The suburbs are the new Seattle
You've heard the rhetoric about how White Center is the new Ballard, or Burien is the new Brooklyn. Now consider how Seattleized our suburbs have become.
Looks like Everett's getting a new University of Washington branch campus, something that's already been a boon for Bothell, which is also remaking itself as "pedestrian oriented." Suburban cities are also celebrating major centennials – Bothell's is next year, and there's been lots of anniversary hoopla in Tukwila, which one writer argues is the cradle of Puget Sound civilization. Seattle doesn't have a monopoly on urban history hereabouts.
In Redmond, the new mayor is trying to replace a more contentious city politics with consensus – how can you get any more Seattle than that?
Well, try Bellevue. Judging from a spate of articles in The Seattle Times, the increasingly dense Bellevue is pedestrian friendly, fighting global warming, is gay friendly, and is even trying to limit the kudzu of the nouveau riche, megahouses. Bellevue sounds like Seattle, but with decent schools.
And speaking of gay-friendly, the new "Capitol Hill" is Kent, at least for gay couples, reports the latest Seattle Weekly. The Hill's "gay flight" is the suburbs' gain.
A sure sign that something is going on is the new TV ad from Renton which aired during the Seahawks playoff game last week, featuring former Almost Live! comedian John Keister shilling for the town which, we're told, is "ahead of the curve." John Keister selling Renton? What's next, the ghost of Emmett Watson selling condos for Paul Allen?
At least one blogger thinks Keister, famous for his bashing of Renton and other south-end burbs, has sold out. But times do change. Maybe he's just proof that the suburbs are the new Seattle.
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 9:55 a.m. inappropriate
picture: I'm liking Bellevue more every year. Pretty soon it might even be liveable, in a "but not for me" kind of way.
But can't someone go outside and get a picture from the modern era?
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 1:02 p.m. inappropriate
As for Emmett Watson's ghost? I'm sure we'd see him sandwiched between Clint Eastwood and The Governator in those ads for California tourism that irritate us all because they show nothing but sunshine and celebs doing things in the winter we can barely do in the summer. Wouldn't Watson and Lesser Seattle fit right in?
When even gay couples find living in Seattle to be intolerable, what does that say? Need we resurrect the early 70's mantra, "Last one to leave Seattle please turn out the lights?" Who'll be left besides you and Jean Enersen, Mossback? Your urban Robinson Crusoe to her girl Friday. People would pay money to see that.
The Piper
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 5:44 p.m. inappropriate
people leaving?: In 1970s, the population inside Seattle shrank (more households, but household size shrank dramatically). Today it's growing. So I don't get your comparison.
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 7:45 p.m. inappropriate
If the burbs are the new Seattle,: then Seattle must be the new, ... um, ... anyone?
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 7:47 p.m. inappropriate
The Piper
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 7:52 p.m. inappropriate
people: Seattle is doing fine without a ton of kids. While it bad that some people can't afford to live here (correction: most simply can't afford the size of place they want here, but could make do if they wanted to), the city gets better every year for the ever-growing number of people who DO live here. Every year it looks and acts a bit more like a real city.
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 8:18 p.m. inappropriate
The Piper
Posted Thu, Jan 17, 9:07 p.m. inappropriate
Children add color and life and laughter. A place that doesn't want, welcome, and encourage children is emotionally sterile.
The Piper
Posted Fri, Jan 18, 10:06 a.m. inappropriate
RE: people: I agree very much--children are a big part of the soul of any community.
Posted Fri, Jan 18, 12:37 p.m. inappropriate
Calcutta?: Well if Seattle is Calcutta, the new urbanized Bothell will be what, Port-au-prince? And don't get me started on Favela Kirkland.
Posted Fri, Jan 18, 2:56 p.m. inappropriate
As for Kirkland? That's tough. Since I live half-way between Kirkland and Bothell, I suppose I could follow your line and say it's Santo Domingo. That OK?
The Piper
Posted Fri, Jan 18, 9:02 p.m. inappropriate
RE: Just the latest example: Keister sold out in the manner that he turned making fun of Renton into a bit about liking Renton now. He can never go back to the point he was at when he was making Almost Live!, its like he burned that bridge.
I know that it doesn't matter to many people, but to me that was Keister saying "I'm never going to do anything like AL! again."\
Anyway, the actual ad had very little to show in terms of what was good about Renton now. The two actual "things" they showed (Seahawks headquarters and "the Landing") don't exist in Renton yet.
Posted Sat, Jan 19, 8:02 a.m. inappropriate
The New Calcutta? You Must be Joking: Seattle gets whiter and whiter, richer and richer. Carpeted with condos. Mayor is a weird enviro-fascist - shilling for carbon neutrality while making life harder for real people and easier for the likes of Paul Allen. Here, take a streetcar line a few blocks long (one you never wanted or asked for) while Paul Allen gets carte blanche to print money by developing South Lake Union, which was (no more) one of the last refuges for low-income housing, edgy arts centers, etc, same old list of usual suspects deported to the suburbs. You have to be kidding when you say Seattle is the new Calcutta. Seattle is the new - circa 1985 - Bellevue. A lily-white Stepford city, bleating on nonsensically about diversity while it systematically boots gays and African-Americans out of the neighborhoods they created and made vibrant and interesting.
Posted Sat, Jan 19, 8:15 a.m. inappropriate
It's ALL Seattle: What most of you who live within or close to the King County area don't seem to realize is to nearly EVERYONE living outside of Pugetropolis considers all of the suburbs in that area to be a part of Seattle. We see no difference.
Now that is not a slam on the people but an observation. When someone, say from the coast or Eastern Washington, says they need to go to Seattle they might be talking anywhere from Kent or Federal Way to Bellevue or Bothell. It's all the same to us. Lots of traffic and way too many people for our liking. It does not mean our areas are better or worse (though I prefer mine) just different. Because there are no distinct separations between most of the cities with the exception of a street (yes I realize Bellevue is separated by a lake, etc) it is hard for us to see any difference.
I guess for that reason I find an article like this pretty funny. We already thought they were Seattle. :)
Posted Sat, Jan 19, 8:32 a.m. inappropriate
Checked the Seattle City Council lately?
The Piper
Posted Sat, Jan 19, 11 a.m. inappropriate
Welcome to Nickelsville: My point, I'm not sure what yours is but we probably agree on some level so I'm not arguing with you, is that by deporting its arts scene to the suburbs, by crowding out the diversity it purports to embrace, by gentrifying blue-collar neighborhoods, Seattle becomes richer, whiter, more homogeneous, and more self-congratulatory with each passing election cycle. The things that made Seattle a place where people wanted to live are vanishing with the new economic realities: grunge would never have been born in this Seattle, neither would Boeing. I even feel nostalgic for the old orange-clad Rajneeshees who used to free-range around Capitol Hill.
For all its horrific infrastructure and traffic problems, Calcutta is a vibrant cultural city. Seattle, increasingly, is a soulless reflection of its fat white mayor.
But, hey, he did get some of those potholes filled.