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Tech doesn't bring monoculture. Rather it brings a lot of people from other countries, primarily Asia, who bring their tastes with them.
Seattle is losing some wierdness because it's expensive. But it's getting more international at the same time. Corporations (tech mostly) are a big part of that.
It looks like another boost will be continued fast growth in international air travel, wihich already doubled in recent years (an advantage over Denver already) but will grow again with our new arrivals terminal eliminating a big bottleneck.
We have some pressure valves that will keep us from becoming another San Francisco. One is that growth is a lot easier here (the denser forms at least), due to policy and existing land uses. Another is Tacoma...it's a much cheaper sibling with a lot of room and interest in growth.
Interesting re: your tech scene bringing in a more diverse demographic, as Denver's tech growth has apparently had more of a domestic (and pretty white, honestly) pull. Not to say Denver as a city is lily white, it isn't, but the tech/yuppie crowd tends to be. Seattle + the PNW up to Vancouver was already more of a hub for people from Asia, so maybe that has something to do with it, and the tech company makeup is different. In any case I'm envious of that aspect.
It is nice that Seattle is more growth/density friendly; it's a pretty low bar since SF appears to have more stubborn NIMBYs per capita than anywhere else, but I'm happy to see Seattle is trending YIMBY in both talk and policy. And yes I'm sure Tacoma being a cheaper release valve than Oakland also helps. Denver's closest thing to a release valve is CO Springs, and our region has a pretty backwards/NIMBY approach to the housing crunch, so it'll be interesting to see if Seattle prices come down closer to ours as they enact policy to address the issue while Denver continues to restrict supply. Similar to San Fran homeowners, people here will talk the talk about fixing the housing crisis or addressing homelessness, but refuse to walk the walk.
Last edited by boomtown boi; 10-14-2021 at 01:13 PM..
Seattle's policy changes will help keep cost growth in check (for denser types), but aren't enough to lower costs. In fact, Seattle itself usually adds fees that roughly cancel out the cost benefits of any upzone. Obviously it's a complicated issue but that's the basic truth.
With tech, location and direct flights are a big part of it. And so are culture and existing populations. But are we also talking about different types of tech? Ours tend to be software, e-commerce, gaming, cloud, etc., hiring a lot of software developers. Scale also plays a role...local colleges only put out a tiny fraction of what we need in computer science and so on, so local companies recruit globally.
Lol. Some hyperbole for sure, but it does seem the city (esp. central/Downtown) is trending towards a more generic restaurant/beverage scene. The choices in the now-ubiquitous food halls may not be chains per se, but it's all the same overpriced and ho-hum crap. I do love me some North/South Federal taco shops, but you really need to seek out the good stuff.
All that being said, Seattle may be experiencing a similar trend - it could just be a side effect of the corporate tech cities becoming fully washed in not just gentrification, but a certain kind of monoculture. I've heard San Francisco has suffered (and currently suffers) from this effect.
South Federal reminds me of Houston.
Like someone else said El Paso and Amarillo are still cheap, but they might be so far from your folks you might as well be out of state.
On Sundays, the locals park all along Federal and just hang out. Drink and chat. Not sure why but everyone does it.
Lots of people here in Phoenix coming from both places for permanent residence. Something to do with COL my guess, but I’m seeing a bunch more Colorado license plates lately. It could be related to COVID stuff as I believe both Washington and Colorado were more restrictive than Arizona (and should be honestly but that’s for another day). And I know a lot of people were moving based on that alone, COVID and mask mandates and what not. Which to me is a silly thing to move over but you know, it has definitely happened. Unfortunately Arizona Texas and Florida seem to attract these types, I’m not sure why.
Afaik both cities seem great but very costly and unless you have a good job to match (most people don’t) it’s hard to live there. But these two cities appear to be stagnating in cost whereas here in Phoenix costs are rapidly rising and honestly cost of living is basically like Denver these days, maybe a couple hundred dollars off a month for renting. I think people are gonna swarm back to these two cities once the pandemic is more or less over.
Seattle has great summers but they only last 3-4 months max. The rest of the year is quite grey and drizzly so you have to be ok with that. Denver gets a lot of snow but it's very sunny.
In terms of urban offerings, especially with Seattle's new rail expansions, Seattle is well ahead of Denver.
I would agree. Seattle towers over Denver in major company employment. (And skyline, but I digress). The transportation system in Seattle was probably behind Denver for a few decades but now is catching up and now much better than Denver with light rail. Not to say the both cities don’t do a good job in this category, but Seattle seems more aggressive on this path.
I’ll take Denver. There’s not a more overrated city than Seattle on this site.
Jealousy.
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