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Re: “Seattle studied dozens of sites for housing growth. These 24 got picked” [April 17, Local News] and “Amid Seattle growth debate, map shows walkable neighborhoods in King County” [April 9, Local News]:
Seattleites love walkable neighborhoods. Walking makes us healthier, happier and more connected to our neighbors through spontaneous interactions. All of Seattle could become walkable with an ambitious Comprehensive Plan. We could build a city where everyone could walk to grocery stores, child care, parks, coffee shops, restaurants, drugstores and other daily necessities.
This vision remains distant, however, with a recent analysis finding only 44% of Seattleites can walk to basic daily necessities. And with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s draft Comprehensive Plan cutting in half the number of originally proposed “neighborhood centers” that would have provided more Seattleites the ability to walk to more of their daily necessities, this future becomes less likely. The proposal also constrains these neighborhood centers to a tiny 800 feet wide, which is less than two blocks long — not nearly wide enough to provide space for all the amenities that compose a walkable neighborhood.
The good news is that there is still time to fix this. We can build a walkable, affordable and thriving city for all. The city should restore the neighborhood centers, expand their size and look to fill other gaps in Seattle’s walkability by increasing the ability to build more homes and amenities.
Gordon Padelford, executive director, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways
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