No mention of Uwajimaya?

Okay, look, I'm all in favor of mass transit. I take the bus to and from work every day (and it sucks). But I need somewhere to put my car. Mass transit isn't going to get me the 1500 miles back home for Christmas.

Spoken like a man who doesn't drive, doesn't have back problems, and has enough $ to pay delivery fees.

Well, Ben, you shouldn't live in a place that doesn't have parking -- but someone that doesn't have a car shouldn't be forced to pay higher rents for a parking space he or she doesn't use just in case you should rent the apartment 10 or 20 years in the future.

I'm not saying that all parking should be eliminated, all parking structures blown up, etc. Only that parking shouldn't be a requirement.

No mention of M St Grocery (8th & Madison) either? New store, free parking garage.

See, once again, Will/HA shows he wants MORE global warming not less.

This is why he hates the Sierra Club for standing up for the environment - on global warming, more net transit gain than single occupancy vehicle gain, more wetlands - by saying we have to vote No on RTID/ST2.

It's sad really.

And Uwajimaya is in the International District, by the way.

The Uwaj is expensive, even for Asian groceries (try 99 ranch) and doesn't stock "normal" western groceries. For example, no Ritz crackers, Jif peanut butter, etc.

M Street is a great store, and has a pretty complete selection, but it is very small. I don't think it really counts as a full-sized supermarket.

@5- m street sucks. Way overpriced to service the rich dumbasses that rented the outhouse sized apartments above them.

@5

that is a nice store, in a stepford wives kind a way, which is an awful comparison.

A woman who worked at the Red Apple there before is now at the Madison Park Red A. I'd lived in the Sprite building next to I/5 on Madison 1999 during my intitial intro into in. What's the price for blackberries Lately?

Uwajimaya rules. That's where I get my chicken hearts! Yum!

@4: Okay. I guess I read "now let’s start building apartments and condos without parking facilities," as "let's quit building places with parking," and not "why the fuck don't we just have both?"

@10,
the Sprite building is being taken down this week to make room for a new office tower. Nostalgia aside, the demolition is pretty cool to watch in an 8 yr old fascinated with big machinery breaking stuff kinda way.

All you City Slickers. So Seattle is getting an IGA? Interesting, wonder why QFC or Safeway did not set up shop. IGA's (mainly rural demographics but I think there is one on South Hill in Spokane) are really really basic stores. The selection (even in the huge ones) is not all that great and prices are moderate.

It is a grocery store but honestly downtown would have been better off with Safeway or Alberston's.

You're insane, Dan.

I think this store will be great. Maybe it will help make the neighborhood less terrifying.

First get rid of free on-street parking. The entire city should require zone permits. $50-$1000 a year, depending on neighborhood.

Aw, Spokane's South Hill. Memories. See, that place isn't all bad. But I never went to an IGA there.

First, get some parking for scooters and motorcyles downtown.

Great news there'll be a full service grocery downtown. When I lived in Belltown, the options weren't amusing. I usually had to trek up to QA or Cap Hill to get groceries or settle on pricey sandwiches and packaged pasta (from glorified Quik-E-Marts, really) or take-out.

It's going to be a real challenge keeping the new store safe and presentable, I fear. That location (3rd & Union) is pretty gamy, and I can't imagine it being open after dark. But who knows? Maybe its healthier to just hope for the best and hope, too, that the owners are brave enough to be trend setters.

@19: That would be cool, but probably not Environmentally Correct because they're not carbon-neutral. My guess is the push will be for bicycle-only parking.

When I lived on First Hill, back in the late 70s, there was a funky little IGA there, right on 8th and Marion. There's a huge condo tower under construction there now. I used to do my basic shopping there, and once a month or so, I'd take the bus up to the Safeway on 15th and John and get the things I couldn't get at the IGA.

As to condos without parking - I'm surprised the big condo and apartment complexes haven't started charging extra for parking spaces. The condos my husband is working on have a number of owners who live within walking distance of work. He says they all have parking spaces, most have nice cars, and the cars virtually never leave the garage. Those people could probably learn to live car-free. I did, when I lived on First Hill - there wasn't a whole hell of a lot I needed a car for. If I needed to go out of town, I took the bus or the train. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to live without a car.

