Quote:
Originally Posted by revrw
Now they are following the model of Vancouver B.C. and if you have ever been there, you know that there downtown is alive at all times. I would see coffee shops open downtown all night. I was great!!! There downtown has nice tall residential towers. Seattle is starting to follow that model and in about 3-5 years, they will have a 24/7 downtown. Its a great model that Spokane should start to build around now and lay the ground work for the future.
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Good discussion going on here
Vancouver has had tremendous success achieving a livable city. The main differences between it and SEattle, however, has been Vancouver's goal of making downtown a place for families. While SF has seen this group continue to decline, Vancouver has actually seen their numbers rise dramatically over the past 20 years. The residential development there reflects a much broader demographic than Seattle will see for many, many years if ever. To some degree they've been too successful with their residential model, to the point where they've a serious shortage of office space. A good explanation of this issue can be found
here (pdf).
Quote:
"The fear that residential is taking over the downtown is serious enough that the City of Vancouver has placed a moratorium on residential development in the office core. But some industry experts say it's already too late."
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Let's face it, when it comes to development, commercial traditionally pays the bills.
I think what we all agree on is that for Seattle and Spokane a balance of commercial and residential would be best, and in my opinion I hope that balance includes many more families than our current path looks to be providing.