Where Do the Children Play?

Seattle planners have a crush on Vancouver. So tall, so slender, so mixed-use. That's why Councilman Peter Steinbrueck talked the Seattle City Council into hiring two of Vancouver's lead planners to look over Mayor Greg Nickels' "Center City Strategy" for development downtown.

As the Seattle Times reports, their study reveals the Mayor's adoring relationship with tall, dark, and handsome development has boundary issues: simply building taller buildings won't attract enough new housing to deal with Seattle's embarrassing suburban sprawl.

They also noted that Nickels' plan, announced this year, calls for taller, more dense development than in Vancouver, which could cast more dark shadows on sidewalks. And they said the city could do more to protect historic buildings from wrecking balls.

Putting a happy face on the feedback from the critical Canadians, Nickels' spokesman Marty McOmber had this to say: "[A]t first blush nothing jumped out as major red flags."

Curently, while 165,000 people work in Seattle, only 22,000 people live downtown (Vancouver's numbers are 132,000 and 85,000, respectively). So it certainly looks like the Mayor's plan's failure to address housing downtown would, yes, be a red flag.

When you're hoping to raise a family (or entice another 40,000 of them to move downtown), not seeing red flags is really the issue, isn't it? So here's some recommended reading for Mayor Nickels and staff: How To Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved.