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Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

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Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#31

Post by L_Rahman »

bko wrote: post #3

> Amazon's is the most ambitious gambit of them all. When its spheres and three surrounding towers are completed, the company will have 10 million square feet of office space in Seattle, more than 15 percent of the city's inventory, on a campus that occupies more than 10 square blocks. 15% of a city's commercial inventory seems like a lot. Any comparable levels to companies in other cities? Is this typical for one co…

The real information here is that 10 square blocks is enough to be 15 percent of the city's inventory.

Seattle is tiny. So is SF. I'm amused by how small the core of all of the West coast cities seem to be when people try to convince me that there's dense urban living to be found outside of the East Coast.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#32

Post by erickhill »

To be honest, the section of the city Amazon has "swallowed" was grass and weed filled parking lots 5 years ago as well as broken down buildings. While the construction has been a drag for drivers in that area, the city looks and feels so much better, IMO, due to their investments.

Now, has Amazon invested enough in infrastructure to help the swelling population they are partly to blame for increasing (not to mention lack of houses, housing prices, student class sizes, etc.)? No, not really - but that's the price of being one of the fastest growing cities with the lowest unemployment in the country. But in terms of the city buildings and neighborhood - so much better.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#33

Post by mikestew »

newobj wrote: post #25
derekp7 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in Seattle a number of years ago for a training session, in January. It rained off and on, but overall I thought the weather was beautiful. Except the one day that it snowed, but the rest of the week was in the 70's. Edit: to the response below, this was back in 98 or 99, something like that. I've looked up the historical weather, and it must have been that it felt like 70's to me, coming from Chicago (so it wa…

70's in Seattle in January is a lie, misremembering, or massive fluke. Not normal. January is high of 40's. Source: 20 year Seattle resident who loves it anyway.

16 year resident here, and I'm trying to think of a week where it snowed and hit 70 within a seven day period. I'm not saying GP is lying, not at all, but perhaps might have selectively remembered their time in Seattle in January. Perhaps the sun peeked out and it just seemed like it was 70 in contrast. :-)

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#34

Post by meddlepal »

yunong wrote: post #2

"one of the best recruiting tools Amazon has is if people come interview on a nice day, and people are sitting outside having lunch from a food truck." Have they been to Seattle during the months of November to June?

Yea I don't get it. We have Food Trucks in Boston too... And I'm sure SF, NYC, Chicago, Austin and every other major city do as well.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#35

Post by brightsize »

davidw wrote: post #15
InclinedPlane wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's closer to like November to March/April. It was in the 80s for a few days in April here this year. Also, the only places around the country where it isn't dreary, damp, and grey from late fall through spring is California or the South. Compared to the Northeast or the midwest, Seattle's winters are incredibly mild.

A lot of the "intermountain West" gets cold but sunny winters. It doesn't rain that much here in Bend - we get a lot of sun, actually. Cold and dry beats just above freezing and drizzly gray rain any day, in my book.

Totally agree. Here in Spokane we get four seasons including sunny, hot, dry summers and cold sun-on-snow winters. It's striking how much it's like my native New England, right down to the Maple trees, but minus the humidity and mosquitoes. I lived in Seattle for years and the winter temps in the 30s and 40sF combined with damp and gray just wore me down. In my opinion winter ran from October-June. One of the more comical things I discovered upon moving to Seattle was the concept of a "sun break" -- a usually brief interlude where the sun found a weak spot in the clouds, shined through, and everybody ran outside to see it.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#37

Post by djsumdog »

nbclark wrote: post #29
techsupporter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have (I live in Seattle, but don't work for Amazon) and the weather is pretty great roughly nine months out of the year. Late November to February are dreary but spring, summer, and most of fall make up for it. Sorry for leaking the secret, fellow Seattleites.

Depends on how you define great weather. It doesn't rain nearly as much as people assume (lived there 6 years), but most days have some light drizzle. For a tennis player, that is emotionally taxing (is it going to rain? should we make plans).

I moved to Seattle and it's not the rain that bothers me (it's really not as bad as people say, even during the winter months), it's the cold. .. or rather lack of hot.

It never gets above 26C here. There are plenty of other cities like this (London just had a record heatwave .. of 29C; seriously that's too hot for them. People were passing out in the toobs. Wellington, another coastal city, has people bitching when it gets up to 27C as too hot), but the difference is they do get warm .. for an extended period of time. From May through August (opposite in Wellington cause hemispheres), you know you can put your jacket away. You don't need it. At worst it's gonna be a little refrigerator like if you stay out too late.

In Seattle, it could be mid-June and you might need that jacket...at noon, and then the next day you'll be burning up.

I miss seasons.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#38

Post by flippyhead »

erickhill wrote: post #32

To be honest, the section of the city Amazon has "swallowed" was grass and weed filled parking lots 5 years ago as well as broken down buildings. While the construction has been a drag for drivers in that area, the city looks and feels so much better, IMO, due to their investments. Now, has Amazon invested enough in infrastructure to help the swelling population they are partly to blame for increasing (not to mention…

Yeah I don't get the complaints and honestly don't hear them much at least from my friends (I don't work for Amazon). I've lived here my whole life, seen the city change a lot. I used to think I'd probably move away some day. I've been to probably 40 countries now and the more I see of the world the more I see Seattle as ideal and heading (mostly) in the right direction.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#39

Post by techsupporter »

erickhill wrote: post #32

To be honest, the section of the city Amazon has "swallowed" was grass and weed filled parking lots 5 years ago as well as broken down buildings. While the construction has been a drag for drivers in that area, the city looks and feels so much better, IMO, due to their investments. Now, has Amazon invested enough in infrastructure to help the swelling population they are partly to blame for increasing (not to mention…

That's how I feel about Amazon, too. It cracks me up some of the things the author laments losing. No broken bottles? No cigarette trash? I like having at least one area of the city somewhat clean.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#40

Post by lukeschlather »

newobj wrote: post #25
derekp7 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in Seattle a number of years ago for a training session, in January. It rained off and on, but overall I thought the weather was beautiful. Except the one day that it snowed, but the rest of the week was in the 70's. Edit: to the response below, this was back in 98 or 99, something like that. I've looked up the historical weather, and it must have been that it felt like 70's to me, coming from Chicago (so it wa…

70's in Seattle in January is a lie, misremembering, or massive fluke. Not normal. January is high of 40's. Source: 20 year Seattle resident who loves it anyway.

70 is a bit of an exaggeration, but 60 is not unusual. And if you're coming from most other places in the Northern US, it feels like 70 since you're coming from snow and ice.

http://weather-warehouse.com/WeatherHistory/PastWeatherData_...

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