Queen Anne Boulevard - Current Use

Current Use

Parks and Engineering continue each to have responsibilities relative to the boulevard, resulting in occasional inter-departmental squabbling. Nonetheless, the boulevard continues to be recognized as a vital part of the Queen Anne neighborhood, "The Crown of Queen Anne", an "urban trail and needed recreational amenity … appreciated by many Queen Anners and visitors for a diverse variety of uses" both for "automobile access to Upper Queen Anne neighborhoods" and as "a recreational and aesthetic amenity… used at all hours… The Boulevard offers shade in the summer, beautiful autumn color in the fall, and an open and sunny landscaped path in the winter."

Every July beginning in 1986, the Queen Anne Helpline, a neighborhood social services agency, has sponsored the Crown of Queen Anne fun run on the boulevard. The race runs clockwise, starting near the Mt Pleasant Cemetery and finishing at Coe Elementary School.

As of 2008 recent, current, and proposed improvements for the boulevard include improving sidewalks and making sure that there is a sidewalk on at least one side of the boulevard throughout its length, adding signage that will indicate the boulevard route, creating "friendly" crossings where the boulevard intersects other major roads, better managing trees and other plants, adding "period sensitive and pedestrian scale" lighting to improve safety while still retaining the boulevard's historic character, removing encroachments, and better enforcing parking laws.