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Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located in the U.S. state of Washington between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 96 miles south of the United States–Canadian border in King County, of which it is the county seat.
Seattle was first settled by Europeans on November 14, 1851, by Arthur A. Denny and his crew, which would subsequently become known as the Denny party. Early settlements in the area were called New York, Alki and Duwamps; in 1853 at the suggestion of Doc Maynard the main settlement was named Seattle, after Sealth, chief of two local tribes. As of 2006, the city had an estimated population of 582,454 and an estimated metropolitan area population of approximately 3.3 million. Seattle is the hub for the Greater Puget Sound region. Its official nickname is the Emerald City, the result of a contest by a civic-minded association in the early 1980s to designate a pleasant nickname for the city; the name alludes to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. It is also referred to informally as the Gateway to Alaska, Queen City, and Jet City, due to the local influence of Boeing. (Seattle-area band Queensrÿche also wrote a song called "Jet City Woman".) Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.
Seattle is often regarded as the birthplace of grunge music, and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes. Seattle was the site of the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization, and the attendant demonstrations by anti-globalization activists. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city in America in 2005. Moreover, a United States Census Bureau survey showed that Seattle has the highest percentage of college graduates of any major U.S. city.[5]A survey done by Sperling's Bestplaces listed Seattle as the number 1 video game city in the US. Based on per capita income, Seattle ranks 36th of 522 studied areas in the state of Washington.
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Seattle East Side Culture
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Seattle has been known as a significant center for regional performing arts for many years. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's most recorded orchestras and performs primarily at Benaroya Hall. The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, which perform at McCaw Hall (which opened 2003 on the site of the former Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center), are comparably distinguished, with the Opera being particularly known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner and the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three ballet training institutions in the United States. The Seattle Youth Symphony is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States, and among the most distinguished.
The historic 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, has continued to stage Broadway quality musical shows featuring both local talent and international stars. In addition, Seattle has about twenty other live theatre venues, a slim majority of them being associated with fringe theatre. It has a strong local scene for poetry slams and other performance poetry, and several venues that routinely present public lectures or readings. The largest of these is Seattle's 900-seat, Romanesque Revival Town Hall on First Hill.
Seattle is often thought of as the home of grunge rock due to it generating artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Green River, and Mudhoney, all of whom reached vast audiences in the early 1990s. The city is also home to such varied musicians as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, heavy metal band Nevermore, industrial rockers KMFDM, and such poppier rock bands as Aiden, Goodness and the Presidents of the United States of America. Such musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, Nikki Sixx, and Quincy Jones spent their formative years in Seattle. Ann and Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, often attributed to Seattle, were actually from neighboring Bellevue, as were progressive metal band Queensrÿche.
Since the grunge era, the Seattle area has hosted a diverse and influential alternative music scene. The Seattle-based record label Sub Pop—the first to sign Nirvana—has signed such non-grunge bands as Murder City Devils, Sunny Day Real Estate, Skinny Puppy and The Postal Service. Other Seattle-area bands of note in this period include Death Cab for Cutie (Bellingham), Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse (Issaquah), Alicia Dara, MXPX (Bremerton), and Sleater-Kinney (Olympia).
Earlier Seattle-based popular music acts include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four; The Wailers, a 1960s garage band; The Ventures, an instrumental rock band; the Allies and the Heaters (later "the Heats"), 1980s teen-pop bands; from that same era, the more sophisticated pop of the short-lived Visible Targets and the still-performing Young Fresh Fellows and Posies; and the pop-punk of The Fastbacks and the outright punk of the Fartz (later Ten Minute Warning), The Gits, and Seven Year Bitch.
Seattleites have also collaborated with innovative, experimental musicians from around the world, while the city has hosted their performances. French composer Jean-Jacques Perrey, who pioneered electronica in the 1960s, has worked with Seattle native Dana Countryman, best known for his work with the 1980s Seattle pop/humour group the Amazing Pink Things. Perrey performed the tracks resulting from his work with Countryman at his first American show, in Seattle in 2006.
