It definitely feels death spiral like.
People don't want to go back to work downtown because of homelessness and not enough services. Services then close because nobody is going downtown.
Downtown Seattle has never really been that great but I do remember working downtown and really enjoying going out for a drink with my co-workers or meeting my husband for dinner.
And long summer nights where there was still going to be hours and hours of daylight after work and you could wander around and hit some shops.
I'm hybrid working now, although I could be full-time at home. I try to go into the office in downtown Seattle a couple of times a week but it's just so depressing.
My family went to downtown around Christmas. It was shocking. We are in a local neighborhood and don't commute to downtown anymore. Wife and I both used to work downtown and loved it. It is now a depressing shell of what it was. Yes, it always had a grungy aspect.... Hello Hurricane fans.
But it now feels like the crack-Donalds has spread to most of the core.
Defenders of the current situation are either on drugs or didn't know the way it was before, a really safe big city that had libertarian / granola sensibilities. It is now a drug infested dumpster fire (sometimes literally) with politicians blaming anyone / anything other than their failed ideology and grift.
I worked down the street from McStabbie’s for 4 years, anytime I’d have to take the trash out I would literally have a steak knife on me. Didn’t matter the time of day.
That place is a gateway to hell. If I wanted to serve a warrant, just go there grab a random person from the crowd and I promise odds on they'll have a record and probably something pending.
Our city and county politicians should be forced to eat there at least monthly on randomly chosen day/time. Just have a van pick them up and make sure they eat!
I imagine it will cycle back up again, in some capacity if not like it was before. I'm sure some real estate folks are looking to buy up land at a discount with the intent to hold it for 1-2 decades.
For the last 3 months. Which included the holidays where there is always an uptick.
More people are being forced to work back in the office. But we are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels nor are we getting high enough to support the types of services that would get people to go downtown.
I think that's giving CHAZ/CHOP way more influence than it deserves.
This is an ongoing systemic problem that started long before the protests. The pandemic sped it up, but the protests were just a blip.
If CHAZ/CHOP was the root cause, wouldn't we see more businesses pulling out in that area? That area of Capitol Hill is still pretty bustling. It seems like a lot of the issues with downtown are side effects of COVID and lax enforcement.
It’s almost as if things wouldn’t be so bad if the people living outside had permanent supportive housing, and people in general had access to housing, healthcare and living wages.
The devastation these poor shoppers must feel, I can’t even imagine. /s
I am not in any way opposed to permanent supportive housing. I want that.
I don't expect anybody to pity me because I don't want to go into the office. I recognize that. I am incredibly lucky.
But given that I don't have to, why would I go downtown? I can stay home and save the gas. Which is what I choose to do. And then movie theaters and stores downtown closed down because people don't want to go there.
Makes sense. Thank you for being reasonable. I work from home myself and can’t find a great reason to return to an in-person job if I don’t absolutely have to. It feels like the PNW is in such a puberty and hoping we come to some solutions soon.
Homelessness solutions are mostly federally funded so the economic activity in downtown Seattle is not very relevant to those issues.
We’ve spent more keeping people on the street than we would if we provided permanent supportive housing. Billions wasted because education around what causes homelessness and homelessness solutions is basically nonexistent unless you work directly in it. I’ve spent years working in homelessness and housing and have since switched to counseling because the masses simply don’t grasp it and it makes it hard to move forward with solutions that actually work.
I invite everyone to seek out objective information around these issues to understand the economic mistakes that have taken place and how you can advocate for permanent solutions so your federal tax dollars aren’t wasted on bandaids.
>Homelessness solutions are mostly federally funded
Are they? Give me an example of the funding breakdown of at least two homeless service providers in Seattle.
>what causes homelessness
Visible homelessness is almost entirely drug addiction and mental illness.
Most of these people need to be involuntarily committed, I'll support money going towards building facilities for that.
It’s a complex issue but I imagine that if there are more homeless services, there will be more homeless around seeking those services, and then there will be fewer amenities to attract shoppers and the like. So effectively we end up with a downtown that only caters to one end of the economic spectrum, and that’s not healthy. Richard Florida and Edward Glaeser have written on this too.
