Phoenix and Seattle

It's been more than two years since I left Phoenix for Seattle and readers have repeatedly asked me to compare and contrast the two. I've hesitated because they are not merely different places but different planets.

As a columnist for the Arizona Republic, I used Seattle as a yardstick for Phoenix in a pair of articles. They were about the same size metro areas, and in 1960, same size cities. Both were weather challenged. Both had sat in the shadows of bigger cities (LA for Phoenix, San Francisco for Seattle). In 1960, Seattle was heavily dependent on Boeing and otherwise held a number of declining industries, as well as a history of labor problems. Phoenix was rich with newly recruited tech companies and a fresh slate. Which city would you have bet on? Of course, Seattle turned out to be a world city and Phoenix a massive real-estate scheme. The second column attempted to explain some of Seattle's strengths that could be nurtured to help Phoenix (yeah, I was the one who was always gloomy, never offering solutions). These columns went into the dustbin of all such writing about Arizona and, as teaching tools, they were also very naive.

In reality, Seattle had so many strengths Phoenix never had or developed. This is why a real compare-and-contrast may be of limited value, as well as being seen as more Phoenix bashing.

Seattle developed as a city earlier than Phoenix, benefiting not only from a vibrant economy, the Klondike Gold Rush and skilled population, but also from the golden age of civic design and architecture. It was proud enough of itself to host the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909, which became the campus of the University of Washington. Today the UW is one of the finest public universities in the nation. In 1962, Seattle held the World's Fair, building the iconic Space Needle and monorail. Phoenix has never done a world's fair.

Despite having a history of booms and busts, today Seattle has one of most diverse and powerful metro economies in the nation. It is the home to major headquarters. It has mastered the art of reinvention and is a world magnet for talent, capital and trade. Along with world-class hospitals, it is one of America's top biosciences centers. In other words, it's a very ambitious, smart and outward-looking city compared with Phoenix. Seattle punches well above its weight class. And it was lucky in having people such as Bill Boeing and Bill Gates place their companies here. One result is that it is much richer (per-capita income $30,306 vs. $19,833).

As a physical setting, Seattle is a real city. I live downtown, with the retail core just three blocks away. Pike Place Market is in walking distance. The energy is amazing, even with the toll of the recession. Every city neighborhood is distinct in history and vibe, and has its own shopping district with unique local retailers and buildings right up to the sidewalk. There's the fascinating International District. There's quirky Fremont and pleasantly affluent Magnolia and many more. All are walkable and cohesive. Public spaces are abundant. Downtown boasts major businesses and retailers, along with distinct local shops -- not just government and law offices, as in Phoenix. Century-old masterpieces sit side-by-side with the ultra-modern buildings. Mixed-use and historic preservation are abundant (but never enough for many urbanites). The tear-downs and huge vacant lots of central Phoenix would be unthinkable here. The city's parks are gems, some laid out by the Olmstead brothers. Mount Rainier, the Olympic Mountains, Elliott Bay, Lake Washington and Lake Union preside beautifully over the urban life. The city of Seattle is compact (582,000 people in 83 square miles). Phoenix, of course, is the nation's fifth most populous city, with 1.5 million in 500 square miles. Yet Seattle feels like the big city.

Phoenix was a farm town when Seattle was first booming as a city. Aside from a small area around downtown, Phoenix got the worst of the dehumanizing sprawl of the auto age. Despite the efforts of two generations of leaders in attracting what were then leading-edge companies, Phoenix after around 1980 was lulled by the seeming effortless levitation called "growth." It only became more dependent on people moving there, attracted by sunshine, inexpensive housing and what was once a magical Salt River Valley and the nearness of beautiful wilderness. One happy circumstance of this moment of history, where cheap land, cheap gas, federal water and air conditioning came together was that Phoenix never experienced a real bust -- until now. The downsides are everywhere, of course, from a narrow economy and bad air to people disconnected from civic life behind their gates and inside "master planned communities."

Seattle's people are very different. They're nice, for one thing. I have yet to get a death threat over a column. They're smart, among the most literate in America, supporting many local bookstores tucked into the neighborhoods and downtown. They love their city and give to it lavishly. Most Anglos in Phoenix want to be left alone in the sunshine, living a "resort lifestyle," with low taxes and minimal or no civic burdens. This makes it even harder on the Phoenicians who fight so hard to make it a better place. Meanwhile, the huge Latino underclass (and there's a big Anglo one, too) is shut out of the mainstream and without many economic opportunities.