Spoken word and poetry are also staples of the Seattle arts scene, paralleling the explosion of the independent music scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Seattle's performance poetry scene blossomed with the importation of the poetry slam from Chicago (its origin) by transplant Paul Granert. This and the proliferation of weekly readings, open mics, and poetry-friendly club venues like the Weathered Wall, the OK Hotel, and the Ditto Tavern (all now defunct), allowed spoken-word/performance poetry to take off in a big way. The Seattle Poetry Slam is the city's longest running weekly show. Seattle annually sends a team of slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself the home of some of the most talented performance poets in the world: Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ; Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ; and Christa Bell, 2005 National Poetry Slam Finalist. Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry such as Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Ted Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ishmael Reed, Sekou Sundiata, and many others. Regionally famed poets like Bart Baxter, Tess Gallagher, and Rebecca Brown have also been featured at the Poetry Festival, as well as numerous other events such as the world-famous Bumbershoot Arts Festival.
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Seattle East Side Education
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Of the city's population over the age of 25, 47.2 percent (vs. a national average of 24 percent) hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 93 percent (vs. 80 percent nationally) have a high school diploma or equivalent. In fact, United States Census Bureau survey showed that Seattle has the highest percentage of college graduates of any major U.S. city. In addition to the obvious institutions of education, there are significant adult literacy programs and considerable homeschooling. Seattle is also the most literate city in the United States based on a study done by Central Connecticut State University.
Like most urban American public school systems, Seattle Public Schools has been subject to numerous controversies. Seattle's schools desegregated without a court order but continue to struggle to achieve racial balance in a somewhat ethnically divided city (the south part of town having more ethnic minorities than the north). The schools have maintained high enough educational standards to keep white flight (and middle-class flight in general) to a minimum, but some of the area's suburban public school systems — not all of them in wealthy suburbs — have consistently higher test scores. Notably, Seattle schools seem to be failing their minority students, as high academic standards are not realized uniformly by all racial groups in many of the city's secondary schools. In 2006, a challenge to Seattle's racial tie-breaking system made it to the Supreme Court. In 2007 the Supreme Court heard the case. Its decision indicated that race was not a legal criterion for desegregation, but left the door open for desegration formulas based on other indicators (e.g., income or socio-economic class). And in 2002, West Seattle's West Seattle High School made headlines in the midst of protests of the school's "Indian" mascot. Despite bitter battles between SPS and Alumni Association President/Attorney Robert Zoffel, the school would later change its mascot to the "Wildcats".
The public school system is supplemented by a moderate number of private schools: five of the high schools are Catholic, one is Lutheran, and six are secular.
Seattle is also famous in part for being home to one of the nation's most respected public universities, the University of Washington. With over 40,000 under-graduates and post-graduates, UW is the largest school in the Pacific Northwest and is ranked among the top research universities in the United States. A recent study even cited UW as the twenty-second best university in the world. The university is noted for its top programs in Computer Science, Engineering, Comparative Literature, Germanics, and Asian Studies.
The city's other prominent universities are Seattle University, a Jesuit university, and Seattle Pacific University, founded by the Free Methodists. There are also a handful of excellent smaller schools, such as City University of Seattle, a private university; Antioch University Seattle, which provides graduate and undergraduate degrees for working adults; and others mainly in the fine arts, business and psychology. The Cornish College of the Arts offers bachelor's degrees in such disciplines as dance, music, and theatre. Seattle is also served by North Seattle, Seattle Central, and South Seattle Community Colleges. Time magazine chose Seattle Central Community College for best college of the year in 2001, claiming that the school "pushes diverse students to work together in small teams".
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Seattle East Side Employment
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Economic history
Seattle has a history of boom and bust cycles historically common in cities of its size. Seattle has been sent into precipitous decline by the aftermaths of its worst periods as a company town, but has typically used those periods to successfully rebuild infrastructure.
