Despite protestations by progressives that conservatives are overstating the despair of downtown Seattle, the neighborhood is dying, but on life support. Walk downtown and you’ll see a neighborhood that is quickly returning to the hellscape it became during COVID-19. Too bad neither the media, nor the people in charge, seem willing to admit the truth about what’s happening as the downtown Seattle real estate market collapses.
Commercial real estate is selling at deep discounts because the spaces are empty. Whether it’s a mall that has few operating stores, boarded-up restaurants and clothing stores or empty hotel rooms, if you don’t have foot traffic and visitors, the land loses its value.
While Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell once focused on the downtown core after a series of high-profile gun violence, Third Street, between Pike and Pine, has returned to its previous unsafe, unsanitary conditions. Homeless addicts are strewn about and it’s not a safe place for locals or tourists. Harrell’s office allowed it to return to this sad, sorry state.. Not even a considerably more business-friendly and moderate city council can make up for it.
Listen to “The Jason Rantz Show” on weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM . Subscribe to theA photo of a teacher crawling under a bathroom stall at Kentlake High School in Kent, Washington is generating concern online.