or buy bananas 🍌
or buy a sandwich 🥪
or buy seafood 🐟𓇼🐚
Just buy something.
This summer, for the first time, the City of Seattle banned cars in Pike Place Market
Last year (2024), some politicians warned no one will shop here anymore if it’s pedestrianized:
https://publicola.com/2024/04/02/dont-open-pike-place-to-pedestrians-council-member-urges/
It’s important Pike Place pedestrianization succeeds.
The stakes are high for the future of Seattle. If this summer experiment is a success, it will help push back against pro-car politicians. Failure will make future pedestrianization efforts much harder.
So go out there and purchase something 🍏🍌🥪🎁🛍️
I drop by Pike Place on a regular basis. Even before the current car ban, it was near impossible to drive through. Pedestrians would flow out onto the street because the sidewalks and inside of the market was packed. Sometimes even due to lines for some of the popular shops. And sometimes it was me blocking your drive because screw that noise, I’m walking here!
This summer with the car ban it has been even more popular and crowded, with fewer shoulders and elbows getting in the way. IMHO, this project has already been successful. Great job, Seattleites! :)
Also new in the area is the rebuild of Alaskan Way. It’s much nicer than ever before, plus the aquarium got a new building.
Good job being the local!!
This place needs a few trees :)
This brings up the quandary, should I drive 1.5 hrs round trip to support an anti-cars initiative.
One of the most vocal vendors opposed to the street being pedestrian-only runs one of the produce shops. So, maybe buy something else.
I’d say buy from them as well. They’re a business owner, so showing that pedestrianising the area helps their business thrive is just about the surest way to change their mind.
counterpoint: let them perish while everyone else there who wasn’t a blithering moron prospers, and let someone else move in after their business goes under.
How does that benefit the community? Unless you manage to cut off a significant chunk of their trade they’ll survive and have even more reason to oppose pedestrianisation. You’re not giving them a way out, or a chance to change their position, so they can only harden their opposition to it.
Let them experience the benefits of pedestrianisation and you’re likely to see their attitude change, and see them become a proponent of it instead.
Revenge is sometimes an enjoyable fantasy, but it rarely ever brings positive changes to people’s opinions.
Which is ridiculous. Most rational people who have been to Pike Place know you shouldn’t drive there if it’s remotely busy. I remember, a few times, seeing a few tourists in cars get stuck in the crowds when I was there for work.
WTF, how did this place look like in the past? Was it really a drive-through farmers market? Sorry if I sound stupid here, but that’s totally unimaginable for me as a non-USian. I’ve never seen a market that’s not pedestrianised in my life.
You guys would also drive your cars through the shelves of Walmart if you could, wouldn’t you?!
Wow, I’ve never seen the market that empty. Not when it’s open, anyway.
I’m assuming COVID had something to do with it. Those photos are 3 and 4 years ago, and people are wearing masks.
Ah, that would do it.
its not really a drive through market, but there are two sections of the market which are divided by a short street about 180 meters in length. you would still have to get out of your car to shop at any of the shops/stalls. anybody driving their cars there previously would have to contend with a ton of pedestrian traffic, and there is minimal parking there anyway so i dont know why anyone non-service or vendor related would willingly use that street to access the market.
Mostly only tourists and suburbanites who followed bad advice from Google maps would actually attempt to drive through it. There’s so many pedestrians around that you would end up spending ten minutes to drive a single block if you tried.
I used to work a block from there and was always shocked that people would just drive right through. There’s nothing at all to see in a car. Unless you are delivering something, there’s no reason for a vehicle to be there.
Drivers are always the least productive people on the street. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that getting rid of them is good for the city.
Why can’t you just go there to watch the guys toss fish between them (and drop it sometimes)? Imo it’s also a fun option…I guess you can buy that too if you feel like walking around with a fish.
