Let it snow !?

Of all the City's neighborhoods, Madison Park is probably the very best one in which to become snowbound.  The "winter wonderland" setting, plus the combination of a relatively flat topography and the immediately accessible (for most) amenities, can make a few days of waiting out the snow here a rather pleasant experience.  During the last couple of days, with snow in the forecast, we encountered plenty of people hoping for the seemingly-unlikely possibility of being snowed in.  With the snow falling fast and furiously this afternoon and a couple inches of it already on the ground, a snowbound scenario looks a bit more likely than it did just this morning.  It's white out there.

If you need for some reason to get in or out of the Park, however, the situation now is becoming a bit more problematic. As of early this afternoon, traffic was moving slowly and warily on E. Madison Street in both directions, though there didn't appear to be any blockages.

There was very light traffic on Madison Park's side streets, and some of the traffic on Madison seemed to be related to quick trips to Bert's, Starbucks, and other essential destinations in "The Village." Neighborhood eateries didn't appear to be packing 'em in when we made our site inspections around lunchtime.

With tomorrow's Marting Luther King, Jr. Day a holiday for many (including the students of McGilvra Elementary), the need to be on the road will be lessened.  For those who must travel, assuming that today's snow accumulations are still on the streets tomorrow as expected, they should check the Seattle Department of Transportation's weather response map for details of street conditions (the map, incidentally, was not working for us when we tried accessing it this afternoon using multiple browsers).

And as we reported last year, Madison Street, at least in our part of town, is not considered a top-priority street for snow clearing purposes. It is designated a "Level 2" street, which means that when SDOT gets around to clearing it the standard will be one lane in each direction "bare and wet," which is all we really need.  Level 1 streets are indicated in yellow on the snow-removal map, with Level 2 streets shown in blue (click to enlarge):

The complete City map is available here.  Bus weather-alert information, meanwhile, is available here.  Note that the snow removal for Madison Park includes all of route for Metro's Route 11 bus.  And if you need help in the snow or want to volunteer to help others, please contact the Madison Park Snow Brigade (information available here).