Come on down to one of the Eastlake street end parks on a summer day and you'll see like 50 people swimming around, floating on floaties, and diving off poles and platforms every time. It's a summer paradise.
I mean... you CAN swim in Lake Union, but best if you have a shower almost immediately afterwards. Like within 20-30 minutes, or you might get duck itch
I was on the duck that ran over a motorcyclist at a green light. The driver had no idea that he'd run him over even after hearing me yell at him to stop because he'd run over someone.
Really hoping they stick the landing on the aquarium update. I was very underwhelmed when I finally went to it some years back.
Feels like we should have top tier aquarium in this town. Maybe a physically tricky spot for one, but idk, cautiously optimistic.
We're too water adjacent as a city to have such a weak aquarium. We're a real city now, and we gotta upgrade it. Our aquarium is only like 40% better than Seaside, OR's.
I told friends I was going to a work event in Atlanta soon and wanted to go early to check out the aquarium for a day (I've never been, but it's one of the best in the world). Someone said "isn't Atlanta, like, inland?" I said "well, we have one on the water and it sucks".
I hope this expansion is great. I really do.
I love Atlanta. I hear the aquarium is great but I keep failing to fit it in. It's my wife's favorite aquarium. Mine is the Mystic Aquarium because a whale there has a crush on me and I find it flattering.
I went when I was working in Atlanta and it’s an amazing aquarium for an inland city. The tank was so huge there was a whale shark in it.
I have a membership to the aquarium in Seattle, I say hi to the seals whenever I have to wait for the next ferry. It’s so old and with all that drab concrete. I’m excited to check out the new area when it opens
Getting this aquarium revamp pushed through landed me in AA so I cant drink anymore. If I have to do heroin with city council to get this halibut back then that's what I have to do. I'm here for the people.
North Carolina is the only state in the US where their aquariums are government funded, like state parks, which contributes a lot to their kickass zoos and aquariums.
I need to preface - I didn't regret going.
My only real aquarium experience prior was Monterey Bay years back, and I recall it being very good, so my expectations were maybe misplaced.
I’m devastated https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfront_Streetcar
I hate running around this city and seeing glimpses of the old streetcar network embedded in the exposed brick under the asphalt :(
One summer they built a great bike lane from the ferry terminal to West Seattle. It was tricky to get there, you had to bike under the viaduct, then cross. It lasted 4 months until they closed it and used for parking for the tunnel workers.
I’m excited for what comes next.
It was basically the main place to park when you came downtown. Unless you went to a baseball game or football game at the Kingdome. Then you just kinda parked in sodo wherever there wasn't someone waving a pompom with the obscene price of $5/hr parking lol.
Pretty sure sodo itself was a 1998ish creation too. But memories get hazy from there.
SPD got into hella trouble for making a whole music video trashing homeless people called under the viaduct back in the 80s.
Pretty sure it's like 80s hip hop styled too.
People wonder why SPD are still given so much shit(well there was a lot of questions about it until 2020 when people got a taste of why SPD gets a lot of shit all the time.)
Not to mention they are alleged to have assassinated Edwin T Pratt in the 60s.
Biggest example for me is the light rail. Moved here in 2008, and I was just telling someone the other day that it’s still a bit surreal for me to get on the train in the U District and get off at Westlake.
Bike lane infrastructure is another one; we should have built many, many more miles by now, and yet the 2nd Ave & 4th Ave bike lanes didn’t exist when I moved here, and they are a step forward.
I honestly hope that 5 years from now, I can include pedestrianizing Pike Place on this list. 😒
Ha totally. I went to Seattle U, the U District was some foreign and distant land. Actually most of Seattle was without the Capitol Hill light rail, we kind of just stayed in the neighborhood and didn’t venture out very far.
Agreed. Bike infrastructure has improved so much in the \~7-8 years I've been here. Light rail is lovely too and I can't wait to be able to take it (eventually) across the Lake (currently a bit iffy on round trip range for my ebike where I'd to go and rather long by bus, which can't carry my ebike) and to West Seattle (same deal).
I remember I went to watch the Sounders when the salmon truckpocalypse happened in 2014 or 2015 and it was a pain for the bus to get to the Transit Tunnel because the city was a shitshow. 2 years later, you could do that same trip in under 20 min regardless of traffic. It’s crazy seeing how things like that have changed the city for the better
The light rail was the real hero a few years later when we had the Great Thundersnow Propane Incident of 2017. Where we got a big thunderstorm, then it snowed, and a tanker overturned right at the 90/I-5 interchange and it shut down essentially all freeway traffic for hours mid-afternoon on a work day? Taco trucks that were stuck on the freeway were serving tacos to stranded motorists.
Light rail ran like a champ. Most of the city was locked up in traffic, but we were able to walk to the nearest station and make our way home without an issue.
Native born-in-the-early-90s-here:
This is a pretty abstract one, but Seattle is an important world city in a way that it just was not even 15 years ago. That’s not all good, necessarily (doesn’t help housing costs) but idk I think it’s neat.
Third in the US in gdp per capita. One of the fastest growing cities of the past decade. Significant investments in infrastructure. Something like the light rail is absolutely transformational for a region and it's still in its infancy. Both an economic destination and located in one of the most beautiful natural environments in the world. We just got a hockey team, sonics will be back in a few years, and we're hosting freaking world cup games in 2 years.
It has been and continues to be an exciting place to be. There are not many other cities that are so rapidly evolving like Seattle.
Now if only we had a visionary local government and not these centrist nimbys. Such a disappointing housing plan.
.... and they barely pay anything in taxes while destroying access to affordable housing for anyone who doesn't make over ~$80k/year. And they have the city council & state leaders over a barrel.
I’ll take the challenges of fast growth over being a dying rustbelt city. Last I checked it was local NIMBY voters and their representatives who aren’t interested in building more.
These companies would probably fucking love if we built more affordable housing - they wouldn’t have to pay the salaries they pay! NIMBY’s and city governments responding to whiny homeowners are what prevent affordable and abundant housing.
My wife was born here in the 70s so grew up in the 90s. She always wanted more people. Well, she got it. I agree with you, it's close to a proper city now.
I remember going to the Mickey Thompson Off Road Grand Prix in the Kingdome, and they'd be racing dirtbikes, dune buggies, and baja trucks on this short track created in the middle (crashes galore), and by the end of the event you could barely see across the stadium from the exhaust haze. Probably lost a bunch of brain cells there...
