Right? At least they are building housing in a donut around it. But think of the views that the towers would have there!

That's a bummer, I think we can and should have meaningful public engagement without stonewalling or delaying projects.

No worries, the point stands. Lots of trees in both areas with lots of new development.

Hmm... I think we all mean the U District, yes? We have wonderful trees, as documented in this photograph of the U District Street Fair.

That's interesting. Do we know how many units it opened back up?

U District is pretty easy to access now. Good point!

Agreed, the shores of Lake Washington and Magnolia are kinda the end of the earth from Downtown. It would be interesting to see the lines drawn differently.

There are lots of big apartment 50yr+ buildings on QA, and the world didn't end. Perhaps we could have more?

Financing, outdated tax codes, and punitive building codes incentivize properties to keep spaces vacant. Historic preservation districts can't be the answer. We need more policy tools to ensure our streets are great 50 years from now. Otherwise who will want to come to these lovely car-free streets?

Our commercial districts are at a tipping point where all of the systems and incentives are pushing out small businesses. Blocks in our fastest growing neighborhoods that originally had 8-15 local small businesses get replaced with only 3, and amenity spaces for residential or other interior uses.

I agree, there is a lot to be done to make our city streets more hospitable to people, but it's all for nothing if we don't focus on the walls that line them.

It was the best option, after Metropolitans.

Downtown trolley thing?

Not self serving at all. It'd make so much sense. 70 blocks of rail disconnected by 17 blocks in the middle. And perhaps we could skip the areaways on first in PSQ and connect it to the ferry terminal for a few blocks on the waterfront before taking it up to the market.

Well, until a couple of years ago it was the front door to Ross, TJ Maxx, Columbia Sportswear, Benaroya Hall, Wild Ginger, Bartells Drugs, Bergman Luggage, Walgreens, Bed Bath & Beyond, a frame shop, a smoke shop, McDonald's and a handful of other stores. I know it's dire now, but that's a choice.

I'd check with Jon or Alex. DSA's exploration of options and is still on their website. One thing that we questioned was the need to have a transferless trips all the way through downtown from North Seattle to South Seattle when it makes bus trips so slow and inefficient, primarily on Third.

With 270 busses/hour in 2019, Third Ave moved fewer people with more busses and less sidewalk space than any transit mall in North America. We absolutely need a legible transit spine, but this loud wall of diesel and metal that persists for chunks of the day has some real trade offs unfortunately.

The latter makes sense.

It does eat into housing supply. Does it have enough of an impact to significantly change rents in one year? Maybe not?

It's a tradeoff with housing for locals and crash pads for tourists. I am on the side of building more actual hotels that don't displace residents.

100%

Seems like the article pointed to several intersecting factors that drove the cost up. But having just been to New York, I agree, hotel rates were expensive.

You are right, but to be honest, if new cookie cutter housing looked more like the pre-war apartment buildings in Seattle, they might win more hearts and minds.

That's a big delta, is it the same with 5th diagonal?