Can Seattle be a Slow City?
An international movement to change the ethic of growing cities seems right for the Northwest. But we'd have to check the boom-town impulses embedded both in our growth economy and our frontier DNA.
The dean of writing about the West, Wallace Stegner, once wrote that the West gave America two innovations: the motel and the ghost town. The ethic of the region has long been about movement and growth: to stay in one place is to stagnate and die. The 20th century added speed to mobility.
It's tough for Americans to see virtue in being slow and rooted, but in our genes we Northwesterners have leaned a little in that direction. Sure, Seattle's been a boom or bust town, but the old settlers sang about being contented with a life of ease while gorging on "acres of clams" on Puget Sound. That is a slacker hymn if there ever was one. If anyone in the West can slow down, it ought to be us.
You wouldn't know it from Northwest skylines and growth patterns, our New York Alki aspirations and Vancouver's Hong Konged skyline of skinny towers. We like the idea of preserving nature, but cities are for building, whether upward or outward. Grow or die. The boomer sees ghost towns around every bend in the economy.
Weirdly, many greens have hung on to the growth bronco and tried to ride it with ideas about density and urbanization. Some of that has been to ameliorate the effects of urban growth (crowding, traffic, pollution, waste), but often it's simply been an easier way of going with the flow — of glossing the impact of growth by making it marginally less harmful. For developers, that's been a godsend: American consumers love to be told their consumerism is good for the economy or the planet so we can consume without guilt or changing nearly hard-wired habits.
Growth addicts see more as necessary and justified by any circumstance. In boom times, for example, we're told we have to give Boeing tax breaks and subsidies to keep the good times rolling. In hard times, we're told corporate tax breaks are a must because we can't increase costs in tough times, even to close a budget deficit. In other words, there's never a time when greasing the skids of economic growth is bad policy.
The current economic meltdown, however, suggests that moderation is an idea whose time has come, that under-regulation, excess and greed are, just perhaps, things that can have a significant downside for us all. One compensation is the chance to rethink the way forward.
Our online brethren at The Tyee in Vancouver, B.C., are tossing out good ideas for the new year, and one is the "slow cities" movement, which grows out of the "slow food" concept hatched in Italy. The idea is for cities to adopt a different ethic, one not focused on growth but slower evolution, quality of life, history, tradition, local food and drink, sustainability.
Part of Seattle's split personality gets these things, and eating locally and cultivating local foods, wines and talents has long been a part of who we are. Preserving our history was once the cornerstone of civic revival. But we've lost momentum to the folks who love to think of Seattle as a blank slate, not a community to be crafted or shaped by time. Europeans are quicker off the mark in the so-called Cittaslow movement. Cities in Britain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands and other countries have jumped aboard the slow-movement bandwagon, which is symbolically pulled by a snail.
Here, we recognize some of the virtues of the movement: Don't "Bend" Walla Walla is the bumpersticker of those who want to enjoy Walla Walla's wine country without turning it into a poster child for too much growth, like Bend, Ore. We all know people who have skipped town for places like La Conner, Lopez, Vashon, Port Townsend, Bellingham, or Twisp for a taste of the slow life. The question is whether big cities like Seattle or Vancouver could adopt the slow ethic, could re-commit to the virtues of thinking small, acting locally, and slowing down.
Of course slowing down is a relative thing culturally. The Spanish siesta seems civilized and sane in a culture built around it, but has been rapidly victimized by the standardizing rules of the European Union, which have also cracked down on such things as the shape, size, and weight of an acceptable carrot. In Scando-Asian Seattle, a siesta would be seen as indulgent, but not necessarily the occasional four-day week that allows an early escape to Hood Canal or Whistler.
Back in the late 1970s, I ran into an Irishman in the airport in Madrid who had lived in Seattle for a short time during the building of the Alaska pipeline. He worked for Lloyd's of London. He said, "the problem with you people in Seattle is you work too hard," noting eight-hour days with few holidays, grocery shopping in the evenings, frenzied scheduled visits to gyms or rigid jogging regimens. "You leave no time for life," he cried. Perhaps only an Irishman could see Seattle as workaholic.
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Comments:
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 8:47 a.m. inappropriate
Our region's population will continue to increase whether or not we densify our cities. Growing carefully wouldn't be a bad idea, but growing slowly will just result in more exurb housing (i.e. sprawl, cars, roads, clear cutting, farmland encroachment, high energy use, high consumption).
