Every 10 years, local residents have an opportunity to co-create a vision for the future of our urban core. The practice dates back to the city’s beginnings, but reached its heyday in the early 1970s, when years of perceived decline led property owners, civic groups, and the City to jointly push for the massive transformation which led to Riverfront Park.

Such an update to the Downtown Plan is now underway, and while downtown doesn’t face the same challenges it once did, the concerns sound familiar.

Some of the area’s fastest-growing companies, like etailz, Stay Alfred, and others are eschewing downtown in favor of Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. Independent businesses sometimes express concern about rising commercial lease rates. False perceptions about parking availability or affordability drive flawed decision-making. And some businesses on the eastern edge of downtown feel perceptions about people experiencing homelessness are keeping would-be customers away.

This year’s plan update cannot address all of these concerns, and it shouldn’t. But it could make a dent by helping downtown grow as a place to work.

Many companies––particularly those most likely to locate in the most premium area of our city––make location decisions based not solely on lease rates, but also on amenities, livability, and the perspectives of their employees. The City and downtown boosters should consider this employee perspective when crafting the plan update.

For example, could we adopt a more formal food truck program (and not just on Fridays) to ensure a wider variety of lunch options? Perhaps explore summertime lunch-hour or evening live music?

Downtown Seattle has found significant success in solving parking and traffic challenges by working directly with employers to encourage transit use and carpooling. As the Central City Line, the Monroe-Regal Line, and other high-frequency transit routes are built out, could we require employers to forego subsidized parking in favor of subsidized transit passes?

What if we did more to ensure downtown employees had the necessities they need within walking distance? Childcare facilities, dry cleaners, pet boarding, and on-site gyms may not be as sexy as a new skyscraper, but for a working downtown, they’re both desperately needed and, in the present situation, woefully missing.

And then there’s the development-related question. For many small offices, it’s easy (and relatively cheap) to start in a downtown building like the Bennett Block or the Sherwood. But as a business adds employees, space in larger buildings like the Wells Fargo or Bank of America Tower, can be costly and out of proportion. So the business decamps for Liberty Lake. We need more middle-of-the-road options which, short of the recently-opened and now-full Wonder Building, downtown just doesn’t provide. The plan should absolutely include some strategies for addressing this gap in the market.

Downtown continues to thrive as we enter this new decade. But to keep it moving forward, we should work to make it a better place for people to work.