Podcast | Can Seattle reinvent its Downtown?

Reporter Josh Cohen discusses the city's plans — and readers' moonshot dreams — to improve the central business core.

People walking in a crosswalk surrounded by high rises

Pedestrians cross the street at Third Avenue and Pike Street. (Grant Hindsley for Crosscut)

Just as technology was making working-from-home more convenient, the pandemic, and the social-distancing requirements that came with it, accelerated the process.

Remote work is probably here to stay, so it’s unlikely offices in downtown Seattle will ever be filled to capacity again — and the decreased daily worker traffic will impact, perhaps permanently, the businesses that depended on their presence.


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Crosscut city reporter Josh Cohen has been speaking with city leaders, urban planners, real estate professionals, business owners, workers and even Crosscut readers to take stock of a post-pandemic Downtown: not only what the impact of these past few years has been, but what the central business district’s future could look like.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Cohen about Downtown’s future. Given that things are not going back to the way they were, what could the city envision instead?

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