How's business in Downtown Seattle? Depends on who you ask

Businesses in Downtown Seattle report mixed results seven months into Mayor Bruce Harrell's plan to revitalize the neighborhood.

Mikayla Wingerter is shift manager at Mint, an avant garde Indian restaurant on First Avenue.

She says January was really hard.

"We would have days where we didn't have our first person come in until like four hours into the restaurant being open," Wingerter said, "which is a shame because the food here is amazing."

People tend to flood into the restaurant when Benaroya Hall hosts an event. After that, it's back to the doldrums again.

But down at the glasses store, "Eyes on You," manager Chantel Anderson says things are picking up.

She says more people are stopping by on their way home from work. That could signal that the negative impact of remote work on downtown may be diminishing over time.

One day she said there were so many customers that "the owner and I looked at each other [and said,] 'There's a lot more walk- ins, even than, I would say, pre-pandemic.'"

Cell phone data by Placer.ai shows that foot traffic is strong near Pike Place Market and the waterfront, but sluggish across other parts of downtown. Tourists are back, but only some of the office workers are.

At Arundel Books in Pioneer Square, Phil Bevis says the city of Seattle has gotten better at responding to business needs.

For example, he described what happened when the Department of Transportation installed a new bench right next to his shop's ventilation intake.

Shortly after installation, people started smoking fentanyl there.

His shop filled with the smoke, "which was bad with a capital B," he said.

He called in a complaint, and the city moved the bench the very next day.

"This is the kind of basic, sensible, good government that, you know, I used to experience here back in the nineties, but I haven't seen since," Bevis said.

Related: Listen to KUOW's new economy podcast, "Booming."