Open Thread 26: Longfellow Creek

Last week Martin Pagel and I walked the Longfellow Creek Trail. We took RapidRide H to 26th & Roxbury and walked to the Roxhill Park entrance at 28th. Then we went north through the park and Westwood Village and streets and the football stadium and woods. I discovered a beaver dam, which created a pond for ducks and has its own Facebook fan club. A woman on the trail who has lived in the neighborhood for decades said the beaver dam is wonderful.

We left the trail at Genessee Street and stopped to eat near the H's Andover Street station on the way home. So I missed the northern part of the woods, which has the Dragonfly sculpture, but I'd been there once before. The West Seattle Blog has an article on the creek and its preservation. The trail goes partly along the avenue west of Delridge, which is surprisingly full of recent middle housing.

Next time I'll start from the northern end near the Andover Street station and go south to the Dragonfly sculpture and beaver dam. Those are the most woodsy and interesting parts of the trail.

Other news below the fold.

Initiative 2117 ($) wants to repeal the carbon-emissions law that indirectly raised gas prices.

Pedestrian deaths on Aurora ($) and neighbors' vows to fix it. Hopefully the project to make a complete street between 90th and 105th comes to fruition. The state funding has been delayed because the city doesn't have a completed design yet."

Businesses are bullish on downtown Seattle's recovery. ($) The second paragraph mentions a vintage store on Jackson Street I saw on my way back from Longfellow Creek. There are now three vintage shops within two blocks of each other.

SLU Link station alternatives. ($) Aurora or Taylor?

A well-designed train station 50 km from Amsterdam. (Not Just Bikes video)

The worst places in American cities were intentional. (Rob Robinson video) A rant against pedestrian-hostile stroads.

Freiburg, Germany, is serious about the war on cars. (Type Ashton video)

This is an open thread.