It's yet another anti-community, responsibility-evading government response in the many-year attempt to get the City of Seattle to do something about funding the basic public infrastructure that sidewalks represent.
Nickels's plan: require sidewalks be built in front of most new residential construction, as well as major renovation/expansion of existing homes.
Who benefits? Transportation and infrastructure interests in the city budget that are not pedestrian related. Nickels's plan does nothing to address the inequity in funding between roads (one big pot of public money) and pedestrian facilities (homeowners must pay out of pocket, and compete against other neighborhoods for grants).
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| And they all look just the same |
The particularly distasteful and outrageous aspect of Nickels's plan is that it shows how he continues to have his eye on just one objective -- enriching developers through redevelopment projects. His plan means that if you need sidewalks on your street, the solution is for you to move somewhere else: sell to a developer who tears down your home, and replaces it with a new cookie-cutter "Northwest Style" townhouse cluster (curse you, Carlson Architects) with a sidewalk out front.
The cost, of course, is passed on to the new buyers -- not you -- and the money goes into the developers' pockets.
That's the price of sidewalks under this municipal regime.
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