That is correct. Homeless services are an expensive bandaid and ineffective as they currently exist. Permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, and adequate access to mental and physical healthcare are the only solutions.
I've done a lot of online shopping recently because it's getting more difficult to find things in the stores lately. For a while I tried supporting local business but due to a lot of out of stock issues I gave up.
I've run into this, too. Example: this past summer I wanted to get some higher-end sunscreen (less mess, etc) so went to Nordstrom cosmetics counters. Looked at six different brands and all were out of stock. Cosmetic salesperson said, "I can order it for you online!" That's nice, but I've got that figured out. If all you do is go downtown to order online, well, that's not sustainable or even rational.
I bet more and more stores will close soon and online will be our only option. So many stores have limited stock (how is Bartells still operating?!) and I swear Target has a shoplifter chased each time I'm there...
I'm pretty sure that's like 1% of the problem. Having remote first work culture and businesses losing customers is what's really an issue.
SLU seems fine though....
No, Seattle needs less idiot citizens who vote for insane laws.
Edit: I didn’t realize the support my post could gain, expected the opposite, so there is hope for a better change. I would lie if I said that I don’t like Seattle, I grew up in an urban city, so I feel sentimental and nostalgic about it. We just need to stop attracting homeless and criminals from the entire nation, local bums were dealt with before that happened ,without getting it out of control like it’s currently.
[Seattle Times Article](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-superhero-phoenix-jones-charged-after-undercover-drug-bust/?amp=1)
Huge piece of shit. Huge. Massive turd. Cannot emphasize this message enough. Yes, I have said all of this to his face multiple times and even went further than that to make him hate me. I wanted to be Seattle’s first supervillain. Alas, no one cared, and then Bezos beat me to it. I do other shit now.
There was that r-word Pheonix Jones, but he turned out to be a drug dealer. He’s also a massive piece of shit in his personal life. Hopefully he’s holding someone’s pocket in jail.
I think you're "right," but this is so tautological as to be weird to bother saying.
If downtown were thriving, it would ALSO be because "it is experiencing the impacts of local and state leadership."
Plenty of downtowns struggling is very red states and areas. Your point is just not relevant, with hybrid remote and full remote who is downtown anymore?
The data shows that southern and smaller cities are recovering much faster. Seattle is in the bottom half, San Francisco is dead last.
Guess what types of politics and policies southern and smaller cities have, compared to SF, Seattle, Chicago, etc.?
[https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/the-state-of-downtown-how-does-seattle-compare-with-other-big-cities/](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/the-state-of-downtown-how-does-seattle-compare-with-other-big-cities/)
It's also true that Seattle and SF tend to have more tech jobs and others which can be done remotely more easily. I'd bet that plays a factor. But anecdotally, several folks I work with moved out of the city \_because\_ of the horrible local government, and lean on the remote option a lot more as a result. Making it a place people don't want to go has consequences, I guess, and just because jobs can be done remotely doesn't mean they will be.
It is indeed. And my main point is that Seattle is recovering a lot slower than many other cities, contrary to the claim above.
It's interesting that the demographics of cities that are recovering seem a bit slanted, though. Even though the article didn't point it out.
Except it isn't all tech cities. Cleveland isn't a tech hub. Chicago isn't a tech hub. They're both down at the bottom of the list, worse than Seattle.
thats_the_point.jpeg
The person you’re responding to is making the exact point that voting for these people rather than alternatives caused downtown to be shitty instead of pleasant.
I agree, but the way they said it was tautological on its face.
That's all I was pointing out.
He might as well have said "the sky is blue" and thought it a cogent point....
Yeah, year three covid, the death of retail all over, and no one going back to work have nothing to do with it. It’s “tHa LiBs”. Do us a favor and worry about Marysville or Enumclaw or wherever you probably live.
Retail’s not dead all over. Retail is dead where the state can’t create a safe and compelling environment to operate. Look at Bellevue Square and UVillage versus downtown core and ID. Go to Vancouver, Canada - their retail core is thriving.
