Seattle unveils plan to revitalize downtown businesses, move homeless into shelter spaces

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan on Wednesday unveiled a new plan to revitalize the city’s downtown core and invested $ 9 million in the rebuilding effort.

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In addition to an additional $ 7.4 million from the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA), it is hoped that this money will fund more events and programs, help reopening small businesses, and help workers returning to personal jobs and graffiti and rubbish cleaning.

“Our small businesses, cultural institutions and downtown workers need our support – they cannot fully reopen or recover without us,” Mayor Durkan said in a written press release.

Additional money will also be used for temporary art installations and pop-up retail space in empty storefronts, while the Seattle Department of Transportation is offering free permits “to activate streets and sidewalks in support of downtown businesses.”

Over the course of the pandemic, the DSA estimates that over 450 “street-level business locations are permanently closed”, while the average daily pedestrian traffic fell from around 450,000 people in January 2020 to 300,000 in June 2021. The pandemic reduced that number to 130,000 daily visitors.

The hope is that with these new investments, the city can bring Seattle and tourists alike back to downtown, which spans the Seattle Center to the Stadium District and between I-5 and the Waterfront.

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“The economic impact of the downtown Seattle pandemic was immediate, cross-sectoral and so many of our small businesses and institutions have suffered. This series of measures is crucial to get the city center back on its feet, ”said DSA President Jon Scholes.

Longer-term, the city plans to introduce recruitment programs for hotel staff in the city center this fall and to create more incentives for using local public transport to help workers commute to the area.

The SPD will also increase the presence of those doing community service “in areas with increased crime” and at the same time reach the homeless. The ultimate goal is to help 750 people without accommodation in the heart of the city center and to get 450 “into safer rooms”.

“King County’s new investments in homelessness will bring an additional 500 people downtown and non-legal King Counties to safer areas,” said the mayor’s office.