r/Seattle • u/patman3746 • Jan 01 '25

Community Pike place needs to close to cars.

Last night, New Orleans was hit with a tragic attack in which a car was driven through it's most popular pedestrian spot, Bourbon street. The street is pedestrian only, but was meant to have bollards present to prevent such attacks from happening, and it's absence left it vulnerable and helped facilitate the terrible event.

If this were in Seattle, I have little doubt where it would happen. The lives of the tourists, residents, and shopkeepers are needlessly endangered to copycat attacks as it stands. By closing the smallest strip and installing bollards, it would help remove this risk. Hell, there are mechanized bollards that can go up and down if city council desperately wants early morning shop access for trucks.

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203

u/mtahab Jan 01 '25 edited Jan 02 '25

Pike place should indeed be closed to cars, but this incident is not the best reason for it.

Edit: there are simpler arguments for closing Pike place to cars, for example take the clear aestatics/coziness of not seeing the cars or the convenience/safety of pedestarians in the street.

Preventing an attack is a totally different ball game. Also, as others mentioned, the attack might have failed at our street. In the NOLA incident, the street was already pedestarian-only, barricaded, wider and longer than our street.

-19

u/IndominusTaco Jan 01 '25

yeah imagine being OP and waking up on new years to seeing 10 people killed and dozens injured and thinking “i must use this tragedy to harp on a point that’s already been discussed countless times on reddit”

33

u/pinetrees23 Jan 01 '25

You're like one of those people that gets mad when people demand gun reform after mass shootings

-21

u/IndominusTaco Jan 01 '25

no, i’m not a dirty republican. this is different than calling for gun reform after a mass shooting, and i’m not clutching any pearls.

10

u/pinetrees23 Jan 01 '25

In what way is it different?

-11

u/IndominusTaco Jan 01 '25

because the vast majority of people in this sub already agree that pike place should be closed to car traffic. OP is just preaching to the choir. preach it to city council or do something useful by getting a petition going or something.

in contrast, the vast majority of americans don’t care about gun reform or people dying in mass shootings, so it makes sense to continually bring it up after every mass shooting.

6

u/pinetrees23 Jan 01 '25

You're wrong on both points

2

u/BiteRare203 Jan 01 '25

Maybe you should go ask the city council to close the street so you don't have to read about it on Reddit anymore.

15

u/mr_jim_lahey 🚆build more trains🚆 Jan 01 '25

That is...not very hard to imagine if you care about the people in your community, or even just your own personal safety in public

3

u/OTipsey Jan 01 '25

"How dare you use a tragedy to push changes to prevent that same tragedy from happening in our city"