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 9:32 a.m. inappropriate
Slow down? While NYC and Chicago are buried in snow but still hustling and bustling these few days before Christmas, Seattle has slowed to less than a crawl. Will merchants ever recover from "The Winter of 2008"?
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 9:59 a.m. inappropriate
Shades of Lesser Seattle!! Emmett Watson LIVES!!
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 10:42 a.m. inappropriate
Knute I see where you are coming from and I completely agree. We have to slow down if we want to improve our life. I think it will contribute greatly to our quality of life.
With that said if I understand you correctly I think your notion of lesser Seattle is in conflict. The only way to we can live slower lives, more community based lives is to live closer to each other. This does not mean skyscraper type density but it certainly means 4-5 story condo close. You mention European cities a lot but fail to mention that they have density that I'm sure you never want to see in Seattle. Their density is what allows them to walk and bike. It is what allows them to have farms just 20 miles from the city center. It is what allows them to walk home to take siesta. They live close to each other and everything they need. That is why they can live slower lives.
To become a slower Seattle we need to become a denser Seattle.
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 10:53 a.m. inappropriate
People can slow their lives down, and there can be a movement of these people. But a city has no good options for slowing down.
The main options are: (1) becoming an undesirable place to live, and (2) limiting growth. Locals benefit from neither on average. Even the second option keeps newcomers away by making the place unaffordable.
Personally I love densification. The environmental benefits are only half of it. The other half is a love of big cities (which is why I work for a contractor, disclosure). Seattle gets better every year.
New stuff rarely has the character of old stuff, or the small local businesses. Character generally requires age. Small local businesses (the less-monied ones) tend to prefer cheaper rents. New buildings are too expensive to rent cheaply, but they get cheaper (relatively) over the decades...if newer buildings are built to draw away the richer tenants.
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 2:08 p.m. inappropriate
I think we should have a study to look into the idea of slowing down, then let's have a stakeholders meeting to discuss the findings of the study and the impact that change would have on a population that can not act without further study on the impact mitigation activities would have on other stakeholders.
Let's then send an open letter via the op/ed section of both local daily newspapers demanding that the governor, county exec, and mayor, form a committee, that for some strange reason must have legislators from other parts of the state, 4Culture will get to design a logo that will be be displayed in three colors of native Washington flowers on the green strip between the darkened KeyArena and where the flag pavilian used to be.
Wine, dry crackers, and soft white cheese will be served at the kickoff meeting for the committee's Corp sponsors at the Four Seasons, sometime in the Spring of 2014.
See you all then.
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 3:03 p.m. inappropriate
We’ve just had a week of enforced slowness in Seattle, brought on by the winter snowstorms that forced neighbors and families to spend time with each other rather than rushing around shopping. Works for us!
As a sustainable neighborhood of 25,000 in Wallingford, Seattle, we’re hoping to become a Slow City – a CittaSlow. One of the basic requirements of becoming a CittaSlow is having a population under 50,000. Most of the names of Slow Towns are not ones you’ve heard of – places like Goolwa, Australia and Berwick Upon Tweed, and Cockermouth in the UK.
Slow is beautiful. Slow places have a better chance of surviving economic downturns and environmental catastrophes. Slow and sustainable have a lot in common – bioregionalism, local economy, local organic food.
I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
We'll learn again to grow our food.
We'll build local turbines and share our grapevines
And find meaning in our jobs.
Oh, I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
When every child gets what she needs.
We’ll have time together, we’ll share our weather
And meet all our village needs.
Oh, I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
With every friend I meet today.
We’ve got time for dinner, and time with inner
Quiet meaning to our days.
Oh, I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
We'll find our paradise on earth.
(Bridge) May your power sources be clean –
And may all your Christmases be green.
Posted Wed, Dec 24, 4:03 p.m. inappropriate
Gosh, this sounds like a more subtle, nuanced version of building a wall and not letting the Evil Californians in.
I am finding the fetishization of just about every aspect of life to be quite tiresome, and wish the people pushing this Slow (whatever) thing to find something less irritating to the rest of us with which to occupy their time...
Posted Fri, Dec 26, 3:43 a.m. inappropriate
The money and the development follow the people. If you want to slow down seattle, slow down immigration.
Otherwise, except that it will change and stop fighting it.
Posted Fri, Dec 26, 3:43 a.m. inappropriate
er
accept. Apologies, it's late
Posted Sat, Dec 27, 9:15 a.m. inappropriate
NIMBYism is a bit of an Urban Legend - sure, it does exist, but it is not exactly as it is portrayed, angry neighbors unable to cooperate with anyone.
