Last week I stood with Mayor Jenny Durkan and our downtown

Seattle partners at Pike Place Market to roll out a recovery vision for downtown.

Chamber leadership has been working closely with the city as part of the Mayor’s Downtown Revitalization Working Group – and through direct engagement with city leaders – for the past three months to inform this vision because we are keenly aware of how important downtown Seattle is to our overall regional recovery. Critical sectors have been hit hard by the pandemic, such as hospitality, tourism, entertainment, and arts and culture.

As we reopen our economy and return to offices, the thing I hear most from our members is that we need downtown to be welcoming, clean, safe, and refreshed. Our message to our partners at the city has been consistent and clear: we need a plan with concrete action steps, and we need all hands on deck – the same way the City engaged on COVID testing sites or vaccination locations. The mayor’s Road to Downtown Recovery plan puts us on that path and includes new efforts and investments to bring workers, small businesses, and visitors back downtown.

Through Seattle Rescue Plan investments and other federal funds, the city will invest more than $9 million in downtown recovery projects, including:

  • Efforts to address empty storefronts
  • Direct cash assistance to downtown small businesses
  • Workforce development programs for un- or under-employed downtown hospitality workers

Additionally, private partners – including the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) and Visit Seattle – are committing $7.4 million this year for other efforts including marketing, events, and cleaning.

Led by the city and DSA, Working Group members across downtown are partnering to host two sets of Welcome Back Weeks from July 12-25 and Sept. 4-19. Welcome Back Weeks will include events that vary from large-scale concerts and retail promotions to different specials that encourage support for small downtown restaurants and bars. If your business or organization would like to offer programming during Welcome Back Weeks, please complete this form to submit their activities to the DSA for promotion.

Two issues we know are closely related to downtown Seattle’s recovery include homelessness and safety. To address the former, the city and county are identifying locations, making service plans, and implementing new resources to address vulnerable people living unhoused with a strong focus in downtown Seattle.

On the latter issue, the city will increase – to the extent possible within the Seattle Police Department’s current staffing constraints – the presence of visible sworn and Community Service Officers in areas with increased crime, alongside ongoing efforts like the expansion of Health One, to best serve highly vulnerable individuals without a sworn officer response.

Click here to read about all of the initiatives announced in the recovery vision. In the coming days, the city will announce further details on the above strategies, including a full roster of programming for the July Welcome Back Weeks.

The bottom line is that employees and businesses have choices of where to spend time and money, and downtown needs to be a competitive choice, especially as we are starting to venture out from the pandemic. We will continue to advocate for the investments, policies, operational activities, and partnerships that support a healthy, thriving Downtown Seattle.

We thank the Mayor and ask that all our city leaders continue to be intentional in driving toward our goal of an inclusive and equitable recovery and build and activate a coalition of partners from all corners of our city, to achieve it. We must be unstoppable – there is too much at stake.

Let’s Do This!

Rachel Smith