Tyler Atkinson, CFP®

It is a VERY tough climb for Seattle. It's easy to get into the "Seattle is cooked, turn out the lights" mode. And I'm not optimistic, overall, for the next decade. But to put some positive ideas out there, here are some ideas that might help a @downtownseattle revival: 1) Really focus on the Pacific Place / Westlake to Pike Place Market corridor. That is the essence of the city experience right now, and especially during World Cup attendance. And for several years now, that experience is TERRIBLE. 2) Pacific Place, in particular, COULD make a great restaurant/bar/music venue, open 7 days a week from 11am-11pm. Look very closely at Assembly Food Hall in Nashville for a model. The city could and should provide financial incentive for investment. 3) Enforce no open-air drug use or dealing, and make this public. Seriously. There is no excuse for 3rd and Pike/Pine and Belltown in general being so sketchy/dangerous. 4) For RTA -- Install automated fare enforcement barriers to Light Rail, just as BART has done. It works. Make riders actually pay, and dangerous incidents and damage clearly decline. Plus, those of us who actually pay won't think we are chumps by paying, when only 30% of fare riders currently do. 5) Change how we think and talk about "homelessness." Be honest. You know that it is an ADDICTION crisis, first and foremost. Until we see it as such and discuss it as such, we will not reduce it. Stop trying to simply "barrier-free" house our way out of an addiction crisis -- and start investing in treatment and mandating it. People who are addicted to highly potent fentanyl and meth will not just voluntarily go to treatment, and city leaders have an OBLIGATION to do things which restore a higher trust society. Taxpayers are TIRED of tolerating disorder, toothpaste and detergent locked behind plexiglass and more. COMMIT PUBLICLY to the restoration of higher trust norms which used to exist. This requires consequences. Continue the focus on frequent offenders. 6) Offer strong monetary and public safety-support incentives for a major grocer like Kroger or Safeway to establish three new mid-to-upper-tier grocery stores downtown. Do not just expect this to happen -- they are downsizing in downtown, NOT investing. So, TALK TO THE EXECUTIVES RUNNING THESE BUSINESSES and figure out what they need to change in the city environment. They will tell you. It is WORTH it to make downtown a place people want to live. They will likely ask for better enforcement of shoplifting, and more improvements to public safety. This will require the police and justice system to enact CONSEQUENCES. 7) Recognize that growth in the city seems to be most vibrant from the waterfront and stadium area eastward. Almost every other area of the city needs help, but you have to focus. Personally, I'd focus on making that Westlake-to-Pike-Place corridor really shine first. Perhaps offer city-subsidized free parking, as well. Recognize that your foot traffic competitors are U Village and Bellevue Square. Again, I'm not a pollyanna here; this will be very, very hard, if not impossible with current leadership and entrenched activist networks. They will fight most of these items. But I thought it worthwhile to list a few things that I think SHOULD be done rather than just focus solely on why all the Progressive policies that have been implemented have been so destructive. cc: @downtownseattle @weheartseattle @MayorofSeattle