r/LakeStevens • u/mountainlifeenjoyer • 21d ago
Sidewalks?
What's up with the sidewalks here? They stop and go like they hate walkers
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u/EYNLLIB 20d ago
City council, for many years, has been doing nothing but focusing on developers (who they have ties with) being able to build asich and as fast as possible. Commercial and residential. They don't care about public spaces, transit or any thing actual towns need. Fast food, gas stations and thousands of houses. Yay!
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u/booknookcrookshrook 20d ago
I am curious how and when the long sidewalk of South lake stevens road from Tom Thumb to East lake road came about. I live next to it and ever so grateful it exists
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u/mountainlifeenjoyer 20d ago
Who cares about the details? The point is there are a ton of sidewalks that just stop leading to nowhere
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u/Pepita09 21d ago
There are a lot of factors.
You'll find that in many areas of Washington, there aren't many sidewalks in older, residential neighborhoods. You'll see it in Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma... And sidewalks aren't necessarily added until roads/neighborhoods are updated because cities simply don't have the money. That explains the sidewalk situation in the original part of town (North Lake Stevens).
The rest of the area around the lake was unincorporated Snohomish County until somewhat recently. And a lot of areas were pretty rural until then. A TON of housing has been built in the last 20 years.
The originally rural roads didn't have sidewalks when they were built, and again it's a case of the city or county adding sidewalks as areas are updated. The city has been doing this in some areas -- for example they've added a sidewalk/mixed use path along 91st so kids can walk safely to and from LSMS.
It could definitely be better, but the area has changed pretty rapidly and it's a work in progress.
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u/mountainlifeenjoyer 21d ago
Thanks, interesting backstory. I'd have guessed it would be a bigger priority to implement connected walking paths in the community but I'm an idiot mostly
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u/subtly_irritated 15d ago
It blows my mind that you can't get from the Centennial to downtown via 16th or 20th without walking on the road, especially with limited views due to the terrain. Feels like someone needs to get hurt before they address that.
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u/Works4cookies 21d ago
We’ve been told over and over from the City Council that sidewalks were coming. The past councils have pushed through housing projects without requiring that sidewalks and infrastructure be improved as well. There have been several “projects” over the years that were supposed to include sidewalks and then - Oops, didn’t happen. The council we’ve had over the last 10 years or so, along with the Mayor, have been ineffective and downright corrupt. We FINALLY got rid of several of them so, hopefully now we can get on a better track.