Site Planning for Mixed Use: Seattle's Northgate Mall vs. proposals for DC's Skyland Center

Northgate Mall in Seattle.

In my ongoing discussion about mixed-use development at the Skyland Center (which made the news last week when HUD refused to provide monies for land acquisition because of past transgressions in using such money by either the District Government or its awardees -- community development groups -- see Federal Funding for Mall in SE Falters from last Saturday's Washington Post) with some neighborhood activists, they said "we don't want mixed use."

That seems pretty short-sighted to me.

I find it very interesting that the site plan for the Northgate area shows a library, a community center, new housing, a light rail station, and a transit center--and now there is a proposal for a park as an upgrade over the current parking lot on the property, acording to this article "Park eyed to replace park and ride lot at Northgate: City wants parcel to add green space to area" from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

I had suggested a similar approach for the Skyland eminent domain project but within the center because the homogeneous sameness of consumerism pales after awhile...

Model walks down the runway at the Target's Fall 2005 Vertical Fashion show in New York on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. (Fashion Wire Daily/Grant Lamos IV). The developers are spreading around the possibility that Target could come to Skyland.

More shopping but where are the community uses at Bowie Town Center?

From the article:

For more than a decade, Northgate residents have wanted to see parks, a healthier creek and pedestrian-friendly streets gain a toehold against the area's domineering asphalt. Now, with a development-stifling logjam blown apart and apartments, condos and retail stores on the way, the city is aiming to create a 3.75-acre community park to balance that urban growth.

Why is sound urban design that is people rather than asphalt (car) oriented so difficult to achieve in Washington, DC?

From this (Washington Post Photo)

to this (view of the Brentwood Shopping Center from the Rhode Island Metro Station).

Would a Brentwood Shopping Center-like project in Ward 7 really be an improvement?