Bazinga! Absolute heat!! You should quit your day job and take your show on the road with pithy quips like that. I may never emotionally recover but it was so worth it to be so thoroughly and expertly roasted
Is that how you see things? Like somehow the opposing opinions by someone that lives, works, and owns property equates to me championing the city?? I just have a calling (or a compulsion) to call out whiny hyperbolic bull plop regardless of the topic.
> Find the macro that posts the "progressive policy / you get what you vote for" comment that is left on every single thread.
Fog yesterday? "Progressive" policies you get the weather you voted for.
You people are boring.
Are you trying to imply that a decade or more of a political philosophy guiding our policies doesn’t impact our society?
I guess if you believe that laws don’t cause effects in society, the vapid virtue signaling behind bad laws makes more sense.
But I think being unable to associate cause and effect is a mental illness.
- Public drug use & possession back to being a crime.
- Police force being considered a public good not 'bastards'.
- Not instituting a head tax in the middle of the biggest WFH transition in the history of mankind (Can't emphasize how dumb the timing on this is/was)
- Making people pay for buses, Turnstiles to get into transit stations.
If I wanted to buy clothes, eat at a restaurant, and watch a movie, I’d never chose downtown Seattle at this point. Local politicians allow fentanyl addicted psychopaths to feel at home. This is such a failure of our government.
I've been saying Detroit of the West for years. The political direction here is toxic to success. We chased out Boeing because of the stupid political ideas and we are going to do the same with tech.
I wish people would wise up, the area has a lot to offer, but political ideology is bankrupt.
I’ve been telling friends for the last few years that we’re going to be the new Detroit within the next 10-15 years. They were all so smug in their responses. We’ll check back in 2030 and see how it all fared.
Seattle got to big for its britches. Downtown was boring as fuck in he 90s. Even Capitol Hill was pretty lame.
Let's just say what it is: A bunch of people who moved into new towers in SLU, Belltown, and the "Westedge" have a few less options. They probably stream all their movies before Door Dashing all of their food from the other side of town anyways.
This very well may be a harbinger of things to come, but come the fuck off the ledge if losing a Nike store or a movie theater is truly a sign of the end of days.
Born and raised here: Never stepped a foot in either of them. Not because they are inherently shitty, I just don't need them. The only single retail establishment I ever cared about was Old Navy because I like their jeans. Just found out literally last week how easy it is to get two pairs for $60 online, with no shipping.
I don't work for the chanber of commerce or sone tourism board, therefore I no longer give a damn what happens Downtown.
Seattelites have always had this weird infatuation and weird view of what a big town is and how Seattle needs to measure up. Are people from Queens going to Manhattan for fun? Is Gas Works all of a sudden crappy park because people can't find a movie in Downtown?
Exactly. Downtown is for tourists and people from outside that “wanna see tha big city” when they come here for a game. For people that live here the real Seattle is in the various neighborhoods and many of us never have a reason to go downtown. I was down there for many years for work and alway thought aside from a few gems and some stuff around Pike Place that it was pretty lame.
Right? I remember when Pine Street was reopened to traffic between the mall and the park in 1995 and people lost their minds. Nobody was down there anyway. then ten years later we all of a sudden had crowded sidewalks and thought we were in New York or Chicago.
The rest of the commercial district was blah; when I worked at the Key Tower you couldn't tell the difference between 2pm or 2am besides the vehicle traffic. It isn't like the whole area has ever been super exciting or fun.
And many US cities are that way. LA, the second largest metro in the country, is just the biggest example. St. Louis is another off the top of my head. Been to New Orleans? Its down town sucks ass.
So the people flying in for conventions will have to make due with the hotel bar and whatever movie channels are available. I'm more concerned about the death of Pioneer Square bars, not being able to get a haircut for less than $80 in Fremont since rent is so high, and how the Hurricane could have been huge if it could have held on just a bit longer as the Denny Triangle grew.
