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The next chapter of the Seattle Squeeze is coming.
Back in January, we began the first chapter of the Squeeze with the three-week closure of SR 99 through downtown. But working together, we got through it. People got out of their cars. They biked, worked from home, hopped on transit, carpooled, and more.
Then, in March, we kicked off Chapter Two when all King County Metro buses that had used the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) moved permanently onto our surface streets.
 With so many more buses on downtown streets, things are different downtown, and there have been some challenges. Each week, I get a detailed update on travel and transit times in and around downtown, and it became clear that there were some especially difficult challenges for commuters coming to and from West Seattle on King County Metro buses on First Avenue. That?s why I directed the Seattle Department of Transportation to work with King County Metro to identify some alternative solutions, including new routes. Yesterday, King County Metro announced they will begin routing southbound buses in the SR99 corridor to Fourth Avenue to help improve the evening commute.
Now, it?s time to get ready for Chapter Three of the Squeeze.
It will begin with two significant events: The beginning of the Washington State Department of Transportation?s tolling of the SR 99 tunnel downtown on November 9, and Sound Transit?s ?Connect 2020? project this fall and in early 2020, when the construction to link the downtown tunnel to light rail to the Eastside will require Link riders to practice patience and allow for extra time. Click here to learn about WSDOT?s tolling of SR 99, and click here to learn more from Sound Transit about their Connect 2020 project, and what it might mean for how you get around Seattle.
As we approach the third chapter of the Seattle Squeeze, we need your continued help to make room on our roads and on transit. Please help us work together to make everyone?s commute easier. If you don?t have to, please don?t drive alone downtown. We need that space on our roads for buses and emergency vehicles.
Visit seattle.gov/traffic, King County Metro, WSDOT, and Sound Transit to learn more and make your plan. And, as always, please be safe and be patient as you make your way in and around Seattle.
From investing in more Metro bus service to building more safe routes for biking to creating bus-only lanes, the City will continue to do our part.
And please remember: This is all going to be worth it. We are building a city of the future. Once we get through the Squeeze together, we?ll have expanded Sound Transit Link light rail, we?ll have finished reconnecting our downtown with the Puget Sound, we?ll have built a new ?Waterfront for All,? we'll have a new world-class arena at Seattle Center ? and a whole lot more.
 Thanks for doing your part to help us all get through the Seattle Squeeze together.
As always, please continue to write me at?[email protected], reach out via?Twitter?and?Facebook, and stay up-to-date on the work we?re doing for the people of Seattle on?my?blog.
Sincerely,
 
On Thursday, Mayor Durkan celebrated the winners of the 17th annual Mayor?s Arts Awards. The Mayor?s Arts Awards are a chance to shine a light on amazing arts and cultural contributors in Seattle. This year, Mayor Durkan honored the contributions Dani Tirrell, Delbert Richardson, Marcie Sillman, the Intiman Theatre, and CoCA Seattle have made to our City.
Photos courtesy of Marcus Donner
Our artists are what make Seattle so great, and they?re what have kept us at the center of international culture for decades. Mayor Durkan is committed to advancing affordable and community-led spaces where our creative community can grow and thrive in Seattle.
For more information on this year?s award winners, please click here.
Earlier this week, Mayor Durkan helped celebrate the grand re-opening of one of our region?s most beloved institutions: Town hall Seattle. Town Hall Seattle is a civic gem that provides access to the arts for hundreds of community organizations, and tens of thousands of audience members, every year.
 Over the last 18 months, Town Hall has meticulously renovated their building in a way that completely preserved its historic character, and added new audience spaces throughout. The City of Seattle invested $1 million in the renovation of Town Hall Seattle, and we?re proud to be a foundational supporter of this project.
Click here to learn more about Town Hall Seattle.
Earlier this week, Mayor Durkan and Seattle Parks and Recreation announced today that the City will fund additional hours at the Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, and Loyal Heights Community Centers in 2019 and 2020 following the reduction of independently-funded hours at these locations by the nonprofit organization Associated Recreation Council (ARC).?
Throughout this summer, the City heard from community members who were concerned about the impact ARC?s reduction in hours would have on access to public, low-cost or free recreation activities. Mayor Durkan and Seattle Parks and Recreation believe that community centers are a critical component of the services that the City provides to Seattle and identified an additional $152,500 to preserve access at these community centers.?There will be no interruption in hours as the reductions were not slated to take effect until fall 2019.?
Seattle Parks and Recreation will use funds from the Seattle Metropolitan Park District to continue programming.??
Friday ? Sunday, August 30 ? September 1: Bumbershoot
 Now approaching half a century, Bumbershoot is one of Seattle's largest cultural touchstones. Each year, thousands of people from across the country flock to Seattle Center to attend this acclaimed festival, which has become one of the biggest and most-loved contemporary festivals in North America, while having maintained its Northwest spirit and innovative roots. Bumbershoot?s diverse programming includes live music, comedy, theater, film, visual arts, dance performance, and more.
Friday, August 30, 2019 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.: WildNights at the Woodland Park Zoo
Take a stroll throughout the zoo?s rich botanical grounds and enjoy magical encounters with animals, ambassador animal presentations, animal keeper talks, storytelling, and discovery stations with cool biofacts and nature-inspired activities. An assortment of food and beverages will be available for purchase. Make it a date night or a special evening for the family! WildNights costs regular zoo admission or is free for zoo members.
Friday, August 30 ? Monday, September 2: PAX West
PAX is a show dedicated to supporting and celebrating video and tabletop gaming. Since PAX?s inception, millions of attendees have enjoyed the expo floor halls filled with booths from major game publishers and independent developers, panels from video game industry insiders, game culture-inspired concerts, LAN parties, tabletop gaming, competitions and much more.
 In this week?s edition of the Weekend Read, we encourage you to read the Christian Science Monitor?s coverage of the measures Seattle has taken to protect our most vulnerable neighbors from the increased health risk of smoke from wildfires.
Summer in Seattle offers a luminous respite from the rest of the year. The clouds depart and carry away the rains as the sky shades cobalt blue and the sun casts golden light from Puget Sound to Mount Rainier. The city feels liberated.
Or so residents recall of an earlier time. In the past decade, summer has tended to bring an unseasonal gray in the form of wildfire smoke, trapping the city in a Beijing-like haze for days and sometimes weeks at a time. Last year, smoke from blazes in eastern Washington, Oregon, California, and Canada caused air quality in Seattle to drop to unhealthy levels for 24 days, matching the 2017 total.
The city has responded by designating two community centers and three other public buildings as clean-air centers where residents can take shelter when wildfires turn the skies ashen. The $450,000 pilot project has funded upgrades to each facility?s filtration system to reduce airborne pollutants. Julia Reed, a senior policy adviser to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who announced the city?s plan in June, explains that recent megafires in the West forced a reckoning with the region?s hotter, drier summers.
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