This long-awaited project extends the plaza north of Beacon Hill Station, giving the community a space for festivals and events. Workers from the Seattle Department of Transportation have been onsite since October, working on this improvement to Lander Street.
See more SDOT photos of the Festival Street project on Flickr.
View Lander Festival Street in a larger map
This might be a strange question, but how is this going to work? I love the idea of street vendors, but who has controlling authority over this space? Do people/organizations need to apply for street use permits? Are there going to be any special rules on how this can be used? This would be a great place for a Taco Truck or some other food vendors.
I’ve been wondering the same things, and hoping that information will be shared soon. It would be ridiculous, but kind of typical, if the plaza get completed but there’s no legal way for anyone to use it.
Bollards baby, bollards…
There will be bollards to block off the street for events — I believe Steve Louie is the “keeper of the keys” for it. I imagine that the process to hold events there is the same as it would be to close any street, so, yes, probably street use permits. If there are any special rules, I don’t know about them yet.
Lander is still going to be open most of the time.
I did a little Googling about Seattle street vendors, it seems that even if they are on public property they still need the permission of adjacent land owners (El Centro?). You can read more about that here
http://www.seattle.gov/economicDevelopment/biz_district_guide/Street_Vendors.htm
The Stranger also had an interesting article about why Seattle does not have more street vendors
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/obstacle-course/Content?oid=21163
It seems as if this street is creating a special situation and I’m wondering if it should have special rules?
I thought this was to be the pick-up/drop-off spot for the station. Is there a sheltered area out of the rain where somebody can wait to be picked up from the station (besides the bus stop)? I was really hoping that family/friends could arrive from the airport and wait for me to pick them up. Also, why aren’t there restrooms at the station? Maybe I’ve lived abroad too long but I really don’t understand why there isn’t this convenience at the stations.
As far as I know it is still intended to be the pick-up/drop off spot. Most of the time the Festival Street will still be open to traffic, so that won’t change that. As far as a sheltered area goes, there is one on the north side of the building, facing Lander:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdong/3740910140/
If it’s really windy I don’t think it will help much, though. Ideally you should have your family/friends call you while they are on the way to let you know they’ll be there soon, so they won’t have to wait long.