How Seattle’s Lake City is about to get a whole lot safer

Parents know that if your kids walk to school, you always plan the safest route.

Are there crosswalks? Are the streets busy?

Mayor Ed Murray announced Wednesday that the City of Seattle plans to add more sidewalks to make the Lake City area safer for pedestrians and drivers.

Related: Are your neighborhood streets being used as a park and ride?

The mayor promised residents that, “Over the next four years, we will install 20 blocks of sidewalks in Lake City to give students new safe routes to school.”

The Seattle Safe Routes To School program will add 12 new routes in the area.

“We will establish new development standards that create a more walkable streetscape, with vibrant neighborhood businesses,” Mayor Murray reassured a wet crowd in Lake City.

Another big change, sidewalks will be added near the Fire Station 39 site located near NE 127th Street and 30th Avenue NE. The old building will be the site of new affordable, family-sized apartments and the ground floor will include pre-kindergarten classrooms.

According to the Safe Routes To Schools Coordinator Brian Dougherty, $1 million of the $930 million Move Seattle levy is being used for Safe Routes To Schools projects.
SDOT budgeted $6.7 million for Safe Routes to School projects at the following schools in 2016:

We will do this all as a community, working with the neighborhood, using a thoughtful & integrated approach. pic.twitter.com/XzSk6IPJjc

— Ed Murray (@MayorEdMurray) February 10, 2016

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