News

UPTOWN ALLIANCE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - for March 2010

This Thursday. March 11 at 7 pm until 9 pm. The meeting agenda:

• SDOT’s Geoffrey Wentland of SDOT will give a presentation on W. Thomas Street as a Green Street with an emphasis on bikes and pedestrians as well as motor vehicles. He'll show opportunities for Thomas Street that flow from the North Portal street grid reconnections.

- Wentland will hear Uptown Alliance input input on Green Street features that could be designed into Thomas Street. He will show us some examples of what a Green Street in an urban center might look like. Green Streets are part of the Queen Anne Plan for the Uptown Urban Center. 

- Now with the construction plans in place for the QA/Uptown Waterfront Access Bike/Pedestrian Bridge at W. Thomas and Elliott, Uptown's first Green Street seems possible.

• WSDOT reports on tolling for the SR99 Deep Bore Tunnel. There are diversions of vehicular traffic to city streets caused by various alternative tolling alternatives revealed in traffic studies. WSDOT will review those studies for us.

• We'll hear the latest on the Uptown Loop Trail, an element of the proposed new master plan for Lower Kinnear Park.

• Uptown Alliance Parks Chair., Keith Biever, will report on the total removal of the giant graffiti from Counterbalance Park's walls and will tell us about steps that will be taken soon to prevent a repeat of the vandalism.

• Bring us your ideas for topics to improve your neighborhood that we should have as meeting topics and neighborhood events (fundraising ideas too). 

For further details contact:

John Coney at  djohnconey@aol.com, or 

Rick Hooper at RickHooper@seattle.gov

Or leave a message at 733-9435.  

The Uptown Neighborhood Center (UNC) is located at 160 Roy Street: Look for the large grey metal ‘X’s – support structures - on the front of the building

February 8 was marked by illegal graffiti tags on both North and East walls.  Quick action removed as much as could be humanly reached

Uptowners were sad to discover in the morning of Tuesday, February 8, huge, ugly red graffiti on the two walls of our Counterbalance Park.  The manager for both of the adjacent condo buildings promptly used power washer to remove the still "wet" red paint.  He then followed up with repainting the surface he had cleaned.  Due to the foggy, moist atmosphere the paint he could reach from the ground came off.  As of February 17, the remaining marks await removal by the City's Department of Parks special graffiti removal team. 

Concerned neighbors and members of the Uptown Alliance are invited to a meeting about graffiti at 3 PM, Thursday, February 18 with City staff to discuss the latest approach to graffiti prevention and removal.  The meeting will be at Neighborhood Center at 160 Roy Street on the northside between Warren Ave N and 2nd Ave N.

Roasty Toasty Winter Festival finally held on January 23, 2010, after December postponement.

More than 100 Uptowners gathered on a cool, dry Saturday evening in Counterbalance Park to visit, make Smores, compete in guessing games, and enjoy accordian music for all ages.  The park's LED lights were run through the variety of programs that are possible. 

Many generous Uptown businesses and residents contributed to this low-budget event.  Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation were extremely helpful and supportive by providing an accordian player, crews to delive, install, and take down canopy tents, chairs, and public address system. 

The Uptown Alliance thanks:

Uptown Metropolitan Market

Uptown QFC

Uptown Safeway

Mercer Street Books

Quiznos on Roy Street

 Kidd Valley

Queen Anne Trader Joe's

And more than 20 residents who made this Roasty Toasty a success. 

Watch for news about the next annual winter holiday event...We think January is a great time to gather after busy November/December holidays.