You can walk the length of the Seattle free ride zone (Jackson to Bell) in less than 30 minutes (1.3 miles). 15 minutes from the waterfront to the convention center.
Try walking Bell Town to the International District station. It was longer north/south than east/west.
I worked there in '94 when it was more rundown than it was today. The smell (malt liquor, unwashed clothes, urine) was difficult to handle at first but I got used to it, my coworkers were also pretty cool (mostly filipino/a immigrants) so it wasn't so bad.
That McDonalds though --how did you survive?