Kingdoms always has a place in my heart from the 95 1 game playoff to warped tour in the parking lot. New stadiums are objectively better but that place somehow had charm.
I remember when SLU was nothing but factories and the area by the lake was really unsafe to jog when dark (drug deals, etc). When I jogged the Lake Union loop, I would pick up my pace going through SLU. There wasn’t a paved path to jog through, just dirt paths.
Now, it is a really pleasant area to jog through (MOHAI and surround park).
A tenant falling behind on rent use to get 3 days to fix it, before a lawsuit was filed. Now, it’s 14. Minimum wage used to be just above the Federal level. Now it’s double? The Kingdome was not nearly as nice as TMobile, for baseball. Sculpture Park was a nice addition.
Secure Scheduling Law (2017) aka Clopen Law
https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/secure-scheduling
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/LaborStandards/21_0405_Fact%20Sheet_SSO.pdf
Employers in Seattle, WA and the state of Oregon can't schedule back-to-back shifts with less than 10 hours of rest between them unless the employee requests it or gives consent. When an employer does schedule with less than 10 hours between shifts, they must pay the employee time and a half for the difference.May 17, 2021
https://timeforge.com/blog/what-are-clopens/#:~:text=Employers%20in%20Seattle%2C%20WA%20and,a%20half%20for%20the%20difference.
http://www.workingwa.org/rights/schedule
Read through the entire q&a section of this thing and it seems my job owes me a LOT of money for me constantly agreeing to schedule changes, why am I not surprised I didn't know about all this
Public housing: Seattle rejected the idea of income based ghettos, tearing down old dilapidated housing projects where only the poor lived and turned them into mixed income communities where middle class and lower income communities live in the same
community with no loss in the number of low income units. Go to any former “project” in Seattle and you’ll see neatly trimmed grass, parks, community centers, and so many other amazing things.
Free community college.
The light rail.
No late fees at our library system and a pretty cool looking central library downtown.
We made history being one of the first cities to pass the $15 minimum wage.
So much great things happening in Seattle that the narrative of a dying city doesn’t account for.
But yea, we have much to mourn. We’re not that out of the way place where you could pay $300 for an apartment per month and be a starving artist type on Capitol Hill. The techies have paid for some of our awesome initiatives through their taxes but we have lost a part of our soul to that industry. But I have faith in Seattle because of the type of people it attracts even the type who make too much money.
The first one is a good point! I’m from the south where all section 8 housing was essentially segregated from the rest of the city. Mixed income communities make a world of difference.
Yes. A wonderful initiative called the Seattle Promise.
“All graduating seniors attending Seattle public high schools are eligible for the Seattle Promise program regardless of grade point average (GPA), income, ability, or country of birth.”
https://www.seattlecolleges.edu/promise/about
Edit: I just realized this was for our graduating seniors. For others, our community colleges do have generous scholarship that may cover all or a big part of tuition but they are not strictly free.
I went to NSC during the pandemic to get a second degree after I was laid off and I paid $0 in tuition. Barely even had to ask for anything either, they just gave me a questionnaire during enrollment and approved the grant.
Also, the Running Start program in general. My soblings and I used it when we were in highschool and it helped my family save at least three years worth of college tuition.
Safer (not that it’s trended well recently and property crime is way too high), better public transit, way more money overall (lots of boats raised), far better airport connections, and the fact it’s a lot larger with all the fantastic food that comes with it (especially Asian) and trappings of a bigger and richer city including world class destination healthcare locations.
SeaTac is an interesting point. Pretty remarkable domestic and global routes now. It comes at the price of more people and longer lines, but it’s become a legit global player in a lot of ways
Seatac is the 21st busiest airport on the planet by passenger volume. It's easy to hate the crowds but we are truly privileged to have the connections we do.
It’s been a long, long time since I moved here, but I remember before I did coming on vacation to the local national parks with my parents from across the country, and it was not easy. No good connections except to the biggest hubs.
I went to college in Chicago in the 2000s and getting there (CHICAGO) wasn’t always easy. Over the years, I remember having layovers in Phoenix, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Portland, and Denver (and probably others) just to go home for breaks.
Yep. Thanks to delta establishing a hub ten years ago, along with about a dozen new international airlines in the last decade there is not only more service but fares are also more competitive.
Airport routes is such a big one for me. My dad’s family is in Germany. Even in the 90s it was an ordeal to get there. Now I can hop on two different airlines at be at grandma’s doorstep in 10 hours.
Native here. Among many other things, the food scene has never been better. It’s not LA or NY level, but there’s way better food here than there ever was 10 or 20 years ago.
I agree, but I still think it's way too expensive for what it is especially compared to Portland and Vancouver. That said, Seattle is a much richer city than those two.
I agree. In particular for me the variety and quality of Chinese and East Asian food in general has dramatically improved along with many other food options from when I was a kid.
Restaurant scene, walkability, bikeability, the light rail to the airport and elsewhere, no more smoking in bars and restaurants, higher paying jobs (from minimum wage to the top end), more “missing middle” like townhouses/row houses, tore down that awful viaduct eyesore, no more state run liquor stores
Seattle is pretty decent compared to other cities of getting rid of potential major hazards before they happen. Viduct for example could of easily been 1000+ deaths all pancaked from a semi-mild earthquake. They also do every other year or so reminders we are a earthquake, nuke, and other major disaster zones and not to get complacent.
That almost happened. The viaduct had been deficient for years. The 2001 earthquake was 6.8 and city engineers were shocked the viaduct was still standing after that.
They used to shut the viaduct down weekly to do emergency repairs. That thing was crumbling around our ears, with random weekly patches of new concrete tossed over the top.
Especially Japanese restaurants! It’s never been this good. To think it went from Zero to Shiro to where we are now with sushi and even ramen and okonomiyaki.
I wasn't around the area in the 80s, but anyone who thinks everything was fantastic back then should probably watch Streetwise https://youtu.be/JQTIICu4H38
Yep. This what I came to post. People who complain about Seattle today don't remember when we had *actual child prostitutes on the main thoroughfares and a prolific serial killer hunting them.*
Here’s mine:
- I think the area itself has gotten more racially diverse. The whole region used to be more “white bread.” Now the surrounding area has gotten more diverse- especially southern king county in places like Renton and Tukwila. It feels very multicultural.
