Help Shape Our “Grow Gracefully” Vision
Growth should benefit everyone and make Seattle a place we LOVE even more!
Help Shape Our Grow Gracefully Vision!
Allied Arts will continue to convene meetings with and events to obtain critical feedback to help shape the future of growth in Seattle.
Learn the A B C D & Es of growing gracefully:
A.) AFFORDABLE housing and workspaces
B.) Small/local BUSINESS support
C.) CHARACTER structures and districts
D.) DESIGN quality & livability improvements
E.) Provide EXCELLENT infrastructure which enhances Seattle
Grow Gracefully—Background
Values of Allied Arts and Seattle
We value the qualities vital to Seattle’s livability and its soul:
Urban fabric
Sense of place
Character structures
Character districts
Local businesses
Human scale
Public spaces
Diversity
Affordability
Communitarian spirit
The role of Allied Arts has been to change the conversation about vital urban issues. We have a history of setting and leading debate on urban issues such as saving Pike Place Market, protecting Pioneer Square and a Waterfront for All.
Unprecedented Upheaval—the Need
While we can point to current development projects that enhance Seattle’s livability and soul, we see far too many that do significant harm to these qualities; and still others that enhance some qualities while harming others.
We have the opportunity now to raise the bar so that new developments build on what’s great about Seattle. While Seattle must respond to the immediate affordability crisis, we also have the opportunity to build a community that will positively serve generations to come.
The Road Ahead—the Campaign continues
Today, Seattle finds itself at a crossroads regarding growth. Much of the dialogue is characterized as two opposing camps warring over a false choice between those who feel all growth is good and those who feel any growth is bad.
We reject both premises. Our civic conversation should be about livability, how we maintain—and enhance—the livability of a city we all love, as it grows and matures, even as we accept our share of the region's growth. The focus must be on how our city aspires to serve all of its residents—and how it aspires to become a great city.
Grow Gracefully—Vision
As Seattle absorbs more people and wealth, growth should make it a better community for all—a city we love even more than we do today.
Growth in general can happen in two ways:
Change becomes a broader part of who you are, reinforcing your past and strengthening your future; OR
Events that change you are traumatic and alter your soul to a point where those who love you don’t recognize you anymore.
Growth should reinforce the fundamental DNA of Seattle.
How does Seattle evolve without mutating into something fundamentally not Seattle?
How can Seattle change and remain fundamentally a city we can love?
Grow Gracefully—Key Goals
Improve housing affordability including artists’ housing and workspaces.
Support small/local businesses.
Preserve “character structures and districts,” meaningful buildings because of their history, architecture, use or scale.
Improve design quality, character and livability.
Provide excellent infrastructure which enhances Seattle (transportation, open space, gathering places).
Grow Gracefully—Sample Strategies
Create and expand character districts to preserve what we love about Seattle neighborhoods.
Focus development in urban villages and protect the scale and use of our “main streets.”
Make use of a Public Development Authority (PDA) to preserve local businesses, character and sale in neighborhood business districts (it works for Pike Place Market).
Increase public input in design review.
Increase housing for artists and our cultural workforce.
Sound Transit should enhance neighborhoods via a West Seattle Junction tunnel and CID route which avoids 5th Avenue South
