An Urbanist Vision for Seattle’s Third Avenue

Third Avenue in downtown Seattle is a spot the place many a plan goes to die, and but the planning efforts hold stacking up. The Seattle Metropolis Council not too long ago recommitted to taking one other have a look at tips on how to redesign the road, however the specifics are nonetheless being ironed out.

A 2019 research by the Downtown Seattle Affiliation (DSA) continues to be the muse for that work, as Ryan Packer famous in our latest replace on plans. Nonetheless, visions to revitalize Third Avenue introduced by enterprise leaders usually transcend easy city design tweaks and into requires fixes to eradicate crime and homelessness — if not citywide, at the very least to push these issues out of this busy downtown hall. From this crowd, there additionally appears to be a want to upscale the road, appeal to high-end retail, and half methods with the likes of Ross Costume For Much less and McDonald’s.

At The Urbanist, we imagine the Third Avenue plan should concentrate on enhancing transit service and pedestrian security. Some sections have nice alternatives for road artwork, pocket parks, and sidewalk cafes. If we make the road extra walkable and the bus stops nice, protected, and busy, then road life will observe. However the plan must also acknowledge and promote the distinctive strengths and desires alongside every of the distinct sections of the road: Belltown, the Market, the Central Enterprise District, and Pioneer Sq..

Prioritize transit service and pedestrian security

From a numbers standpoint, Third Avenue is likely one of the most profitable transit corridors within the nation. Previous to the pandemic, Third Avenue led the nation with 270 buses per peak hour and was additionally close to the highest for ridership at round 52,000 bus passengers per weekday. The road consolidates most Seattle bus routes into one hall that ensures ease of transfers and creates a system that’s simple for guests to town to grasp.

Because of bus-only restrictions, the first congestion on most of Third Avenue is attributable to transit, moderately than additionally having a slew of single-occupant autos slowing down bus service. Transit advocates, together with The Urbanist and the broader Transfer All Seattle Sustainably Coalition, lengthy pushed for transit-only restrictions on Third Avenue, and at last succeeded in getting them prolonged to Stewart Avenue, though the marketing campaign for bus lanes all the best way to Uptown continues.

Sustaining Third Avenue’s usefulness as town’s foremost transit artery stays a high concern for urbanists. Selling transit ridership within the post-pandemic period might look a bit completely different than it did up to now, however Third Avenue will proceed to be central to the transit community. As such, DSA’s potential idea of pivoting to transit hubs and a shuttle different must be discarded, as it could certainly delay and deter riders by forcing transfers at both finish of Downtown.

Spend money on actual options for folks in psychological well being and substance abuse disaster

Bus ridership suffered in the course of the pandemic and has been sluggish to recuperate. One massive purpose for the ridership dip is the massive leap in work-from-home measures. As of August, solely 44% of employees had returned to downtown places of work, the DSA experiences. Fewer jobs Downtown means fewer peak transit journeys. Service cuts which are lowering frequencies aren’t serving to both. However crime and public security issues, notably these targeted on Third Avenue, additionally look like sapping transit demand.

Psychological well being points spiked in the course of the pandemic, as did an opioid disaster supercharged on fentanyl. These points have grabbed the eye of former governor Chris Gregoire, who’s CEO of Problem Seattle, an alliance composed of CEOs from 21 of the area’s largest employers.

“We can not have an open drug market on Third Avenue and count on we’re going to draw vacationers and we’re going to get folks to return again to work,” Gregoire mentioned at a latest Develop Seattle occasion hosted by the Puget Sound Enterprise Journal. Newly appointed SDOT Director Greg Spotts echoed Gregoire’s sentiments simply this month when he referenced issues with Third Avenue as central to Seattle’s issues with transit ridership to the nationwide gathering of the American Public Transit Affiliation, calling Third the “heart of the fentanyl disaster” within the metropolis.

Medicine have been bought on Third Avenue corners for maybe so long as there’s been a Seattle, however the concept that we will stamp out this “open air drug market” continues to seize the centrist creativeness periodically — and the rhetoric appears to get dialed up throughout election season. No one desires Third Avenue to appear like a late-stage Fyre Pageant. But when hotspot policing was going to work to completely transfer the sellers and junkies off this actual property, it could have labored one of many last half dozen times it was tried in Seattle historical past.

Even when we did wish to go all in on hotspot policing, we couldn’t due to the Seattle Police Division’s capability constraints. The beleaguered division misplaced so many officers to retirements and lateral hires in the course of the pandemic that it’ll take a number of years to revive them even in probably the most optimistic state of affairs utilizing lateral rent incentives and maxing out recruiting lessons to fill the ranks. Throwing cops at issues is tough with such restricted sources, notably since crime points have spiked in lots of elements of town, not simply in Downtown hotspots. There’s additionally the problem of waning effectivity; lowering clearance charges means the identical quantity of cops will clear up fewer crimes, and the influence of every extra officer is lessened.

