15th Ave NW Trees: The city planted 40 trees this morning on 15th Ave NW between 80th and 85th Streets. The volunteer turnout to help them was much greater than expected, so all the trees were planted in an hour--I estimate 30 people must have been there. Even this small amount of work has created a change for the better along 15th; the trees create a visual break between the street and the sidewalk and make you feel sheltered as you walk along the street, even though the physical barrier created is negligable. The next set of trees, between 75th and 80th, is scheduled to go in April 20th. I'll post an announcement when that date gets closer.
More monorail stuff: After the tree planting, a few of us stood around talking about the monorail and its effect on the 15th Ave corridor. The consensus was that we need more information from the ETC board about their plans for parking and rerouting telephone wires before we can endorse running the monorail up 15th. Another concern is the height of the track going over the ship canal--it if truly going to be 125 feet above the water, it will need to be 60 feet up at Market St., which would make for a dizzying station height. I committed to calling the ETC staff to get more information.
We also found out that our own Bill Bryant, Loyal Heights resident who works for Metro, is the Metro coordinator with the monorail. He can be contacted at bill.bryant@metrokc.gov if you have questions about plans for the monorail to interact with the bus system.
The next ETC board meeting is the Monday, March 4th in the City Council Chambers. More information, including agenda, here.