♪♪
-Good evening, everyone, and welcome.
I'm Lori Hill
and I'm chair of the Urban Land Institute Northwest.
It's a pleasure to be here with all of you today
as we come together to celebrate progress towards a more vibrant,
connected, and welcoming Seattle.
One year ago,
the Urban Land Institute had the privilege
of convening a strategic forum comprised
of a dedicated group of 10 leaders from the city,
county, and private sector,
all with a shared commitment of reimagining
the 3rd Avenue Corridor
and tasked with creating a framework
for rapid short-term improvement and long-term change.
Today we stand here to celebrate the Spark Block,
a pilot project designed to showcase what is possible
when we collaborate, invest, and use our imaginations.
Thanks to the leadership and generosity of Kleist Properties,
Sabrina especially.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Base Camp Studios.
[ Cheers and applause ]
SDOT.
[ Cheers and applause ]
The DSA. [ Cheers and applause ]
And the many owners and tenants who believed in this vision,
we now have a living example of
how thoughtful improvements through design,
activation, and public-private partnership
can breathe new life into our downtown streetscape.
And now to speak further about the importance of this work
and the city's vision for 3rd Avenue and beyond,
it's my honor to introduce someone
who has been a steadfast champion for a safe
and thriving Seattle.
Please join me in welcoming our mayor, Bruce Harrell.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You know, I've given a few speeches in my day,
but I have never heard SDOT get an applause like that.
[ Laughter ]
I must be with a weird crowd today.
All my partners here, Spark Block,
it even sounds sort of cool.
I want to start off by thanking all of you
for not only getting through the tough times downtown,
but having a vision and a commitment,
the tenacity to move forward and say we will reclaim our city
and we will optimize what we can do.
We will make it safe. We will make it healthy.
We will respect constitutional rights.
We will be loud in our joy.
And so I am very excited to talk about Spark Block.
[ Applause ]
Again, I want to reiterate the thanks to Jon Scholes
from the DSA and Michelle from Metro.
You'll hear from the King County Executive Dow right after me.
I have to thank the county for all the work that they're doing.
Nick Ferderer, Sabrina.
I may have a councilmember or two.
I always see Councilmember Bagshaw in the back.
I'm going to recognize you.
[ Applause ]
Once a public servant, always a public servant.
And I think we may have a few councilmembers trickle in.
Part of our downtown activation plan
sort of starts with the vision that we're seeing right now.
We illuminate because, again, quite honestly,
we want people to see who and what we are.
And we're not afraid to look at our soft underbelly
to talk about the problems that we have.
Again, I want to applaud the county for helping people
when they are sick and when they need treatment.
I want to thank our police departments for making
lawful arrests when we have to do that kind of work as well.
But I also want to thank the business community,
the artists, particularly the artists for,
if you look at the murals we've done along 3rd Avenue,
we have the new lights
which are just sort of really cool paired with the murals
you see around us.
It not only brightened this street,
but gives us a better sense of safety.
And one reason why I'm bullish on graffiti is
because it sends the wrong message
that people can destroy property.
No one has the right to destroy anyone's property.
And we have small businesses just trying to make a living
and make a good living and employ people,
they have the right to do that.
And we should do everything possible to support that.
If you look at our progress,
and we have many departments here,
not just SDOT as was mentioned of course,
our Office of Economic Development are here,
our Arts and Culture are here.
In addition to SDOT, Seattle Police Department.
I want to recognize Greg Spotts,
I see Greg, my good friend, and Rodney Maxey.
Now I know I slaughtered because there's other SDOT people,
but I see these two because they were waving in front of my face
and that's why I saw them.
But I want to thank SDOT in particular for again,
just sort of not only sticking with us on this work,
but for leading the way.
And so if you look at the progress we've made,
we've had a 27% decrease in violent crime,
an overall 14% decrease in emergency service calls,
a 30% decrease in emergency medical responses
compared to last year.
So we're not only talking about cleaning the streets
and making arrests when necessary,
but holistically improving our built environment
and the spaces that benefits everyone.
And we have, you know, north of 100,000,
110,000 people living down here.
This is their home.
And so we must respect it as so.
The 30 murals are really something inside.
Now the two artists I just saw --
being a good artist doesn't run in my family.
I'm now looking at my granddaughters
and we just didn't get those genes.
But if you're gifted with that ability -- of course,
I'm telling them how beautiful it was,
as my parents told me, and it's just not beautiful,
but you got to reinforce it though.
Right?
But when you have the gift that you all have to create
and you're using it for the greater good
to beautify city as mayor, as your mayor,
I thank you for that very much.
And to Beacon Hill residents, I've been told.
And so we know there's a lot of talent in that Beacon Hill.
