Our storefront businesses are the lifeblood of the Ballard neighborhood. In normal times, healthy businesses are critical to the vitality of a community. This is especially true in Ballard’s HUB urban Village that is home to hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents nestled in a tight, thriving geographic area.

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, our community has made deep sacrifices to keep our employees, customers and the residents of our city safe. Our small businesses are barely hanging on. The thought that the City of Seattle is still planning to move forward with repaving NW Market Street between 15^th Avenue NW and 24^th Avenue NW is unthinkable.

This repaving project will cut off the businesses along NW Market Street and provide significant impacts for those located on neighboring streets – right in the middle of a critical time for recovery.

Recent SDOT Projects in Ballard Have Been Devastating – and That Was Before Coronavirus

We already know the effects of a major transportation project in Ballard. That’s because Ballard Multimodal Corridor project, which spans NW Market Street from 24th Ave NW to 32nd Ave NW began in May 2019 and is still ongoing.

Businesses large and small experienced devastating reductions in sales because of this SDOT construction project. Businesses owners along this short quarter-mile stretch have lost more than a million dollars in $700,000 in sales during months of curb-to-curb construction along NW Market St in front of their businesses. And this loss occurred before the Coronavirus pandemic.

The project was to conclude by end of last summer but it has been repeatedly delayed by SDOT is now nine-months overdue and counting. In fact, SDOT notified business owners in mid-May that the completion date has been pushed out until June 24.

If this project is any indication of how the repaving of Market Street from 15th Ave NW to 24th Ave NW will go, then it will deal a final blow to many of our local small businesses and residential communities.

Advocacy Efforts to Date

On May 6, the Ballard Alliance sent a letter to the City that was signed by more than 135 businesses and residents within the Ballard core outlining our request for an 18-month delay of SDOT’s proposed NW Market Street repaving project.

While that sent a powerful message, it wasn’t enough.

We need you to Take Action Now and help Save Market Street!

Save Market Street is a project created by the Ballard Alliance