The downtown activation plan
or the D.A.P. as we like to call it, is one of the mayor's top priorities,
and it's because downtown is just so important.
It's key to our identity. It's the heart of the city.
The really thing that makes it the heartbeat is people.
So we wanted to get more people downtown.
We wanted to get workers back downtown, tourists, residents, anything to draw
people is going to make downtown feel more active.
♪ Christmas give her a drum ♪
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We got lots of fun stuff going on.
We've got live music in parks.
We've got some video game action happening in Occidental Park.
We also closed down a half block on Pike Street between first and second,
so we're thinking about different ways to make those places where people
want to hang out, enjoy some time in an urban setting,
and have it be year round fun for folks of all ages in those neighborhoods.
[Markham McIntyre] We still have vacant
storefronts and part of our role in it is to help figure out how to fill them.
We really want that to be
part of an active downtown is a vibrant retail, restaurant scene,
but also we want to see it as an incubator for small and diverse businesses.
these vacant storefronts are opportunities for new entrepreneurs to come downtown
and really revitalize what we have going on here for our economic scene.
Hi, I'm Sierra Jones.
I'm the owner and operator of Inside.
Inside is a space me to redefine self care located in downtown Seattle,
Inside was a vision of mine that I had for years,
and when I applied for the Seattle Restored program,
it was an idea and they believed in that idea.
And what I want it to bring to this community,
and they gave me a space to be able to do that.
We would not be here if it wasn't for this program.
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Seeing downtown now versus
when we first opened, the foot traffic has increased significantly.
You can see more people coming back for tourism over the summer.
It gives me so much hope.
Like, I see downtown being activated.
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- When people come downtown, we really want them
to feel welcome and there's something for them to see, do or experience.
We want each of the different neighborhoods
that make up downtown to have their own different flavor,
but really, at the end of the day, we wanted to just make people feel welcome
and so that they want to come back again and again.