This summer, we asked you—our community—to share your thoughts about downtown Anacortes. More than 158 people responded, giving us valuable insights into what you love, what you’d like to see more of, and how we can keep downtown thriving.
Here are a few highlights:
- We’re on the right track. The majority of respondents feel downtown is moving in a positive direction.
- Dining and shopping lead the way. Restaurants, coffee shops, and unique local retailers are the top reasons people come downtown.
- Events bring people together. Festivals, markets, and live music were repeatedly mentioned as favorite downtown experiences.
- Opportunities ahead. Many of you want more evening activities, expanded dining hours, and new businesses such as specialty retail, grab and go food, and family-friendly entertainment.
Your feedback helps guide our work—from business recruitment and beautification projects to events and advocacy. A full report is now available here:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your ideas. Downtown is truly shaped by the people who love it most—you.
This is great stuff and I hope to see more improvement in the years to come.
One thing that I would love to see is more bike infrastructure/parking, especially getting to downtown. M is a natural north south path on a bike, but then you get to about 6th and the streets are pretty beat up. It would be great to see bike infrastructure on 4th, 6th, and 8th when those streets are resurfaced.
I often find myself riding all the way down to 4th and then cutting across to commercial, even if I’m going to something on the south end of the street, because crossing O feels SKETCHY today, and I’ve got a punchy E-bike. Crossing it on foot, I personally don’t feel comfortable unless I jog it while holding my child, especially on nice summer days when traffic counts are higher.
I’m fairly fit and this isn’t a problem, but the average Anacortes resident is a lot older than me, so “just run” to cross the street has got to be deterring people from visiting on foot from nearby neighborhoods. If we want to solve parking issues without going backward on economic development of parklets, we need to entice more people to walk and bike by providing more pleasant options to walk and bike there. Would love to see the rail RoW from 11th to the depot added to the Tommy Thompson and then a connection point along 6th for walking/biking with a minimum of 10 foot of the RoW dedicated to people out of cars at sidewalk rather than street level.
It may seem counterintuitive, but losing 15 parking spots but swapping 30 car trips into pedestrian trips may actually improve parking, since now people who don’t need to drive won’t. Also given the age of the residents of town, designating more spaces as handicap would probably pay dividends in the struggles of the mobility impared, who need to circle the block for parking today vs parking a block or 2 away.