Celebrating one year of progress Downtown

[Link]Photo: Adam Lu

One year ago, we set out to reimagine and develop a roadmap to revitalize the heart of our city through Mayor Harrell's Downtown Activation Plan. We're proud to announce that 93% of the Plan's 46 initiatives are completed or in progress in one year.

Our goal is to create a new vision for Downtown Seattle while making it a welcoming neighborhood for all. When Mayor Harrell unveiled the plan alongside partners and community leaders in June 2023, he laid out seven interconnected, bold goals as the foundation for a new future for Downtown. In one year, we're already seeing positive progress in achieving those goals.

Make Downtown safe and welcoming

• The CARE Crisis responder teams responded to over 680 events, freeing up the Seattle Police Department to respond to other safety priorities.
• We expanded the Metropolitan Improvement District's outreach and cleaning program by 66%.

Transform Downtown into a lively neighborhood where more people can afford to live

• More than 100,000 people call Downtown home, and we're building and planning for even more residents.
• We passed a suite of legislation that makes office-to-residential conversion possible, creates opportunity for residential development on Third Avenue, and offers new incentives for a broader pool of tenants to fill empty commercial spaces.

Create a unique Downtown retail experience

• We saw old spaces become new again. New businesses moved into well-known buildings like Bergmann Luggage building, M5 Creative at Seattle Center, Himali, and Ben Bridge Jewelry.
• Seattle Restored continues to be a success story with new partnerships and investments that will allow us to expand the program.

[Link]Photo: Growing Boy Media[Link]Photo: Downtown Seattle Association

Make Downtown a place where people want to work and that reflects the future of our economy

• Networking events like Black Tech Night, La Noche Tech, Pride Tech Night, and Good Drinks program bring communities together while establishing connection within the neighborhood.
• Worker foot traffic continues to rise, averaging more than 90,000 daily workers.

Celebrate Downtown Seattle's arts, culture, sports, and entertainment

• Commissioned murals from more than 75 local artists and organizations, beautifying more than 60 walls throughout Downtown.
• SIFF acquired the Cinerama building in Belltown, bringing even more film (and chocolate popcorn) lovers to Downtown year-round.

Make Downtown a top destination for Seattleites and visitors year-round

• More than 19 million residents, tourists, and workers came Downtown last summer.
• Activated public and private spaces in interesting ways including new, permanent pickleball courts.

Create a health, resilient, and green Downtown

• We reopened and reinvigorated our public parks and treasured public spaces such as City Hall Park, Hing Hay Park, and Urban Triangle Park.
• Seattle now has a Building Emissions Performance Standing requiring the city's largest existing buildings to net zero emissions by 2050.

[Link]Photo: Seattle Parks and Recreation[Link]Photo: Do 206[Link]Photo: Adam Lu

There are exciting things on the horizon too: the completion of the Waterfront, the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, and new infrastructure projects throughout the DAP Zone.

Those are just a few of the highlights of progress Downtown, and we're not done. We know it's a multifaceted challenge and are focusing on doing a mix of tactical actions we can do right now and longer-term planning for more ambitious and transformational projects. We're excited to continue building on this work through partnership and collaboration.

Check out the entire Downtown Activation Plan progress report and join us in dreaming about a Downtown that is YOU!

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