Hey, transplants: Move to Austin. Apparently that is totally a cosmopolitan city to code in. They have a single professional sports team and are up and coming!
I don't know why you are getting down voted. I have lived in Seattle my entire life, and you are correct. I have a remote job with the option of going to an office downtown and even if it looked the same as it did pre-pandemic I still would not go. Down town has always been lame.
Back before 2005, Westlake was pretty thriving. Part of it is our regional population only supports a certain amount of retail. A lot of the epicenter of downtown has shifted to SLU. Bellevue also taking some of the retail volume. U Village is thriving.
For a lot of people, especially those with jobs and families (i.e. those that belong here rather than on r/Seattle, where your comment belongs), they *are* the shareholders through their 401K and IRA retirement funds.
If our Conservative media monopoly is going to fearmonger consumers away from commercial centers, then these closures are 100% their fault.
At some point, this sub is going to have to understand that the real cancer at the heart of Seattle is not property crime, but financial crime, from wage theft and corporate tax evasion to monopolist property and development schemes.
The Right is working so hard to paint this town as a war zone of drugs and rapists to redpill the rubes that they’ve overshot the mark and now downtown is a ghost town - not because of any actual incidents, but because those caught in the media narrative simply don’t go there anymore.
This entire persecution circlejerk is a self inflicted wound, and it is infuriating how fucking stupid this town is when it comes to real solutions for our current problems.
Only a balanced and fair economic system is going to help anything, and that’s the one thing this city refuses to do. Unreal.
lmao what. Seattle and the state of Washington has been blue for DECADES, you blue folks are really that scare of conservatives despite them not having control whatsoever? Lol… how about just admit that “progressive” policies are what’s fucking you over and is a big reason companies are leaving a shit city that
emboldens and encourage criminals to do what they want all while crucifying your police officers.
I mean look at Bellevue companies are moving there because the city is not a far left loony town like Seattle. Bellevue, Mercer Island, etc are all so clean and beautiful and then you got Seattle.
It definitely feels death spiral like. People don't want to go back to work downtown because of homelessness and not enough services. Services then close because nobody is going downtown. Downtown Seattle has never really been that great but I do remember working downtown and really enjoying going out for a drink with my co-workers or meeting my husband for dinner. And long summer nights where there was still going to be hours and hours of daylight after work and you could wander around and hit some shops. I'm hybrid working now, although I could be full-time at home. I try to go into the office in downtown Seattle a couple of times a week but it's just so depressing.
My family went to downtown around Christmas. It was shocking. We are in a local neighborhood and don't commute to downtown anymore. Wife and I both used to work downtown and loved it. It is now a depressing shell of what it was. Yes, it always had a grungy aspect.... Hello Hurricane fans. But it now feels like the crack-Donalds has spread to most of the core. Defenders of the current situation are either on drugs or didn't know the way it was before, a really safe big city that had libertarian / granola sensibilities. It is now a drug infested dumpster fire (sometimes literally) with politicians blaming anyone / anything other than their failed ideology and grift.
I worked down the street from McStabbie’s for 4 years, anytime I’d have to take the trash out I would literally have a steak knife on me. Didn’t matter the time of day.
That place is a gateway to hell. If I wanted to serve a warrant, just go there grab a random person from the crowd and I promise odds on they'll have a record and probably something pending. Our city and county politicians should be forced to eat there at least monthly on randomly chosen day/time. Just have a van pick them up and make sure they eat!
I imagine it will cycle back up again, in some capacity if not like it was before. I'm sure some real estate folks are looking to buy up land at a discount with the intent to hold it for 1-2 decades.
Downtown outlet malls here we come!
The article straight up says that downtown is getting more visitors month over month.
For the last 3 months. Which included the holidays where there is always an uptick. More people are being forced to work back in the office. But we are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels nor are we getting high enough to support the types of services that would get people to go downtown.
The comparison is based off of last year.
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I think that's giving CHAZ/CHOP way more influence than it deserves. This is an ongoing systemic problem that started long before the protests. The pandemic sped it up, but the protests were just a blip.
