Traffic Impacts

Traffic on Rainier Ave S is for anyone traveling to and from the Rainier Valley a daily headache. The Southeast Seattle Transportation Study says:

Rainier Ave. S. and S. Dearborn St. is a signalized multiphase intersection with heavy turn movements and is currently operating at capacity. It is a vehicular High Accident Location.

As Dearborn connects to I-5 and Rainier connects to I-90, demand, and delay, is expected to increase by 2030. The intersection currently operates at LOS F with a PM peak overall delay of nearly 2 minutes and a delay on the south approach of over 4 minutes. By 2030, overall delay is projected to exceed 3 minutes and a delay on the south approach of nearly 8 minutes.

The intersection had the most fatal/disabling accidents along the length of Rainier Ave from Boren to the city limit according to a 2005 WSDOT collision study. The same study shows that Dearborn also ties for most bicycle/auto collisions and Weller Street has the highest number of rear-end collisions of any intersection on Rainier.

The proposed project will require 25,000 automobile trips per day to satisfy the big box component of the project. This means an additional 17,000 more automobile trips to the area than there are today.

According to the developer’s own traffic study, an automobile during peak hours will enter or leave the site every second. That’s a lot of traffic.

Bicyclists Beware: On the Dearborn Street corridor, for those heading west along the Dearborn bike lane in the morning peak hours, an average of 13 cars will enter or leave the site across the bike lane every minute. Evening peak hour will double that. Careful!

Why a formula retail regional shopping center is wrong for the International District

Two blocks from the proposed project is the heart of Seattle’s Little Saigon. Little Saigon is successful. Little Saigon is growing. Little Saigon is a cultural asset. And Little Saigon is fragile.

The developer is promoting this project as “Goodwill, Shops and Housing“, as if this will be a quaint little shopping area. In fact the project is almost 650,000 square feet of retail space - more than twice that of all of the rest of the International District combined. Of the retail, 90% of the total square footage will be dedicated to shops greater than 5,000 square feet. Even the 165,000 square foot Target store (the largest in the Pacific Northwest we’re told) will be less than a quarter of the project.

So what’s wrong with a mega-regional big box center in the middle of the Little Saigon Urban Village? After all, this is will be different from the typical suburban shopping mall, right?

This project differs from a suburban mall with the same mix of big box retail in a few “urban” ways:

• First, much of the parking will be underground (1,600 spaces of the 21 acres of total parking). Imagine the joy of looking for your car in this environment, breathing exhaust fumes in an enclosed space, dodging other cars looking for an open space. Unfortunately even the developer admits that the parking is inadequate for the sheer amount of retail in the project. During peak periods this will make looking for a parking space a big game of “musical chairs” in the underground garage.
• Second, most malls are enclosed. This one will not be. There will be open air walkways to reach the second story shops. Nothing like shopping at the mall carrying your bags of purchases around in the wind and rain.
• Finally, there will be housing on top. Convenient for folks living upstairs that need that daily trip to PetCo or Office Max. Don’t worry about the noise of the semi-trailer delivery trucks arriving in the middle of the night. Living upstairs of the a big box mall we’re certain will be an attractive option for modern urban village living. Unfortunately you will have to leave the area for entertainment or services since this project is almost all retail shopping.

The question is, what does any of this have to do with the International District - an area recognized for its unique character, wonderful small family-owned restaurants and independent businesses. And what does this formula retail mall have to do with the surrounding neighborhoods - some of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city?

Impacts to other local business districts

Seattle is a city made up of its neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is defined by its local shopping district. It is generally accepted that malls and big box stores have a devastating affect on small shopping districts.

Columbia City, Beacon Hill, 23rd and Jackson, 23rd and Union, Chinatown, Japantown, Pioneer Square, Pacific Place. The list is long - there are plenty of shopping districts nearby. But how will this project affect the spending of consumer dollars. Will the money now spent at Red Apple at 23rd and Jackson or at Uwajimaya now be spent at the Dearborn Street project’s grocery? What happens to the small shops in Columbia City or on Beacon Hill? What are the impacts to small businesses? And what are we doing to the city by bringing formula retail - the suburban mall - in? How will we keep our unique character?

Many articles and research outline the negative impacts that big box stores have on existing jobs in the local community. Stores like Target and Home Depot are not necessarily a form of economic development, as the developer would like us and our local government officials to believe. The arrival of a new big box store in a community generally leads to an average loss of 180 other retail jobs. In addition to raising unemployment rates, big box stores generally reduces the earnings for its retail workers. This is a tough blow not only for workers who are at or near the poverty line, but also for taxpayers who in 2005 paid over $12 million in publicly funded health care for employees of Home Depot, Target and other big box retailers. Find out more here.