What's happened to Seattle?

[LisaM]

I moved here in the late 80's. The Seattle I knew even then has vanished. You'd never know the city was built on solid working-class, union, and labor roots. Now it's all about high tech. Downtown has turned into a giant chain store mall. Local businesses gone. I watched the movie "House of Games" not too long ago. When I moved to Seattle, it was like that. Now it's not. WTF happened? Can we turn the clock back to 1989?

[leftstreet]

1. Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of her latte

:sarcasm:

:hi:

I'm old enough to remember the Seattle of which you speak. But it's completely different now. Probably true in a lot of cities, but significant when it's something you experience.

[regnaD kciN]

2. What happened to Seattle? It's called "prosperity"...

Seattle was one of the boom towns of the '90s. That will change a city, for good or for ill (generally, for both).

[LisaM]

3. Yeah, it's so prosperous that in the department I work in

the income divide is such that almost everyone lives outside of the city.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Like I said...for good or ill...

It's particularly going to be tough in a city with limited room for nearby growth (due to Puget Sound on one side and the Cascades on the other) and height restrictions in the city itself. Given such conditions, it's not uncommon for the city limits to be occupied by only the very rich and the very poor, with those of a more middle-class existence having to resort to ever-more-distant suburbs.

We live in Maple Valley, a nice community, but about forty miles from Seattle itself. And I know of some of my wife's co-workers who commute from Cle Elum (on the other side of the Cascades) and the Olympic Peninsula.

[Lagomorph]

7. It's too crowded for me...

Traffic is tough and everything is just so......busy.

I headed for Everett and I only run the gauntlet to Seattle for healthcare.

[pnwmom]

13. Traffic IS a bear. No question about it. n/t

[MadMaddie]

14. I am in Bothell and don't plan on moving anywhere else except

Bothell!

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

6. We liked Booth Too

He was a good governor ! 89, I think I recall one of them snow blizzards back in 89. Lasted about a week I reckon, or recall or both !

[GOPisEvil]

5. Same thing happened to Austin.

Ironically I moved from there to here. Hmmm.

[Cascadian]

8. I'll tell you what happened to Seattle.

I just had to come back from my college studies and my hiatus from this place to respond.

Seattle had sold out. It was sold to the multinationals and hoardes of yuppies that flocked and took it over. It is no longer the city that you and I knew, especially me since I had been around in the 70's when it was very progressive, quirky, and working class. That city is gone forever. What you have now is a soulless, megachain store, corporate McCity.

I recently purchased a book on Amazon.com called "Vanishing Seattle". It's a pictorial book that featured many of the old places that no longer exist. It confirmed to me just how much Seattle has lost. It almost drove me to tears. Along with the Jello Mold building, Sunset Bowl, and the Twin Tee Pees, I believe had lost its soul. The progressivism is not as strong as it used to be and people are not as friendly there as they used to be. The big indicators were probably the WTO riots and then the Mardi Gras riots. It hit home when we had to vote for the Monorail project what about 4 or 5 times? Also, seeing many artists, musicians, and working class people being "pushed" out of the city. My personal problems (health, layoff, rocky relationship, etc....) just added to my disillusion with Seattle and so I had to leave.

Even now that I am living in Spokane and watching what has happened to Seattle is all too painful to watch. It is probably one of the reasons I have not been back in about 3 years. I don't think I can ever return to live there. I am hoping to move to Portland in June. At least it is not as bad as Seattle though some of that corporate gentrification and yuppie zombies are creeping in. I think Portland still has its progressivism not to mention its special quirkiness. I think Portland will be fine and I look forward to moving there. Maybe if you can find some job down there, you should move to Portland.


John

[pscot]

9. I hear Detroit is nice

Not crowded at all. Handy to two of the Great Lakes. Average home price is down to less than $19,000, whch is what I paid for a house in the 3800 block of Meridian 40 years ago. And they still have a basketball team.

[pnwmom]

10. I think the problem is that too many people moved there after the late 70's

which is when WE got there, and when everything was still perfect.

Once we hit the 80's, all the riff-raff started moving in.

;)

[The empressof all]

11. Gosh I'm a riff-raff! rofl...

I got here in 86... I'm from NY so I wasn't one of the Californian infiltrators. :hide:

I think we have seen a decline in the quality of life here due to the population increase and the general influx of surburban America sameness. When Issaquah started to look like Redmond which looked like so many communities built in the 80's and 90's what made us special was lost. It happened here and in the rest of the country as well. When I go back to NJ and see Subway Sandwiches on the Ave instead of the old family owned Sub Shop and Pizzahut where Joes use to be I'm just convinced we're experiencing a decline in our culture everywhere.

I got here on the tall end of the good days. Progress has too high of a price sometimes.

[pnwmom]

12. Dear "riff-raff": I hope you sensed the irony in my post.

I realize that to the people who came here well before the 70's, I'M the one who is a newcomer.

It's true that Seattle doesn't have the same atmosphere it did when I came -- which was a couple years after a huge Boeing crash, noted by the signs around town that said: "Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn off the lights?"

I miss a lot of the "old" Seattle and I don't like the homogenization of the American marketplace -- but I like the new Seattle too. For one thing, there is so much more cultural diversity now (in Seattle and in the suburbs, too.) Move over Swedes and Norwegians!

[MadMaddie]

15. "surburban America sameness"

I will have to borrow that term because that is exactly what is going on. I live outside of Seattle and I go visit my folks down south and the same construction, the same strip malls, the same franchise sotroes. In all of this sameness unique cultural shops etc are fewer and fewer.

[The empressof all]

16. Hey, But we're getting a Whole Foods down on Bothell Way

My favorite Indian Restaurant is going to relocate (Tandoori Fire--Great Curried Mussels) but I'll be glad not to have to run all the way to Redmond or Bellevue for stuff I can't get at the Central Market in Mill Creek.

[MadMaddie]

17. Really!! That's great, I didn't know they were building a Whole

Foods down the road!

I love Central Market's meat and fish department - talk about quality.

I agree I hate to have to go to Bellevue or Redmond to get stuff. Even going to Kirkland gets on my nerves!!