Reply #8: I'll tell you what happened to Seattle. [View All]

[Cascadian]

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