There are three main questions I ask myself on a regular basis:
- Will upzoning the U District help the city’s housing crisis?
- Will upzoning the U District make the U District more affordable?
- Will upzoning the U District help the climate crisis?
Other questions that pop up: Will we see homogenous boring building forms dominate like we have in other parts of the city? Will new ground level retail spaces mean that signature local businesses are replaced by national, corporate chains?
And more importantly, how does the U District become a more welcoming place? I keep hearing about troubling police, business and University of Washington practices that disproportionately impact communities of color. Will upzoning the U District lead to more frequent sweeps of people living on “the Ave”? Will racial divides increase as wealth concentrates itself near transit?
Here is what I believe after thinking about this every single day for the last couple of years… Downzoning the U District won’t help the housing shortage, won’t help the climate crisis, won’t lead to a more welcoming community, won’t stop the sweeps, and won’t stop many local businesses from being replaced by chains. Downzoning the U District won’t stop gentrification or rising rents or capitalism from redistributing wealth from poor to rich.
My rent went up $350 dollars this month. How much will it go up when light rail opens blocks away in 2021? Single family homes once occupied by bandmates, artists, writers, and grad students are already being replaced by young married professional couples who work at the UW or Children’s Hospital. Homeownership in urban environments near transit isn’t going to look familiar to many current Seattleites but when we build condo high rises that is what homeownership looks like for many people.
Folks forced out of the U District are finding community in Burien and Renton and South Park where they are displacing others and are the unwelcome gentrifiers. These cycles won’t stop with downzones. We need to build homes in tall buildings near transit and we need intense infill, missing middle, and housing diversity everywhere else. We need to share the city and welcome newcomers instead of vilifying them. And we need to do it quickly without delay.
