If you haven’t been following, the waterfront streetcar’s barn was destroyed to make space for the Olympic Sculpture Park a few years ago, and the streetcar line’s maintenance space was in doubt. But recently, a spot next to Occidental Park down in Pioneer was found, and an 11 story mixed-use building is being put in. The builder has launched this website, with info and some great renderings. Cool stuff.
Who’d want to live there, next to the hobo hang-out park, and all the noisy pioneer night clubs?
Hmm, needs more streetcars….
But seriously this is an awesome example of what is possible with public/private partnerships. Why isn’t Sound Transit doing more of this?
Who’d want to live there, next to the hobo hang-out park, and all the noisy pioneer night clubs?
Same thing could be said of belltown.
But seriously this is an awesome example of what is possible with public/private partnerships. Why isn’t Sound Transit doing more of this?
I think Sound Transit is very scared of that sort of thing for some reason. It’s a good question. I personally wish they would setup little news-stand kiosks on the platforms in the LRT stations as well as coffee shops, etc. in in the lobbies as a way to bring in more money. Most metros I’ve been in have business operating right next to the station entrances.
The reason they haven’t been doing it more around the US is because its not transit. In general, transit agencies don’t care about anything else but moving people. It’s something we need to fix.
Uh, Supposedly it’s dead:
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/waterfront_trolley_dead
Oh No! that’s a disaster :(
Not surprising that it will remain on hiatus through the end of viaduct reconstruction (whatever that ultimately looks like). What would be surprising is, the WF line is gone forever. Our fight should include keeping that line in the network the city is contemplating. One modification might be that it could operate with both the classic Melbourne cars and with the new Czech cars. Dispose of the classic cars: NEVER.
I e-mailed Greg Smith and he confirmed, it is dead.
Very, very sad.
According to the Seattle P-I, ST, the city, the Port, and the county all put up money for this project, the builder got his variances…and no progress was made on actually building the building.
Apparently it takes more than a website to make a village.
Mea culpa, it was Stuart Eskenazi in the Seattle Times, reporting that “Smith received clearance from the city to build 30 feet above the 100-foot height limits for Pioneer Square. But delays on the project led to warnings from King County more than a year ago that it could pull the $7 million it had set aside to help pay for the building. The city and Port of Seattle committed $1 million each.”
Hmmm… Maybe this is why they’re afraid of public-private partnerships. Why didn’t they build this into/under the sculpture park?
My question is:
Is this how things get decided around here? The Mayor makes up his mind and then it’s done?
There are other streetcars they want to build that have more potential than this one to overinflate already-high property values. But people have become attached to the streetcar as a part of the waterfront. There are teams of people donating their time to the future of the waterfront – will all the decisions be made out of the public view?
Cies told me tonight that the waterfront trolley idea “no longer fit into the city’s transportation plan.”
From the SLOG post. IMO, the waterfront trolley was dead when the sculpture park was approved. There was never an intention, seriously, to retain it.
By the way, the fact that it’s now dead may provide an example of why public/private partnerships are tough. I presume Greg Smith wanted to build the tower/maintenance barn and couldn’t make it pencil, even with some public funds. So after 2 years of talks, everyone walks away with nothing.