Revitalize Downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle is a beautiful place, and we feel lucky to get to call this place home. While Seattle was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel optimistic about the future of our city. Seattle is full of innovators and outside-the-box thinkers, which is part of what makes this area so special—we’re known for coming together and producing pretty amazing things. Not only do we live in the birthplace of some of the most successful worldwide companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing, but we’re also recognized for our substantive culture that places emphasis on things like the arts, cuisine, and social issues.
And now that things are returning to normal, the Downtown Seattle Association has launched a new campaign called Revitalize Downtown Seattle. Its guiding mission is to reimagine our city and make it better than ever before. Earlier this year, the association brought together groups of businesses, nonprofit leaders, downtown residents, city officials, and other Seattleites to work together to come up with ideas for this revitalization effort. Through a lot of work and brainstorming, they have narrowed it down to thirteen ideas and are hoping to get community feedback on them, with the understanding that Seattle’s revitalization depends on fostering a spirit of collaboration, inclusion, and community. Below are those thirteen ideas.
Summer Streets
A summer-long festival on a handful of downtown streets that would be closed to cars so pedestrians, musicians, pop-up shops, and vendors can take over the area.
Downtown Digital Discovery
A chance to see what’s going on in downtown without being there. You’ll be able to use your phone to learn about live music, new restaurants, in-store deals, and anything else happening downtown with the idea that this will encourage more people to come downtown for fun events.
Art in the Heart
In place of closed businesses, this idea proposes that we make use of empty storefronts by turning them into art galleries, maker spaces, artists’ studios, and rehearsal spaces. All types of art would be included and there is a special focus on highlighting underrepresented communities.
Downtown Scavenger Hunt
To make Seattle the “most artful city on earth,” they are proposing that we create a mobile scavenger hunt that encourages people to come downtown to see existing public art and new, temporary installations. The mobile scavenger hunt will guide users to the art and encourage them to find unique, hard-to-notice quirks in the art.
Downtown Seattle is “No Fare”
On select days throughout the month, Metro Transit would provide “no fare” transit service to, from, and through downtown with the idea that making it free to travel here would encourage more people to visit downtown.
Pedestrian Zones
Seattle is a largely walkable city and the idea here is to close some streets downtown to make way for pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes. This would also allow for restaurants to offer more outdoor dining options and for street musicians to perform in a quieter place with more foot traffic.
Light It Up, Seattle
With the understanding that people love lights and lightshows, this idea proposes that Downtown Seattle goes the extra step by installing LED light displays, building projections, and drone light shows to make the city center feel magical and night and encourage people to come see the special lights.
Happy Hours Aloft
A walking tour of Seattle’s most amazing rooftop decks that allows people from all over to take advantage of some of the most beautiful sights that make our city special. Tours would be by appointment only.
Best of Seattle Meets Downtown
Another idea to tackle empty storefronts is to invite some of the most beloved neighborhood shops and restaurants to create pop-up shops in those empty downtown storefronts. This would allow the best of all Seattle to be in one central, downtown location. A one-stop-shop!
Downtown’s on a Roll
A free shuttle service that connects downtown Seattle to its various parts, including South Lake Union and Pioneer Square, both of which are home to great local businesses but are a little far for some people to walk.
Downtown Host
The idea is to turn unused ground floor, commercial real estate into lively community centers that would be free for anyone to use—some ideas include internet cafes, fitness studios, cooking centers, senior centers, and business hubs for remote workers.
Seattle Night Market
Taking inspiration from Asian night markets, this idea proposes that we create a late-night bazaar with food stalls, live music, and shopping.
Outdoor Food Hall
With so many restaurants shutting down during COVID-19, this idea proposes that we transform their unused kitchen space into a communal cooking area for multiple restaurants and eateries. This would make it more accessible and cost-efficient for new restaurants to open up shop and we could establish an outdoor eating area that all the restaurants serve.