Since fixing Third Avenue’s issues can’t experience on policing, King County’s latest plan to levy funds to spice up psychological well being spending and add 5 new disaster facilities is a welcome one. Third Avenue has lengthy hosted “open-air” drug dealing, but it surely hasn’t all the time been an open-air psychological well being establishment. It’s essential we get folks residing with psychological sickness the care they want.

The prevalence of individuals within the throes of psychological well being crises or drug-addled comedowns has discouraged folks from frequenting Third Avenue and the transit alongside it. We now have to take these issues significantly, whereas recognizing there aren’t any silver bullets. To totally clear up this concern goes to take repairing our frayed social security internet in relation to psychological well being, substance use dysfunction therapy, and supportive housing. Passing the County levy is a begin, however making actual progress goes to take concerted funding on a number of ranges over a sustained time period. 

Use road design to spice up the hall’s strengths

In relation to road design, Third Avenue might use some enhancements, too. Third Avenue has 4 distinct sections, and every of them demand one thing completely different when it comes to design tweaks. 

First, there’s the Belltown part, which is probably the most residential in character and in addition hosts a bustling nightlife district. Condominium towers hold going up in Belltown, which suggests alternatives for the neighborhood so as to add a grocery retailer and delis, cafes, and lunch spots, ideally with streateries. It’d be sensible so as to add road bushes to this space to make strolling extra nice and encourage folks to make use of the road cafes.

Subsequent up is the Market part which extends from Virginia Avenue to Union Avenue. Right here’s the place extra focus could possibly be positioned on the aspect streets. Why not pedestrianize a few of the aspect streets and add programming in order that exercise spills onto Third? For instance, outside live shows alongside Benaroya Corridor might convey music to the plenty, and Pine Avenue was once pedestrianized, so we’re not really proposing something new right here. Pike/Pine is town’s premier retail hall. In lots of main cities, whether or not in Europe, East Asia, or Latin America, this hall would have been pedestrianized a long time in the past, permitting market stalls and seating to spill into the road alongside happier pedestrians, extra apt to linger than flee from rushing motorists.

The third part is the Central Enterprise District (CBD), which is roughly from Union right down to Cherry Avenue. Within the CBD, buses land on the foot of a few of the metropolis’s tallest workplace towers. This space will profit most from returning workers, however the Metropolis shouldn’t sit idly by ready for that to occur. Clean partitions should be activated and damaged up with murals or artwork installations. Few useless areas loom bigger than ones created by the downtown put up workplace on the Union Avenue block reverse Benaroya Corridor, though the Bon Marché constructing parking storage additionally makes a case. Some mild and shade on these drab concrete partitions might go a great distance.

Lastly, Pioneer Sq. is Third’s southernmost part from Cherry to Jackson Avenue, and repairing the roadway itself to offer a much less bumpy experience for bus riders is one want that jumps out. The difficulty of homelessness and security can also be entrance and heart right here. For many years, authorities has targeted social companies for a complete county shut collectively close to Third and James after which primarily stepped away, leaving the world to turn into a hub of emergency responses and a logo of the area’s insufficient response to homelessness, which has stubbornly climbed regardless of all of the campaigns towards it.

Along with higher funding homelessness companies and supportive housing, the way forward for Metropolis Corridor Park and close by Prefontaine Place will probably be key to turning round this part of the road. The latest announcement that the Metropolis of Seattle will probably be sustaining possession of those public areas implies that discussions over whether or not or not they’re Seattle’s or King County’s duty can come to finish. Now town authorities might want to interact with neighborhood stakeholders just like the Alliance for Pioneer Sq., Chief Seattle Membership, and Downtown Emergency Companies Middle (DESC) to create, and implement, a optimistic imaginative and prescient for the area. These could possibly be nice little parks welcoming people into Pioneer Sq. if we solved these points.

Wanting on the massive image 

Policymakers should acknowledge that Third Avenue goes to proceed to be a transit workhorse, however it may be walkable and loaded with road activation, too. It doesn’t take truncating or weakening bus service to do it. The entire Third Avenue hall may benefit from bus cease modernization, with useful real-time arrival shows, improved bus shelters, and public WiFi. Seattle might mud off the 2018 transit shelter modernization plan that then-Mayor Durkan shelved. That plan promised not simply to pay for itself by way of the promoting deal, but in addition to lift practically $100 million in income, which might then fund additional enhancements.

Third Avenue rightly deserves the main focus it’s getting from media and enterprise leaders. However what we want isn’t one other massive dreamy visioning train that goes nowhere or settles on a small incremental change. There are actions and investments that could possibly be made that will produce actual outcomes. From regional transit riders, to downtown service employees, there are folks from so many various walks of life who cross by this important hall on common foundation, they usually deserve really feel protected and comfy whereas strolling, driving, biking, or just spending time there. Third Avenue deserves greater than a rebranding train or its political soccer therapy. It’s time to cease dithering and at last decide to investing in one among Seattle’s biggest transit belongings.