Seattles monorail project may be stalled, but the citys recent green light for a 2.6-mile streetcar line linking the central business district with South Lake Union, a former industrial area to the north, seems likely to cement momentum driving the SLUs transformation. The city estimates 14 million sq ft of commercial and residential development between 2001 and 2020. Click here to view images
"The pace of the transformation now going on is really breathtaking," says Marty McOmber, spokesman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickel, who signed the streetcar bill into law on July 7. "It seems like a tipping point has been reached."