Remember the traffic circle at 12th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 95th Street that looked like this (at right) just a few months ago?
At the time, the Seattle Department of Transportation was in need of a volunteer to take over the care and maintenance of the overgrown traffic circle, and was threatening to pave over it if nobody came forward.
Looks like the traffic circle now has an officially registered volunteer gardener.
SDOT’s Joshua Erickson says Barbara Maxwell, an executive board member of the Maple Leaf Community Council and head of its community garden/gardening committee, helped find a volunteer who actually had petitioned the city for that specific traffic circle 17 years ago. Erickson adds:
Paving a traffic circle is really not something we want to do. When it comes to that point, that decision is made because it is less expensive than sending crews out annually to keep the vegetation under control. I’m encouraged that some people came forward to help volunteer there, and hope even more come forward to help carry the torch!
now if we can only get the trucks and cars to stop driving through them and ruining our efforts…My neighbor and I care for the circle at 88th and 12th. We’ve had the city replace the sign 3 times and have had to replant things a few times as well……