SDOT games system?

A little bird recently sang me a song about the process for applying to the Seattle Bridging The Gap transportation and parks fund.

The initial step is for citizens to write down their ideas for projects on official Project Identification Forms, which will be sent to the Seattle Department of Transportation for exploration -- screening. In other words, it sets up a bottom-up process in which the citizens tell the agency what they want.

SDOT may have other ideas. It seems that residents of Greenwood recently met with SDOT staff to discuss how to fill out the Forms. Instead, the staffers presented the residents with SDOT's own wish list of projects, and suggested that those be entered on the Project Identification Forms.

No doubt some people agreed, while others wrote up their own ideas. But SDOT coordinates screening of the projects and final recommendations -- whose projects will SDOT be more likely to choose?


New today:
Decisions on levy campaign leftovers were political

"Bridging the Gap" levy election cash under scrutiny

When Vic Odermat wrote a $1,000 check to the "Bridging the Gap" campaign last fall, he did so to support a property-tax levy for Seattle streets and bridges.

The owner of Brown Bear Car Wash never imagined $4,000 from the campaign fund would go to the Irish Heritage Club and possibly pay for a trip to Ireland for Mayor Greg Nickels' wife.

"Oh my goodness," Odermat said, when he learned that $31,557 in surplus campaign money was doled out after the Nov. 7 election to some nonprofit groups and campaign workers.
. . .
[Deputy Mayor Tim] Ceis said decisions on spending the surplus were made by the mayor's "political brain trust," which includes Ceis and Nickels' aides Viet Shelton, Regina LaBelle and Michael Mann. The mayor was told of the payments, Ceis said, but was "not very involved" in the decisions.

Ceis said he never thought about turning the surplus over to the city to help with street projects at the heart of the levy's mission. Source

Wouldn't it have been nice if the money had gone to citizen groups that want to plan pedestrian safety projects? Currently they are required to seek grants to hire consultants to do the work.