What happened to Seattle? Amazon happened to Seattle

[MillCreek]

http://gawker.com/how-amazon-swallowed-seattle-1724795265

As one of the few remaining Seattle-area natives, I thought this article had some good points. There is a reason I live 40 miles north of Seattle and no longer work in downtown Seattle.

[SADShooter]

Hmm. I thought grunge rock, boutique coffee, tech money, and Californians  predated Amazon.

[dm1333]

Meh!  Doesn't sound much different than Seattle from 1994 - 2003.  Expensive, full of yuppies and full of itself.  The REI parking lot is where my hatred of Subaru's (a perfectly practical car often ruined with Coexist stickers) took root.   

[Ben]

Meh!  Doesn't sound much different than Seattle from 1994 - 2003.  Expensive, full of yuppies and full of itself.  The REI parking lot is where my hatred of Subaru's (a perfectly practical car often ruined with Coexist stickers) took root.   

Yeah, I haven't spent a lot of time in Seattle, but I'm not sure I can tell the difference between the people this guy writes about and the people that were there when I used to visit. Seems like he's upset because his kind of yuppie was supplanted by another kind of yuppie.

Also, a sign of me getting old - I'm disgruntled that a guy talks like he's an old-timer native of the city and upset at the new whippersnappers, but he was born in 1988. 

[dm1333]

The recent news around Amazon has focused on the company as a workplace. Much of it has been unflattering, all of it is accurate. But a more comprehensive indictment of Amazon would also describe its effect on the rest of Seattle, which used to be a great place to live. In recent years, it has become consumed by Amazon.

I was born here, in 1988. My city was a gentle, easygoing place, a salad of cultural influences: citizens of the outdoors, of grunge and high art, with a dash of software among its bluebloods. Here I reveled in mild weather and glorious views; here I played in the best high-school orchestra in the nation (at a public school), .

Nowhere else was life so good.

I remember people bitching about Microsoft ruining the area, and Microsoft retirees ruining Sequim by retiring there.  As for the rest of those opening lines?  Junior sounds a little full of himself.  If he wants to see a place that has been ruined go move to the coast in Mendocino County.  

edit:   I'm not a Seattle hater, but who asked Amazon to move there?  Those evil bastards in Portland?  Or people in Seattle?  Sounds self inflicted.

[SADShooter]

The notion of the "company town" is hardly new in America.

[zahc]

People are never happy. When companies move out and population drops and housing values drop, they  complain. When  companies move in,and population swells, and housing values go up, they complain.

[brimic]

Sounds like 1st world issues/complaints....
He should thank his lucky stars that he grew up in Seattle, not Detroit.

[HeroHog]

When I worked for Brass Eagle, the paintball company, in Bentonville, AR, it was the same. Total Walmart city where every office there was a supplier/vendor and all businesses lived to support them. TOTAL yuppy town filled with young to older professionals and upper-end restaurants. More hispanics than blacks but not many of either. Total culture shock for us. Don't get me wrong, nice place to live, just expensive and "sterile."