Sitting in Seattle: Why is it so Hard?

The loneliest bench in the city is firmly fixed on the Pioneer Square Sounder platform. It can not see the train. It has little light and no view. It is behind a column. It is of no help at all, except to hold two people, and there is no other seating. It is always in the shade and always cold. It cannot hear a thing. Whoever chose this bench location had either perverse humor, numerous restrictions, or no sense at all. It is the only bench on the entire platform. The loneliest bench, facing firmly and only west, to the back side of the Amtrak Station service department.

Ironically, at least for some of its name, Seattle is not a city of seats. The Pike Market has few places to sit. It even has a bench at its north end that is locked in the evening so that no one can sleep on it. I have always hoped they might one day add chairs at the end of each day, in the dry months, so you could sit and watch the market finish. That is a sweet day’s end parade, and the cars can only crawl through. By 6:00 PM, it is the people who are the market, the visitors, and the vendors.

The new Waterfront is the best, for a mile and by a mile, with seating and seating. They are in numerous shapes and textures, and quite lovely and generous. But they each have a limited view and none of them looks out to the water. They are benches, but only for here and now. They are not much use for pondering.

The new Overlook Park is finally open, giving the great crowds of the Pike Market a glamorous route to the Waterfront and the Seattle Aquarium. It turns and dips in places and is not a single broad sweep down to the water. But it has some big-time seating, and it honors some very glorious views out to the water and the west. And it may well become a day’s end tradition. They could book weddings lined up like planes landing at Kennedy.