2011 Peer City Review

MID/DSA Dashboard LiveWorkShopPlay

Peer Cities Geographic Diversity Similar Economic Composition Similar Size

Challenges Defining “Downtown” Used local definitions/publications Defined by streets? Zip code? Census tracts? Needed to define peer downtowns Each needed to be about 3 sq. miles Needed a comparable size E.g. Taxable retail sales data were not available everywhere, needed to find alternative Needed to find data that were available for each downtown

Live Seattle ranked 2 nd in total downtown residents (59,884) and 3 rd in resident population density Figure 1. Total Downtown Population and Resident Density (2011)

Live Downtown Seattle experienced a 26% increase in residents since 2000 yet ranked 2 nd in the absolute number of new residents Seattle is highest of downtowns with populations above 30,000 residents Figure 2. Percent Growth in Downtown Residents ( )

Work Figure 3. Downtown Employment and Job Density (2009) One of the most productive downtowns in the United States, over 202,000 jobs Room to improve employment density, rank 4 th amongst peer cities

Work Figure 4. Average Percent of Total City Employment Located Downtown ( ) Downtown Seattle is home to more than 45 percent of Seattle’s total jobs Downtown Seattle employees earned more than $11.3 billion in salaries and benefits in 2009

Work Most downtowns are centers for the finance and professional services sectorsDowntown Seattle has the largest healthcare sector amongst peer cities Figure 5. Average Percent of Total City Employment Located Downtown ( )

Shop Figure 6. Retail Jobs to Total Employment Ratio (2009) Seattle has a large retail sector, both as a percent of total downtown employment and in absolute terms (11,634) Downtown Seattle is well above the sample retail employment ratio of 3.4 percent

Play Downtown Seattle is below the sample entertainment employment ratio, although SoDo was not included in the sample Entertainment sector combines traditional arts & entertainment with accommodations and restaurants Figure 7. Entertainment Sector Ratio (2009)

Key Findings Downtown Seattle has a large downtown population that continues to grow (59,800+) Downtown has more than 202,000 employees, edging closer to San Francisco and Boston Room to improve downtown employment density, rank 4 th Downtown Seattle is a major retail center Lower percent of downtown economy devoted to entertainment sector than peer cities

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