Healthy Business Districts as a priority in Seattle Seattle is a city of tightly knit communities.  How can this benefit the residents and where do the neighborhood business districts fit in?  Sustainable Seattle, through its main programs, the Sustainable Urban Neighborhood Initiative (SUNI) and the Sustainable Community Multiplier Project  are gathering information that is useful to answering these questions.  Some of the most important information comes directly from the residents from dialogues and surveys that we conduct.

Our initial three workshops were held in the neighborhoods of Wallingford, Lake City, and North Beacon Hill.  All community members with an interest in improving the health of the neighborhood business district were invited. 

These neighborhoods demonstrate a diverse income, geographic, and ethnic composition and have identified an interest in strengthening their business district as one of their top community goals.

• Lake City  Lake City's business district serves about 17,000 people, with a 33% minority population.  Car dealerships, strip malls and gas stations are prevalent on the busy thoroughfare that cuts through the neighborhood, Lake City Way.  There is, however, a growing local business district that has a diverse mix of businesses and a weekly farmers market that have the potential to appeal to visitors from outside of Lake City while serving its citizens.

• North Beacon Hill  North Beacon Hill is a neighborhood with an extremely diverse population with 77% of its community minorities and an average median income level below 50% of the regional average.  North Beacon Hill has a small business district that is experiencing significant changes with the future addition of light rail transit and increasing housing prices.  The sense of community here is strong and there are a number of active organizations that give North Beacon Hill's Business District a bright future.

• Wallingford  Wallingford has a population of over 21,000 with a large central business district that is spread out along 45th Ave.  With a diversity of businesses that include restaurants, bars, coffee shops and a movie theatre, Wallingford has potential to create a thriving urban center.  Wallingford is trying to manage its growth by drawing in visitors from outside of the neighborhood while maintaining a strong sense of community among the residents.

Workshops on the topic of healthy neighborhood business districts were held in three Seattle neighborhoods:

• Wallingford, February 3rd at the Good Shepard Center from 10:00 am-1:00 pm. 
  
• Lake City, February 10th at the Lake City Christian Church, 1933 NE 125th Street from 9:00 am-12:00 pm.
  
• North Beacon Hill, February 24th at Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Ave. S from 10:00 am-1:00 pm.
  

On March 29th, we brought together all three communities to get feedback on strategies they developed at the initial neighborhood-based workshops from experts on sustainable economic development, gain tips on resources and grant opportunities from the City and local non-profits, and to network.  Please read about the event in the North Seattle Herald Outlook:Back to the Planning Board

For the PowerPoint Presentations given at the workshops as well as maps of the Mix of Business/Hours of Operation/Local vs. Chain Store in each neighborhood, just click on the link to view (double click on maps for larger view):

Wallingford	PowerPoint	Retail Mix Map	Retail Mix Legend	Local vs Chain Map	Local vs Chain Legend
Lake City	PowerPoint	Retail Mix Map	Local vs Chain Map	Open Hours Map	Closed Hours Map
North Beacon Hill	PowerPoint	Retail Mix Map	Local vs Chain Map	Open Hours Map	Closed Hours Map

To access the follow up summary information for the workshops simply click on the workshop follow up document that you wish to access:
Wallingford Follow Up Summary
Lake City Follow Up Summary
North Beacon Hill Follow Up Summary

Priorities and Data:

One such study, the Neighborhood Dialogue, discusses what the neighborhood priorities are.  Participants in many Seattle neighborhoods identified healthy business districts as a top priority in attaining a quality neighborhood.  Other priorities include safety, improved transportation options, and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.  We believe that these are some of the key ingredients to a healthy business district.  We are also working to make a case for the importance of connecting small, independent businesses in mutual support activities and the importance of public gathering places in a community.

For more data related to this issue, see also: Community Surveys, Pedestrian Counts, Street Level Data, and Interactive Maps.

Additionally, students from a University of Washington, GIS course created business district maps for the following neighborhoods: Greenwood-Phinney Ridge and Uptown.  To learn more, click here.

Neighborhood Workshops

The neighborhood business district workshops gave Seattle residents an opportunity to share these critical data and use them to create actionable steps toward improving neighborhood business districts.  By sharing data and expertise with the neighborhood stakeholders at the initial three community workshops we formulated a framework for strategies that we hoped would move participants toward their shared goals.  We then conducting a communal workshop involving all three communities and other interested participants to solidify the strategies and provide a forum for information sharing between communities.

Contact us for more information regarding the results/outcomes of the workshops:

The Thriving Business District Project is made possible by the generous funding of Safeco.  www.safeco.com