Final Analysis: Seattle’s Growing Pains

One of my favorite Yogi Berra-isms is: Nobody goes there anymore. Its too crowded.

Friends who live in the suburbs often view Seattle through this foggy lens. They love the city for its beauty, its attractions, its vibrancy and they stay away because getting in and out of downtown can be about as appealing as a triple scoop of anchovy-and-liver ice cream. This is partially because, by just about any measure, downtown Seattle is rockin:

Since 2010, downtown Seattle has added an average of 25 new jobs per day.
The daytime population of downtown Seattle now reaches about 260,000.
Nearly 15 million square feet of space is under development in the downtown area.
Seattle is ranked the best city in America to find a job, the fastest-growing big city in the country and the most cultural city in the United States.
Use of public transit downtown has risen by more than 60,000 rides a day in the past decade.
Nearly 65,000 people more than 10 percent of Seattles entire population now live downtown, and 24 new residents move in every week.
Downtown Seattles population has grown 8 percent since 2010 (vs. 5 percent citywide during the same period).
Downtown accounted for 16 percent of Seattles total population growth from 2010 to 2014.
In 2014 alone, 3,394 new residential units, most of them apartments, became available downtown.
Downtown hotel occupancy rates in August 2014 hit nearly 96 percent of capacity.

These statistics come courtesy of the 2015 State of Downtown Economic Report by the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA). And they are indeed impressive. Downtown Seattle is a happening place. People are everywhere. Construction cranes, too. Theres a palpable sense of progress.

Granted, the report doesnt cover everything thats happening downtown, such as the increased square footage occupied by homeless people, the uptick in downtown shootings and the rising number of traffic gridlock days that seem to occur for no particular reason other than a light sprinkle at sunset. (Or maybe its the several lanes of city streets being closed to motorists because construction companies can do pretty much whatever they want when theyre putting up high-rises).

But far be it from me to complain when the potential footprint of Amazon.com, counting its existing office space and whats under construction or on the drawing board, will support about 72,000 employees downtown. Seventy-two thousand! Thats like having the entire population of Kennewick show up for lunch when you were only expecting Bremerton.

Its an experience that is exhilarating and, well, annoying. Change always is. DSAs economic report says Seattle has parking capacity for nearly 100,000 vehicles. So why does it always seem that my car is No. 100,001 in line? When I take mass transit home, why does my bus to Ballard feel as if the entire population of Kennewick is on it? And why would so many people from Kennewick want to visit Ballard?

Of course, one persons mole is another persons beauty spot. DSA sees the glass as half full. I see it as half broken on the sidewalk at the bus stop in front of Century Square the area my friend calls Crazy Town for the extraordinary panoply of characters and activities one can observe while waiting for the next D Line conveyance to a saner side of town.

As one who works downtown and happily returns on weekends for theater and dining and music and sports, I realize I see Seattle, warts and all. Im OK with that, as long as Mayor Ed Murray can show some progress on delivering the safe, vibrant, affordable, interconnected city for all that he promises in DSAs report.

John Levesque is the managing editor of Seattle Business magazine.