Interactive kiosks for business districts get City Council OK. Will you see them in West Seattle?

This afternoon, the City Council passed legislation allowing the Downtown Seattle Association to “install and operate interactive media kiosks in neighborhood business districts around Seattle.” According to documents from today’s council agenda, the kiosks could look like this – 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide:

The West Seattle Junction is one of the business districts specified in the bill as a potential recipient of the kiosks. But that doesn’t guarantee you’ll see one or more here. The bill says vendor Smart City will install 30 downtown before the World Cup, then 50 more, including 20 “among Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) in Ballard, U District, SODO, and West Seattle Junction.” So we asked West Seattle Junction Association executive director Chris Mackay about the local plan, and she said there’s nothing definite – the WSJA board first wants to see how they look downtown, before deciding on whether to exercise what Mackay calls “the option to get one.”

The Downtown Seattle Association says benefits of the kiosks would include “free wi-fi” and “multilingual wayfinding.” As for whether they’d be a revenue generator, the council-staff analysis says in part:

DSA estimates that Kiosks will generate $1.1 million in advertising revenue for the initial 30-kiosk deployment, collected by the DSA, with use limited to public purposes, governed by MOU between the City and DSA. The MOU also provides that revenue generated above the $1.1 million estimate from the initial 30 kiosk deployment and from the optional 30 Kiosk expansionlocated in the MID would be collected by the City, and the optional 20 kiosk expansion in BIAlocations would generate revenue for BIAs. Revenue projections for the City and the 20 BIA expansion kiosks are not known. Revenues generated to the City will be deposited in the City’s General Fund to support general government services, which could include public safety, community investments and maintenance activities in and around the right-of-way.

The council vote was 6-2; those voting no were Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Cathy Moore, while Councilmember Dan Strauss was absent.

K June 24, 2025 (4:27 pm)

Who will pay for maintenance and repairs? Seeing what happened with the first generation of the digital bus stop kiosks, it seems likely that these will also be targets for vandalism.

WSB June 24, 2025 (4:35 pm)

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From one of the MOU documents in the legislation: “DSA shall be solely responsible for Kiosk siting, installation, operations, maintenance, and
removal …”

Derek June 24, 2025 (4:30 pm)

Beyond dumb. City has so many problems they aren’t even close to addressing… This is just something I can use my phone for.

my to cents June 24, 2025 (4:41 pm)

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Derek – not all people want/need to have a mobile phone. Same situation as for people that don’t want/like cards instead of cash. Good job at marginalizing!
- Derek June 24, 2025 (5:12 pm)
  
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  Ridiculous response, that my very fair comment on the city spending tax dollars this way is somehow connected to a marginalization as if these kiosks are vital and being against them is pro oppression (?)
  - Brandon June 24, 2025 (5:46 pm)
    
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    Obviously, Derek, that’s how we got into this mess. You can’t challenge spending.
  - my to cents June 24, 2025 (7:52 pm)
    
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    You said it – I didn’t :). It’s not ridiculous – it’s a fact, either buy technology or become a third class citizen. Or is your answer “there is internet access and resources at the library – let them go there!” Can you point me in the direction where they show the budget expenditure by the City of Seattle in the article? Ooops … no funds going out when you go into the legislation section of the SUMMARY and FISCAL NOTE
  - James June 24, 2025 (7:54 pm)
    
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    There is no cost to the city here, Derek.
- Brian June 24, 2025 (7:52 pm)
  
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  Are you logging on to defend, uh, advertisers? Perhaps it is time to rethink your contrarian stance.

MacJ June 24, 2025 (4:32 pm)

The sidewalks in the Junction are narrow enough as it is, we don’t need the city council cluttering them up with ads! Multilingual wayfinding could just as easily be handled with posters with a QR code on them.

What a stupid plan.

Sbre June 24, 2025 (6:28 pm)

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What MacJ said!
WS Guy June 24, 2025 (7:18 pm)

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My thoughts exactly. Lets pass.
Foop June 25, 2025 (12:05 am)

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Now that you mention it I think I might be okay with this if we close the street and turn it into a pedestrian plaza / outdoor dining space as part of the deal.
- walkerws June 25, 2025 (11:14 am)
  
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  Ideally we’d close California to cars between Oregon and Edmunds, and *also* not have these digital signs.

Thomas June 24, 2025 (4:42 pm)

Idiotic. Everyone coming to the World Cup spending minimum of $1000’s for tickets and hotel and food also so has paid for perfectly good phone service everywhere. Nobody needs a handful of free Wi-Fi points at the World Cup. These kiosks will get smashed by vandals within a couple of days, or at best will break down and just be damn eyesores. Absolutely no future for these and almost certainly someone near the Council is probably getting the contract as a favor.

WSB June 24, 2025 (5:01 pm)

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The vendor is named in the story and it is dealing with the DSA, not the Council, which apparently had to pass this to enable these because they don’t comply with the city’s sign law, etc.

The King June 24, 2025 (5:27 pm)

I’m sure city officials who allow these have pinky promised that these 8 foot iPhones won’t be spying on citizens.

1994 June 24, 2025 (9:20 pm)

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Only spying on the tourists to learn how to better market stuff to them.

New Deal June 24, 2025 (6:15 pm)

How about we print some good old maps. Better yet, why don’t hotels provide them like they used to. Or even ask someone on the street how to get somewhere. But then again, I am one of the few smart phone hold outs. Believe me, we have been forgotten but plenty of World Cups have been hosted without them.

pm June 24, 2025 (8:00 pm)

Reminds me of the monolith in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’!