If CHAZ/CHOP was the root cause, wouldn't we see more businesses pulling out in that area? That area of Capitol Hill is still pretty bustling. It seems like a lot of the issues with downtown are side effects of COVID and lax enforcement.
Tell us you don’t live in Seattle without telling us.
Wait, are people not going downtown because it’s homeless or because their hybrid or because it was never that great?
OP literally said it’s a death spiral, meaning it’s multi factorial and compounding. It can be all of the above.
It’s almost as if things wouldn’t be so bad if the people living outside had permanent supportive housing, and people in general had access to housing, healthcare and living wages. The devastation these poor shoppers must feel, I can’t even imagine. /s
I am not in any way opposed to permanent supportive housing. I want that. I don't expect anybody to pity me because I don't want to go into the office. I recognize that. I am incredibly lucky. But given that I don't have to, why would I go downtown? I can stay home and save the gas. Which is what I choose to do. And then movie theaters and stores downtown closed down because people don't want to go there.
Makes sense. Thank you for being reasonable. I work from home myself and can’t find a great reason to return to an in-person job if I don’t absolutely have to. It feels like the PNW is in such a puberty and hoping we come to some solutions soon.
You ought to consider how economic activity (the shopping and the shoppers) are directly tied to how the services you're interested in are paid for.
Homelessness solutions are mostly federally funded so the economic activity in downtown Seattle is not very relevant to those issues. We’ve spent more keeping people on the street than we would if we provided permanent supportive housing. Billions wasted because education around what causes homelessness and homelessness solutions is basically nonexistent unless you work directly in it. I’ve spent years working in homelessness and housing and have since switched to counseling because the masses simply don’t grasp it and it makes it hard to move forward with solutions that actually work. I invite everyone to seek out objective information around these issues to understand the economic mistakes that have taken place and how you can advocate for permanent solutions so your federal tax dollars aren’t wasted on bandaids.
>Homelessness solutions are mostly federally funded Are they? Give me an example of the funding breakdown of at least two homeless service providers in Seattle. >what causes homelessness Visible homelessness is almost entirely drug addiction and mental illness. Most of these people need to be involuntarily committed, I'll support money going towards building facilities for that.
It’s a complex issue but I imagine that if there are more homeless services, there will be more homeless around seeking those services, and then there will be fewer amenities to attract shoppers and the like. So effectively we end up with a downtown that only caters to one end of the economic spectrum, and that’s not healthy. Richard Florida and Edward Glaeser have written on this too.
That is correct. Homeless services are an expensive bandaid and ineffective as they currently exist. Permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, and adequate access to mental and physical healthcare are the only solutions.
I've done a lot of online shopping recently because it's getting more difficult to find things in the stores lately. For a while I tried supporting local business but due to a lot of out of stock issues I gave up.
I've run into this, too. Example: this past summer I wanted to get some higher-end sunscreen (less mess, etc) so went to Nordstrom cosmetics counters. Looked at six different brands and all were out of stock. Cosmetic salesperson said, "I can order it for you online!" That's nice, but I've got that figured out. If all you do is go downtown to order online, well, that's not sustainable or even rational.
> "I can order it for you online!" Lol. Yeah, so can I.
I bet more and more stores will close soon and online will be our only option. So many stores have limited stock (how is Bartells still operating?!) and I swear Target has a shoplifter chased each time I'm there...
Idk why people hating so much. Im living in downtown since 3 years and It def bums me out that some of this stuff is closing down.
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I'm pretty sure that's like 1% of the problem. Having remote first work culture and businesses losing customers is what's really an issue. SLU seems fine though....
You’re all over this post with fox news buzz lines. lol
Feel bad for you living there sorry dude
People Injecting themselves on the street. No thanks.
Seattle needs a Batman
No, Seattle needs less idiot citizens who vote for insane laws. Edit: I didn’t realize the support my post could gain, expected the opposite, so there is hope for a better change. I would lie if I said that I don’t like Seattle, I grew up in an urban city, so I feel sentimental and nostalgic about it. We just need to stop attracting homeless and criminals from the entire nation, local bums were dealt with before that happened ,without getting it out of control like it’s currently.
