I was more surprised at what wasn’t previously allowed than that the mayor actually did something here:
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is sending an ordinance to the Seattle City Council that would allow the hundreds of empty storefronts in the downtown area to be used by more of the city’s entrepreneurs, according to a Tuesday news release from the city.
As it stands now, those spaces are permitted only for very specific use. The mayor says this temporary ordinance, if approved, would change that by allowing the spaces to be used for bike parking, art installations, gyms, medical offices, museums, and other items not currently allowed under the city’s usage guidelines.
So what was previously allowed? I guess retail shops, restaurants…and that’s it? So much for a vibrant and dynamic downtown core.
The land in this city should be working as hard as the people who live here but our ownership/speculator class has no incentive to put land to productive use. This new program might help but I expect the landlords to push back against ideas they don’t like and with cost to hold land so low, there is no way to break their grip. Any city with a housing/affordability crisis and empty land/parking lots downtown has failed.