How urban do you see Seattle?

[destroycreate]

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Since The Emerald City is currently experiencing an epic boom in terms of population, jobs, transportation, skyscrapers and urban development, I wanted to bring it into discussion.

Seattle has always struck me as being in a peculiar place in terms of the urban landscape. Almost like it's in a league of its own. Obviously, it is not SF, Boston, DC, or Vancouver levels of urbanity....but it most certainly is more urban and walkable compared to the San Diegos, Atlantas, or Austins, at least in my opinion.

Do you view Seattle as a major city, or do you think it feels like one? Do you think in the coming years it will be able to reach the importance (and get the respect) of more established cities like Boston? Since it technically is the capitol of the Pacific Northwest, I'm curious to see how all of the growth will continue to transform Seattle from what once was more of a sleepy backwater to a major world class city.

[mhays]

In the US, it's the only real occupant of the middle ground between the Portland/Minny/Denver/SD group and the Boston/Philly/Chicago/SF group. That's evidenced both by type of experience and by statstics about commute modes, density, etc.

It's going through an astonishing building boom right now that's ratcheting it much closer to the group above. Still a ways to go of course and it'll still be much smaller.

[kool maudit]

i have never been there but i could see it (from photos) being a place where one could live without a car etc. in the center... but ultimately it's still probably pretty common to live in a freestanding house (or an apartment within a detached house) so a lot of areas seem pretty spread out.

how extensive are the inner-city multi-family neighborhoods? the streets of apartment blocks and high-rises...

[chris08876]

The core is very urban. Even outside of the core, the blend of high density development are transforming areas and adding the very important element of street life. When I visited, I was happy. Seems to fulfill my urban standards pretty well. Bellevue was really nice btw and if I ever move to that area, Bellevue is on my list of areas for a home.

[emathias]

I grew up near Portland and my youngest brother lives in a Seattle suburb. I like Seattle, although I've spent more time in New York than I have in Seattle proper. It does seem to be more urban every time I visit my brother, too. Like Portland, it used to be a scrappy timber town although Boeing helped Seattle benefit from industrialization and the Cold War military build-up a lot more than Freightliner did for Portland. Which in turn fed into the ability to grow companies like Microsoft and now Amazon which, again, did a lot more for Seattle than Nike and Columbia apparel did for Portland (when I was in high school, I got to meet both Phil Knight and Gert Boyle).

For me what's impressive about Seattle's current run of development is that much of it is intentionally designed to increase density and urbanity. The whole South Lake Union and East Lake areas are pretty impressive, as is the highrise district in Belltown and, to a lesser extent, Lower Queen Anne.

I don't think Seattle will ever compete in urbanity with the historically big cities built out prior to the automobile, but for a city largely developed post-automobile I think it's doing quite well.

[chris08876]

THe amount of activity is amazing for a U.S. city. Numerous high rises and skyscrapers (most of which would stand out in most cities at over 400+ ft for many), and solid mid rise developments with retail at the base (along with high rises)). In time due, the city is only getting better.

Grew by 18% from 2000 to 2014.

[rsbear]

[/QUOTE]Since it technically is the capitol of the Pacific Northwest, I'm curious to see how all of the growth will continue to transform Seattle from what once was more of a sleepy backwater to a major world class city.[/QUOTE]

No, it is not technically the capitol of the Northwest. It isn't even the capitol of the State of Washington.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by rsbear

Since it technically is the capitol of the Pacific Northwest, I'm curious to see how all of the growth will continue to transform Seattle from what once was more of a sleepy backwater to a major world class city.

No, it is not technically the capitol of the Northwest. It isn't even the capitol of the State of Washington.

Uh, yeah it kind of is. Largest metro in the Northwest population wise, not to mention the economic leader.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Uh, yeah it kind of is. Largest metro in the Northwest population wise, not to mention the economic leader.

Read what he wrote - "technically" it's not the capital of anything. Practically, it's the regional capital of the Pacific Northwest in almost every category (except sports apparel, Portland has that, if that's even a category worth claiming a capital status in).

[mhays]

One factor is that Seattle isn't kowtowing to cars. The current development boom is mostly in districts that don't require much or any parking, and developers are taking advantage of that with dozens of buildings with zero parking and typically a lot fewer spaces than units. This means we can put way more density on a site.

