Durkan outlines plans for downtown Seattle recovery – KIRO 7 News Seattle

SEATTLE – Seattle is barely crowded, but there are signs of recovery.

To welcome both visitors and office workers back to downtown, Mayor Jenny Durkan said Wednesday the city will be spending $ 9 million in federal COVID-19 aid to restore downtown, hold “Welcome Weeks,” rubbish and remove graffiti and fill empty shop windows with pop-up companies.

“That was a tough, tough 16 months. There is no business, no worker, no family that has not been touched, ”said Durkan.

The Downtown Seattle Association is spending an additional $ 3 million on events, park activations, and embellishments.

The push comes at a time of public safety issues including street crime, a fatal knife stab in City Hall Park, and someone throwing stones from overpasses at cars traveling on I-5 near downtown.

Because of this, KIRO 7 asked Durkan if it would be difficult to encourage people to return to downtown.

“I think the best sale is what’s behind me now. It’s the people here. People are coming to Seattle, ”said Durkan as she stood at the entrance to Pike Place Market.

To stop people, business leaders said the city government must take both public safety and homelessness seriously.

“We need to step up these efforts because we still have tent camps in parts of downtown and people are suffering in the doors, and that’s detrimental to them and also detrimental to our ability to reopen,” said Jon Scholes of the Downtown Seattle Association .

“Because we’re probably running out of boats again,” said Johnson.

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