If there’s one thing those Georgetown folks know how to do, it’s organizing community action and media campaigns.
From an email sent to Slog by Sara at Calamity Jane’s:
Georgetown is under threat!
Our little business district in Georgetown along Airport way has over 40 retail shops, most all of them are new, opened in the last 3 years. There are also at least 50 other businesses that are also have started here in the last few years. We have worked hard to make this a new little thriving community in the South end of Seattle. Four years ago, there were tumbleweeds rolling down the empty streets, with very little foot traffic.
The Seattle Department of Transportation is planning to close down Airport Way South access for a year or more, starting in early 2011. They are rebuilding the bridge just north of Stellar Pizza and will route all traffic (including foot and bicycles) around this.
We merchants are worried that the traffic jams that ensue will be extra bad because there is a railroad spur in front of Georgetown Liquor Company that will block the alternate routes.We fear that a constant traffic mess will cause a loss from drive-by business and that some people will just choose to avoid Georgetown altogether.
Our business district is so new that we risk withering up from loss of a even a small percentage of business.
The SDOT is holding an open house on this next Wednesday, July 28th, 2010:
6pm—8pm
Seattle Design Center, Plaza Building
3rd floor, Conference Room 370
5701 6th Av. S.If you love wandering down here and buying comic books (Fantagraphics Bookstore) specialty bottled beers (Full Throttle Bottles) and cool antiques (Great Stuff) please stop by the open house and tell Ken and Mirabel of the SDOT to support our business district. It will only take a few minutes!
We are asking them for parking on both sides of the street, to end the use of the railroad spur for the time of the detour (it doesn’t even go anywhere and blocks 4 streets!) and money for advertising to say that we are here! And there are different bus routes, bicycle routes and ways to get here and avoid the worst of the traffic.
If the SDOT knows you value us, they are more likely to help us survive the year.
The first two requests (extra parking, end or at least reduce use of the railroad spur) sound reasonable. But I’m not sure the city has a lot of extra money to put into advertising campaigns for fledgling business districts at the moment.
If only we could take back the money spent on that stupid West Edge spin campaign (“there’s nothing dull about it!”) and re-spend it on Georgetown. But that campaign happened just an hour before 9/11, when the world was young and rich and dumb…
Georgetown needs better and more bus service.
@1 is correct. At least during the build phase.
i love calamity jane’s! good luck over there, guys.
We’re rooting for you!
Three years and already nimbys. Why should public dollars subsidies businesses?
I really appreciate the businesses in Georgetown, but its not like they didn’t know the place needed some work, cashing in on drive in ( bus comment above )business from people sick of capitol hill took work, but its wasn’t always going to work.
Are people really going to be that upset when the gaudy hot rod salon, high priced antiques store, and via tribunali go under?
I wish we could trade SODO for Georgetown…..i’d be pretty psyched if it was slightly closer….though I do love how its the half-way point for my bicycle commute….great place to grab a beer and grub
How many Sloggers ever spend any money or time in Georgetown in the first place? (BE HONEST!!!)
But seriously, the neighborhood is cool and needs to be taken more seriously than the city has EVER taken it (in both good times and bad times) And Georgetown really needs an anchor grocery store as well. (That comes from several people I know who live in Georgetown)
@7 I end up hanging out in Georgetown about once every few months, and I agree, it should be taken more seriously. Yeah, it’s a bit out of the way and not very well-served by buses, but what a great place to hang out on a weekend evening! At least when I’ve been there, it’s been mercifully free of the bro-ishness that tens to me away from places like Belltown and Fremont these days.
“when the world was young and rich and dumb…”
I miss that world.
In fact, Georgetown has some places that would be great for Slog Happy, but between the distance, less than optimal transit access, and two-block radius effect, I’d worry that no one would show.
@9 but now we’re old poor and dumb. I mean we still got one of the, three!!!!
You know, just because one voice says that Georgetown Is Under Seige does not make it so. For example, in 2006– 4 years ago, when “tumbleweeds were rolling down the empty streets, with very little foot traffic,” there was quite a bit of activity. The people who have showed up in the past three years were not here in the “bad old days” when you couldn’t get a cab, there were zero (or 1) bars along Airport Way, and when the motel residents pretty much ran the whole neighborhood street culture. And much of this has been long solved 4 years ago, by people that are not screaming “victim” at every corner.
I’m sorry, but one bridge being under construction is not going to destroy 8 years of development overnight. How many boutiques and antique stores does Georgetown need anyway? I can’t buy groceries or get perscriptions filled there.
The little clique needs to get out of victim mode. Yes there are issues, but they are not provincial. No one lifted a finger when a national monument was destroyed by a developer that was invited in. There was a huge campaign to fight a garbage dump. and then cleanscapes opens up with barely a mention. We lost a pharmacy because of a mentality that local people need fing antiques instead of a drug store.
So, pretty hard to take seriously.
@7 it’s a big city.
oh, georgetown! you’re trying so hard!
That railroad track may not “go anywhere” but the railroad uses it (it’s called a “tail track”) to build trains– that’s why you see it shuttling back and forth as the north end of the train moves in and out of various side tracks adding cars (or dropping them off). In short, it’s an essential part of the railroad.
Gee! Just think if we could take back all the money we spent on the monorail and spend it elsewhere…
I really hope that whole hipster infested area just dwindles away and dies like the glitter smeared junkie it is.
Personally I love George Town. Since I have worked in that area off and on over the last 9 years I have grown very fond of the stores in that area. I also like the connection traffic work around of Airport Way from Seattle to the South End. We use that way to get around a lot.
Whether they shut it down for a year or not I for one will not abandon shopping in that area. Of course the thing I really like about it is the fact that it reminds me of Gilman Village before it died of over popularity, and Freemont also before it committed suicide by over popularity. It’s like that old saying, “I don’t go there because it’s to popular anymore.” I have been dreading when that would happen to George Town and probably because of the Economic issues it has been delayed.
I will have to see if I can make it to the meeting.
Personally I love George Town. Since I have worked in that area off and on over the last 9 years I have grown very fond of the stores in that area. I also like the connection traffic work around of Airport Way from Seattle to the South End. We use that way to get around a lot.
Whether they shut it down for a year or not I for one will not abandon shopping in that area. Of course the thing I really like about it is the fact that it reminds me of Gilman Village before it died of over popularity, and Freemont also before it committed suicide by over popularity. It’s like that old saying, “I don’t go there because it’s to popular anymore.” I have been dreading when that would happen to George Town and probably because of the Economic issues it has been delayed.
I will have to see if I can make it to the meeting.
haha, “George Town”