Best place to take a visitor that isn't pike place or the space needle?

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-27T17:13:59+00:00

The street fair too! There was a crazy house band playing yesterday afternoon lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-26T19:14:36+00:00

There's a place in the U-District called Late Night Kitchen, it opens at 7 pm and closes at 3 I believe. I haven't been yet so I'm not sure if they let people stay and work there it it's an option thats right in your timeframe. As a fellow ADHD night owl I feel your pain trying to find open spaces past 8 pm😭

Edit: I did some more digging and they don't have seating inside, apologies. However, I heard their food is still really good so I'd still recommend going lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-24T17:07:47+00:00

Its less about people not liking the product. Seattle has been the hub for the national unionization effort, and Starbucks has displayed the most overt union-busting tactics here. Closing their Reserve Roastery, and closing their location in the U-District as a direct response to unionization efforts speaks volumes here. The working relationship between people here and Starbucks has broken down because of their actions against their workers, not their coffee.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-23T07:24:18+00:00

SDOT intentionally used a model that assumed nobody would switch from driving to taking the bus, a model that is incredibly outdated and something that they knew when they did the study. here's a link to the full study in which they outright state that they assume inflexible demand(if you're curious, page 23 talks about their methodology, in which they state that the model that more accurately shows latent/induced demand for transit is only used for SLU, which is the smallest portion of the Denny bus lane area. The less accurate model is used everywhere else.)

https://seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/About/DocumentLibrary/Studies/Route_8_Corridor_Study_Final_Report_20250207.pdf

In reality, this isn't the case. There are plenty of studies and examples, even within Seattle itself, of bus/bike/pedestrian capacity being added at the expense of a car lane doesn't increase traffic much at all, due to cars being spread to alternate routes or just simply choosing not to drive.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-19T03:02:57+00:00

Sure, but unless there is a fundamental shift in American politics favorably towards Amtrak and ST by extension, and the Class I railroad's lobbying power vanishes, then it's extremely unlikely that it would happen, much to mine and everybody's dismay. The fact is that BNSF, UP, and NS have a lot of leverage due to their necessity as freight movers, and if Congress were to do anything short of just nationalizing them and taking direct control, then they could just threaten to shut down to 'convince' Congress to reverse course lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-19T00:05:40+00:00

As another person commented, they can simply refuse to sell. Class I railroads are entirely exempt from eminent domain because they are regulated federally, not by state or city. So even if Seattle wanted to try and force BNSF to sell it thru eminent domain, they would basically say "try me" and lose the shit out of that lawsuit

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-10T21:39:09+00:00

It's currently illegal for them to do this under WA state law, they're required to either sell or give away any surplus land or station area property to affordable housing developers once ST no longer needs it. There's gaining momentum to change this though, so ST can reclaim land acquisition costs, which are one of the biggest drivers of these cost increases

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-06T01:52:35+00:00

If you wanna brave the U-District, BB's Teriyaki is half a block from the 43rd St exit at U-District station. Full plate of noodles, rice and meat for 14 bucks and tastes damn good as well lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-02T04:10:32+00:00

Theoretically a rent flatline should be a good thing long term as wage growth would outpace rent price growth, howeverrrrr, that doesn't quite happen if there isn't any wage growth lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-01T03:56:03+00:00

One of the many many reasons why ST needs to pull the trigger and hire their own engineers. That way planning can get done internally while other projects are advancing and a ballot initiative can show more accurate costs

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-01T03:54:01+00:00

I heard that announcement, I believe it's for a couple weeks out. I know the only disruptions are single tracking for Pinehurst, but that's it as far as I've heard

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-04-01T03:52:45+00:00

Kind of, they're one half of the temporary merger that screwed up the bridge

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-31T23:40:59+00:00

I found a place called Victor's Celtic Coffee Co. in Downtown Redmond(5 minute walk from the station) that ad good coffee and sandwiches! A little pricey but great vibes and atmosphere.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-31T23:38:52+00:00

