise noted
o September 4 and 11, meetings to be held in downtown Seattle
o October 15, 22, and 29
o November 12 and 19
o January 28
o February 11 and 25
o March 5 and 12, meetings to be held in downtown Seattle
* Southeast King County Sounding Board Meetings
6:30-8:30 p.m. at Foster High School in Tukwila unless otherwise noted
o September 4 and 11, meetings to be held in downtown Seattle
o October 16, 23, and 30
o November 13 and 20
o January 29
o February 12 and 26
o March 5 and 12, meetings to be held in downtown Seattle

Transit Connections Sounding Board Application Form

Please note: Sounding Board members cannot be employees of King County, King County Metro, or Sound Transit. If you think you might have a conflict of interest, such as contract work with the county or Sound Transit, please consult with the King County Board of Ethics before applying: 206-296-1586, www.kingcounty.gov/employees/ethics.

Complete and send this application by Thursday, July 31, 2008.

For more information, please contact:

Sarah Luthens, community relations planner
206-684-1154 TTY Relay: 711
Fax: 206-263-3489
sarah.luthens@kingcounty.gov

King County Department of Transportation
201 S. Jackson St., KSC-TR-0824
Seattle, WA 98104-3856.

Seattle Police Department and My Neighborhood Map

In case heard me on the radio today and wanted to see the posts about Seattle.gov's My Neighborhood Map program and the Seattle Police Department's crime statistics, here they are:

SPD Crime Data: ? (Jan. 26)
SPD Crime Data: Still Screwy (Mar. 30)
Seattle.gov's Neighborhood Crime Into: Totally Inaccurate (June 27)

Please note that everyone I've talked to at the city has been really, really nice. I think they're doing their best with limited resources. And I have not had a chance to follow up with the SPD yet (I work full-time and am having a baby in seven weeks, so this little research project has not been a huge priority for me lately).

I mentioned that watching "The Wire" helped prompt my interest in this subject, but I have found absolutely no evidence of corruption or anything like that. It's possible that there's a perfectly good explanation about why the mid-December matricide incident was not showing up in the December numbers last time I checked (even though the woman was pronounced dead at the scene and the King County Medical Examiner's office quickly ruled it a homicide).

My suspicion is that there is a fair amount of clerical error at the SPD and at the city, and that's why the numbers are off.

What I'd like to see:

-- More transparency in the crime statistics. For instance, when the mayor's office announces there were 24 murders in 2007, maybe they could include a link to the names of the victims, or at least the dates of the incidents.

-- More information about how the numbers are collected and what they mean. What does it take for a murder to be counted in the reports as a homicide? I would think that the county medical examiner's word would be good enough. Surely they're not waiting until someone's been convicted in court? Anyway, just a little FAQ that addresses these questions would be great.

-- Independent action by the major news media. Instead of waiting for the mayor to come out with a press release about the number of murders in 2007 and parroting that in a news story, why not go through your own archives and tally up the numbers for yourselves?

-- QA on the published info. If you mix up all the August numbers with all the September numbers, well, someone should catch that. And it should be called out on the site.

-- Better disclaimers about the inaccuracy of the information. If you know it's wrong, just say so. Or take it down until it can be fixed.

Kusina Filipina Mural

I posted some photos of this as a work in progress; now here's the finished work:

Photos from Artopia

We stopped by Artopia very early in the day today, and I took some pictures.





















I loved the Engine Room exhibits, above, and I also loved Bruce Christian Andersen's Carnaval de Monstruos exhibit at Georgetown Tile Works. I hope it sticks around a while; I want to see it again.









The Eagles!



I've been ready for Via Tribunali to open for months now.



The Corson Building too. And we have reservations there tomorrow night.

Seattle.gov's Neighborhood Crime Info: Totally Inaccurate

Last Friday I took the day off and finally followed up on a March post in which I questioned the crime data on the Seattle.gov website's "My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map" section. I met with Terry Wittman, the manager for the My Neighborhood Map program.

And, yep, it's all screwed up. I totally stand by my original warnings:



I'm sure Wittman's doing her best with the resources available to her. (And, as with most of my meetings at the Municipal Building, I came away feeling not angry but sorry for the people working with such large goals and small staffs -- in her case, two.) But, still, with such wildly flawed results, I wonder how valuable the program really is.

She couldn't tell me exactly why all the numbers I checked up on seemed off, but she had some suggestions, which I'll outline below. She also referred me to Shanna Christie, the head data coordinator at the Seattle Police Department. I have yet to contact her; in fact, I have yet to decide if I want to bother to contact her. This whole thing depresses me.

1. The SPD sometimes has negative numbers for certain crimes in a given month, but the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map people ignore these numbers. Negative numbers for crimes are listed if, say, a death listed as a murder in February is found to be accidental in March. The SPD would list that as a +1 for homicide in February and a -1 for homicide in March. However, the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map only lists positive numbers; "we don't graph the negatives," Wittman said.

2. The system involves a lot of manual spreadsheet futzing, and this leads to error. For example, Wittman said she thought she accidentally inverted all the crime statistics for the months of August and September 2007, and that's why my neighbor's murder wasn't showing up under September. Oops.

3. There is no QA. She and I looked to see if my neighbor's murder was showing up yet -- she thought it would be listed correctly now -- but it wasn't. And she doesn't know why. There is no one looking over the numbers that are posted to the site. She didn't even realize she'd mixed up all the August numbers with all the September numbers until she saw my post.

4. The SPD posts census tract information using 1990 census tracts instead of 2000 census tracts, like the My Neighborhood Map program does. Wittman said this shouldn't make any difference with Beacon Hill numbers (because our tracts haven't changed), but she does have to do some extra calculations for other neighborhoods. I can only imagine this introduces new levels of error.

So anyway. That gave me some insight as to why the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map information can't be trusted at all. But I still don't know why, for instance, the SPD doesn't list this murder in its numbers for December 2007.

I got the feeling that the SPD might have its own issues with data. Wittman explained that it's a very paper-oriented process, with each precinct sending its own numbers to Central, where they are then collated. Apparently they've been making the move to a new computerized system all year long, but they still haven't figured it all out yet, and that's why halfway through this year the SPD site is still saying "Statistics available through December, 2007."

So, basically, don't trust the numbers you see at Seattle.gov. They might be right, they might be wrong -- you'll never know.