Alleys of Seattle

Thank you everyone for coming!  It was awesome to see more than one other person, pigeon, or rat walking around in there this weekend!  Our walk lasted for two hours and brought some interesting things to light.  We moved from the Moore all the way to Maynard and Canton Alleys where we got to go in and speak with the owner of Sun May, who gave us a brief history lesson on the two alleys.  Apparently they were live/work and the first two major blocks in the area.  This could explain their having commercial space on three sides instead of just two.

There were many great questions asked and a lot of new things discovered.  I would like to thank Lisa Quinn of Feet First and Todd Vogel of the International Sustainability Institute for opening their office n on a weekend to talk about their great space and initiatives.  I would encourage everyone who attended the tour to tell their friends to walk through the alleys, imagine what they could be, plant things, and keep an eye on them.  The city needs to look at them as pedestrian assets more and more until they are capable of turning them into just that.   There is a lot of character, potential, and history within these spaces – we only need to bring them to the attention of everyone.  Thanks to Heidi Oien for giving me the idea to do this and thanks to everyone who came out. Thanks also to Karann MacNealy, Animish Kudalkar, and Max Foley for taking photos along the way.  I will be posting information shortly on a volunteer group that is gathering to paint and clean Maynard and Canton alleys in hopes that they can be returned to a great commercial and pedestrian area – so stay tuned.

Also, now on flickr – check out photos of our walk along with Jane’s walks across the U.S. and Canada!  http://www.flickr.com/groups/janeswalk2010/pool/