Paved With Gold

As someone who lives on the South End, I've watched with some frustration the seemingly endless construction work on Martin Luther King Way as Sound Transit gets ready for light rail. Half the time, you couldn't even recognize the intersection nearest your home, never mind make a turn there, because the landscape was constantly evolving as workers knocked down buildings, moved around masses of dirt and rearranged traffic lanes. Well, much of the heavy-duty construction work is now complete and, I have to say, Martin Luther King is looking much better than it used to. There's a nice design element to the stations and spiked poles that run along the light rail line. Plus, workers have planted trees and put in new crosswalks and stoplights. But the really big news for the previously scruffy thoroughfare is sidewalks. They might as well be paved with gold, they're so valuable, and rare, in many neighborhoods around here.

Sidewalks along Martin Luther King Way.