Seattle is the home of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose new headquarters is going up in the center city. But the sense of stewardship extends out to a galaxy of non-profits and arts organizations. The Seattle Symphony, Intiman Theater and Seattle Opera are some of the best in the country. Every neighborhood seems to have its own indy movie theater. Seattle supports three NPR stations. It has an all-jazz and an all-classical radio station. Phoenix has struggled to build the arts, and although two organizations, the Heard Museum and Phoenix Art Museum, are internationally noteworthy, all fight for their lives. The largest Phoenix non-profit wouldn't be caught dead putting its headquarters downtown (you know, near those people). When I arrived here, it was a joy to get both the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on the doorstep every morning. The PI has gone online since, but the city is blessed with scrappy independent media, including The Stranger and Crosscut blog, as well as the (New Times) Village Voice-owned Seattle Weekly. Phoenix, alas, lacks much media diversity, much less media that holds power accountable, and talk radio only reinforces the extreme-right ethos.

All this points to very different values. Seattle residents are "liberal," in that they are very interested in the "we" part of the social compact and in building and enhancing a city. Another element is vigorous public engagement. It's hard not to find a protest going on somewhere downtown, from the pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists to hell-fire warning Christians. You would never find this in Phoenix on a regular basis. In Phoenix, and especially the suburbs, the "conservative," tribal, exclusionary impulse is supreme. Crime is lower here and in the metro area, making horrific acts such as the killing of a police officer last month hit all the harder. The people who live in the city have city values, and do fine with the diversity, street people and "density." Phoenicians have suburban values. Seattle's metro area has all the suburban crap that Phoenix does, so it's not like Phoenix can say, "We have malls and parking lots!" Yet Seattle offers many more real suburban choices, including Bellevue, whose skyline is more impressive than downtown Phoenix, as well as real towns with lovely centers. There is less Balkanization here, although the competition between city and suburbs is real and always in danger of going destructive. But metro Seattle has avoided Phoenix's cannibalization.

To my mind, Seattle is blessed with mostly narrow streets and even freeways. This has helped limit sprawl and place an honest congestion "tax" on those who choose to live in the 'burbs (whose costs and destructiveness are otherwise cloaked or not counted -- indeed have been subsidized in America). It has preserved neighborhoods and natural beauty. If you choose to live in the suburbs, your drive will probably be more difficult than in Phoenix (although I have spent many a lifetime stuck in East Valley freeway traffic). Phoenix's wide streets and freeways are built for cars, not people. The result is ugliness and lack of walkability and neighborhood cohesion. But most Phoenicians would have a hard time even conceiving of a different way of arranging their lives. Phoenix beat Seattle by a few months to light rail. Despite its path-breaking monorail, Seattle has shot itself in the foot many times on rail transit. It is finally getting its act together. Still, it has a magnificent bus system (I don't have to pay riding downtown), Sounder commuter rail, a streetcar with more to come, as well as Amtrak and Cascades intercity rail. All this is lacking in Phoenix. You don't have to drive in Seattle, and many people don't. If they need a vehicle, they rent a Zipcar.

Seattle is a city with many old cultural and political grudges that I learn afresh every week. It still laments voting down a grand city plan in the early 20th century. It looks on Paul Allen's massive investment in the South Lake Union district with suspicion, while most cities would kill to have a wealthy steward building the city core rather than crapola subdivisions on the fringes. Phoenicians usually don't stay around long enough to engage in such introspection or debate. And the power rests in one place: The Real Estate Industrial Complex. Seattle has many nodes of power, having just elected a dissenter as mayor, a former head of the -- gasp! -- Sierra Club. Both cities can be a little socially challenging to the non young-and-beautiful -- Seattle from its Nordic restraint, Phoenix from its sprawl and constant turnover of people.

Phoenix has Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. I'm not sure those assets really help the city itself, but they are undeniably attractive to a certain kind of person.

So that's about it. I'm sure I'll think of more once this is posted. Seattle is home now, although my Phoenix will always be a home of the heart. Seattle has as good a future in the Great Disruption as any American city. If Phoenix continues on its path, it will face a slow, or sudden, decline.

Why do I write this blog? First, because so many thousands of Arizona readers followed me from the Info Center to Rogue Columnist. Second, I don't see any other voices dissecting the issues that Rogue addresses. Third, Phoenix does matter, because of its size -- and consequent danger to the nation when the roof falls in -- its amazing acts of self-destruction and political theater, and the important history and lessons it holds. When there's nothing more to say or I get tired, I'll stop.

As for Seattle's weather: Because I don't want four million people moving here "for the weather," I'll just say: It rains all the time and you'll freeze your ass off.

