Oh. Lordy, what a bunch of Debbie Downers.

That "park" was never anything fancy. It's just SDOT land that they contracted out to the Parks Department to maintain. It was always a dump, and hard to get up into, as it was raised a few feet above the sidewalk.

Years ago - twenty years ago - there was an effort, and some funds raised, to make it the Seattle AIDS memorial park. I don't know what happened to that idea, or to the money that was raised, but it might be a good time to revive that idea. The Bullitt family would certainly be receptive.

They took my road!
How does one do that exactly?
It's extremely inconvenient to live on that stretch of 15th without the pass through area.

Wow that looks so much nicer then it was! Actually usable space.

@4, so turning that pass-through into a pedestrian zone would mean drivers who once used it will have to accustom themselves to circling around to 14th or 16th to get where they're going. I don't get how that adds up to "extremely inconvenient to live" near, but I can see how it might make for an adjustment.

Looks like corporate "public space" specifically designed to be look inviting but be uninhabited.

Cascadian dear, just what corporation has taken over that space, and how exactly is it less inviting than it was before? And, while we're at it, please compare and contrast how inhabited it is now, compared to three years ago.

And Renee love, you can thank the closing of the stretch of 15th between Union and Madison to some meddling kids at Seattle U (or was it UW?) who recorded how most cars who came to the former intersection of 15th and Madison violated the right turn only rule. Those damn kids convinced SDOT that is was best to vacate that 1/8 of a block, particularly given all of the schools nearby. It was just like an After School Special!

Look, if it were up to me, CC's would still be there. But if it had to go away, I think this building is a much better use of space - and it's hard to say that about most new development on the hill these days.

As good furniture to sit on, a wet tree stump is way down the list.

Something nice happened? Bitch bitch bitchbitchbitch...

Catalina I definitely see your point and it is an improvement over the parks former unkempt self. My issue is that it looks sterile, kinda like those plazas at big corporate offices with lots of benches that no one sits in and concrete paths that lead nowhere. Lots of times these are set up not as public space but as passive security and a pleasant way to hide vehicle barriers.

However I think part of the issue is that the plants, aside from the trees are all very young and it might end up being a pretty nice garden of native flora once it grown into itself.

One man's uninhabited corporate plaza is another man's skatepark. Except builders are a lot less likely to put skate stoppers on a tree trunk than a nice piece of marble!

Also note that the park construction uses the latest Low-Impact Development techniques; raingardens and porous concrete surfaces. So what appear to be solid concrete sidewalks will, in fact, not contribute to surface rainwater runoff.

http://seattleparksfoundation.org/curren…