To answer a question above, yes Seattle is mostly single-family by land area, which has exclusive right to 2/3 of the city. But multifamily recently took the lead by unit count, a gap that's widening quickly.

[goat314]

Seattle always struck me as a modern city done right. Denver and Portland too. They benefited from not having the major baggage of similar sized legacy cities (e.g. Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis etc.), but directed their growth in a way more urban fashion than other boom-towns like Dallas, Atlanta, or Phoenix. Overall, I think Seattle is a stunningly beautiful city with great public policy. Culturally not really my cup of tea though.

[chris08876]

I'm still gambling on a 700,000 population figure by 2019/20.

[goat314]

Seattle always struck me as a modern city done right. Denver and Portland too. They benefited from not having the major baggage of similar sized legacy cities (e.g. Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis etc.), but directed their growth in a way more urban fashion than other boom-towns like Dallas, Atlanta, or Phoenix. Overall, I think Seattle is a stunningly beautiful city with great public policy. Culturally not really my cup of tea though.

Seattle has great public policy, which is a big piece in my opinion. Location, location, location too. The PNW is arguably one of the most beautiful areas of the country. I really think Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland are models for urban policy. Although, I wonder how their policies would translate in other regions that have different demographics, legacies, and economies.

[mello]

I see it as definitely holding that strange middle ground although from photos downtown Minneapolis seems to be quite built up and the infill in surrounding neighborhoods has been impressively documented on here by Chef and another Minny forumer I forgot name. I haven't been to SEA since 94 so I can't speak from experience on the ground but in photos its core area seems to be almost as built up as LA. Of course it doesn't have the line of mid-rises stretching down Wilshire like LA does but right in the core 5 sq. miles from photos it looks to be almost comparable.

Can someone who is familiar with Minneapolis and Seattle compare the two? If it continues to boom I don't see why it can't step up and begin to rival Philly in ten years and possibly Boston. Does anyone have pics of South Lake Union and other DT adjacent areas that show the built environment? Thanks.

[fflint]

Seattle's downtown is full bore urban, more so than what you'll see in the majority of big US cities. And in some ways downtown Seattle stands out--it has a better downtown shopping district than Boston, Philadelphia, LA or DC do, and features an outsized collection of tall buildings.

Downtown-adjacent areas are dense and traditionally urban, as are several of the city's main nodes, most notably the University District. Outside the core and between the nodes, the bulk of Seattle is not dense or traditionally urban relative to Boston or Philadelphia, etc. Think more along the lines of streetcar suburbia, which isn't especially suburban by today's standards: older single-family homes in walkable and bikeable gridded areas with decent bus service. It seems to me much of residential Seattle, topography and climate notwithstanding, could be mistaken for parts of Denver or Minneapolis.

Taken as a whole, I think mhays got it right: Seattle is "the only real occupant of the middle ground between the Portland/Minny/Denver/SD group and the Boston/Philly/Chicago/SF group." He rightly points out the transit commute statistics, which are a good indicator of an ongoing shift toward the latter grouping from the former. I don't think Seattle will ever be as urban as Chicago or Philadelphia, but it already stands apart from cities of similar size and age.

[dc_denizen]

Seattle is hampered by insufficiently developed suburban nodes, plus no rail

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Seattle is hampered by insufficiently developed suburban nodes, plus no rail

Fortunately, that is beginning to change (but you're right, for a city as compact and large as it is, Seattle really should have more):

University link extension opens 2016

http://www.tunneltalk.com/images/Low...-to-SeaTac.jpg

Northgate link opens I think 2020




East link to Bellevue opens 2023+

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by goat314

Seattle always struck me as a modern city done right. Denver and Portland too.

Denver, really? I found it to be decidedly non-urban.

[mhays]

Seattle also has a streetcar (not terribly useful), another streetcar about to start service (more useful), a ferry system, and a couple rush-hour commuter rail lines. The bus system is more rail-like than most, since much of it runs on HOV lanes. Buses alone give us a better mode split than all but the top cities I mentioned. We also have an unusually high pedestran commuting rate and a decent bike commuting rate.

[jd3189]

Like many have said before, Seattle is one of the few cities in the country that is actively trying to become more urban. It will be one of greatest examples of the rising newer cities.