Comments

[ChrisInDenver]

Having been fortunate enough to escape from Phoenix, where I spent the first 27 years of my life back in 2004, for a job in Boston, I can say that Mr. Talton is 100 percent correct in his contrast of Seattle and Phoenix. Natives of the Valley of the Sun (or those who have spent most of their lives there, as I did) would benefit from taking an extended vacation outside of Arizona. They would be amazed what a REAL city looks and feels like if they spent at least a year living there.
When I settled in Boston, my homesickness for Phoenix quickly evaporated as I discovered the old city's cosmopolitan vibe and its historical beauty. My wife and I never tired of exploring its museums, restaurants and bars, and its charming neighborhoods. And best of all, everything in Boston is within walking distance.
We've since relocated to Denver to be closer to her family. I do miss Boston terribly, yet I can appreciate living in another great American city that has reinvented itself. Denver has a vibrant and diverse economy, and the city's downtown is one of the best in the nation.
I have only visited Phoenix twice since I left six years ago -- in 2006 for our wedding and last spring for a business trip -- and each time, I found myself itching to leave. Yes, Phoenix has come a long way since I left -- the light rail is awesome and the downtown skyline has improved -- but it has a long way to go before it can match up with the Seattles, Denvers and Bostons of this nation. Perhaps only a crash, followed by a reinvention will spur this. The good news is that the crash has already happened.

[soleri]

Because Phoenix came of age after World War II, it missed out on the Golden Age of city-making when civic stewards consciously laid out grand embellishments. Today, those amenities strongly suggest why a particular place is loveable and even prompt today's citizens to undertake their own projects, like Millenium Park in Chicago. It's not that Phoenix never tried - the City Beautiful movement was active here - but that the size of the place was too small to serve the autocentric boomtown that followed. It's hardly an accident or surprise that the Rio Salado project failed here.

I grew up here when the future was still dazzling. No dystopian anxieites then! Yet by the 1970s, it appeared optimism was waning and walls were getting higher. By the 1990s, this city was in full psychological retrenchment where real-estate interests mediated our attenuated civic lives.

Today, Phoenix looks and feels like a city without any core beliefs. Housing prices can't stop their freefall because the economy itself reflects the cancer of growth. As a pathology, growth could only work when the host was healthy enough to support it. That host today is very, very sick.

The arguments we have with the right are fun but ultimately empty. They thought the magic of the market would alchemize greatness. Instead, it simply fed a huge but insentient dinosaur. The right may pretend to love this monster but it's all fakery. That's why they hate you. As an idea, Phoenix can only work when it fools everyone. Even one dissenting voice undermines the rationale of their cargo cult.

[AZ REBEL]

Phoenix 1000 years from now, archealogists will discover our canals and a few bits of plastic artifacts. They'll wonder where we went.

[Jim Hamblin]

Long ago, Jon identified one contributor to Phoenix' myopia, namely the large influx of Midwest transplants with little sensitivity to the environment. Today, many of these folks still manage to exit and go back to Peoria during the ungodly summers.
Consequently they tend to be less aware that climate change is making Phoenix hotter and drier . . . and less habitable.
Year to date, we've received only about 40% of our average rainfall but the golf courses are still lush and green, so hardly anybody complains.

[Crashproofed]

Climate change is sheer BS! I do see eye to eye on john's economic views and have first hand experience since 1995. Agreed the host REIC industry cancer has ruined Phoenix. VERY SAD.

[Naum]

Why did my comment get deleted?

[Rate Crimes]

As an Arizona resident from 1990 until I escaped to Seattle in 2008, Jon's voice has been, and is again a great comfort. When his voice was first heard in Arizona, it was like a cool, fresh breeze slicing through a hazy, brown, toxic cloud. For someone who eschews professional sports, Jon represented the Arizona team I could finally cheer! For too brief a time, some of us were able to retain hope for Arizona’s future. That hope emigrated. Arizona is hazier than ever.

That said, it’s much more difficult to walk Seattle’s streets in half-naked bliss.

[James]

"Long ago, Jon identified one contributor to Phoenix' myopia, namely the large influx of Midwest transplants with little sensitivity to the environment."

What the hell? Last I checked, the Mid-west transplants are the ones getting jobs in Phoenix because the natives are just too stupid. Wake up, the reason Phoenix is a still stuck in a brown haze is because the median IQ of the natives is likely double digits. Furthermore, most of the Midwesterners are not litterbugs, having come from scenic Blue States where we don't trash the place.

[Buford]

Rate Crimes:
" it’s much more difficult to walk Seattle’s streets in half-naked bliss."

I moved from Seattle to Phoenix on Dec. 26th, 1974. Going from Seattle's low 40's to Phoenix's mid 70's felt like summer to me, but the natives were all bundled upo like it was cold.

As a young man I made a living as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. In Seattle, pools are mostly indoors. I imagined a huge market for my skills, but there was only one indoor and two outdoor pools that were open all year. (One was in Scottsdale) People would only swim in the fall and winter because it was too cold in winter and TOO HOT in the summer!

In my experience, if you see someone 'half-naked' in winter, they're from out-of-town.