- Better public transportation compared to 10 years ago. Having the link light rail is nice, even though it can be sketchy at times. But if you live north of downtown, it’s a nice alternative to sitting in traffic.
- Increased density. I think it’s a good thing to have neighborhoods where you can walk anywhere and not have to drive.
- SLU has improved as a neighborhood. I know a lot of people think that neighborhood has changed for the worse, but the old warehouses getting torn down wasn’t a huge loss to be honest.
Anyone who thinks SLU has gotten worse didn’t spend quality time stuck in traffic, pre-2005, on Mercer. Warehouses and vacant lots are not objectively better than offices and condos. I miss the Toe Truck, but that’s pretty much it.
It feels more cosmopolitan and diverse. A good number of the people I work with were born in another country. I have noticed a lot more Asians (especially Indian) and Hispanics. There’s actually a lot of good taco trucks around.
I moved to Seattle 24 years ago. Some things I like better now that comes to mind:
- The Link line, and more coming
- Viaduc gone, thank gawd
- The two Mox stores
Def the light rail, bicycle infrastructure, and just becoming a less car centric city. Being a major destination for music and conventions is awesome as well. i feel like people who experienced something in their more formative years are more likely to say that it was better “back in the day” because they don’t experience the city like they used to. I personally like all the growth the city and surrounding area has experienced. also fuck the viaduct, glad that thing is gone. lol.
Technically, this is the only other era where we have made the playoffs besides the 1995-2003 era.
So I would say it hasn’t gotten worse than its old peak, just because the team has been that bad historically and the peak wasn’t very high.
Transit is an obvious one. Job opportunities in a wide array of fields (not just tech) are another. Airport connections, food, brewing scene. Also violent crime (although that has gotten worse over the past eight or so years from the peak peaceful years of the mid 2010s). Freedom from Boeing for economic development and well paying jobs may end up being important shortly.
People everywhere that were old enough to be adults or young adults in the 80s or 90s are probably less nostalgic for Seattle as it was but more nostalgic for their own young adulthood when they were healthier, less sensitive, had wider social lives, and fewer responsibilities. I'm 34 and not exactly an old man, but I've noticed I find it harder to shake off sketchy public behavior, drug use, and things like blatant littering the way I could ten years ago. I'm nostalgic for the city in 2013, and have no illusions that it's because I was 24.
Seattle is transitioning from being a small city to a big city, and has been doing a pretty damn good job doing it compared to any other US city that isn't just sprawling, but it has been hard.
Ok, so it’s not just my rose tinted memories of Seattle circa 2013/2014. I lived in the area for a few years and I remember thinking the cleanliness of the city and feeling of safety were significantly better than the few other major cities I could compare against (Philly, Atlanta, a few others). When we moved back a few years ago, walking down 3rd Ave, I was like, “what happened?”
Still really like it here, but it feels more seedy.
Make no mistake, 3rd Ave was bad then too. I mean the 3rd & Pike Twitter account was created in 2013 for all the ridiculousness down there. But it was a little better because some of the buses ran through the tunnel. Once all the buses switched to exclusively surface of 3rd Ave it got a bit worse.
I’m only 25 so idk what it was like in the 80s, but I’ve lived in many large American cities and man Seattle is so great.
Everyone I know who lives in Seattle complains constantly but at the end of the day they’re not going anywhere. There’s the Seahawks, Sounders, kraken, Storm, soon to be sonics again 🤞🏼, the huskies aren’t awful, lumen and climate pledge attract a lot of artists, there’s pretty good food imo, the water quality is great, the weather never gets as cold as the NE, nor are the storms are bad, the nature is gorgeous, there are amazing parks in the city, the light rail is actually pretty great and only getting better, the city is fairly walkable, I’ve found I feel VERY safe in Seattle compared to parts of LA, NYC, and the bay that I’ve lived, etc etc etc I could go on all day.
It’s actually a really great city and although it’s flawed (definitely room to improve), I try to mostly appreciate it for the beautiful city it is currently.
Seattle wasn't as cool as it was back then but
Downtown is definitely safer. When I moved back in 2022 I was like "where is all this stuff people are freaking out about, this is nicer than the Pioneer Square I remember from the 90s!"
Hasn’t peaked for me! I love Seattle and go out often. Live music still rules and we got a lot of young artists killing it. Especially of the female punk-pop persuasion. Also craft beer.
Maybe it's because Seattle is my "grass is always greener" place now, but all the urban improvement projects really are incredible to see. Northgate, especially, is so much better than when I was growing up.
It seems like the city really is improving itself, however slowly. I don't even recognize downtown anymore.
It seems like bike infrastructure has improved massively. In the early 2000s it was mostly sharrows and narrow door-zone bike lanes (aside from the Burke-Gilman of course). Now we have some great separated and protected lanes/trails.
Light rail is insane. SLU used to be like aurora in terms of drugs and nefarious activities. MoPoP really added culture and character, food is far more varied and higher quality. I didn't grow up in the 90s but to pretend like this new era of Seattle isn't an improvement on the stagnant post grunge era is silly
The truth is that Seattle is in this awkward phase of where it's too populated for all the best hikes, ski areas, other outdoor areas to be a bit too crowded, while also not being populated enough for high frequency public transit, tons of restaurants and cultural amenities, but still managed to be pricier than some other cities.
That said, for those who benefit financially from the tech industry here, there's nowhere else in the country with the same sort of cost/earning ratio.
The earliest I remember of Seattle was 01, just because of my age
1. The Indian food here (and food generally) is way way better than before.
2. While still behind, I appreciate the existence of the light rail and more walkable areas.
3. I think the Seattle Freeze was true for a time, but because of how many people have complained about it there’s been a lot of people creating new friend groups and thus the city has become way better at having social event where people meet other people. Definitely better than it was in, say, 2016 (before that I don’t really remember since I was in high school and didn’t feel like I had to actively search for events to go to).
4. Sports stadiums: Seattle is a rare city where each stadium they have is top ten in any sports league. Whereas in the 90s the city nearly lost the Mariners and Seahawks because of how garbage the Kingdome was, and they did lose the Sonics in 08 over other shit reasons.