So thank you for sharing your talent with us.
So today we're a shining example of what happens
when private and public sectors come together to foster a city
where everyone could thrive and feel safe.
This is my vision of One Seattle in action.
And I've been told I should be able to play a short game
of putt-putt golf in here when things go well.
And I closed by saying this with again,
Kleist Properties and all of the players involved in this.
And as Dow gets his notes ready to speak with you guys,
I'm going to talk for 10 more minutes.
[ Laughter ]
That the partnership both of the King County executives
and I have developed in partnership with all of you,
it's paying dividends.
And I will tell you on my way over here,
when I still see people just killing themselves
or what appears to be a life without purpose,
that's the only way I can describe it.
And make no mistake about this.
I grew up with some of these folks.
I don't look at them as though they are bad people.
Many of them lost their way.
We will continue as a city of Seattle and as a county,
we will continue to treat compassionately
and try to clean up these streets
and make sure people can self-optimize.
But make no mistake about this.
I say this all of you as I look in your faces.
This is our city. This is our county.
We have to beautify.
We have to work hard to do exactly what we're doing here
and nothing is going to get in our way.
So thank you very much
and I present to you King County Executive Dow Constantine.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Thank you everyone for being here today.
This is a wonderful event
and it is so great to be here in the middle of our downtown
as it really comes back to life after the pandemic
and the challenges we've faced.
I want to thank Lori, Nick, Sabrina for bringing us together
and amplifying this remarkable energy.
And all of you, everyone here who has made today possible.
Efforts like this with people,
with creative vision, really shape our region for the better.
We know this is a great place to live and work
and shop and connect and to create.
And you're telling that story in the biggest
and brightest of ways.
Our region's upward trajectory is a product of vibrant
and thriving cities.
And together we are the economic and cultural engine
that drives the state of Washington.
Right?
So this month,
I wanted to let you know we are seeing an uptick
in positive activity downtown.
Fuller buses and trains bringing more people back to the office,
back to our shops, strengthening our downtown communities.
As each day brings more people downtown, the spark,
the powers are growing, vitality grows even brighter.
I want to thank and congratulate Mayor Harrell
and the city for the downtown activation plan.
We are happy to be allied in that work,
doing what we can from the county's perspective
to aid in bringing back downtown and making it a place we love
and we know it can be. At King County,
we deliver the mobility,
and you'll hear from our general director of Metro in just a bit,
Michelle Allison.
We deliver the mobility that downtown relies on.
We, between Metro and Sound Transit,
see about 400,000 boardings each weekday now.
And all our Metro riders boarding buses
and our operators driving them seek to ensure a safe
and welcoming environment.
This is why they deserve --
this is what they deserve to know about public safety
and the work underway and our commitment to do more.
We launched Operation Safe Transit on May 1st of last year.
I gave the green light to this effort uniting
our Sound Transit and King County police officers
who are all King County Sheriff's deputies and
detectives to really focus on the transit system countywide
to make sure that we are making it safe for our riders,
that we are inviting people back to transit
as our roads begin to fill up again,
as people are returning to the office.
We launched that effort
and then focused on a couple of particularly challenged areas.
The 3rd Avenue corridor between where we are here now
and Pioneer Square, and more recently,
the area of 12th and Jackson.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you these are both areas
that have really been challenged over the course
of the last few years.
Well, our Metro and Sound Transit
police increased their on-view arrests.
That means in addition to responding to calls for help,
they're actually going around and intervening
where there's trouble happening.
That has resulted in an awful lot of folks
who were acting out being removed from the transit
and maybe sent to treatment,
maybe simply sat down and talked to.
There have also been about 400 arrests of people
who were actually breaking the law.
And that is a really challenging part of this.
There are some folks
who are going to have to be intervened with in order
that they might be able to conform their behavior
to what we expect on transit,
so that everyone can confidently ride the transit system.
Our Metro and Sound Transit
police have increased those on-view
interventions more than 220% from 2023 to 2024
because of this initiative.
Metro more than doubled the number
of private security officers.
Those are the folks who are present in the stations,
in the Sound Transit stations,
as well as at our bus stops over the course of the last year.
We're going to continue this work
to make our communities safer.
The real answer,
though, is making the entire community safe
because you cannot separate the transit from the communities
in which we operate.
When we intervene to help people
who are in a behavioral health crisis get the treatment
they need, when we intervene to make sure the people
who need housing get that housing,
then we are going to be on the path
to really creating the kind of community we want,
that welcoming community
where every single person is valued and can thrive.
Mr. Mayor, you said
that artistry does not run in your family.
My father -- I didn't get to play football at the university.
I just got to cheer for you from the sidelines.
My dad is a visual artist.
