SEATTLE — Visitors walking around Pike Place Market and other nearby areas popular with tourists stopped Wednesday in the stretch of Pike Street between First and Second avenues — now closed to traffic — to snap photos or take a break.
The small pedestrian oasis previously open to through traffic is now only accessible to people on foot, making it easier for people to stop in the roadway to take a photograph with the market’s famous neon sign in the background or congregate with one another, figuring out their next stop for the day.
Last month, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced plans to partially close to traffic this stretch of Pike, stemming from a larger effort by the mayor to revitalize the city’s center by investing in a “cleaner and safer downtown” and pedestrian-friendly projects.
This segment of Pike Street has been closed for much of the year as part of a $17.5 million project to upgrade the street from Bellevue Avenue on Capitol Hill to First Avenue at the market’s entrance. In March, eight aging cherry trees were removed from this block with a promise by Harrell eventually to replace them and add more to the area.
During a warm Wednesday afternoon, Tyler Usko sat in the area, chatting with a friend and playing a guitar, occasionally.
“It opens a way for communication and there’s more chance for interaction,” said Usko, who lives in Walla Walla and makes the occasional trip to Seattle to hang out. The decision to close off traffic and create spaces for people to congregate is a good thing for any city, but especially for a city as diverse as Seattle, he added.
“The city would definitely benefit from more spaces like this,” Usko said.
Soni Bee, visiting from central California, said the decision creates more balance in pedestrian-friendly layouts that still allow drivers to commute through other areas.
It would be great to see community or arts events flourish in spaces like these, he said.
The decision to close off this segment of Pike Street is aimed at creating a “green and healthy” street, according to city officials. While the closure began last week, Seattle Department of Transportation officials still need to install street furniture and other planned upgrades to make the space even more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, Jamie Housen, Harrell’s spokesperson, said in an email.
City officials are working with business owners in the area, the Downtown Seattle Association and Pike Place Market to cultivate the space, which might include pop-up food vendors, buskers and market extensions, Housen said.
The closure marks one of the first initiatives from the mayor’s ambitious plan to revitalize downtown that officials have executed.
The now-pedestrian-friendly stretch of Pike Street does not have a set end date, Housen said.
The intent of opening part of Pike Street to pedestrians is to create more space for them to connect with other major downtown destinations such as Westlake Center or Pike Place Market, Housen explained.
Improvements along Pike and Pine serve to enhance one of Seattle’s strengths of a walkable and vibrant urban core, James Sido, spokesperson for the Downtown Seattle Association, said via email.
“Great cities and downtowns are walkable,” he said.
