Site Report #4: The Past and Future U District

The neighborhood of Block 13 today is filled with blocks of old buildings from the 1960s-1970s including one construction that took up two house. It has few trees in the alleyway and majority of the trees and grass are in the front of the buildings. Cracks on the roads because of previous trips from cars and trucks that picks up the trash. The plan is to keep its history, but, also try to keep it updated if the owners wants too. Most of the buildings are outdated and should be remodeled it to gain some more consumers who would liked to live there (students attending colleges). Their plans of remodeling is not implemented because none of the buildings are being constructed and or being remodel.

I believe that homeowners/owners do not want to remodel certain buildings because having older buildings would cost cheaper than having an updated and more modern building which cost more. This would make an huge difference between people who are currently living there and would move away to find an affordable price range. Block 13 is an area where majority of college student lives since it is close to campus and by raising up the price due to having an new building, it would decrease the amount of students who would consider living there. Since the tutiton of college has rise over past several decades, more and more students are finding ways to save money rather lose more money. If we were to compare how lifestyles is like back to the 1920s to 2017, it a huge difference between technology and the economy. Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development wrote on their executive summary for 'Appendix C: U District Urban Design Displacenment Report' that, "From 2010 to 2015, the number of jobs in Seattle increased almost twice as fast as the number of homes. During that same period of time, average rent for a one-bedroom apartment increased 35 percent." (Director's Report, V1) Within, five years, the rent for an apartment increased by nearly 35% making it increased 7% per year, but, that is only for one-bedroom only, think about the cost for a two-bedroom apartment for families? Although, many people are being employed and employment number as increased rapidly, but, that also means that the cost of literally anything has to increased. Similar to the $15 minimal wage because although people are making $15 per hour, the cost of anything nowadays as increased. Home/land owners typically target on college students because they know that college students want to live somewhere that is affordable as they are attending school, but, if the rent increases, they will lose the large amount of college student and be left with "Room For Rent" sign around their apartment building/complex. 

Seattle Department of Planning and Development, it talks about the half-mile "walkshed" and a map of where the "walkshed" is surrounding the area for the future lightrail. The Sound Transit light rail has became one of the University's single driver and one of the newest/recent development since its opening in 2016. In new project that this is going on for the University District is that in 2021, they plan to open a new train station between NE 43rd Street and Brooklyn , however, certain buildings are within this range which is why they came up with the named "The walkshed". The term "walkshed" is from N. 45th St. freeway overpass the UW’s Central Campus to NE 52nd St. in the north to NE Paci c St. in the south. However, my block is between  the location of where the half-mile "walkshed", I believe this would not cause any issue for the residence living in the block, but, it may decrease the amount of usage of cars since people can use the train as their transportation rather depending on their vehicles.   The only issue is that when planning to redevelopment the area of "walkshed", it may affect the area for my block by having multiple detour, blocking crosswalks for residences, and huge traffic in the area due to the construction of the train. In the book, The Modern American Metropolis, the author wrote, " Creation of jobs for 100,000 workers in Los Angeles County in the first time months this year, through investment of $77,600,000 for the new industrial planets and expansion of existing one..." (Freund, 196). This is similar because if there is new construction occurring, the business will hire more construction workers to help finish the job quicker which is similar to when 100,000 workers were needed due to the new industrial expansion. With the new area for the train coming up, more workers are needed to help finish the work in order to finish on time.

The history of how majority of the buildings are not updated, environment issue occured, and only one construction is happening. The history of how some of the buildings never got remodeled inside and how it still looks exactly how it did during the 1960s-1970s. Although, two houses were taken down to build a seven story apartment building, its crazy to think that it would be the only one that tall in that particular area. It shows how much changes never really occured expect environment changes. The building is extermely old, broken down, and has no purpose of living on the alleyway, the owner shoud do something about it and have a new building. The future of new buildings occuring in block 13 would not be happening anytime soon. it started out an residence area for people and families to live in and will continue to remain as one.

Student-centered U district ideally may look like in the future would be more modern and affordable. There is no doubt in my mind that the cost of attending college would decrease, so, students would want to hang out in areas that is affordable but modern. The area needs to have free WiFi, good resturant, and a nice place to study. Some students would prefer to eat and study in somewhere close to campus. More areas would try to be modern or to make the place more relax for college students who may be feeling dreadful from midterms/finals or life in general.