Don O’Neill: Seattle is trending toward putting crosswalks in the ‘Jungle’

Seattle’s colorful crosswalks are increasingly becoming a cause of neighborhood pride and citywide resentment. KIRO Radio’s Ron Upshaw thinks there could be a compromise most pedestrians could stand behind.

“As far as them having civic pride, or saying we feel like this color scheme represents us, I think we should start doing Seahawk-color crosswalks everywhere,” he said. “It crosses all races, genders, ages.”

“Ron and Don” discussed the recent news that the City of Seattle will pay to create 10 more Pan-African colored crosswalks in the Central District. Each street crossings installation costs $6,000. The city caused a stir last summer when it spent $66,000 on rainbow-colored crosswalks in Capitol Hill. The money primarily came from street use fees that developers pay to use the public right of way.

Related: Jason Rantz wants American flag-themed crosswalks in Seattle

Upshaw supports the idea of Pan-African colored crosswalks and celebrating each district, but he disagrees with how they are paid for.

“I think the neighborhood has to pay for their own paint,” he said. “… I think the neighborhood should do a bake sale or a lemonade stand or something if there’s an overage over the regular crosswalk.”

Co-host Don O’Neill, meanwhile, doesn’t think painting crosswalks is a sincere enough effort for the troubling situations that are happening in some communities.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” he said. “When you look at the Central District, there are a lot of services that are gobbled up because of the violence that happens in that area and I just think we need to be more serious about that, more focused on that … While we’re sitting here talking about painting crosswalks, let’s talk about all the gun violence specifically in the Central District and let’s have a real conversation about what we’re going to do about that.”

Don compared the tactic to how the city would respond to the report that the Washington State Patrol received 529 pedestrian calls on I-5 during the month of May. Don said the increase in homeless, mentally ill, and inebriated people wandering onto the highway likely stems from the “Jungle” spilling onto the highway.

“So I guess the Jungle needs its own crosswalks, too,” O’Neill said. “I think what we need to do in the city is focus on some real issues and I don’t think we’re doing that. Focusing on crosswalks is ridiculous.”

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