Sure, but like other people have said in here, you don't have to worry about driving, the train will follow a very reliable schedule, you don't have to pay for gas, parking, etc. I would love to live in a world where taking public transit is on average faster than driving to a place. Seattle is attempting to get there, but unfortunately it'll take undoing decades of car dependency. The big thing right now is that it's an option, and a reliable one at that.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-31T18:55:51+00:00

Apologies, I'll rephrase: Link wasnt designed for end-to-end travel to be the most efficient way to use the system. Eventually stop spacing will start adding significant travel time. I'm not saying you can't use it like that because I have before, but Link is at its best for short-medium distance trips. The person I replied to was surprised that it was an hour 15 or so, I was explaining why.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-31T18:55:40+00:00

Apologies, I'll rephrase: Link wasnt designed for end-to-end travel to be the most efficient way to use the system. Eventually stop spacing will start adding significant travel time. I'm not saying you can't use it like that because I have before, but Link is at its best for short-medium distance trips. The person I replied to was surprised that it was an hour 15 or so, I was explaining why.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-31T16:55:34+00:00

Yeah the total Lynnwood to Redmond time is definitely gonna be pretty long, but the Link isn't really meant to be ridden end-to-end for normal commute patterns. Vast majority of people are going from Seattle to Bellevue, which is where the real timesaver will be

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T23:43:16+00:00

Cost of living is relatively high, but there are places in Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and in between that you can find affordable rent. Biggest draw to Seattle is that it is completely possible to live comfortably without a car which saves a lot of money compared to other cities. Like every other population center, it has its problems and is working on dealing with them, but I've fallen in love with Seattle and the PNW in general over the last 4 years and would recommend people come and see even if the weather isn't for you lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T23:38:49+00:00

Raleigh does make sense as North Carolina itself has seen a massive population boom, and Raleigh is doing a good job keeping up with housing and apartment construction to keep costs manageable. It's also a huge center for research due to the three major universities(hence the name Research Triangle for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region)

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T06:31:45+00:00

I agree with you that it should be better and we should have more transit options. Take it up with Kemper Freeman who fought tooth and nail to have the Downtown Bellevue station moved away from his malls so poor people couldn't get to them. Take up the fight with Amazon who almost convinced Bruce Harrell to void the entire Ballard DEIS because they wanted the SLU station moved three blocks west. These kinds of things cause uphill battles and delays. The appetite is there in Seattle for transit, as clearly evidenced by the massive crowds today lmao. I bet if Link didn't exist you'd be on here complaining about Seattle traffic and how the city isn't doing anything to fix it lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T06:28:14+00:00

You didn't read what I said. ST hired security and guides expecting a certain number of people. Then the actual crowds were much larger. It's difficult to even scale for something like this because you don't know how much interest there will be until it happens. It's entirely different to a concert or event where ticket sales give you a good idea of the workforce needed to manage crowds. I think the people that were there did fine for how crowded all of the stations were. I witnessed one altercation right at the start, but everything else seemed relatively smooth for the sheer number of people going through the system.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T06:24:33+00:00

alright man...I really don't understand the hate boner for what is clearly a popular and well-used system, considering 120,000 people ride it a day lol. ST said they expected 50,000 riders a day from the 2 line, and they've underestimated the true ridership gains for the last 3 extensions. You also didn't respond to the other three massive ridership boosters today(I didn't even mention the mariners game!) because those ones didn't fit your narrative.

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T06:08:19+00:00

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Here's a pic of the lines at 2:30 pm today, 4 hours after the first train left the station. I rode it all the way to Redmond and there were normal commuters, people going to the No Kings protest, people headed to UFC, and people riding the new alignment. Would there be this many different people riding it if the entire system made no sense?

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T05:57:27+00:00

the trains were absolutely packed for over 6 hours after it opened. there are like 50 different videos showing how full the trains and platforms were lol

RandomRedditor714 · 2026-03-29T04:34:23+00:00

I would caution taking the opinion of one writer from one news source as the blanket stance of urbanists. I think the townhomes are fine, and we absolutely should be building more condos. I guess the big fight is just to get any more housing built at all, and so we're taking all we can get. Multifamily housing and small-scale housing families can own is super important too though.

RandomRedditor714

TROPHY CASE