We came through here just within the last month of the holidays
with my parents who were in their 90s.
They were so very impressed
with what was happening in this block.
This is what they want to see for the city
that they have loved for nine plus decades now.
I want to thank you.
Thank you and thank you for making this happen.
The lighting, the artwork,
these investments all
work together to improve the safety of 3rd Avenue,
ensure bright and vibrant spaces for everyone to enjoy.
And we need this kind of space for the arts
and for artists in each of our communities.
We need an anchor for culture in every single community
so that we are not squeezed out by property values,
that places are not rung dry of their creative forces,
that we have artists and art for everyone to enjoy.
Thank you so much for making it possible here.
It is my honor to introduce to you,
possibly for the last time in this role,
outgoing SDOT Director, Greg Spotts.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you, Executive Constantine.
Thank you, Mayor.
Monday is my last day as SDOT Director,
so I've arranged for the first snowstorm of the year
to begin Tuesday morning.
Rodney, be ready.
We haven't had a single drop of ice or snow this winter,
much to my great relief.
Just give me a moment. I want to thank the Mayor.
It's been really the opportunity of a lifetime to serve Seattle.
I have just enjoyed it so very much,
and I've made so many great friends, and learned so much.
I'm going to try to find ways to stay involved,
even if from afar,
I'm going to try to relocate back closer to family.
But I'm now really committed
and motivated to carrying on the wonderful work
that we're doing here in Seattle.
Let me mention something about this
Urban Land Institute forum that we had.
I'm kind of a student of cities and how they function.
And so being part of the Mayor's
Downtown Activation Sub-Cabinet
has been one of my favorite parts of the job.
And when I heard that there was this convening
of folks in the public, private sector,
different levels of government,
King County Metro, and SDOT, and other folks, and architects,
and we were going to spend like 48 hours together,
I thought, I've been here a year,
I know a little bit about the Seattle process.
We're going to get aligned about 3rd Avenue in 48 hours?
Is that possible?
And I remember showing up with a bit of a head of steam,
thinking, how can we catalyze something different
to come out of this meeting?
And we all decided in the first afternoon
that we were all already coordinating our efforts,
but we needed to align around common goals.
That was going to be the answer, is to put a stake in the ground
what we're going to accomplish together.
And then we started the work of figuring
out what those goals were.
We identified four nodes along 3rd Avenue
where we're going to focus between now and the World Cup.
This is one of the nodes here near Pike and Pine.
And you're already seeing results.
Within seven or eight months of that forum,
we had a wonderful conference coming to town of,
what is it, the International Downtown Association.
We started a new overnight power washing of streets in this area.
And it really made a difference for how that conference felt.
The mayor then directed us to keep that going.
And then we got these lights up here.
This is the very, very beginning.
And, you know, I just want to leave you with the thought that,
as Barack Obama once said, we are the change
that we're waiting for.
It's the people right here.
It's the artists. It's the property owners.
It's the city. It's county. It's everybody who cares.
And if we choose joint shared goals together,
there's nothing that we can't accomplish.
I want to thank Elizabeth Sheldon from SDOT.
She's been leading this effort.
[ Applause ]
I promoted her and then I gave her FIFA,
the downtown activation plan, Sound Transit,
and a unified care team.
No pressure. Right?
Liz conducts herself with such great calm.
And I'm hearing great things about the collaboration
that we've been having.
So next, I want to introduce one of my good friends
that I've made in the course of this work, DSA CEO, Jon Scholes.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thanks, Greg. Good to be with you all tonight.
I'll be just really brief.
I've been standing there for the last
several minutes thinking whether my mom really liked that plate
I made for her when I was six. [ Laughter ]
She still has it.
Now I'm not so sure, Mayor.
Seattle's got a spark in its step again.
And I don't think we could have claimed
that three or four years ago.
But under the leadership of this mayor,
our county executive, and a number of the public
and private officials and community leaders here today,
we can claim that.
We've got a good spark in our step.
The things we want to see going up,
more people living downtown, more people working downtown,
more artists downtown, more art spaces, more visitors,
those are all going up,
as County Executive Constantine noted.
The things we want to see go down,
people suffering on our streets, violent crime.
As the mayor noted, those things are going down.
We're on a path to progress in our downtown.
This project,
both Base Camp but what's been installed
and developed out here on 3rd between Stewart and Virginia,
is I think reflective of the best of urban places and cities
after they've faced tough times,
where people can come together,
one or two people can put an idea out there,
other people sort of come to the table.
We can all do our part. We create new opportunities.
It wasn't too long ago there was a chain link fence
around this building.
Most of the windows were broken.
There was nothing good going on in or outside of here.
