A walk through Seattle’s Pioneer Square on a warm weekend afternoon reveals at least as many boarded up buildings, vacant store fronts and homeless people as ever. Seattle’s current development boom seems to be leaving the historic core behind. Will it catch up?

There are plans to fill the stadium’s huge parking lot with new housing and other deals would provide a counterbalance to the area’s street population. But the going is slow.

This week a deal to finally put retail/housing on the eyesore parking lot on Main and Occidental fell through this week. Developer Greg Smith wanted to build a taller building in exchange for hosting a maintenance shed for the waterfront streetcar. Since the zoning change didn’t come through the developer said he may pull out of the deal.

Meanwhile the Seattle Weekly chimed in with an analysis of the Pioneer Square area. Basic gist: the balance of historical/funky atmosphere in the area will be tough to maintain if a couple thousand new residents move into the area as planned.

What about examples around the region, like Vancouver’s Gaslamp?