Seattle WA: Still Grateful for Bill G

Stopped in northeast Seattle’s non-descript Wedgwood neighborhood today to snap this 100% electric vehicle.

Mangy group standing on the side of the road had the look from a distance of people waiting for the Metro, including foreign-appearing people and a mid-30’s man with orange hair, but there were no women or fat people. Despite their manginess, this group looked potentially productive, like maybe they are all from the same work release or something. Right then the “Microsoft Connector” bus pulls up to collect this bunch. So, obviously, the e-vehicle parked there belongs to mr. orange hair or one of his causal associates.

Seattle is very fortunate for Bill G’s loyalty to the area. What would the city look like if MSFT had never happened? Would it be a 2-pro-sports town? The traffic would still be bad; but the ordinary Wedgwood houses like this one might not be $400,000:

How much would student housing cost?

And what about the nice houses like this one on north Capitol Hill?

Or the ones with the tricky passcodes like this one?

Even with the slightly-cooled housing market, is Seattle still un-available for its native sons who aren’t software-inclined?

And what about its relative hogging of communal resources? See these two floating bridges?

Both of them were conceived and built after the original plotting of the North Spokane Corridor, but that needed Spokane project is still a half-built lifetime joke. Not to mention that Mercer Island sunk its first floating bridge, but Haiti-aid-style, big government built them a new one. And now they want to replace this perfectly good one:

So we love this most beautiful northwestern city, but it does need reminding that it is not NYC and it is not SF and it is not VBC and it is not the Paris of the American West, and it should be grateful for its good fortune, with consideration for its Washingtonian neighbors.