Don’t emulate Seattle

I moved to Seattle in 1979, after accepting a position with General Telephone. I worked 31 years for them. We raised a daughter and observed the city as it turned from a semi- isolated, medium populated, family friendly city, into the nightmare it has become.

Living in Seattle during the birth of Microsoft, watching it grow into a massive business, and seeing the changes that took place. I followed the ruination of the old, warm, personality of the area. When Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed Microsoft, they recruited talented professionals of the electronic and computer ilk.

With this rapid influx of people, Seattle’s small town values changed. These new people needed housing, transportation, and other life amenities. Housing prices started climbing to ridiculous heights, freeways became slowly moving traffic jams, gangs from the Los Angeles area started to become established and life got very hectic. When we left Seattle in 2005, you could be shot if you were not careful.

The same negative energy will undoubtedly change Spokane. With large growth, problems will come in vast quantities, and you can take that to the bank, unless you get caught in a traffic jam.

Jim Corcoran

Sagle