Summer Green Street poster at the 2024 U District Streetfair booth

Summer Green Street

This Summer!

With potted trees, outdoor seating, art installations, and a street mural, we'll host outdoor concerts, art shows, and movie nights. The goal is to create an attraction to enjoy over the warm days and nights, and bring more foot traffic to local businesses. The project will also address the five-acre deficit in open space and ensure the U District remains livable, sustainable, and accessible as it grows.

As a form of 'tactical urbanism' (quick, cheap, and temporary modifications), all of this activity will culminate with the U District Food Walk, when The Ave is again prioritized for people on Saturday, September 28.

Come join the fun!

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Site Plan

Click the Site Plan below to download the summer project flyer.

Guiding Principles

Throughout our summer project, these are our objectives:

Create places for people, centered on pedestrian experience

Summer activation to prototype future 'Green Street'

Provide for needs of local stakeholders & small businesses

Attract people to the U District during slower, summer months

The Project

This summer, we will build a prototype of the proposed Green Street to test public responses to the improvement strategies from last year's conceptual plan to make NE 42nd Street safer and more pedestrian-friendly.

This project will set the stage with outdoor seating, temporary street trees, traffic calming, lighting, and street murals, phased in over a series of weeks.

Once ready, we will host a series of free activities such as outdoor concerts, art installations, outdoor movies, buskers, and more, all for community gathering.

These temporary activations will test ideas for more permanent installations and capital improvements for this community space. It will also activate this public area in the heart of the U District during the slower summer months.

Who?

This volunteer project relies on the exceptional involvement of neighbors like you, and through our partnerships with the U District Advocates, U District Community Council, U District Partnership, and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, among others.

With input from key stakeholders (small business owners, property owners, UW, residents, and students), we reached consensus on last year's conceptual Green Street plan.

At last year's streetfair booth this project garnered 1,686 votes in support, by far the most popular program initiative, and then another 391 votes from this year's streetfair!

Community support and involvement has been sufficiently verified and people are excited!

How?

Last year our community developed a plan, and this year we were awarded $50,000 in funding to try it out for the summer. We'll bring in potted trees, outdoor seating, furniture, and lighting. We'll paint street murals and set up a stage for outdoor concerts, art shows, and movie nights.

As a form of 'tactical urbanism' (quick, cheap, and temporary), all of this activity will culminate with the U District Food Walk on September 28th, when The Ave is once again prioritized for people.

Why?

The goal is to create an attraction to enjoy over the warm days and nights, and bring more foot traffic to local businesses this summer.

The future improvements will address the five-acre deficit in open space and ensure the U District remains livable, sustainable, and accessible as it grows and welcomes more neighbors.

Benefits

This project will bring so many benefits to the U District's dense urban center:

• Activation of public right-of-way on one block

• Improved safety and access to everything

• Pedestrian prioritization with traffic calming

• Increased tree canopy and vegetation

• Outdoor seating and dining tables

• Musical performances and buskers

• Outdoor movies and other activities

• Increased foot traffic and economic activity

• Art Walk and art installations

• Volunteer, community-led placemaking

This will be a demonstration of how one street can be transformed to inspire neighbors, and even other neighborhoods.

Get Involved!

Come help realize this exciting project. There are several volunteer opportunities:

• Serve on the Steering Committee √

• Be a part of our Stakeholder Group √

• Help us paint the street mural √

• Plant the temporary street trees - Sat, Jul 20, 10am-6pm

• Submit artwork into the Art Walk competition √

• Design a piece for Street Furniture competition √

• Host our engagement booth on site

• Watch a summer outdoor movie

• Dance in the street at outdoor concert stage

• Help us break it down in late September

The Promise

The promise of the new Seattle Transportation and Comprehensive Plans is that:

"Communities should be the ones to shape spaces in their neighborhoods."

Project Timeline

Check back later for an updated timeline, or subscribe to stay in the loop on this project.

More Info

For more information on the project, and to subscribe for frequent updates, visit the website at: green.udistrict.org. You may also email us at green@udistrict.org. For project updates, subscribe below.

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Sponsors & Partners

Funding provided by the Neighborhood Matching Fund of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Additional funding provided by 4Culture of King County and the U District Advocates, who serves as our fiscal sponsor.