Seattle: City of the Year

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Photograph by Alessandra Petlin

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Photograph by Alessandra Petlin

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Fast Cities 2009

Like the canny passion of Paul Allen, who has spearheaded more than one city-changing, tax-revenue-generating project despite initial public opposition -- the latest being the South Lake Union redevelopment. The idea of transforming South Lake Union (called SLU -- pronounced slew) began in 1991, when city leaders made plans for a park intended to help revitalize this dilapidated part of the city. Allen, who had even grander designs on the neighborhood, loaned the city money to acquire some land, with the agreement that when voters approved the plan, he'd forgive the loans. Well, if we learned anything from Bill Boeing or, yes, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, it's that it can take a little while for the world to get your genius. Here's the optimist's way of looking at that: Seattle is a can-do place -- but you have to really want to do it. So when voters said no to the SLU plan, the land was deeded to Allen to repay his loan. Then he bought more. In the past decade, he has privately turned South Lake Union into a buzzing neighborhood and a center of the biotech industry. It's home to dozens of other businesses too, including Jones Soda and REI, and Amazon is building a huge new headquarters there.

Once SLU had proved its worth and everyone had fallen in love with it, the City of Seattle added a 2.6-mile trolley line linking the neighborhood with downtown. Michael Mann, a top aide to the mayor, tells me about the importance of the SLU trolley (which locals lovingly call SLUT). While I might have expected something about, say, congestion (in L.A.) or environmental consciousness (in our rival to the south, Portland), Mann instead relates a conversation he had with a SLU-based scientist: "He said to me, 'The reason we need the streetcar in South Lake Union is that we need a place for all the scientists to get together. During lunches, we visit each other and have lectures and roundtable discussions, and we can use the streetcar to get back and forth, and we can continue the conversation on the streetcar. We can interact and exchange ideas. That's why we need the streetcar!' "

"Sort of a moving café or bar?" I ask.

"A place to exchange ideas," Mann agrees. "I mean, the streetcar came about for other reasons, but -- "

"But that's the best reason," I concur.

And then this occurs to me: Thousands of years ago, when the area that we now call Seattle was first settled, the First Nations -- Duwamish, Suquamish, Nisqually, Snoqualmie, Muckleshoot -- were peaceable. There was no need to fight, because they had plenty of resources to share: fish and game, water and land, beauty. They built their families and their communities, and that's when creativity first got into Seattle's bloodline. The early Native Americans introduced the longhouse, a central meeting place in their communities. In those long, dark, damp winters, they would get together and talk. Exchange ideas. Sing. Dance. Carve. Devise fishing and hunting strategies. Tell jokes.

Michael Mann's anecdote about the streetcar fits into that tradition -- in Seattle's distinct, nontraditional way. This is a destination, a meeting place, for creative people. There's something about this area. The weather. The winters. The Mountain. The sense of purpose of those who have settled here. Perhaps all of us who have found this city have, to some degree, aligned our priorities: Innovation is imperative; quality of life is crucial. In Seattle, we have a cornucopia overflowing with both.

Novelist Garth Stein is the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain.

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