One year ago, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell launched his “Downtown Activation Plan,” which outlined 46 action items – from adding more murals to improving street lighting. According to his office, 27 of the initiatives are in progress and 16 are complete.
Items that have been completed: new murals, satellite farmers markets and pickleball courts. Also, small shipping containers along the waterfront with pop-up retail businesses inside. These are an offshoot of the city’s program to fill vacant storefronts with artists and small businesses.
Still in the works: an opioid overdose recovery center, regulation changes to spur apartment building construction and a tribal interpretive center on the downtown waterfront.
It’s still too early to tell if these efforts are helping revive downtown Seattle; when seasonally adjusted, the improvement in the number of tourists and residents visiting the area is faint. There is hope, however, for a restored vibrancy to the downtown core, with the number of workers returning to downtown offices up 14% over last year.
Time will tell if all the city’s strategies will prove successful. The upcoming rule changes to make it easier to build downtown may be helpful in the long term but are unlikely to gain much traction from builders until interest rates decline.
This post is based on information found on KUOW.
