Curley: Seattle needs more sidewalks to curb obesity, crime

John Curley says there are direct links showing a lack of sidewalks leads to obesity, crime and connectivity between neighbors. Of course, Curley mentioned that moments after his KIRO Radio co-host Tom Tangney said he grew up in a sidewalk-less area.

“Really, I find that hard to believe,” Tom said. “I don’t think we were fatter and more criminal than anyone else.”

Twenty-five percent of Seattle’s streets don’t have sidewalks. With that in mind, Mayor Ed Murray announced that if voters pass the $930 million Move Seattle levy, the city will build more. Officials plan to switch from concrete to asphalt, meaning they won’t last as long, but they will be more cost efficient.

“We’re going to do 250 sidewalks for the cost of what we would have done 150 sidewalks for,” Murray said.

The proposal comes after multiple requests for a more detailed list of how the levy would be used, the city released a spending plan for the levy on Wednesday.

Despite his belief that he and his fellow North Seattlites aren’t any chunkier than the rest of the population, Tom called Murray’s proposal “brilliant.”

“We haven’t had sidewalks for my entire life,” he said. “It’s an outrage. Anything north of 85th, it really gets tough to find sidewalks. So I think this is a great idea.”

Curley, a former Sammamish City Council member, said he is a “huge proponent of sidewalks,” noting that it increases safety for kids and brings neighbors together. In Sammamish, he said, developers aren’t allowed to build until they put in a sidewalk.

“So they’re trying to create all the connectivity so one little neighborhood connects to another neighborhood, and you have sidewalks,” he said. “And without it, nobody walks, no one goes and meets their neighbors. It’s great to have a sidewalk.”