Seattle's Best Kept Parking Secret

Back around the turn of the century, I used to work at a sports Internet company near the Weekly's offices on Western Ave. While I would normally take the bus from my former Ballard Ave. abode, occasionally I'd drive. And when I'd drive, I was never able to find parking underneath the Viaduct.

Fast-forward to 2007: Parking under the Viaduct is a snap. While it sometimes takes me longer to drive the two miles to work than to walk them on the rare occasions that I need my old Volvo to dart off campus, parking is the least of my concerns. I imagine I owe the bounty of sub-Viaduct parking to the quasi-Big One we had a few years back and people's concerns over a repeat performance. This all there is to it, or is there some other trend in downtown transpo/parking I'm missing?