Seattle City Wire

On behalf of the Seattle Uptown Alliance, organization contributor Deborah Frausto highlighted a set of needed Uptown community improvements relating to the area’s mapping and location service systems.

Eight votes were in favor of the resolution, without any opposition.

“In the next six months, we hope to see the return of visitors to Seattle center and new fans from the entire region to events at the Climate Pledge Arena,” Frausto stated during the April 12 Seattle City Council meeting.

One of the largest reformations the organization suggests include mapping, place-finding and location service improvements, including transportation services such as Uber and Lyft. The measure is suggested “to reduce confusion and unnecessary traffic” once the central Uptown area reopens and accepts tourist visitations. Reformations for the Seattle Center/Uptown SPC station were also requested.

The resolution was requested and approved by council member Andrew Lewis, who publicly requested the neighborhood permanently be referred to as "Uptown.”

"The name Uptown is the suitable brand to really put a stamp on this dynamism, to recognize it as this community moves forward, and to really shape a future for that corner of the city," Lewis said at the meeting.

The organization, established in 1999, has contributed to much of the community’s development, including urban design framework, metro and transportation systems, and marketing and branding guidelines. “Over the past number of years we have laid the groundwork for Uptown's recognition,” Frausto said.

"There will always be friends who are sentimental and calling our neighborhood Lower Queen Anne, and that's okay. Uptown is Uptown,” Lewis commented on the matter. “A growing neighborhood with its unique character that is businesses and residents as well.”