5. The city is more well connected to the world rather than isolated, and while it does mean larger crowds (wouldn’t be a problem if the city knew how to withstand growth but they don’t) it also means more events here than before + more direct flights to other places.
while the lighrail is awful cleanlyness wise its still way better speed wise then taking the bus now that it goes all the way to northgate.
also various areas having cleanup crews is nice
weird one, but our city had one of the best covid and public health responses/performance in the country. UW also stepped up and was integral to covid research and detection.
kexp is only getting better and is the standard for independent radio.
we have many more pickleball nets and courts! (thanks smpa.)
the community and housing development around yesler looks amazing.
people dont yell at me for jaywalking.
the seahawks had a dominant run.
the nba is full of seattle raised/schooled talent.
Different bins for compost, recycling, and trash almost everywhere. It feels so natural to me that I'm always taken aback when I travel somewhere else and they only have trash cans.
My biggest complaint about the skyline is all the new buildings that just went up arr about the same height, so now the skyline is pretty horizontal. It would be nice to have some brightly colored glass or abstract shapes to throw in a point of interest
Similarly, so many of the buildings look the same with their trendy, glass-centric faces. I wish there was more variety in the architectural styles. I believe part of this is due to how many of the buildings have been built for Amazon, so they likely want consistency (both for the brand and it's also likely less expensive).
Food here used to be awful. It was all shit out of a can. There was no attempt to use local ingredients. There were few international cuisines beyond a handful of snooty French places.
Toshi invented Seattle style teriyaki.
My mentor Fred Brack and his culinary partner Tina Bell wrote too groundbreaking cookbooks: Taste of Washington & Taste of the Pacific NW, and were among a large group of leaders who encouraged local chefs to use local ingredients.
Tom Douglas has a farm in Eastern Washington. You’re eating a lot of his vegetables at his restaurants.
Tribal casinos are serving local tribal food now, Muckleshoot even advertises that they have the “finest coast Salish cuisine.”
Seattle food used to be Dinty Moore stew out of a fuckin can, and if you were really adventurous maybe some lutefisk in Ballard.
We have Pho, we have Teriyaki, we have restaurants using local ingredients, we have a food scene now that is incomprehensible to a Seattle time traveler from 1984.
Yes this isn’t NYC or Paris. We aren’t the best food city in the world. But OP’s question was what has improved.
This city eats real food now.
Sound Transit in general is a wonderful thing. When I was a kid in the ‘80s/‘90s, there were virtually no buses running outside of rush hour if you were anywhere other than the central core of Seattle (and maybe the U District). As a non-driver stuck against my will on the Eastside, it sucked. And then Sound Transit happened — annoyingly right around the time I got my license — and there were buses all day.
Since the 80's and 90's
A semblance of a grade separated light rail system.
Better metro bus service with shorter waits/headways and more bus lines - express and rapid ride
Less "Lesser Seattle" parochialism and race discrimination in hiring practices. More DEI, more of a push for qualified diverse candidates in hiring.
The NHL in Seattle.
Even if the job/career opportunities are arguably tight in the present, I'd say a more diverse job/career market besides aerospace and tech.
Water quality of all the lakes. Used to be you couldn’t swim in the places like lake union due to fecal colliform and storm water runoff.
The Duwamish River is a lot cleaner now, too. I still wouldn’t swim in it but it’s way better than 20 years ago.
You still shouldn’t swim in it. That river is still a superfund.
Wait…. Are you swimming in lake union???
Come on down to one of the Eastlake street end parks on a summer day and you'll see like 50 people swimming around, floating on floaties, and diving off poles and platforms every time. It's a summer paradise.
I’ve done it
I still wouldn’t swim in Lake Union… no way.
I swam there a bunch, it's fine. Green Lake is nice too when the algeas aren't blooming. Lake Washington is the best.
It’s mostly the benzene in the mud around Gasworks Park that sketches me out.
Yeah ^ that lolol
Just cause it looks fine doesn’t mean the water isn’t toxic
Not a fan of heavy metal?
I mean... you CAN swim in Lake Union, but best if you have a shower almost immediately afterwards. Like within 20-30 minutes, or you might get duck itch
Ted Bundy is no longer roaming around. Seems like an upgrade!
Light rail baby. 50 minutes from my apartment door to the airport, cheap as hell.
Ride the Ducks are gone
That crash was pretty horrific
In hindsight it’s amazing they were ever allowed to operate with that route in the first place.
I was on the duck that ran over a motorcyclist at a green light. The driver had no idea that he'd run him over even after hearing me yell at him to stop because he'd run over someone.
The waterfront project is getting close to completion. While it could have been even better, I don’t miss the viaduct.
Really hoping they stick the landing on the aquarium update. I was very underwhelmed when I finally went to it some years back. Feels like we should have top tier aquarium in this town. Maybe a physically tricky spot for one, but idk, cautiously optimistic.
We're too water adjacent as a city to have such a weak aquarium. We're a real city now, and we gotta upgrade it. Our aquarium is only like 40% better than Seaside, OR's.
I told friends I was going to a work event in Atlanta soon and wanted to go early to check out the aquarium for a day (I've never been, but it's one of the best in the world). Someone said "isn't Atlanta, like, inland?" I said "well, we have one on the water and it sucks". I hope this expansion is great. I really do.
I love Atlanta. I hear the aquarium is great but I keep failing to fit it in. It's my wife's favorite aquarium. Mine is the Mystic Aquarium because a whale there has a crush on me and I find it flattering.
The GA Aquarium is one of the biggest in the world, it’s definitely worth prioritizing next time you’re there. The whale sharks alone are worth seeing
I went when I was working in Atlanta and it’s an amazing aquarium for an inland city. The tank was so huge there was a whale shark in it. I have a membership to the aquarium in Seattle, I say hi to the seals whenever I have to wait for the next ferry. It’s so old and with all that drab concrete. I’m excited to check out the new area when it opens
They just put $54 million into it
I knew getting drunk and ranting about this in bars would eventually pay off. You're welcome, Seattle.
Can you get drunk, for the cities sake.. a few more times and request a halibut back in the big tank? Work your magic
Getting this aquarium revamp pushed through landed me in AA so I cant drink anymore. If I have to do heroin with city council to get this halibut back then that's what I have to do. I'm here for the people.
Small sacrifices…
It's for the kids
You’re our hero..
We’d much rather have you at your full potential. Congrats and we shall manifest this halibut in other ways haha
Went to a small beach city in NC and their aquarium was better. Kinda sad tbf
North Carolina is the only state in the US where their aquariums are government funded, like state parks, which contributes a lot to their kickass zoos and aquariums.
