Seattle Convention Center painted the street. The paint won’t come off

Remember the World Cup? Streets closed to cars, joyful crowds, downtown exuberance. Wasn’t that great? It was, it was.

The Seattle Convention Center certainly thought so. That was the inspiration behind its Marquee at the Market event. All through August, the Convention Center shut down Ninth Avenue between Pike and Pine streets to host a weekly night market and pedestrian fair outside the Paramount Theatre.

There was music and vendors and food and there were no cars and — crucially — the Convention Center painted the street to make the environment more pleasant, more enticing, more vibey.

But now August has come and gone, it’s been three weeks since the last night market, and the street is still closed.

The paint won’t come off.

And until it does, the Seattle Department of Transportation says, the street cannot reopen.

This is not the busiest block in downtown Seattle. It’s often partially blocked by buses and trucks parked outside the Paramount, unloading musical acts and their gear. But its closure has blocked an entrance to the Interstate 5 express lanes. That entrance is still accessible from Pike Street, but drivers headed west on Pine (or south on Ninth) now have to circle around a couple of blocks to get on the highway.