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Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

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Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#91

Post by Symbiote »

djsumdog wrote: post #37
nbclark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

29°C is not a record heatwave for London, that's only 5°C higher than the average high for July.

"On average London will see 31 days above 25 °C each year, and 4.2 days above 30.0 °C every year."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London#Climate

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#92

Post by troydavis »

dluan wrote: post #77
troydavis wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, many times over. Yes, Seattle's South Lake Union now looks a lot like downtown San Jose. It's a completely different world from 10 years ago, though, and so much better. We missed out on a chance to have a giant urban park ("Seattle Commons": http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&... ), but credit to Paul Allen for executing an unbelievable plan B. [Bloomberg's article focuses more on Amaz…

I dunno, a giant green park within the city like SF's golden gate park or NYC's central park sounds really incredible.

It would have been, but voters rejected that idea. As my comment noted, by the time Amazon came along, a park wasn't one of the options.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#93

Post by bbgm »

troydavis wrote: post #53
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…

This, many times over. Yes, Seattle's South Lake Union now looks a lot like downtown San Jose. It's a completely different world from 10 years ago, though, and so much better. We missed out on a chance to have a giant urban park ("Seattle Commons": http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&... ), but credit to Paul Allen for executing an unbelievable plan B. [Bloomberg's article focuses more on Amaz…

Wasn't a biotech hub plan B originally? That never panned out.

For reference I've worked in SLU for the better part of a decade, first at Rosetta Biosoftware (ISB is in that building now) and at AWS for the last 8 years.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#94

Post by mikestew »

davidw wrote: post #69
mikestew wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :-)

Maybe they're thinking of Denver? Doesn't sound like the PNW I know. Although occasionally you do get some nice days in February. Not 70F nice, though.

I hesitate to pick on a post that was probably just a typo or remembering slightly wrong, but I was wondering so I looked it up: the record high for Seattle in January is 67F recorded in 1931. And the record low is zero...Fahrenheit. Yoiks, I'd have to consider moving again if it hit zero. :-)

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#95

Post by enraged_camel »

Grishnakh wrote: post #68
djsumdog wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually stopped shopping at Amazon. I'll pay and extra $10 for high ticket items to avoid that retailer. I'm sure many of the higher ups there don't have any ill-will, but they have unintentionally (or maybe intentionally; I dunno) become America's new Wal-Mart. That's a bad thing. Consumerist culture erodes long term sustainability. Laptop/cellphone replacement cycles need to be 10 years, not 2. Old electronic…

There are plenty of valid concerns and complaints about Amazon (I'll list some of mine below), but I don't see why you're blaming them for electronics recycling and lifetimes, or "Walmartification". Amazon has done a pretty good job of being an all-in-one place to shop online and having very low prices overall. For cellphone replacement cycles, I have absolutely no idea where you get the idea that Amazon has anything…

>>"Walmartification"

Amazon is inarguably the new Wal-Mart.

1) Putting local stores and shops out of business

2) Abusing their power as a distributor and treating their suppliers/partners like crap

3) Lower than average salaries for most employees

4) Treating employees terribly

Seriously, there are more similarities than differences.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#96

Post by sedachv »

SaberTail wrote: post #43
johan_larson wrote: post #27

Do you need specially-designed places to be creative? Off-hand, the places that were really wildly creative during the 20th century were pretty standard offices and workshops, weren't they? Think of Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, and Bletchley Park. They all accomplished wild things. But the buildings were unremarkable.

I've read that the Bell Labs offices were designed in order to promote collaboration. It was laid out such that there'd be long hallways between the offices and things like restrooms and stairs, so that there'd be greater chances of colleagues bumping into each other and talking about work. I don't have a copy of The Idea Factory[1], where I recall reading this handy, but that's my best recollection. [1] https://www.…

It was the old RAND Santa Monica headquarters, designed by John Williams: http://www.rand.org/pubs/classics/building.html

That particular building was demolished in 2005.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#97

Post by cwe »

bbgm wrote: post #93
troydavis wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, many times over. Yes, Seattle's South Lake Union now looks a lot like downtown San Jose. It's a completely different world from 10 years ago, though, and so much better. We missed out on a chance to have a giant urban park ("Seattle Commons": http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&... ), but credit to Paul Allen for executing an unbelievable plan B. [Bloomberg's article focuses more on Amaz…

Wasn't a biotech hub plan B originally? That never panned out. For reference I've worked in SLU for the better part of a decade, first at Rosetta Biosoftware (ISB is in that building now) and at AWS for the last 8 years.

There is quite a bit of biotech in the area, isn't there? UW Medicine and Novonordisk, as well as Fred Hutch etc.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#98

Post by __derek__ »

dluan wrote: post #77
troydavis wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, many times over. Yes, Seattle's South Lake Union now looks a lot like downtown San Jose. It's a completely different world from 10 years ago, though, and so much better. We missed out on a chance to have a giant urban park ("Seattle Commons": http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&... ), but credit to Paul Allen for executing an unbelievable plan B. [Bloomberg's article focuses more on Amaz…

I dunno, a giant green park within the city like SF's golden gate park or NYC's central park sounds really incredible.

You don't like Discovery Park, Washington Park, Volunteer Park, Golden Gardens, Carkeek Park, or Lincoln Park?

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#99

Post by csydas »

jandrese wrote: post #62
techsupporter wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's the dreaded gentrification. If your neighborhood isn't kept in its run down and decrepit state the land values might go up and push out people who can no longer afford to pay rent.

I don't think there's a need to be sardonic; the full paragraph that I believe you're referencing goes on to talk about other common sights and elements of various Seattle districts; the complaint that some Seattlelites are putting forward isn't "we want a decrepit city" it's they want their decrepit city.

The complaint about the changes Amazon and other companies are making is not about keeping the city in a state of disarray and filthiness, it's about control over the tone and feel of the city, preferring that a single corporate entity not be able to set or dictate the tone/feel to accommodate their interests. Even if there is a net positive as a result, the local residents have no choice in the matter - as was written in the article, those parts of the city are no longer Seattle in some people's minds, it's Amazon's territory.

I'm not condemning or condoning this position - I did live in the Seattle area for about 5 years, and while I loved it, didn't really have the same historical attachment most Seattle folk have, and they love their city, what it was, is, and what it can be.

It's not too difficult to empathize with the position either; suppose, in a rather silly example, that a wealthy business whose owners had a love for early 1900's german expressionism moved to your city (which you feel a connection to); over the course of a few years, a large part of your city begins to take the form of stills from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or from Metropolis. The owners clean up the area very well and bring in new trendy restaurants that meet their aesthetic vision. Even if you agree that the area has been changed for the better in terms of infrastructure and economics, are you really satisfied with having expressionism forced on you?

Again, this isn't to say that feelings should override progress with civil infrastructure improvement, but there's a bit more to the gentrification effect, specifically from the tech world, than just a bunch of grumpy people angry about losing their run down and decrepit land. People have seen what happened with San Francisco and they're scared, and rightfully so; while the standard of living in Seattle is decent, the average wages are no match for SV style tech money.

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#100

Post by rconti »

edwhitesell wrote: post #28
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.

We lived in Bellevue for about 18 months and the weather was beautiful. Almost everyone we met said the whole "it always rains" thing is just something they tell people so they'll stay away.

Was it 2014/2015? Those were particularly nice winters.

I lived in Bellevue for about 21 years, so I've got a bit more perspective.

It's not really that rainy, but it's grey 9 months out of the year for sure.

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