Comments

1

Acceptance is a wise realization for things you cannot change.

4

When asked about his own vision for the market, he replied, “I don’t think it’s completely for me to say.”

Coward.

5

They put in the "healthy streets" without any outreach. Why not close down Pike Place the same way?

6

@5, Well, it's not exactly a quaint neighborhood street but rather one serving multiple commercial and civic interests.

7

I wonder how many of the cars that pass through are first timers? The first time I visited as an adult, I made the mistake of driving though - I couldn't wait to get out of that mess and never returned by car again. I think of the thousands of tourists visiting every day who make that turn down the street with no idea what they're getting themselves into.

8

Wait, you're saying that people who don't think cars should exist are going to have to present logical arguments to everyone else who needs to use cars? The outrage!

10

I remember seeing a tour bus going through the market and then turning a right to go up the steep hill of Virginia street. I bottomed out and took hours to clear.

11

"people tried to do too much too quickly"
hahaha ha!
Like voting down a mass transit system in 1970, so that 50 years later we are now building one that will cross Lake Washington.
Or trying to allocate land for a park - the Commons- which was too much of a risk to try something different than the endless sprawl of buildings.

12

It is every citizen's duty to stand in the street and block movement on Pike Place as much as possible until they figure out how to close it off. It can easily take half an hour to navigate that block in a car; it should take an hour and a half.

13

Seattle will never become a world-class city until it starts blocking off streets to cars.

This isn't difficult. The rest of the world does it on the regular. Just not the States -- or Seattle...

14

I've always assumed every car parked on the stretch of Pike running through the market belonged to a vendor or market employee, while the slow crawl of traffic consists mainly of visitors that have made a terrible mistake. Why not make it accessible by permit only? Lets the Market function while eliminating 75% of the traffic.

16

@11: "Like voting down a mass transit system in 1970, so that 50 years later we are now building one that will cross Lake Washington."

Read it and weep:

'... Bogue designed an extensive transportation system, including roads and streets, street railways, and "rapid transit" (rail lines separate from streets). This included a network of arterial highways linking downtown Seattle to locations throughout the region, and even a tunnel for a light-rail line under Lake Washington, connecting Seattle to the Eastside. Bogue was a big advocate for "grade separation," and his plan called for eliminating grade crossings where rail lines crossed roadways, by raising tracks and/or lowering streets in "subways" ("Plan of Seattle," 163-64). His roadway plan for the central city included multiple traffic tunnels, including several connecting to the waterfront. The proposed Spokane Street Tunnel (actually two separate tunnels totaling more than a mile and a half in length) was to connect Lake Washington and Rainier Avenue to Harbor Island and West Seattle. The Interlaken Tunnel would run under Capitol Hill, connecting Union Bay to downtown, while the Blanchard Street Tunnel would run from the central waterfront to the intersection of Westlake Avenue and Virginia Street.'

(https://www.historylink.org/file/160)


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