Downtown Seattle is now an international City - Paul Schell saw that and built to it - even though that same international community (right wing corporates) would then screw him because he found a legitimate balance to that power, during the WTO protests and with Seattle neighborhoods.
Consider, for a moment, that the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce is nothing more than an angry neighborhood group. No, they aren't NIMBY's, rather the opposite - but there is a shared political strategy of domineering one's opponents.
And there are many people, right/left, public/private - even journalists, who are fully vested in this conflict.
Downtown should be, to some extent, a free trade zone - that covers its own infrastructure costs, and IMPACTS. Going slow in our neighborhoods is essential, but there are some opportunities for infil that can work.
Perhaps the biggest land use change we need to see is the environmentalists application of dense construction to the exurbs, not by limiting sprawl, but by making sure that the development is 'clustered', to use the zoning term.
Downtown can lead, but taking the position that everyone else in the City, and State, owes them 100k plus a year salaries is crap. If they want to lead, create the tools for your own self-determination that can be used by all, not hide behind a politically correct facade of 'stakeholders' and other pc 'neighborhood' terms.
The courts too must change. Informal relationships between the courts and those firms that are vested in serving the public interest are appropriate. But consider that the two leading firms in that arena are, or shortly will, collapse under their own corruption. The fact is that the courts have abused their power in support of their colleagues in the profession to the heavy burden on everyone.
Addressing that problem is not something to go slow on. Supporting politicians with integrity is no slow task either.
http://motleytools.com/blog
Posted Sat, Dec 27, 5:54 p.m. inappropriate
In a recent interview Umberto Bizzari, founder of Torrefazione Italia and its progeny, Caffe Umbria, who now lives in Perugia, Italy, his home town made the point by restating the cliche: "...in Seattle we live to work, in Perugia we work to live". This well-worn sentiment remains more true today than ever. We need to slow down our lives, in general, but particularly, in western cities like Seattle where, while we have established traditions of history and culture, they are fragile because our local culture is relatively young and vulnerable to popular cultural trends. Look how seriously we have been swept up in the real estate booms(and busts!)of the past 40 years and the impact it has had on our city, region and most importantly on the quality of life of our citizens.
I find the "slow cities" concept every bit as appealing as the "slow food"
movement that's why I'm moving to Port Townsend and opening a "slow food" business. Hopefully, I'll be able to export some of both to Seattle and vicinity in the not too distant future.
Paul Fior
Posted Wed, Dec 31, 12:20 p.m. inappropriate
I have to question your fundamental grasp of economics and resource use when you say things like, "Weirdly, many greens have hung on to the growth bronco and tried to ride it with ideas about density and urbanization."
It would be like saying "Weirdly, many health advocates have jumped on the anti-tobacco bronco and tried to ride it with ideas about lung cancer and heart disease"
What's weird is that people who claim to be "green" or to care about the environment or global warming and are not embracing density. It's weird that 60% of Seattle has exclusionary zoning and forces growth into the exurbs where people must drive on our clogged freeways to get to work. What's weird is that the same people who live in these neighborhoods are the ones pretending to be green while opposing any reasonable changes in density (like accessory dwelling units, or heaven forbid, affordable multi-family apartments). Maybe they are misinformed and behave in direct opposition to their stated values because they read Knute Berger's opinions about the relationship between density and ecological impact.
Posted Wed, Dec 31, 7:12 p.m. inappropriate
I think about what the northwest was just 100 years ago and wonder what it will be like in just 50 more, now that the roads are built. We've always assumed this region will grow as there's no choice in the matter, and our business leaders reflexively cheer for growth as if it will enrich us. I wonder, will it, or might our growth impoverish us of valuable things unique to our little corner of the country? And when does our planned growth ever stop, short of dysfunction, or catastrophe?
I do think this writer, and also the author of "Deep Economy", are onto something-- that focusing on our local happiness is a better bet than hoping that unending growth will put us on easy street temporarily. I hope we don't mine all the region's natural wealth and charm, deposit its value in our bank accounts and then swarm to the next place like aggressive, hungry locusts.
Indeed, a steady-state economy and "slow city" would be a good cultural fit for such a place as this and would be something to look forward to, if only it might be humanly possible. Until then, I'm all for funneling new growth toward places that are already built up, like Seattle.
-Bentler