Re: “Keep Pike Place Market open to traffic” [April 9, Opinion]:
Friends of the Market? If we want to be friends of the Market, I suggest supporting the vendors, the farmers and the pedestrians.
Let’s prevent cars from turning into Pike Place, where they will spend way too much time avoiding pedestrians just to travel one block and find that there is no parking.
Most cars driving through the Market at peak hours are piloted by people who are, perhaps, unfamiliar with Seattle and the Market area in particular. They don’t know why they ended up driving on a cobblestone lane swarming with hundreds of pedestrians. They just want to find a parking spot. Why not keep the cars on First Avenue and funnel them to the neighboring parking lots?
In fact, let’s give First Avenue multiple drop-off zones — for pedestrians, Uber drivers, etc.
The best use for Pike Place is for the vendors to be able to make deliveries whenever they need to, especially early morning hours.
The farmers and vendors are the soul of the market. We do not want to hinder them, in fact, we want to make it easier for them to have the access they need.
Steve van Oel, Seattle