Downtown Seattle is booming. More jobs. More stores. More theaters.
And–surprise–more residents. Lots more.
Downtown and the nearby Lake Union area are the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Seattle. They’re among the fastest-growing places in King County.
The total population of the eight census tracts that cover downtown and the Denny Regrade and stretch up the east and west shores of Lake Union grew from 17,597 in 1990 to almost 22,000 in 1996, according to estimates prepared earlier this year by the Puget Sound Regional Council.
That’s an increase of nearly 25 percent. The population of the city as a whole grew less than 4 percent during those six years.
“There’s still this perception that the central city hasn’t grown, that it’s dying,” said Bob Sicko, the planner who prepared the estimates. “That’s just not true. There’s been a lot of growth.”
Downtown’s population boom is only a minor component of the region’s overall growth. While the downtown/Lake Union neighborhoods added about 4,400 new people between 1990 and 1996, suburban King County added more than 100,000.
Still, the resurgence of close-in living reflects a remarkable turnaround for neighborhoods whose total population remained largely unchanged through the 1970s and 1980s.
Architect Lee Copeland and physician Sandy Rock are among those who have moved to downtown Seattle this decade. Both have grown children. Both lived in outlying Seattle neighborhoods, then moved out of state before returning and settling near downtown.
Both live in new condominium towers in the Denny Regrade, the city’s fastest-growing neighborhood: Between 1990 and 1996, the population of the census tract bounded generally by Denny Way, Third Avenue, Stewart Street and Elliott Bay increased by 1,354, or nearly 45 percent.
For 13 years, Copeland and his family lived in a neighborhood near downtown Philadelphia, developing a taste for in-city living there, Copeland said. When he and his wife, Rolaine, returned to Seattle in 1992, they chose the Regrade, in large part, because it’s close to the Pike Place Market.
Copeland misses having a garden, and sometimes is bothered by noise from the Alaskan Way Viaduct. But he likes living two blocks from his office, loves the views of the bay and the Olympic Mountains, and enjoys the large number of restaurants and shops within walking distance.
Rock’s walk to work takes eight minutes “on a slow day. Who wants to get in a car and spend 40 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic every morning?”
There is a downside to downtown living, Rock acknowledges: “Every day, we’re confronted by certain individuals we’d just as soon not confront.” But, like Copeland, he enjoys living close to the water front and having shops and restaurants a few steps from his door.
Rock and his wife, Shab, are talking about having a baby. If they do, Rock said, “we’re wondering if we would stay downtown.” Air quality, not crime, is his chief concern.
Plus, there just aren’t many other children. “There are 139 units in our building,” Rock said, “and there are two kids that I know of.”
Statistics drive home downtown’s revival:
– Of Seattle’s 131 census tracts, the six that have grown fastest this decade, and eight of the top nine, all are in or near downtown.
– The eight fast-growing downtown/Lake Union tracts were responsible for almost one-quarter of Seattle’s total population growth during the first six years of the 1990s.
– The eight tracts’ annual population growth rate of 4.1 percent between 1990 and 1996 outpaces that of Bellevue (3 percent), Edmonds (2.4), Lynnwood (2.1), Federal Way (1.8) and King County as a whole (1.3).
Planners and demographers attribute the revival to downtown’s thriving economy, changing demographics and shifting government policy.
“I guess we’re assuming it’s all our good planning,” joked Tom Hauger, supervising planner with the city’s Office of Management and Planning.
The city began adopting policies decades ago to attract new residential development downtown, in part to keep the retail core vibrant. The four-county Vision 2020 blueprint for regional growth and, later, the state Growth Management Act encouraged development in already urbanized areas, to slow suburban sprawl and combat traffic congestion.
The trend toward downtown living began to surface as long ago as 1985, said University of Washington geographer Richard Morrill. The 1980’s boom in high-rise office construction created more downtown jobs which, in many cases, were filled by young, single people, Morrill said.
They, in turn, created a market for in-city living.
At the same time, Morrill said, some middle-aged and older empty nesters began to show an interest in downtown living, attracted by such amenities as the Elliott Bay waterfront.
“You’re not going to find any people in their 40s, with kids, living downtown,” Morrill said. “You will find lots of people in their 50s and 60s whose kids are grown.”
Portland, San Francisco and San Diego are experiencing similar downtown population booms, Morrill said.
