SEATTLE - What should the city of Seattle do about the Alaskan Way Viaduct?  Attendees at the annual State of Downtown breakfast this morning got a serving of that futuristic vision.

The Downtown Seattle Association painted a pretty picture about the future of the city core. 

"The state of downtown is very good right now," said Kate Joncas, DSA president. 

During the breakfast, they released a video of a futuristic Seattle with one big difference: no viaduct. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels did not hide his feeling about next month's advisory vote. 

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At the annual State of Downtown breakfast by the Downtown Seattle Association, a vision of what Seattle would look like without the viaduct was presented.

"Create a place that's compelling for people to be or are we simply going to replace that with a bigger, uglier, wider elevated highway," said Nickels.  "I think the answer is very clear where we need to go."  

The DSA believes a city core without a viaduct is important. 

"We think the elevated structure needs to come down and that will open up the economic opportunity for Seattle in the future," said Joncas.  

Regardless, the DSA says there are signs right now the downtown core is on the rise.  In fact, the Downtown Seattle Association says there are 32 residential projects either in the permitting process or under construction right now." 

Ground was broken ceremonially today for downtown's biggest tower project called Escala.  The $350 million project will be centered at Fourth and Virginia.  The view condos are starting at a half million dollars and the developer, people with money, are buying. 

"Baby boomers who are downsized," said Joe Strobele, Escala spokesman.  "They're doing their duty, put their kids through school, they had good careers, good business.  They want to buy their time." 

Strobele believes the job market is strong enough to support this condo craze, and in his mind, there are more to come.

"We haven't seen Seattle get overbuilt," said Strobele. 

The DSA also says the downtown central business district is in better shape.  It claims the overall market vacancy is at 9.3 percent, the lowest rate in six years.