Free parking passes and permanent improvements to an InterIm CDA-operated lot helped Chinatown-International District small businesses keep employees moving during the FIFA World Cup and left behind a safer, more usable neighborhood resource.
Keeping the Neighborhood Working
For small businesses in the Chinatown-International District, welcoming thousands of World Cup visitors also meant making sure their own employees could still get to work.
Local businesses raised concerns about parking during the tournament, leading to a practical solution just a few blocks away. SeattleFWC26 sponsored 50 parking passes for employees of CID small businesses to use every day from June 15 through July 6.
The spaces were located in a parking lot InterIm CDA has operated beneath I-5 since 1972, when the organization negotiated with the Washington State Department of Transportation to turn unused space into parking for neighborhood customers, employees and residents.
A Safer Lot for the CID
The lot itself needed some attention.
Funding supported electrical and lighting repairs, repainting of parking lines and numbers, and improvements that allowed the entire lot to operate with better visibility.
Unlike the temporary parking passes, those repairs stayed behind. The result was a safer, more usable community resource for the businesses, workers and residents who relied on it long before the World Cup arrived.
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