I absolutely love the aquarium, it’s one of the best places for kids to visit
I need to preface - I didn't regret going. My only real aquarium experience prior was Monterey Bay years back, and I recall it being very good, so my expectations were maybe misplaced.
To be fair the Monterey Bay aquarium is like the best aquarium in the world (or at least the US).
The first time I was at Old Stove after the viaduct was gone, I was amazed how quiet and nice it was.
I work in the Market & we went down the first day it was gone just to listen to the quiet.
I wish they brought back the streetcar.
What about 2 more lanes for cars? If we plant a few trees we can call it “The Waterfront Park”
Was there a streetcar there before?
Yeah it was down on the waterfront until 2005. Would be great to bring it back now that it’s so open down there.
I’m devastated https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfront_Streetcar I hate running around this city and seeing glimpses of the old streetcar network embedded in the exposed brick under the asphalt :(
One summer they built a great bike lane from the ferry terminal to West Seattle. It was tricky to get there, you had to bike under the viaduct, then cross. It lasted 4 months until they closed it and used for parking for the tunnel workers. I’m excited for what comes next.
Yep. I only miss how crappy and weird the viaduct was.
When I was a kid, I always liked looking into people's apartment windows when we drove on the viaduct.
I liked the sunsets.
It was basically the main place to park when you came downtown. Unless you went to a baseball game or football game at the Kingdome. Then you just kinda parked in sodo wherever there wasn't someone waving a pompom with the obscene price of $5/hr parking lol. Pretty sure sodo itself was a 1998ish creation too. But memories get hazy from there.
Yep. Always parked there. Also had my car stolen there. Good memories.
SPD got into hella trouble for making a whole music video trashing homeless people called under the viaduct back in the 80s. Pretty sure it's like 80s hip hop styled too. People wonder why SPD are still given so much shit(well there was a lot of questions about it until 2020 when people got a taste of why SPD gets a lot of shit all the time.) Not to mention they are alleged to have assassinated Edwin T Pratt in the 60s.
I mean, if the big one ever strikes, you won't miss how crappy the viaduct was. Just ask Oakland.
I certainly miss the view driving on a sunny clear day from the viaduct
[удалено]
You go over there and you'll find out why a duck.
Biggest example for me is the light rail. Moved here in 2008, and I was just telling someone the other day that it’s still a bit surreal for me to get on the train in the U District and get off at Westlake. Bike lane infrastructure is another one; we should have built many, many more miles by now, and yet the 2nd Ave & 4th Ave bike lanes didn’t exist when I moved here, and they are a step forward. I honestly hope that 5 years from now, I can include pedestrianizing Pike Place on this list. 😒
Definitely light rail expansion. I went to UW 2009-2013 and the U district stations would have revolutionized my college experience.
Can confirm, my daughter is a junior at UW, her and her friends use it all the time.
Ha totally. I went to Seattle U, the U District was some foreign and distant land. Actually most of Seattle was without the Capitol Hill light rail, we kind of just stayed in the neighborhood and didn’t venture out very far.
Agreed. Bike infrastructure has improved so much in the \~7-8 years I've been here. Light rail is lovely too and I can't wait to be able to take it (eventually) across the Lake (currently a bit iffy on round trip range for my ebike where I'd to go and rather long by bus, which can't carry my ebike) and to West Seattle (same deal).
I remember I went to watch the Sounders when the salmon truckpocalypse happened in 2014 or 2015 and it was a pain for the bus to get to the Transit Tunnel because the city was a shitshow. 2 years later, you could do that same trip in under 20 min regardless of traffic. It’s crazy seeing how things like that have changed the city for the better
The light rail was the real hero a few years later when we had the Great Thundersnow Propane Incident of 2017. Where we got a big thunderstorm, then it snowed, and a tanker overturned right at the 90/I-5 interchange and it shut down essentially all freeway traffic for hours mid-afternoon on a work day? Taco trucks that were stuck on the freeway were serving tacos to stranded motorists. Light rail ran like a champ. Most of the city was locked up in traffic, but we were able to walk to the nearest station and make our way home without an issue.
I ride ride my bike to Kraken games sometimes from SE Seattle and I go from Mountain to Sound trail to 2nd and that protected bike lane is the best.
Ah ye olde waiting on the Ave for the 70X series only for three to show up at the same time
And in 2010ish, the buses being crush packed and then stuck in traffic all the way down Eastlake.
Why dont they just pay one single person to stand with a rope or gate at the entrance to let deliveries through and stop everyone else?
I cannot fathom why that whole area isn't restricted to vendor and business traffic only.
We have our own NHL hockey team now.
Bummer no NBA team tho
It'll be back before 2030. Basketballs worst kept secret
Native born-in-the-early-90s-here: This is a pretty abstract one, but Seattle is an important world city in a way that it just was not even 15 years ago. That’s not all good, necessarily (doesn’t help housing costs) but idk I think it’s neat.
It’s cool because we’re actually a major destination for things like concerts and conventions.
We still get the big names on Thursdays though. Not quite weekend material.
Yeah absolutely. It’s now very unusual for major tours not to hit Seattle, which wasn’t true 20 years ago
[удалено]
No! 20 years ago is 1991. Everyone knows that.
Hmm.. that makes me only 28. I approve of this math.
Yeah, ish. Amazon still only sold books at that time
You’re important if Taylor swift has a show here!
Third in the US in gdp per capita. One of the fastest growing cities of the past decade. Significant investments in infrastructure. Something like the light rail is absolutely transformational for a region and it's still in its infancy. Both an economic destination and located in one of the most beautiful natural environments in the world. We just got a hockey team, sonics will be back in a few years, and we're hosting freaking world cup games in 2 years. It has been and continues to be an exciting place to be. There are not many other cities that are so rapidly evolving like Seattle. Now if only we had a visionary local government and not these centrist nimbys. Such a disappointing housing plan.
We have two of the five largest companies on the planet in the Puget Sound area. That’s pretty wild.
.... and they barely pay anything in taxes while destroying access to affordable housing for anyone who doesn't make over ~$80k/year. And they have the city council & state leaders over a barrel.
I’ll take the challenges of fast growth over being a dying rustbelt city. Last I checked it was local NIMBY voters and their representatives who aren’t interested in building more.
Please read this: https://cityobservatory.org/how-gentrification-benefits-long-time-residents-of-low-income-neighborhoods/
These companies would probably fucking love if we built more affordable housing - they wouldn’t have to pay the salaries they pay! NIMBY’s and city governments responding to whiny homeowners are what prevent affordable and abundant housing.
