From a small northwestern observatory…

It’s been a busy April, and sadly, this blog gets shoved to the back burner w-a-a-a-ay too easily.  But, two very sad issues from Seattle have attracted my attention of late, and I wanted to comment on them.

First, we are all saddened by the loss of life from a high-rise crane that collapsed on Saturday.  The crane was working on the new Google campus, located in the hot South Lake Union area, just about a mile north of downtown.  Our hearts go out to the four people killed and the others injured in this terrific incident.  Given the proliferation of cranes in Seattle, we hope the authorities immediately get to the bottom of the cause of this tragedy and learn from it.

That leads, inexorably, to the second sad thing.  A TV station in Seattle, owned by a an out-of-town consortium with no ties to Seattle, produced an editorial (labeled as a documentary) titled “Seattle is Dying”.  This editorial has garnered some attention among the chattering class who believe Seattle is badly governed.  Now, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I am a firm supporter of the First Amendment.  That said, labeling an “opinion” as a “documentary” is a bit disingenuous, but that’s what the fringe media does now-a-days.  I am also not really the biggest supporter of Seattle’s governance, but that’s another story entirely.

What I really wanted to point out is that Seattle has the highest number of these high-rise cranes of any city in the United States.  Read that sentence again, folks.  We’re the 20th largest city, but #1 in high-rise cranes supporting our exploding skyline. From a real estate development perspective, Seattle is the hottest market in the country right now, if not the world.  If you believe in Richard Florida’s concept of the “creative class” (and I certainly ascribe to that), then Seattle is the center of the universe.   The arts, sciences, education, economy, and business opportunities in Seattle are all world-class.

Now, admittedly Seattle has it’s problems, as does every city on the globe.  We have a really serious homeless problem, our transportation infrastructure needs attention, and to quote one famous NYC politico, “The rent’s too d*&^ high!”  But dying?  Me thinks the TV folks protest too much…