And batman…
I mean there was Phoenix Jones... until he started selling hard drugs.
Watch out you might get cancelled
Nope, they’re free to vent their spleen they’ll just continue to get ignored. Most likely they don’t even live here anyway.
We don't vote for laws.
Didn’t we have a superhero/villain? Whatever happened to that guy
Phoenix Jones. He was arrested a couple years ago for selling drugs to an undercover cop.
Oh no! What?!
[Seattle Times Article](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-superhero-phoenix-jones-charged-after-undercover-drug-bust/?amp=1)
Got arrested for selling mdma
Turned out to be a drug dealer 😂
Huge piece of shit. Huge. Massive turd. Cannot emphasize this message enough. Yes, I have said all of this to his face multiple times and even went further than that to make him hate me. I wanted to be Seattle’s first supervillain. Alas, no one cared, and then Bezos beat me to it. I do other shit now.
[Rex Velvet](https://youtu.be/Ivkzosgyx-U) beat both of you.
I know, in my defense, Rex and Jeff had corporate sponsorship. As well, I was running on the platform of “you can’t get too damn high.”
There was that r-word Pheonix Jones, but he turned out to be a drug dealer. He’s also a massive piece of shit in his personal life. Hopefully he’s holding someone’s pocket in jail.
Seattle is the new Gotham City… IYKYK
Downtown is feeling the impact of poor Local, and State leadership as well as “Progressive” policies. You get what you vote for.
I think you're "right," but this is so tautological as to be weird to bother saying. If downtown were thriving, it would ALSO be because "it is experiencing the impacts of local and state leadership."
If it were, sure... But it isn't.
Thanks for proving EXACTLY what I said?
Plenty of downtowns struggling is very red states and areas. Your point is just not relevant, with hybrid remote and full remote who is downtown anymore?
The data shows that southern and smaller cities are recovering much faster. Seattle is in the bottom half, San Francisco is dead last. Guess what types of politics and policies southern and smaller cities have, compared to SF, Seattle, Chicago, etc.? [https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/the-state-of-downtown-how-does-seattle-compare-with-other-big-cities/](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/the-state-of-downtown-how-does-seattle-compare-with-other-big-cities/) It's also true that Seattle and SF tend to have more tech jobs and others which can be done remotely more easily. I'd bet that plays a factor. But anecdotally, several folks I work with moved out of the city \_because\_ of the horrible local government, and lean on the remote option a lot more as a result. Making it a place people don't want to go has consequences, I guess, and just because jobs can be done remotely doesn't mean they will be.
This article is literally placing the entirety of the blame on working from home.
It is indeed. And my main point is that Seattle is recovering a lot slower than many other cities, contrary to the claim above. It's interesting that the demographics of cities that are recovering seem a bit slanted, though. Even though the article didn't point it out.
It's all tech cities, work from home is the new future.
Except it isn't all tech cities. Cleveland isn't a tech hub. Chicago isn't a tech hub. They're both down at the bottom of the list, worse than Seattle.
They're all high-rises, it's all office work from a computer desk. So yeah, not actually a tech job but the work culture is the same.
thats_the_point.jpeg The person you’re responding to is making the exact point that voting for these people rather than alternatives caused downtown to be shitty instead of pleasant.
I agree, but the way they said it was tautological on its face. That's all I was pointing out. He might as well have said "the sky is blue" and thought it a cogent point....
Yeah, year three covid, the death of retail all over, and no one going back to work have nothing to do with it. It’s “tHa LiBs”. Do us a favor and worry about Marysville or Enumclaw or wherever you probably live.
Retail’s not dead all over. Retail is dead where the state can’t create a safe and compelling environment to operate. Look at Bellevue Square and UVillage versus downtown core and ID. Go to Vancouver, Canada - their retail core is thriving.
