The Seattle City Council’s Economic Development Committee is hosting a roundtable discussion Wednesday with representatives for small businesses from across Seattle “to hear about the barriers they face as well as proposed solutions to create a more thriving city.” Nobody representing Capitol Hill or the Central District made the list.

The council says scheduled participants will include representatives from the Alliance of Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Association, the Ballard Alliance, Friends of Little Saigon, SODO Business Improvement Area, The U District Partnership, and the West Seattle Junction.

Capitol Hill business community advocates spent a good deal of energy in the ’90s and 2000s defending against what they feared would be a slow absorption of Pike/Pine and Broadway into “downtown.” But Capitol Hill’s chamber of commerce financially imploded four years ago after an ambitious push for a neighborhood-wide business improvement area failed and left the organization tapped out. The GSBA’s Capitol Hill Business Alliance effort has since taken shape but hasn’t fully filled the void amid the larger organization’s broader focus.

In the Central District, meanwhile, organizations like the Central Area Chamber of Commerce continue to represent their communities but no single organization has the ear of City Hall like the more influential groups topping the bill in Wednesday’s roundtable session.

Wednesday’s open ended agenda will conclude with “a discussion on business district needs in 2023 and beyond.”

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