Seattle is ranked as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and most of that growth is occurring in downtown.
Last night was the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) – Downtown Residents Council Quarterly Meeting held at HardRock Cafe in Pike Place Market (West Edge Neighborhood). The events purpose was to discuss the One Center City project, a plan to combat the increase demand for downtown streets and public spaces.
One Center City is a collaborative partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association, City of Seattle, King County and Sound Transit. The goal is to bring together many of Seattle’s communities, perspectives and partners to create a 20-year plan for how we move through, connect to and experience Seattle’s Center City neighborhoods. During the course of the presentation they engaged with the fellow Downtown Seattle Residents crowd, gathering our opinion on certain topics through live polling, via our phones. Basic questions such as what neighborhood do we live in, what zip code do we work in, mode of transportation used, what’s most important challenge for the One Center City project, what improvements do you want seen, etc. It was the presenters way of gathering data to further their study. Entertaining and informative at the same time. You can learn more about OneCityCenter’s mission on their website.
The turnout to the event wasn’t as big as I expected. Since the event discussed changes that I believe most downtown Seattle residents would find interesting, it would be ideal if DSA promoted the Quarterly event by simply dropping off flyers with building concierges to handout to residents. A room of 30 people is pretty minimal when you consider that there are over 70,000+ people living in the City Center.