How Seattle Transformed Itself: Edward Glaeser

The New York Times:

As the 2010 Census rolls out, much of the attention of news organizations is focused on the continuing growth of Texas and Florida, but there is much to be learned from the less extreme, but still significant, population growth in less sunny places, like Seattle.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[moose and squirrel]

12:58 AM on 03/09/2011

i love seattle.

[Comment Betch]

11:53 PM on 03/08/2011

It rains a lot there and the sky is often gray. I grew up there and still consider it home, but I love the California sunshine too. Seattle isn't bad.

[troof]

08:32 PM on 03/08/2011

When in Seattle, go to the Sea Garden Restaurant in China Town. Order shrimp chow mein with chinese greens. Have jasmine tea and watch it rain.

[Downix]

11:56 PM on 03/08/2011

Oh, indeed!

[DismayedRepub]

06:55 PM on 03/08/2011

Wow! How much did the Seattle Chamber of Commerce pay for this piece of fluff?

[hairydodger]

06:50 PM on 03/08/2011

I live here. They didn't mention that it is thirty-six degrees and raining every day of the year.

[Sproggo]

07:23 PM on 03/08/2011

Not true about the weather, and if you really lived here you would know that.

[Tandin]

03:48 PM on 03/09/2011

Considering I'm writing this from my desk in Everett (north of Seattle), you must be unconscious for 1/2 the year then. Especially the 3 months of constant sun and heat during June-August. I moved here from Florida specifically for the climate and I don't regret it in the slightest.

[Intolerantcentrist]

06:03 PM on 03/08/2011

Great article, except that Seattle has no plan.

[frankp37]

04:55 PM on 03/08/2011

Typical college professor bs. Trashes Detroit as if no one designs all those cars. As if other states don't have their own universities. Of course, this is where all the wealth generation comes from lol.

[uniquindividual]

03:50 PM on 03/08/2011

San Francisco has a similar economic history over the last generation.

Proximity to San Jose/Silicon Valley helps it as does Seatle's proximity to Redmond and Everett.

Better weather too.

[DFL]

01:53 PM on 03/08/2011

I love visiting the "progressive" left coast!

[angrymanspokane]

01:27 PM on 03/08/2011

Nice place to visit, but living there would be tricky - TRAFFIC!!!!!!!!!!

[Downix]

11:58 PM on 03/08/2011

If you drive, sure. Some of us take public transportation.

[Tandin]

03:49 PM on 03/09/2011

Or walk to work every day :-)

[Callah]

01:20 PM on 03/08/2011

They don't talk about the "closed society" or the crime issues,or the depression problems that happen for people who are not from the Pacific Northwest in their story. And Starbucks, was just a little coffee shop in Pike Place market in the late 1970s. Seattle makes money because it is one of the few places that has enough industries to be self sufficient, and survived the Depression better than most.
Now days, it is expensive, cold and the only place I have had both a family member born and two robbed at gun point, and I use to live in Oakland, California. Seattle is a dark place with the second highest serial killer count in the nation, only out done by Florida. And by the way, Seattle hasn't TRANSFORMED anything. Your just not "From there" and are looking from the outside, IN. My Grandparent in laws, In laws and Aunts and Uncles who lived there, ran a few cities and lived/worked/died in the greater Seattle Area for the past 100 years, and I can say without a doubt you Just don't get it.

[Callah]

02:12 PM on 03/08/2011

And my late husband always said that the most humiliating experience he ever had, was getting robbed at gun point by some outsider in downtown (Pioneer Square) Seattle, his home town. The other to get robbed at gun point was our son, who was waiting to get picked up by an Uncle,after arriving from Northern California.
His sister was born there, my late husband was born there ( although both were raised on the East Side aka Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond. When I was 17 years old, I had a choice to work and live in the city of Seattle or move to the "East Side" where all the high paying jobs in the early IT and Aerospace Industries. This was in 1977. The "East Side" is where all those companies that are mentioned in the story lie, not Seattle. And believe you me, there is a big difference between Bellevue and Seattle, from the Courts to the average citizen.Seattle lies within King County, and King County is where the higher paying jobs, heavy valued property and well educated people are. Your story, is BS. It wasn't Seattle in the 1960s that pulled Washington States up to one of the highest wage states in the US, it was Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton,,Bremerton and Everett. And they aren't all even in King County.

[ckesegi]

11:29 PM on 03/08/2011

I'm sorry to hear about your relatives, but I've lived in more crime ridden cities with no incident nor have I been at the receiving end of any criminal activity while here in Seattle. Seattle actually is much safer than many other cities of comparable size and the unfortunate fact that your loved one's were both victims of crime only goes to show that no place, regardless how safe, is truly crime free.

It would seem to me that you are sensationalizing your account based on these incidents happening to your loved one's here when they could just have easily occurred in the Oakland, or anywhere else for that matter, that you bring up as a basis for comparison.

[Downix]

12:05 AM on 03/09/2011

I just moved here. I am, within 7 months, classified as "from here." Incidentally, the city with the second highest serial killer rate is St Louis. Seattle is not even in the top 10 (per capita it ranks at #31, overall it ranks #20).

[levresamant]

01:00 PM on 03/08/2011

I have to share a true story. A dear friend of mine yesterday called DirecTV to cancel her service, because she is having surgery and will be out of work for 6-12 months, getting by, but cutting back on expenses during her recovery and treatment.

So, today, she received a call from DirecTV telling her that because she is such a valued customer who has been with them for 10 years never missing a payment, that they were going to issue her a $250 credit wiping out anything she currently owed in a final bill, and that they were turning her service back on with 2 free movie channels AT NO CHARGE FOR 6 MONTHS, at which time she could cancel or keep the service at a discount of 39.0 per month.

I was genuinely blown away by this, with today's disconnect between corporations and the American people that are not rich.

I just wanted to share this good story in the wake of so much bad news out there day after day.

Perhaps there is hope for this country after all.

[Downix]

12:01 AM on 03/09/2011

DirecTV is a good company, I have many friends who use their service. I cannot due to location (My apt faces north) but who knows in the future.

[JScott]

10:49 AM on 03/08/2011

It has to be more dense-it's hemmed in by water on the east and west and other cities on the north and south, it can't annex large tracts of empty land. But not so dense as becoming Manhattan.

[Callah]

01:44 PM on 03/08/2011

Bellevue/Kirkland on the East Side of the Greater Seattle Area compares its self with Brooklyn in New York.
Boeing isn't in Seattle, neither is Microsoft. Microsoft is in Redmond, and Boeing is in Everett and Renton.
And yes it is getting Higher as large skyscrapers keep appearing in the Bellevue skyline.

[ckesegi]

11:19 PM on 03/08/2011

Wait? Boeing is located just in Renton and Everett?

Then I suppose that 8,000 foot runway in Georgetown between Downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport must be a mirage.