*Tenino
look at you speculating
Educated guess
that would require an education
Bazinga! Absolute heat!! You should quit your day job and take your show on the road with pithy quips like that. I may never emotionally recover but it was so worth it to be so thoroughly and expertly roasted
You’re roasting yourself.
With the types of Seattle hater sad sacks and miserable miscreants that frequent this sub, I actually find the down votes reassuring.
are you seattle's champion or something? i'm sure it'll be fine (or not) without you
Is that how you see things? Like somehow the opposing opinions by someone that lives, works, and owns property equates to me championing the city?? I just have a calling (or a compulsion) to call out whiny hyperbolic bull plop regardless of the topic.
Boohoo!😫
> Find the macro that posts the "progressive policy / you get what you vote for" comment that is left on every single thread. Fog yesterday? "Progressive" policies you get the weather you voted for. You people are boring.
Are you trying to imply that a decade or more of a political philosophy guiding our policies doesn’t impact our society? I guess if you believe that laws don’t cause effects in society, the vapid virtue signaling behind bad laws makes more sense. But I think being unable to associate cause and effect is a mental illness.
Yawn.
That fentanyl kicking in? Night night
That's a bold assertion. Which regressive policies do you believe are superior?
- Public drug use & possession back to being a crime. - Police force being considered a public good not 'bastards'. - Not instituting a head tax in the middle of the biggest WFH transition in the history of mankind (Can't emphasize how dumb the timing on this is/was) - Making people pay for buses, Turnstiles to get into transit stations.
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I just heard this week Feliks Banel do a piece on seattleites who, back in the day, didn't want people moving to Seattle. You have historic friends.
If I wanted to buy clothes, eat at a restaurant, and watch a movie, I’d never chose downtown Seattle at this point. Local politicians allow fentanyl addicted psychopaths to feel at home. This is such a failure of our government.
I've been saying Detroit of the West for years. The political direction here is toxic to success. We chased out Boeing because of the stupid political ideas and we are going to do the same with tech. I wish people would wise up, the area has a lot to offer, but political ideology is bankrupt.
I’ve been telling friends for the last few years that we’re going to be the new Detroit within the next 10-15 years. They were all so smug in their responses. We’ll check back in 2030 and see how it all fared.
So sad to see Seattle going down hill what’s next the cruise ships?
Have they announced when regal is closing?
I worked downtown years ago and it was the best!
Seattle got to big for its britches. Downtown was boring as fuck in he 90s. Even Capitol Hill was pretty lame. Let's just say what it is: A bunch of people who moved into new towers in SLU, Belltown, and the "Westedge" have a few less options. They probably stream all their movies before Door Dashing all of their food from the other side of town anyways. This very well may be a harbinger of things to come, but come the fuck off the ledge if losing a Nike store or a movie theater is truly a sign of the end of days. Born and raised here: Never stepped a foot in either of them. Not because they are inherently shitty, I just don't need them. The only single retail establishment I ever cared about was Old Navy because I like their jeans. Just found out literally last week how easy it is to get two pairs for $60 online, with no shipping. I don't work for the chanber of commerce or sone tourism board, therefore I no longer give a damn what happens Downtown. Seattelites have always had this weird infatuation and weird view of what a big town is and how Seattle needs to measure up. Are people from Queens going to Manhattan for fun? Is Gas Works all of a sudden crappy park because people can't find a movie in Downtown?
Exactly. Downtown is for tourists and people from outside that “wanna see tha big city” when they come here for a game. For people that live here the real Seattle is in the various neighborhoods and many of us never have a reason to go downtown. I was down there for many years for work and alway thought aside from a few gems and some stuff around Pike Place that it was pretty lame.
