Seattle Commons — The Case For

Why this is a win for Bob Kettle (D7 — Downtown, Belltown, Queen Anne)

city council
The Win

The Arch is in your district. 435,000 square feet at 8th and Pike — the heart of Downtown Seattle — sits dark 250 days a year while your constituents live and work around it. Your primary focus is public safety: empty buildings are public safety liabilities. Activated civic space is the opposite. A year-round commons at the Arch is the single largest intervention in downtown activation available, and it's at the intersection of every issue your district faces: safety, economic vitality, civic identity.

The fiscal case is also yours to own. The PFD's fragile finances are a risk to the lodging tax structure that funds Seattle's hotel competitiveness — a concern that runs directly through Belltown and South Lake Union. A structured acquisition now is cheaper and cleaner than an unplanned crisis later.

Ask Your AI

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I want to analyze this proposal from the perspective of Bob Kettle (D7 — Downtown, Belltown, Queen Anne). There's a civic proposal to convert the WSCC Arch building at 7th & Pike into a year-round public commons operated by Seattle Center. The case being made to Bob Kettle (D7 — Downtown, Belltown, Queen Anne): The Arch is in your district. 435,000 square feet at 8th and Pike — the heart of Downtown Seattle — sits dark 250 days a year while your constituents live and work around it. Your primary focus is public safety: empty buildings are public safety liabilities. Activated civic space is the opposite. A year-round commons at the Arch is the single largest intervention in downtown activation available, and it's at the intersection of every issue your district faces: safety, economic vitality, civic identity. The full proposal: https://commons.conventioncityseattle.com What are the strongest arguments for and against, from Bob Kettle (D7 — Downtown, Belltown, Queen Anne)'s perspective?