Preface to "Leaving Seattle"
Will the last person leaving Seattle - Turn out the lights. This famous phrase first made its appearance as big black letters on a billboard just past the Seatac International Airport in the spring of 1971. It was placed there by real estate agents Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren in response to the massive layoffs and recession brought on by the Boeing company, and the city's thirteen percent and rising unemployment rate.
And they weren’t far from the truth. In the surrounding county, more than eleven thousand people had left the area to start their futures elsewhere. Thousands more lost their jobs and it wouldn’t be long until their unemployment benefits would run out. Birth rates fell. Suicides rose dramatically. The costs of living increased. And just to add to the whole mess, the city and nearby towns were experiencing frequent brown-outs, brought about by a drought and its effects on the region’s hydroelectric dam’s power structure.
People were running for the hills.
Less than a decade before, the city made its debut at the 1962 world’s fair. A towering needle representing the age of space was erected. It was a milestone for Seattle and a golden era for innovation and the rapid growth of the surrounding area. Neighborhoods were defined, Bridges, and highways connected the city to its neighbors, and the population boomed by over twenty percent.
As much as McDonald and Youngren’s sign meant to persuade others of a slowly dying metropolitan, many of its inhabitants refused to accept it. As hope for the emerald city dwindled, along came two college dropouts, who decided to move their business from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Pacific Northwest. The eighties tech boom had finally arrived, and Seattle would again begin to change.
Yes, Microsoft became the new Boeing, and luckily for the local Seattleites, they kept their headquarters quietly tucked away on the eastside of the lake. This made more room for the artsies, hippies, punks, and counter-cultured, who were easily able to thrive off the cheap rent and affordable cost of living. As more time was allowed for the city’s people to freely express themselves in myriad fashions, the art and music scenes blossomed and gained unparalleled momentum.
A few years before ‘Almost Live!’ aired their sketch comedy of “The Grunge whole stole Christmas,” Kurt Cobain and the band Nirvana, emerged. Like Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, along came others, and the rain city quickly became a Mecca for flannel-wearing artists and musicians looking to redefine a generation. It was a chance for someone to be somebody, and everyone’s chance to maybe one day be the next big thing.
As the mid-nineties approached, the grunge explosion sadly came to a grinding halt. With declining record sales, and Cobain’s suicide, the dreams of the 90’s and making it huge slowly faded. In the shadows and on the streets, heroin abuse was becoming rampant, and the city’s people were beginning to show frustration towards how the city was being run. Many left, while others wallowed, slowly slipping away into their little corners of loserdom.
The people of Seattle have always needed to fight for something. Protests became common practice. And the people fought. They fought against wars, for human rights, and opposed rising prices. When the battle for Seattle broke out in 1999, trust in the police dwindled, and its population demanded change.
As the 2000’s and the turn of the millennium approached, the city ached for a long due transformation. People still continued to leave. And for those that came, they were a generation eager to reshape, remold, and redefine the city. Even though some of its people and relics continued to occupy Seattle’s past, it was now their time in the rain. It was their turn now to discover their own reasons for leaving.
And they weren’t far from the truth. In the surrounding county, more than eleven thousand people had left the area to start their futures elsewhere. Thousands more lost their jobs and it wouldn’t be long until their unemployment benefits would run out. Birth rates fell. Suicides rose dramatically. The costs of living increased. And just to add to the whole mess, the city and nearby towns were experiencing frequent brown-outs, brought about by a drought and its effects on the region’s hydroelectric dam’s power structure.
People were running for the hills.
Less than a decade before, the city made its debut at the 1962 world’s fair. A towering needle representing the age of space was erected. It was a milestone for Seattle and a golden era for innovation and the rapid growth of the surrounding area. Neighborhoods were defined, Bridges, and highways connected the city to its neighbors, and the population boomed by over twenty percent.
As much as McDonald and Youngren’s sign meant to persuade others of a slowly dying metropolitan, many of its inhabitants refused to accept it. As hope for the emerald city dwindled, along came two college dropouts, who decided to move their business from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Pacific Northwest. The eighties tech boom had finally arrived, and Seattle would again begin to change.
Yes, Microsoft became the new Boeing, and luckily for the local Seattleites, they kept their headquarters quietly tucked away on the eastside of the lake. This made more room for the artsies, hippies, punks, and counter-cultured, who were easily able to thrive off the cheap rent and affordable cost of living. As more time was allowed for the city’s people to freely express themselves in myriad fashions, the art and music scenes blossomed and gained unparalleled momentum.
A few years before ‘Almost Live!’ aired their sketch comedy of “The Grunge whole stole Christmas,” Kurt Cobain and the band Nirvana, emerged. Like Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, along came others, and the rain city quickly became a Mecca for flannel-wearing artists and musicians looking to redefine a generation. It was a chance for someone to be somebody, and everyone’s chance to maybe one day be the next big thing.
As the mid-nineties approached, the grunge explosion sadly came to a grinding halt. With declining record sales, and Cobain’s suicide, the dreams of the 90’s and making it huge slowly faded. In the shadows and on the streets, heroin abuse was becoming rampant, and the city’s people were beginning to show frustration towards how the city was being run. Many left, while others wallowed, slowly slipping away into their little corners of loserdom.
The people of Seattle have always needed to fight for something. Protests became common practice. And the people fought. They fought against wars, for human rights, and opposed rising prices. When the battle for Seattle broke out in 1999, trust in the police dwindled, and its population demanded change.
As the 2000’s and the turn of the millennium approached, the city ached for a long due transformation. People still continued to leave. And for those that came, they were a generation eager to reshape, remold, and redefine the city. Even though some of its people and relics continued to occupy Seattle’s past, it was now their time in the rain. It was their turn now to discover their own reasons for leaving.
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