With a typical Seattlite on the subject of Suburban Sprawl
From the “Land of the Forgotten Links” files
Seattlite: Sprawl is bad! The wetlands need to be protected and people need to quit living near them!
Suburbanite: OK. Well, I’d love to live in Seattle but it’s so expensive to live there.
Seattlite: You’re just going to have to demand that your employer pay you more for the same amount of work so that you can afford to live here because sprawl is bad. Organize a union at your work.
Suburbanite: OK. Where in Seattle should I move to?
Seattlite: Anywhere you want, but preferably close enough for you to walk or bike to work because even buses cause Global Warming, and that is even more bad than sprawl.
Suburbanite: OK. Well, I work right downtown, but there aren’t alot of vacancies near there.
Seattlite: That doesn’t matter. Get into a bidding war for the next available condo in Bell Town!
Suburbanite: Actually, a friend of my boss’ is a realestate developer who is thinking of building a 600 foot tall condo building down there. Maybe I could get a deal by getting in early?
Seattlite: 600ft? No! He shouldn’t do that! That should be illegal!
Suburbanite: Why?
Seattlite: Because it’ll block my view.
That is a very real conversation that has been taking place in Seattle since the mid-80’s. In 1989, Seattle voters approved a 540 foot height cap on buildings in downtown Seattle. It was advertized as “Keeping Seattle Livable” because some folks thought that even though a bunch of tall buildings look nice from a distance, the street level ambiance was atrocious.
And so housing costs skyrocketed, and all the new immigrants to Seattle moved into the burbs. And while the prices for real estate in the rest of the area went into the stratosphere, they rarely if ever exceeded the costs for space in downtown.
But finally, last week, the Seattle City Council paved the way to dump those restrictions.
17 years of foolishness for nothing but a view.