|
| | | | Why Do Some Seattle Neighborhoods Lose Power So Much? | Since moving to Seattle a year ago, I’ve noticed that the power has gone out in my house or in my neighborhood more than I expected. Turns out that’s happening in a lot of neighborhoods, and the reasons why go all the way back to the 1960s. [Seattle Times] | - Long outages: The average length of a power outage in Seattle is 145 minutes, up from 78 minutes in 2014. The reason? Buried cables that aren’t well protected.
- Why buried? In the 1960s, Seattle decided to ‘beautify’ some of its neighborhoods by burying power cables to make the neighborhoods look more like the suburbs. The initial burying of powerlines was successful, and soon the city offered to split the cost of burying powerlines 50/50 between homeowners and the power company. But over time, the amount the city was paying dropped, and as costs increased, especially with inflation, the beautification was only happening in wealthy areas.
- So what is causing the outages? The problem is the cables were buried without much insulation, and repairing them, which involves digging them up and feeding new cables, is expensive and difficult.
- The solution: City Light needs to properly manage its buried cables, many of which have already passed their expected lifespan. More than 300 miles of cable have to be replaced at a cost of $2 billion over the next 15 years.
- What to do if your power goes out? Follow these instructions from the City of Seattle. And to see when your neighborhood needs or is due for upgraded cable, read here.
|
|
|
|
| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| 🚗 Cars could return to the Market soon: Pike Place Market’s pedestrian pilot program could be scaled back starting in October. SDOT's new proposal would limit "soft closures" of Pike Place to just three days a week despite visitors’ “near universal” support for vehicle barriers, according to a June survey. The move reflects their effort to balance the competing interests of merchants, tourists, and locals. [The Urbanist] | | | 🧑⚕️ Caregivers union and state at odds over pay: The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the governor’s office are in the middle of a negotiation over pay for caregivers. SEIU workers asked for a 12% wage increase over the next two years, but the state instead proposed freezing wages. [Washington State Standard] | | 🏈 The “grassology” of Lumen Field: Soccer teams played on real grass while visiting Seattle during the World Cup, but artificial FieldTurf has officially returned for football season. Why? Our city’s weather can make it harder to maintain grass, and Lumen Field is used by three professional sports teams (more than any other stadium), which causes a lot of wear and tear on the field. Players say they can feel the difference and want the real thing anyway, but it would be expensive to maintain. [Seattle Times] | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
