SDOT crews were in the neighborhood today (Thursday), installing some new brown street signs.
Copyright Upper Seattle LLC
What’s this all about? Benjamin Lukoff, Crosscut‘s “resident address nerd” explains:
Leaves aren’t the only thing that have recently been changing color in Seattle. Some of our street name signs — all but one of which have, for more than 40 years, featured white lettering on a green background — are turning a distinct shade of brown.
When I first noticed these going up near my Roosevelt apartment, my immediate thought — brown being the standard color for signs indicating areas of “recreational and cultural interest” — was of Seattle’s network of park-like streets, particularly our Olmsted boulevards. My email inquiry to SDOT went unanswered, however, which led me to ponder the matter as they began to spring up elsewhere. I eventually did find confirmation, buried in Appendix G (PDF) of the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan: “The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation is working with SDOT to develop brown signs for routes on Olmsted boulevards.” [ ... ]
