I moved to Seattle at the start of the plague (perfect timing I know). I don’t have first hand experience from the before times but for sure the last couple of years the amount of homelessness has gone way up. Apartments here are raising rent like wild. They’re definitely testing the line for how many people they can lose to increased prices while still coming out ahead with the people who remain. Once the work from home or fired tech workers move out in full force it’s going to snowball I think. I wonder if Seattle is going to collapse similar to how Spokane did back in the day after manufacturers moved out…
lived in Seattle for close to 20 years now and I can confirm that the city (especially downtown) is a giant mess - pre 2020 it wasnt that bad - there were issues but not like now. hopefully it collapses like a burning building asap.
As much as I want things to collapse too I don’t think that’s a good thing. A lot of the people who built up Seattle and it’s culture got priced out, if things collapse the tech workers are all going to leave (more than they already are). Tons of desperate people will be left and the city will do an even worse job at maintaining the infrastructure.
Maybe it needs to burn down to get built back up better but I wouldn’t say I’m hopeful for it because that could mean decades of hardship for people who don’t deserve it. If this does all go sideways though and I haven’t left the country by then, Seattle is my ride or die in the US. I feel so at home here and I’ll be in the dirt trying to bring life back to the city.
Gee, it’s almost like corporatizing real estate rental property without proper oversight leads to robber barons trying to squeeze blood from a stone, inevitably resulting in a collapse of the entire system…