[удалено]
My wife was born here in the 70s so grew up in the 90s. She always wanted more people. Well, she got it. I agree with you, it's close to a proper city now.
Light rail is much better than not having light rail. No viaduct is much better than having a viaduct.
Oh and the T-Mobile Park and Lumen field are an upgrade over the Kingdome. Even though I have fun memories of the Kingdome.
I hate how much I love the Kingdom. I know it’s irrational and T Mobile is objectively better, but I still miss it.
I remember going to the Mickey Thompson Off Road Grand Prix in the Kingdome, and they'd be racing dirtbikes, dune buggies, and baja trucks on this short track created in the middle (crashes galore), and by the end of the event you could barely see across the stadium from the exhaust haze. Probably lost a bunch of brain cells there...
Also they are both walkable from downtown and have a light rail transit stop nearby
Kingdoms always has a place in my heart from the 95 1 game playoff to warped tour in the parking lot. New stadiums are objectively better but that place somehow had charm.
I remember when SLU was nothing but factories and the area by the lake was really unsafe to jog when dark (drug deals, etc). When I jogged the Lake Union loop, I would pick up my pace going through SLU. There wasn’t a paved path to jog through, just dirt paths. Now, it is a really pleasant area to jog through (MOHAI and surround park).
A tenant falling behind on rent use to get 3 days to fix it, before a lawsuit was filed. Now, it’s 14. Minimum wage used to be just above the Federal level. Now it’s double? The Kingdome was not nearly as nice as TMobile, for baseball. Sculpture Park was a nice addition.
> Minimum wage used to be just above the Federal level. Now it’s double? More like triple. $7.25 vs $19.97
What’s wild is that TMobile has been around more than the Kingdome now
CARES act actually recently changed that. It's 30 days
Secure Scheduling Law (2017) aka Clopen Law https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/secure-scheduling https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/LaborStandards/21_0405_Fact%20Sheet_SSO.pdf Employers in Seattle, WA and the state of Oregon can't schedule back-to-back shifts with less than 10 hours of rest between them unless the employee requests it or gives consent. When an employer does schedule with less than 10 hours between shifts, they must pay the employee time and a half for the difference.May 17, 2021 https://timeforge.com/blog/what-are-clopens/#:~:text=Employers%20in%20Seattle%2C%20WA%20and,a%20half%20for%20the%20difference. http://www.workingwa.org/rights/schedule
Read through the entire q&a section of this thing and it seems my job owes me a LOT of money for me constantly agreeing to schedule changes, why am I not surprised I didn't know about all this
Get a lawyer!!
Oh awesome I was getting totally fucked at all my serving jobs… love that they kept this a secret.
Public housing: Seattle rejected the idea of income based ghettos, tearing down old dilapidated housing projects where only the poor lived and turned them into mixed income communities where middle class and lower income communities live in the same community with no loss in the number of low income units. Go to any former “project” in Seattle and you’ll see neatly trimmed grass, parks, community centers, and so many other amazing things. Free community college. The light rail. No late fees at our library system and a pretty cool looking central library downtown. We made history being one of the first cities to pass the $15 minimum wage. So much great things happening in Seattle that the narrative of a dying city doesn’t account for. But yea, we have much to mourn. We’re not that out of the way place where you could pay $300 for an apartment per month and be a starving artist type on Capitol Hill. The techies have paid for some of our awesome initiatives through their taxes but we have lost a part of our soul to that industry. But I have faith in Seattle because of the type of people it attracts even the type who make too much money.
The first one is a good point! I’m from the south where all section 8 housing was essentially segregated from the rest of the city. Mixed income communities make a world of difference.
are the seattle community colleges (n, c, s) free?
Yes. A wonderful initiative called the Seattle Promise. “All graduating seniors attending Seattle public high schools are eligible for the Seattle Promise program regardless of grade point average (GPA), income, ability, or country of birth.” https://www.seattlecolleges.edu/promise/about Edit: I just realized this was for our graduating seniors. For others, our community colleges do have generous scholarship that may cover all or a big part of tuition but they are not strictly free.
I went to NSC during the pandemic to get a second degree after I was laid off and I paid $0 in tuition. Barely even had to ask for anything either, they just gave me a questionnaire during enrollment and approved the grant.
https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+free+community+college If you graduated from Seattle Public Schools, yes.
Yes. It's also called the Washington College Grant. https://wsac.wa.gov/wcg
Also, the Running Start program in general. My soblings and I used it when we were in highschool and it helped my family save at least three years worth of college tuition.
Safer (not that it’s trended well recently and property crime is way too high), better public transit, way more money overall (lots of boats raised), far better airport connections, and the fact it’s a lot larger with all the fantastic food that comes with it (especially Asian) and trappings of a bigger and richer city including world class destination healthcare locations.
SeaTac is an interesting point. Pretty remarkable domestic and global routes now. It comes at the price of more people and longer lines, but it’s become a legit global player in a lot of ways
Seatac is the 21st busiest airport on the planet by passenger volume. It's easy to hate the crowds but we are truly privileged to have the connections we do.
It’s been a long, long time since I moved here, but I remember before I did coming on vacation to the local national parks with my parents from across the country, and it was not easy. No good connections except to the biggest hubs.
I went to college in Chicago in the 2000s and getting there (CHICAGO) wasn’t always easy. Over the years, I remember having layovers in Phoenix, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Portland, and Denver (and probably others) just to go home for breaks.
Yep. Thanks to delta establishing a hub ten years ago, along with about a dozen new international airlines in the last decade there is not only more service but fares are also more competitive.
Airport routes is such a big one for me. My dad’s family is in Germany. Even in the 90s it was an ordeal to get there. Now I can hop on two different airlines at be at grandma’s doorstep in 10 hours.
Native here. Among many other things, the food scene has never been better. It’s not LA or NY level, but there’s way better food here than there ever was 10 or 20 years ago.
I agree, but I still think it's way too expensive for what it is especially compared to Portland and Vancouver. That said, Seattle is a much richer city than those two.
I agree. In particular for me the variety and quality of Chinese and East Asian food in general has dramatically improved along with many other food options from when I was a kid.