And today, we're all gathered here to celebrate
not just what's happening here,
but what's happening on this block,
which is now sparking more interest down the street here.
We'll see more lighting and more activation and more art,
which are all important things to our city.
And no doubt we have a lot more work left to do,
but man, we've got a good team, don't we?
All the folks in this room
and the leaders we've got in our city and county.
So don't bet against Seattle.
It's not a good bet, and this is just the start.
We've got to spark in our step again.
I think it's my pleasure to introduce Michelle Allison,
the great leader of our Metro Transit Agency.
Michelle.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you, everybody, for being here.
Thank you, Greg and Jon.
Your partnership is truly represented from the work
that we have in front of us and along all of 3rd Avenue
and the corridor that we are working so closely together on.
Thank you, everybody,
for your role in helping revitalize the Spark Block
and our 3rd Avenue. At Metro Transit,
we know that every vibrant and healthy city has a vibrant
and healthy transit corridor.
And we also know that 3rd Avenue deserves to be that
for our city,
and we're working really hard to bring that reality back
for our riders and our operators.
As the leader of King County Metro,
I am committed to continuing this partnership forward,
to really making this vision a reality,
not just for this block, but for the corridor and beyond.
That's why in the next two years,
we're making good on that commitment,
and Metro is going to invest $15 million.
This means we're going to improve infrastructure,
beautification, wayfinding, and importantly,
our commitment to the arts. For example,
I'm really looking forward,
and I see some of our partners in the Pioneer Square community,
we're going to be welcoming an indigenous art sculpture,
currently be created for the Pioneer Square,
by a renowned local artist,
Preston Singletary and David Franklin.
That will be another moment
for us to come together
and celebrate the arts and placemaking.
Art is an incredible component of investment for our region.
It is more than just symbolism.
It also helps create space, belonging, creativity.
It brings communities together to celebrate.
It's very important
that we continue to center the art in our investments.
And as much as we love Metro and our buses,
we love the people more.
The people who provide this service every single day
for those 400,000 users,
for our riders who get on that system
and get to where they need to be to help reduce congestion.
We thank them for continuing to invest their time
into our system so that we can continue to deliver our transit.
And like many others in this room,
I want to call out a couple of folks who made today possible,
not just for this moment, but for the vision of the corridor.
Sabrina, without you, really.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I have not gone to a single space
and not heard that she is the champion of this work.
So thank you very much for taking that on for us
and letting us celebrate with you.
Also, a couple more people.
Nick, thank you very much for your investment.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And I will give a little shout out to Metro folks.
Chris O'Clair and Robbie Frankel.
The consistent vision and persistence
really helps push through some of those bureaucracies
so that we can deliver timeliness in a project
like this that just needs a little bit of momentum.
So thank you everyone for celebrating that momentum today,
and let's keep it going.
Sabrina?
[ Applause ]
-I'm beaming with pride. I just am.
I had notes and I said forget it.
I'm not going to use them. I'm beaming with pride.
I'm so proud of our city leaders
for stepping up to the plate and saying yes.
I'm proud of our neighbors and our public
and private partners and our small businesses
for pitching in and joining us and saying yes.
I'm so incredibly proud of our artists
for gracing 3rd Avenue with their beauty
and their innovation.
The spark block didn't just light up 3rd Avenue.
It sparked a sense of community and action
you can see all over the city.
The lights in Chinatown ID,
our friends in Spokane put up lights.
There's more lights coming on the Macy's block in March.
And I'm just incredibly proud,
and thank you so much for being here to celebrate this
and to really see our goal come to life in less than a year.
When does that happen? Thank you everybody.
And I would like to introduce my co-captain
of the spark block, Nick Ferderer.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, man.
I got to bring up the caboose, huh?
Thanks for joining under the purple lights here.
I'm Nick Ferderer. This is Base Camp Studios.
We've been here for about a year now,
but I got to tell you I'm always excited
to see so many smiling faces in the crowd.
This is a pretty good turnout.
Thanks for coming to hear me speak.
Thanks for the couple of chuckles on that.
I'm only here to say thanks to the artists.
I want to call out Paul Nunn, Ben Hubbard,
Brady Black, Esmeralda, Angelina Villalobos, Nelisha Estrellas,
and I don't think I missed anybody,
and then I want to invite you all.
Oh, Laura was helping with something else.
Sorry, I should have clarified.
Calling out the artists
whose work we're going to go visit on the tour here.
Other artists that are in here are Claudia.
We've also got Maggie along with Sherry here.
Did I miss anybody else? No.
So I want to invite everybody to go on a tour
where we can walk around and have a quick,
brief talk from each of the artists.
If you'd like to join,
we'll just meet right out here in front of the door,
and thank you all for coming.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Secretary.
[ Applause ]