[com2kid]

Seattle's DT business district had always been uniquely bad. Everything is for office workers and closes at 5pm. There is nothing else but offices and restaurants serving coffee for breakfast and workplace meeting suitable lunches.

It is an example of piss poor planning and urban design.

[Schiendelman]

We made a lot of gains there just before covid, but it's a fight against empty space. We simply need more residential growth in the core. South Lake Union has improved a lot in the last two years, and Denny Triangle is coming along too. That will help north downtown, it's just going to take time, and there's not much we can do now to speed it up.

There was a 1993 initiative that seriously fucked up our planning process, and created 'design review', which is designed to add a year or two to building a building by having architects and retirees shit on everything. It's very hard to roll those things back, because many people believe public input is inherently good.

Pioneer Square is its own mess - it's that we have too much control, so we made it nearly impossible to build more market rate housing there to support evening and weekend destinations.

[com2kid]

One of my regrets is not joining my area's design review board when it had an opening just so I could rubber stamp everything yes.

[Schiendelman]

Oooh I would have appreciated you! Maybe you can do that where you live now!

[com2kid]

The NE Seattle one has an opening a few years back that I should've tried applying for.

Thankfully the design review process has been neutered now and hopefully it doesn't get brought back!