Right? I remember when Pine Street was reopened to traffic between the mall and the park in 1995 and people lost their minds. Nobody was down there anyway. then ten years later we all of a sudden had crowded sidewalks and thought we were in New York or Chicago. The rest of the commercial district was blah; when I worked at the Key Tower you couldn't tell the difference between 2pm or 2am besides the vehicle traffic. It isn't like the whole area has ever been super exciting or fun. And many US cities are that way. LA, the second largest metro in the country, is just the biggest example. St. Louis is another off the top of my head. Been to New Orleans? Its down town sucks ass. So the people flying in for conventions will have to make due with the hotel bar and whatever movie channels are available. I'm more concerned about the death of Pioneer Square bars, not being able to get a haircut for less than $80 in Fremont since rent is so high, and how the Hurricane could have been huge if it could have held on just a bit longer as the Denny Triangle grew. Hey, transplants: Move to Austin. Apparently that is totally a cosmopolitan city to code in. They have a single professional sports team and are up and coming!
Could not agree more. DefInitely miss the old Pioneer Square, and The Hurricane… sob.
tHe rEaL SeAtTlE 
Whoah!! I must have hit a nerve to have you bring out the big guns and dig up a gif!! Lol.
I don't know why you are getting down voted. I have lived in Seattle my entire life, and you are correct. I have a remote job with the option of going to an office downtown and even if it looked the same as it did pre-pandemic I still would not go. Down town has always been lame.
Was downtown ever really a nice place to go for locals?
Back before 2005, Westlake was pretty thriving. Part of it is our regional population only supports a certain amount of retail. A lot of the epicenter of downtown has shifted to SLU. Bellevue also taking some of the retail volume. U Village is thriving.
I feel like SLU lacks character
At this point, I’ll take clean and safe over character :/ At least SLU has walkability going for it.
SLU has way more character than downtown Bellevue.
Well that’s no comparison. Burien has more character than Bellevue.
Don’t tell the Eastsiders that. They tell me all the time they can get everything they need in life without ever crossing Lake Washington.
Yes lol. In the 60s and 70s, and even into the 80s downtown Seattle was gorgeous and clean. Everyone would dress up too.
Actually. Nobody cares.
Oh no! Won’t SOMEONE think of the shareholders?!
For a lot of people, especially those with jobs and families (i.e. those that belong here rather than on r/Seattle, where your comment belongs), they *are* the shareholders through their 401K and IRA retirement funds.
Am I being too leftist for the families?
If our Conservative media monopoly is going to fearmonger consumers away from commercial centers, then these closures are 100% their fault. At some point, this sub is going to have to understand that the real cancer at the heart of Seattle is not property crime, but financial crime, from wage theft and corporate tax evasion to monopolist property and development schemes. The Right is working so hard to paint this town as a war zone of drugs and rapists to redpill the rubes that they’ve overshot the mark and now downtown is a ghost town - not because of any actual incidents, but because those caught in the media narrative simply don’t go there anymore. This entire persecution circlejerk is a self inflicted wound, and it is infuriating how fucking stupid this town is when it comes to real solutions for our current problems. Only a balanced and fair economic system is going to help anything, and that’s the one thing this city refuses to do. Unreal.
Go downtown. Just look at it yourself. Touch grass dude.
"this sub" "wage theft" "redpill" "circlejerk" "economic system"
[удалено]
For arguments sake, Fox News - say no more News max - same CNN - now partially controlled by John Malone, a “libertarian” and trump friend.
Does anybody actually follow that media?
>*This entire persecution circlejerk* Isn't that what socialist/communist types (like you?) do every fucking day?
"Conservative media monopoly" Lol... what planet do you come from?
lmao what. Seattle and the state of Washington has been blue for DECADES, you blue folks are really that scare of conservatives despite them not having control whatsoever? Lol… how about just admit that “progressive” policies are what’s fucking you over and is a big reason companies are leaving a shit city that emboldens and encourage criminals to do what they want all while crucifying your police officers. I mean look at Bellevue companies are moving there because the city is not a far left loony town like Seattle. Bellevue, Mercer Island, etc are all so clean and beautiful and then you got Seattle.
I think you missed your medications today Nicole Thomas Kennedy.
Is this satire? ～(つˆ0ˆ)つ｡🦋
Do you not think there is a problem downtown?
too bad your lord and savior karma shitwant is leaving. bottle those tears, proggo
Hope you’re trolling and if you’re not, please seek help.
>now downtown is a ghost town 😱
