Parks and Public Space

Seattle’s Summer Safety Plan and its earlier closing time for city parks is bad news for people who count on evening park access, including artistic communities. Crime data does not support the claim that most parks are trouble spots, but they are vital spaces for many communities.

Cities should overhaul their approach to plazas to create places where people can really belong and linger, argues urban researcher Jae Seong Cho, who points to the shortcomings of Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza and Los Angeles’ Grand Park to illustrate his point.

Occidental Avenue is the first major "People Streets and Public Spaces" project to move forward under the new transportation levy. Potential improvements have been mostly shaped by conversations with downtown power players behind closed doors.

Today, John Feit's Shoreline Street End series visits South Lake Union. In previous posts, he's explored street end park spaces all over the city, often hidden gems.

The Union Bay Natual Area is 74 acres of public open space with miles of trails, but the University of Washington has rebuffed advocates pushing to remove a fence and add a trail to improve access. Here's why they should reconsider.

CityNerd host Ray Delahanty recently visited Seattle and made a video with food blogger Kenji López-Alt while he was in town, focusing on what makes Pike Place Market great. Obviously, the pedestrianization of Pike Place came up, with the duo noting program has created more space for people walking and made it a more pleasant place to be for shoppers.

While the primary debate over the remade Seattle waterfront has focused on the size of Alaskan Way, a whole slate of potential public space improvements also ended up on the cutting room floor. Those include a festival pier, a pool barge, and a pedestrian street.

Is Everett's plan to move the AquaSox from aging Funko Stadium to a brand new downtown stadium an economic jolt or a costly gamble? The City of Everett will be leading financing on the project projected to cost at least $82 million.