Neighbor June 24, 2025 (10:40 pm)

Hard pass on blinding eye-level billboards, thanks. They’ll be destroyed like the Metro signs in minutes anyway. Never trust the city when it provides an estimated revenue number. There’s zero accountability on those claims.

jai June 24, 2025 (10:41 pm)

Maps can be put on walls… Not keen on the idea of another artificial lightsource and mainly, ads. These are really just billboards with a map feature. We are bombarded enough every day and I want to enjoy my dog walks without having a neon billboard at eye level… And with the others, these will definitely be vandalized and attempts to break the screen.

Kathy June 24, 2025 (10:50 pm)

Put it in the street and let the cars drive around it. The sidewalks are already too cluttered and are not sufficient to handle pedestrian traffic. They could build a nice chicane on California Ave for this. It would help slow down traffic.

Flaunt-Leroy June 25, 2025 (1:05 am)

I’m all for modernizing and adding conveniences and access to public spaces, its all part of growth. That being said… this is likely just glowing ad space, and I’m less excited about that prospect. If this was content controlled with facts about our area like wildlife, history, and public events it would be a nice feature. I’m skeptical we will have such enriching content.

Jake June 25, 2025 (8:01 am)

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Why is Bruce constantly selling our city out? I am looking at the success of Mamdani in NYC and I wonder if we could actually get some grassroots movement like that here, where we cared about people over capitalism….for once.

WestSeattleVoter June 25, 2025 (5:48 am)

Hackers are going to love this.

anonyme June 25, 2025 (6:18 am)

Will this end up like the Metro Rapid Ride kiosks that now sit as defunct graffiti-magnets all over the city? These were used for only a few years, and at what cost? Regardless of cost, I think this is a stupid idea; I’m sure there’s an app that could supply the same services without having to alter infrastructure. City Council hard at work as usual, spending our money on nonsense.

HS June 25, 2025 (7:50 am)

Interesting. I like the multilingual way-finding option. I’ve often spoken to visitors trying to find stuff in WS – Morgan Junction / Alaska Junction / Alki with not much besides neighborhood in-between IS confusing to visitors. I Airbnb’d part of my house for a few years and that was true then too. It’d be particularly helpful to have information included about how to get from one “hub” to another. for example from the Junction to Alki / foot ferry and vice versa via transit. I LIVE here and am still confused where & when I can get the shuttle to Alki or the foot ferry. TikTok already has content of people renting scooters at the new downtown waterfront park and riding over to Alki. It’s also great that we could both increase potential advertising income for the area and move people around the area more effectively. Could be an easy boost for our local businesses and fabulous neighborhoods. Plus, stuff like this are excellent precursors to information access when the light rail arrives. Let’s get a handle on moving people throughout the area, who are not using cars, easily.

Joan June 25, 2025 (7:58 am)

I’d rather have the bus kiosks back. What a waste of $ and space now.

AR June 25, 2025 (9:13 am)

This is HORRIBLE and a TOTAL waste of money!! Let’s clutter up our sidewalks with ads and distractions. WRONG!!!

James June 25, 2025 (9:44 am)

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No cost to the city, AR. No waste of tax money here.
- AR June 25, 2025 (4:10 pm)
  
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  It remains to be seen what the fine print says and how this plays out, but it’s still unwanted visual clutter, imo.

Sarah June 25, 2025 (9:35 am)

This is the first I’ve heard of this, and it’s just gross… Seattle’s sidewalks are already too crowded and inaccessible.

Realistically, is there any use in writing our city council members or mayor about this? It sounds like it’s a done deal that no Seattle residents actually wanted.

Jay June 25, 2025 (12:55 pm)

These are expensive digital billboards and the wifi and wayfinding are just a sales tool to get people interested. 4G/5G is dirt cheap and all public buildings have free municipal wifi. (And contrary to popular believe, poor and unhoused people do have phones. Only flagships are expensive, there are phones for $50 or less.) It’s just clutter and eyesore. We shouldn’t be selling ad space on the sidewalks, especially in crowded areas. If we’re going to have devices like this, we should be buying them outright rather than this public-private partnership that gives away rights to space on the sidewalk for 10 years and god knows what else provisions. The revenue projections for just the DSA’s revenue share portion is $3,055 per installation per month, so realistically they’re looking at what? $6,000 to $10,000 a month in gross ad revenue for each of these? You have the overhead of maintenance, as sales, operational costs, accounting, etc. We’re going to be burdened by a decade of e-waste blocking our sidewalks. And not only that, but public-private partnerships like this often have minimum revenue guarantees in the contract. We need to make sure that if local businesses aren’t dropping thousands a month on advertising for each of these, we aren’t on the hook making up lost revenue for the company with tax dollars. A lot of cities get hurt bad by this.

Arbor Heights Resident June 25, 2025 (1:21 pm)

Cluttering public spaces with ads is so unnecessary. When these things are inevitably vandalized, you won’t find me shedding any tears over them.

L June 26, 2025 (6:08 am)

Glad WSJA decided to wait to see how they look downtown first. Bright electronic ads seem fine for downtown, but West Seattle has a different vibe. Do these also talk or just show text/picture? If the ads had sound, that would get annoying fast.