The rather perfect summer we are enjoying in Seattle feels like a needed respite from bad news.
The pages of this newspaper have been filled for many months with stories about the intractable homeless problem, overdose deaths from fentanyl, the slow recovery of downtown from the bleak days of the COVID-19 pandemic, random gun violence in several neighborhoods and the high cost of housing. It is enough to give people a sense that we are slipping too far from the most-livable city designation Seattle has long claimed.
There is another way to look at it, though. Some of those problems are the products of the city’s tremendous economic success. Seattle’s rise to be one of the nation’s richest cities may have exacerbated the homeless problem, but it also means a whole lot of people here are more prosperous than they were a few years ago. And those office buildings are not empty because jobs have disappeared, they are underutilized because well-paid tech workers got used to working from home during the pandemic and are resisting a return to the office.
Would we rather be living in a town in economic decline?
There is good news, too, and it is not hard to find. A recent Seattle Times story noted the ranking of Seattle’s park system as one of the best in the country. That is an amenity available to everyone, not just the affluent. Another story ranked the city’s most popular beaches, as rated by readers. How many cities not located in California, Hawaii or Florida even have beaches to rank? And, speaking of parks and water, after decades of debate over what to do about the Alaskan Way Viaduct, that old relic is gone and, in its place, a new waterfront park is well on its way to completion.
Is Seattle an awful place to live? Take a look at Lake Union on any sunny summer day and that idea will seem absurd. You will see a fleet of private boats cruising by, some of them trophy craft operated by people with money to burn, but also small boats with friends and family having a great day on the water. You will also see a heck of a lot of people paddling kayaks, rowing sculls, navigating on paddle boards and even a few piloting crazy-looking hot-tub boats. In parks at the north and south ends of the lake there will be big clusters of folks — all ages, all races, all economic groups — relaxing in the urban air.
Those are not unhappy people suffering in a desolate cityscape, they are citizens of one of the most beautifully situated cities on the planet.
And, this year, while much of the rest of the country is smothered by smoke from Canadian wildfires, our skies are blessedly blue. That can change quickly, but, for now, Seattle is enjoying a summer to remember.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
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