Seattle has emerged as a global city, with unprecedented amounts of concentrated wealth among a small number of billionaires who settled in the city and its wealthy enclaves. The first wave of billionaires followed Microsoft’s rise, followed again by Amazon. This was not the community I knew when I first moved to Seattle in 1987, as a young man who fell hard for this beautiful city on the Puget Sound.
I lived here multiple times, in the late 1980s, in the 1990s and early 2000s, and once again from 2010 to 2014. I received my second master’s degree at the University of Washington, in Seattle. I love Seattle’s parks, its neighborhoods, its spectacular summer evenings, and its access to beautiful mountains. Now, however, I have now left for good. At the time I departed, speculators were paying $1 million and higher for homes that about five earlier ago sold for about $600,000.
Some of my fondest memories are those amazingly beautiful summer nights in Seattle. One of many spots to enjoy those nights is Kerry Park, on Queen Anne, snapping photos and gazing at Seattle, the Port of Seattle, and the Puget Sound. It’s an amazing spot. I cannot count how many nights I have watched a lovely evening in Seattle, frequently at Discovery Park on the Puget Sound.
Seattle is also a major gateway for the global economy. About 70 percent of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. This means that the port is filled with cargo container ships and goods manufactured in Asia for the North American and U.S. market. Seattle’s legacy also is tied to Boeing Corp., which moved its headquarters to Chicago in the late 1990s. Boeing shaped this city from World War II on, and Boeing assembly facilities are still located in neighboring Renton and Everett. Amazon is now the primary employer, having taken over the South Lake Union corridor of Seattle, but Seattle will forever be a Boeing town too.
Keywords: Seattle Photographs, Seattle Pictures, Space Needle, Elliott Bay, Lake Union, Duwamish River, Seattle Landmarks, Queen Anne, Gates Foundation, Experience Music Project, Seattle Skyline, Port of Seattle, Seattle Shipping, Salmon Bay, Fishermans Terminal, Kerry Park, Mt. Rainier