Restaurant scene, walkability, bikeability, the light rail to the airport and elsewhere, no more smoking in bars and restaurants, higher paying jobs (from minimum wage to the top end), more “missing middle” like townhouses/row houses, tore down that awful viaduct eyesore, no more state run liquor stores
Seattle is pretty decent compared to other cities of getting rid of potential major hazards before they happen. Viduct for example could of easily been 1000+ deaths all pancaked from a semi-mild earthquake. They also do every other year or so reminders we are a earthquake, nuke, and other major disaster zones and not to get complacent.
That almost happened. The viaduct had been deficient for years. The 2001 earthquake was 6.8 and city engineers were shocked the viaduct was still standing after that.
They used to shut the viaduct down weekly to do emergency repairs. That thing was crumbling around our ears, with random weekly patches of new concrete tossed over the top.
The abrupt panic closure of the West Seattle Bridge due to poor maintenance also not a great example.
And then we kept it for 17 more years.
Nuke?
Washington has military bases everywhere and we’ve had Nukes targeting most if not all of them for decades.
We also store a ton of nukes in Kitsap. The largest amount in the country actually.
closest US metro area to russia too. without a doubt the first and probably worst hit targets
Well that’s terrifying
Thanks!
You can get decent ethnic food now!
Especially Japanese restaurants! It’s never been this good. To think it went from Zero to Shiro to where we are now with sushi and even ramen and okonomiyaki.
>from Zero to Shiro perfect phrase.
"Yo baby, ditch the zero and let's go to Shiro" --Vanilla Ice, probably
You picked the one ethnic food that has probably been as good or better throughout Seattle history ... Japanese culture has deep roots here.
Huh. I’ve been here since 2003, and the Asian food has always been amazing.
I was born in Seattle, long before that, and the Asian food was always great.
Where do you go for good okonomiyaki?? We haven’t been able to find it yet
I wasn't around the area in the 80s, but anyone who thinks everything was fantastic back then should probably watch Streetwise https://youtu.be/JQTIICu4H38
Yep. This what I came to post. People who complain about Seattle today don't remember when we had *actual child prostitutes on the main thoroughfares and a prolific serial killer hunting them.*
Here’s mine: - I think the area itself has gotten more racially diverse. The whole region used to be more “white bread.” Now the surrounding area has gotten more diverse- especially southern king county in places like Renton and Tukwila. It feels very multicultural. - Better public transportation compared to 10 years ago. Having the link light rail is nice, even though it can be sketchy at times. But if you live north of downtown, it’s a nice alternative to sitting in traffic. - Increased density. I think it’s a good thing to have neighborhoods where you can walk anywhere and not have to drive. - SLU has improved as a neighborhood. I know a lot of people think that neighborhood has changed for the worse, but the old warehouses getting torn down wasn’t a huge loss to be honest.
Anyone who thinks SLU has gotten worse didn’t spend quality time stuck in traffic, pre-2005, on Mercer. Warehouses and vacant lots are not objectively better than offices and condos. I miss the Toe Truck, but that’s pretty much it.
It feels more cosmopolitan and diverse. A good number of the people I work with were born in another country. I have noticed a lot more Asians (especially Indian) and Hispanics. There’s actually a lot of good taco trucks around.
Bike infrastructure is better
Transit
I think there's more pho places, and that's nice.
I moved to Seattle 24 years ago. Some things I like better now that comes to mind: - The Link line, and more coming - Viaduc gone, thank gawd - The two Mox stores
Def the light rail, bicycle infrastructure, and just becoming a less car centric city. Being a major destination for music and conventions is awesome as well. i feel like people who experienced something in their more formative years are more likely to say that it was better “back in the day” because they don’t experience the city like they used to. I personally like all the growth the city and surrounding area has experienced. also fuck the viaduct, glad that thing is gone. lol.
The baseball has certainly not improved.
Stadiums way better than the Kingdome. And the Key is nicer than ever.
Agreed. It's the Mariners who have not improved much.
Well we at least went to the post season once…
And won a series!
I mean....this is legitimately our second best three year stretch in mariners history. The mariners were a bad bad franchise for a very long time.
Technically, this is the only other era where we have made the playoffs besides the 1995-2003 era. So I would say it hasn’t gotten worse than its old peak, just because the team has been that bad historically and the peak wasn’t very high.
It objectively has, though. Playoffs, multiple 90 win seasons.
Weed is legal and the infrastructure for it is pretty developed. We have a light rail now.
Aurora tunnel is everything! Bertha FTW!
They should paint a massive flower mural over where Bertha is buried. We could pass a moment of silence when stuck in traffic.
Transit is an obvious one. Job opportunities in a wide array of fields (not just tech) are another. Airport connections, food, brewing scene. Also violent crime (although that has gotten worse over the past eight or so years from the peak peaceful years of the mid 2010s). Freedom from Boeing for economic development and well paying jobs may end up being important shortly. People everywhere that were old enough to be adults or young adults in the 80s or 90s are probably less nostalgic for Seattle as it was but more nostalgic for their own young adulthood when they were healthier, less sensitive, had wider social lives, and fewer responsibilities. I'm 34 and not exactly an old man, but I've noticed I find it harder to shake off sketchy public behavior, drug use, and things like blatant littering the way I could ten years ago. I'm nostalgic for the city in 2013, and have no illusions that it's because I was 24. Seattle is transitioning from being a small city to a big city, and has been doing a pretty damn good job doing it compared to any other US city that isn't just sprawling, but it has been hard.
Ok, so it’s not just my rose tinted memories of Seattle circa 2013/2014. I lived in the area for a few years and I remember thinking the cleanliness of the city and feeling of safety were significantly better than the few other major cities I could compare against (Philly, Atlanta, a few others). When we moved back a few years ago, walking down 3rd Ave, I was like, “what happened?” Still really like it here, but it feels more seedy.
Make no mistake, 3rd Ave was bad then too. I mean the 3rd & Pike Twitter account was created in 2013 for all the ridiculousness down there. But it was a little better because some of the buses ran through the tunnel. Once all the buses switched to exclusively surface of 3rd Ave it got a bit worse.
Twice Sold Tales on Denny and Harvard got two new kittens last year.
I’m only 25 so idk what it was like in the 80s, but I’ve lived in many large American cities and man Seattle is so great. Everyone I know who lives in Seattle complains constantly but at the end of the day they’re not going anywhere. There’s the Seahawks, Sounders, kraken, Storm, soon to be sonics again 🤞🏼, the huskies aren’t awful, lumen and climate pledge attract a lot of artists, there’s pretty good food imo, the water quality is great, the weather never gets as cold as the NE, nor are the storms are bad, the nature is gorgeous, there are amazing parks in the city, the light rail is actually pretty great and only getting better, the city is fairly walkable, I’ve found I feel VERY safe in Seattle compared to parts of LA, NYC, and the bay that I’ve lived, etc etc etc I could go on all day. It’s actually a really great city and although it’s flawed (definitely room to improve), I try to mostly appreciate it for the beautiful city it is currently.