Of course, now I live in East Armpitistan, and can't do a damned thing without a car, which sucks. But I can't afford to buy in Seattle anymore.

The Seattle Municipal Code does not currently require parking for residential uses downtown.

If they don't have parking it will just end up like New York City where you have to drive around for like 5 hours in order to secure an on street spot. If you can afford a pricey condo, you can sure as hell afford a parking spot. If you don't like paying for it, then rent it out to someone else or something. Plus, some people need cars or vans because they are disabled. Why should they have to pay more for everything? I just don't really get how having ample parking spaces can ever be a bad thing?!?

Parking isn't a requirement. There are buildings out there without parking and not building parking isn't going to lower rents for anyone. Buildings with parking charge extra for spaces (although I have lived in one building that included a space with rent).

@24: Because cars are inherently evil. Haven't you been listening to ECB's sermons?

Dan, don't be silly. If they built condos w/o underground parking, the current residents who have to park on the street would NEVER stop bitching about how the condo-people done stole their parking.

We've been doing mostly fine without a car for about a year and a half, when the spouse's finally gave out. We use Flexcar (neat, but not perfect), take the bus (if we happen to be on a route that Metro seems to consider important and the bus actually shows up), and will use a cab in a pinch.

Still, we can't enjoy the nightlife in Ballard without a helpful friend, or hefty cab fares. Too expensive to take the Flexcar for the whole evening.

If we go out of town, we use rental cars, trains, or airplanes.

I think it's ridiculous to own a car if there are other reasonable options and you're in walking distance of most of what you need. They're expensive, wasteful, and except for a few rare vintage or luxury cars very hideous to look at.

The International District is considered part of downtown. So, in my opinion, is First Hill west of Broadway. (It's much more characteristic of downtown in terms of use, density, and orientation than it is of, say, the CD). Both those neighbourhoods have full-service grocery stores, so yes, that fact was overlooked in the article.

However, those areas are on the eastern and southern fringes of downtown, respectively. Whole Foods is expensive, and on the northern fringe. Pike Place Market sells trinkets, or closes at 6pm. Lots of residential buildings (whether or not for the wealthy) are being built within walking distance of the planned IGA store, which in future will probably attract more residents beyond just serving those who are already there. I don't know about you folks, but I watched "Field of Dreams". Build it, and they will come! (I believe there actually is a market-rate building on Third and Pine. And the older buildings in the ID are CHEAP. People forget that.)

So it seems like a perfect location for a new full-service grocery store: it fills in a gap downtown, since the fringes are being served well. Workers, residents, and visitors all will use it. Now, if only Belltown had its own full-service grocery store. I envision one located around Second and Bell. Well, its day will come.

Here's a good question: why in the world is none of these stores open twenty-four hours a day?? Almost all suburban and neighbourhood stores are. Isn't the city touting downtown as vibrant (active) and vital (lively) 24/7? Well part of vibrancy and vitality is buying condoms, tampons, baby food, or Tylenol for splitting headaches at 3am in the morning, not just watching James Bond films on the base of Rainier Square. Personally, I think this new store should be open twenty-four hours a day. If they're afraid of the riff-raff around Third and Pine, they can hire security guards to work the graveyard shift. Besides, the city is supposedly putting more police officers in the area. We won't reduce crime by pessimistically letting it run rampant.

IGA is a notoriously cheap and filthy grocery chain that settles in urban areas, promotes loitering and a decline in property value.

Have fun buying food from a place that narrowly escapes being shut down by health inspectors!

hooray on all fronts.

as for parking-
you know what would be awesome?

eliminate ALL on-street parking and then reduce parking fees for garages and the like.

one of those interesting little facts . . . anne vernez-moudon at UW has, with her students, studied the # of bags people carry out of grocery stores. I forget the actual number, but well over 50% of people are only carrying one bag. The mythology of needing the car to do shopping seems to be false. And then there's car sharing and el autobus.

We still need parking spots for our horses too. I mean, in case you don't like cars.
http://www.horseproject.net/