Want to know more about the North Monroe Corridor Project? The City has provided a detailed presentation that addresses many questions. If you would like to provide feedback to the City about this project, scroll through the entire presentation and click the link at the end of the presentation.
The City of Spokane is seeking input from citizens on the elements of a project to improve North Monroe Street that’s planned for construction in 2018. The project runs from just north of Indiana to Kiernan near the top of the Garland hill.
Citizens are asked to view an online presentation about the project and then fill out a survey about the various elements of the project at the end of the presentation. The presentation can be viewed on a computer or a mobile device. Feedback through that tool will be accepted through Monday, Feb.6.
Additionally, a public open house is scheduled on the project on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church, 806 W. Knox. Surveys can be filled out at the open house. More information on the project is found on the City’s web site.
A citizens advisory board met for about six months to refine the project, which is designed to create a more livable community that serves all users of the street. This project balances safety, traffic needs, business health, and neighborhood health.
The project includes a street reconfiguration to two travel lanes with a center turn lane, down from four tight travel lanes and a narrow center lane. The project will include curb bumpouts at intersections that reduce pedestrian crossing distances, enhanced crossings at three locations with flashing yellow beacons, new lighting, and a climbing lane on the hill. The current tight on-street parking will be widened for easier use and spaces will be added. Sidewalks will be widened.
The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meets tomorrow (Wednesday, April 13) starting at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Activity Center Center (827 W Cleveland).
This month we have two more guest speakers: City engineers will fill us in on the large-scale CSO tank that’s slated to be installed at the top of TJ Meenach Drive. A map of the project is included in the downloadable agenda below — and by the way, there’s a public meeting on the conditional use permit for that project tonight (Tuesday, April 12) at Audubon Elementary starting at 6pm. We’ll also hear from Spokane Public Library Director Andrew Chanse on the library’s Future Study initiative. He’s going to solicit feedback on that topic as well.
Further agenda items for this meeting include planning for the upcoming Concerts in the Park, updates on Spring Cleanup, news on North Monroe revitalization, plus annual elections for the following executive positions on the neighborhood council: Chair, vice chair, secretary, Community Assembly rep, and Community Development rep. Our PeTT Committee rep is also likely to have some information and queries for the neighborhood council about a comprehensive citywide sidewalk program that is being developed.
Please help reduce paper waste and keep our printing expenses low by downloading the materials as PDFs:
Keep in mind that everyone who lives, works or owns property in Emerson-Garfield is welcome, so we look forward to seeing you tomorrow! And if you haven’t yet, please RSVP to the meeting on Facebook or on Nextdoor.
The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meets tomorrow (Wednesday, March 9) starting at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Activity Center Center (827 W Cleveland).
Once again, we’ll be featuring two guest speakers: A representative of the Spokane Fire Department will provide some background on the EMS levy renewal that’s proposed for the April 26 ballot. An overview of that—including a fact sheet and presentation—is available here. After that, Ben Cabildo of Community-Minded Enterprises will talk about new neighborhood- and community-oriented TV programs.
In addition, we’ll be discussing the popular upcoming Spring Cleanup and some potential changes to that event, looking at new neighborhood budget applications that could help fund our events, and taking names for the neighborhood council elections in April. We’ll also hear from our slate of neighborhood representatives on citywide planning, policies and other initiatives that could affect us here in Emerson-Garfield.
If you have a tablet or a smartphone, please help keep our printing expenses low by downloading the materials as PDFs:
We do our best to stick to a strict 90-minute meeting, so please take some time to familiarize yourself with the agenda and the info in the appendixes beforehand.
Everyone who lives, works or owns property in Emerson-Garfield is welcome, so we look forward to seeing you tomorrow! And if you haven’t yet, please RSVP to the meeting on Facebook or on Nextdoor.
The Office of Neighborhood Services is hosting three different traffic-calming workshops for anyone interested in learning how their grassroots traffic-calming proposals can turn into fully realized projects. To put it another way: If you really want a roundabout or a crosswalk somewhere, these workshops will let you know if it’s possible and, if so, how to go about making it happen.
Although the workshops are provided to each of the three city districts, you don’t have to live in a particular district to attend a particular workshop.
For more information and further links on this topic, please see this recent blog post on the City’s website. And if you’re wondering what good can come of the traffic-calming program, have a look at this roundup of citizen-driven traffic-calming projects constructed just in the past year.
This is a recap of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting that took place on Wednesday, September 9.
In response to concerns about an increase in crime, Officer Tracy Ponto of the Spokane Police Department addressed neighborhood crime statistics over the last month. The reports include West Central as well parts of North Hill, so there is no distinction from Emerson-Garfield, but they do indicate some downward trends. Sexual assault is down this month. Commercial robbery is down, and robbery of a person is slightly down as well. Domestic violence has seen a year-on-year decrease. Total property crimes have shown a decrease of 16% from last month, and 9.56% from this time last year.
As for incidents of concern, there was a drive-by shooting on W Euclid, which was suspected to have targeted the wrong house. There was also a report of an elderly couple’s home being booby-trapped by an intruder who had settled in their garage.
To report squatters in vacant or abandoned houses, the Office of Code Enforcement is reachable at (509) 625-6083. For post-crime calls, call CrimeCheck at (509) 456-2233. When witnessing a crime in progress, please call 911. Officer Ponto stressed that reporting crimes will influence the future patrolling of an area.
Judith Gilmore from the Fulcrum Institute reported on recent progress at the Ash Street Workforce Training Station, to which the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council has allocated Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. All three of the one-bedroom affordable apartments have now been completed and rented. The retail area is finished and tenants are being recruited to fill all three training bays. The store, called The Station, will have a beverage bar and a retail counter. There are 80 adults (parents to some 59 children) from our neighborhood who are being serviced by the station.
Michael Cathcart, representing the Alliance to Protect Local Jobs, spoke on the subject of Proposition 1 on the upcoming November general election ballot. This is the fourth ballot measure in our area proposed by the same group, and none of the other three measures was successful. In response to some of the provisions of the proposed ballot measure, Cathcart said that employers who have as few as 150 full-time employees (or 300 half-time employees) would be required to pay a vague minimum wage (approximately $18.30/hour), which is higher than in any other city. If the city did not enforce the minimum wage, then the minimum wage would rise to $23/hour. The measure would also prohibit wage increases based on experience or seniority, which may reduce retention. Furthermore, there is also no definition of the effort, skill, or responsibility used in its language, which could lead to frivolous lawsuits.
The action item on the agenda was the reallocation of the $17,865 in 2015 CDBG funds that had previously been allocated towards a bus shelter on North Monroe. It was proposed that the council direct $10,000 towards Fulcrum and $7,865 toward the West Central Community Center, two of the EGNC’s top priorities as determined by vote during the August 2015 meeting. This would give the council an additional $17,865 to allocate for the 2016. The motion was passed unanimously with no abstentions.
The two traffic-calming requests that were submitted by the neighborhood council in February were addressed. The City responses were included among the meeting agenda.
The future of the North Monroe Street revitalization was broached and discussed. There were questions over the delay in construction until 2018.
Jonathan Martinez reported on the past several meetings regarding landlord and tenant issues. The role of City of Spokane Code Enforcement was also discussed; our neighborhood’s representative is Officer Chappie. Additional attendance on the rental property committee is encouraged.
The City of Spokane is seeking input from citizens on the elements of a project to improve North Monroe Street that’s planned for construction in 2018. The project runs from just north of Indiana to Kiernan near the top of the Garland hill.