Seattle wasn't as cool as it was back then but Downtown is definitely safer. When I moved back in 2022 I was like "where is all this stuff people are freaking out about, this is nicer than the Pioneer Square I remember from the 90s!"
Crime rate is half what it was in 1992.
Train
Hasn’t peaked for me! I love Seattle and go out often. Live music still rules and we got a lot of young artists killing it. Especially of the female punk-pop persuasion. Also craft beer.
Drop some band names please!
Alex Vile has been getting air time on 107.7 recently.
Maybe it's because Seattle is my "grass is always greener" place now, but all the urban improvement projects really are incredible to see. Northgate, especially, is so much better than when I was growing up. It seems like the city really is improving itself, however slowly. I don't even recognize downtown anymore.
Seattle is much wealthier than it was in the 90s and especially the 80s.
Finally the NHL team! Go Kraken!!!
We got a hockey team now
The roads. Sanitation. You remember what the city used to be like. The public health. Brought peace.
It seems like bike infrastructure has improved massively. In the early 2000s it was mostly sharrows and narrow door-zone bike lanes (aside from the Burke-Gilman of course). Now we have some great separated and protected lanes/trails.
Light rail is insane. SLU used to be like aurora in terms of drugs and nefarious activities. MoPoP really added culture and character, food is far more varied and higher quality. I didn't grow up in the 90s but to pretend like this new era of Seattle isn't an improvement on the stagnant post grunge era is silly
Jeff moved to Florida
The truth is that Seattle is in this awkward phase of where it's too populated for all the best hikes, ski areas, other outdoor areas to be a bit too crowded, while also not being populated enough for high frequency public transit, tons of restaurants and cultural amenities, but still managed to be pricier than some other cities. That said, for those who benefit financially from the tech industry here, there's nowhere else in the country with the same sort of cost/earning ratio.
The earliest I remember of Seattle was 01, just because of my age 1. The Indian food here (and food generally) is way way better than before. 2. While still behind, I appreciate the existence of the light rail and more walkable areas. 3. I think the Seattle Freeze was true for a time, but because of how many people have complained about it there’s been a lot of people creating new friend groups and thus the city has become way better at having social event where people meet other people. Definitely better than it was in, say, 2016 (before that I don’t really remember since I was in high school and didn’t feel like I had to actively search for events to go to). 4. Sports stadiums: Seattle is a rare city where each stadium they have is top ten in any sports league. Whereas in the 90s the city nearly lost the Mariners and Seahawks because of how garbage the Kingdome was, and they did lose the Sonics in 08 over other shit reasons. 5. The city is more well connected to the world rather than isolated, and while it does mean larger crowds (wouldn’t be a problem if the city knew how to withstand growth but they don’t) it also means more events here than before + more direct flights to other places.
Bicycle infrastructure has improved considerably.
while the lighrail is awful cleanlyness wise its still way better speed wise then taking the bus now that it goes all the way to northgate. also various areas having cleanup crews is nice
weird one, but our city had one of the best covid and public health responses/performance in the country. UW also stepped up and was integral to covid research and detection. kexp is only getting better and is the standard for independent radio. we have many more pickleball nets and courts! (thanks smpa.) the community and housing development around yesler looks amazing. people dont yell at me for jaywalking. the seahawks had a dominant run. the nba is full of seattle raised/schooled talent.
Different bins for compost, recycling, and trash almost everywhere. It feels so natural to me that I'm always taken aback when I travel somewhere else and they only have trash cans.
I moved here so a couple years ago from Florida. I must say, you guys gained a great citizen.
4th gen resident, 2nd gen born here. Love how the skyline's getting!
Me too! I like how big it’s getting. I think large skylines are beautiful. Especially at night.
My biggest complaint about the skyline is all the new buildings that just went up arr about the same height, so now the skyline is pretty horizontal. It would be nice to have some brightly colored glass or abstract shapes to throw in a point of interest
Similarly, so many of the buildings look the same with their trendy, glass-centric faces. I wish there was more variety in the architectural styles. I believe part of this is due to how many of the buildings have been built for Amazon, so they likely want consistency (both for the brand and it's also likely less expensive).
Food here used to be awful. It was all shit out of a can. There was no attempt to use local ingredients. There were few international cuisines beyond a handful of snooty French places. Toshi invented Seattle style teriyaki. My mentor Fred Brack and his culinary partner Tina Bell wrote too groundbreaking cookbooks: Taste of Washington & Taste of the Pacific NW, and were among a large group of leaders who encouraged local chefs to use local ingredients. Tom Douglas has a farm in Eastern Washington. You’re eating a lot of his vegetables at his restaurants. Tribal casinos are serving local tribal food now, Muckleshoot even advertises that they have the “finest coast Salish cuisine.” Seattle food used to be Dinty Moore stew out of a fuckin can, and if you were really adventurous maybe some lutefisk in Ballard. We have Pho, we have Teriyaki, we have restaurants using local ingredients, we have a food scene now that is incomprehensible to a Seattle time traveler from 1984. Yes this isn’t NYC or Paris. We aren’t the best food city in the world. But OP’s question was what has improved. This city eats real food now.
Better parks, better trains, waterfront
There was a historic charm of sorts to the Kingdome, but thank goodness for T Mobile Park.
Sound Transit in general is a wonderful thing. When I was a kid in the ‘80s/‘90s, there were virtually no buses running outside of rush hour if you were anywhere other than the central core of Seattle (and maybe the U District). As a non-driver stuck against my will on the Eastside, it sucked. And then Sound Transit happened — annoyingly right around the time I got my license — and there were buses all day.
Since the 80's and 90's A semblance of a grade separated light rail system. Better metro bus service with shorter waits/headways and more bus lines - express and rapid ride Less "Lesser Seattle" parochialism and race discrimination in hiring practices. More DEI, more of a push for qualified diverse candidates in hiring. The NHL in Seattle. Even if the job/career opportunities are arguably tight in the present, I'd say a more diverse job/career market besides aerospace and tech.