The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, was fueled by the lumber industry. (It was during this period that the road now known as Yesler Way was nicknamed "Skid Road" after the timber skidding down the street to Henry Yesler's sawmill. The term later entered the wider American vocabulary as Skid Row.) This boom was followed by the construction of an Olmsted-designed park system.
The second and largest boom was the direct result of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, which ended the national depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for those heading north. The boom lasted well into the early part of the 20th century and funded the start-up of many new companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey founded the American Messenger Company (which later became UPS) in Seattle with $100 borrowed from a friend. Other Seattle companies founded during this time period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.
Next came the shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century, followed by the unused city development plan of Virgil Bogue. Seattle was the major point of departure during World War II for troops heading to the North Pacific, and Boeing manufactured many of the war's bombers.
After the war, the local economy dipped but rose again with the expansion of Boeing, fueled by the growth of the commercial aviation industry. When this particular cycle went into a major downturn in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading "Will the last person leaving Seattle — Turn out the lights."
Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company announced a desire to separate its headquarters from its major production facilities. Following a bidding war among a number of major cities, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrow-body plant (where the 707, 720, 727, and 757 were assembled, and the 737 is assembled today), and Everett wide-body plant (assembly plant for the 747, 767, 777 and the upcoming 787 Dreamliner); and BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union.
Technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com, RealNetworks, McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless), VoiceStream (now T-Mobile USA), and biomedical corporations such as Philips, Boston Scientific, ZymoGenetics and Amgen, found homes in Seattle and its suburbs. Even locally-headquartered coffee company Starbucks held investments in numerous Internet and software interests. This success brought an influx of new citizens and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country, along with that of San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston. Many of these companies remain relatively strong, but the frenzied dot-com boom years ended in early 2001.
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Seattle East Side History
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Founding
What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.—10,000 years ago). Archaeological excavations at West Point in Discovery Park, Magnolia confirm that the Seattle area has been inhabited by humans for at least 3,000 years and probably much longer.[6] tohl-AHL-too ("herring house") and later hah-AH-poos ("where there are horse clams") at the then-mouth of the Duwamish River in what is now the Industrial District had been inhabited since the 6th century BC. The Dkhw'Duw'Absh and Xachua'Bsh people (now called the Duwamish Tribe) occupied at least 17 villages in the mid-1850s, living in some 93 permanent longhouses (khwaac'ál'al) along Elliott Bay, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, and the lower Duwamish, Black, and Cedar Rivers.
Most of the Denny Party, the most prominent of the area's early European American settlers (and historians), arrived at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. They called the spot "New York" at first to reflect their aspirations to create a great trading port, later appending Alki, a Chinook Jargon word meaning, roughly, by and by or someday, literally or ironically. They relocated their settlement to Elliott Bay in April 1852. The first plats for the Town of Seattle were filed on May 23, 1853. Nominal legal land settlement was established in 1855. The city was incorporated in 1865 and again in 1869, after having existed as an unincorporated town from 1867 to 1869.
Seattle was named after Chief Sealth, "high-status man" (appointed chief by the territorial governor) of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. David Swinson ("Doc") Maynard, one of the city founders, was the primary advocate for naming the city after Chief Seattle. The name "Duwamish" is an Anglicization of Dkhw'Duw'Absh, "the People of the Inside", and a variation of that name is preserved in the name of the Duwamish River. Previously, the city had been known as Duwamps (or Duwumps), an earlier name settlers used for the river.
Major Events
Major events in Seattle's history include the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which destroyed the central business district (but took no lives); the Klondike gold rush, which made Seattle a major transportation center; the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of the University of Washington campus; the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country; the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair; the 1990 Goodwill Games; the APEC leaders conference in 1993, and the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, marked by street protests and a series of riots. The Major League Baseball All-star game was held at Safeco Field in Seattle during the 2001 season.
On February 28, 2001, a state of emergency was declared after the Nisqually Earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, rocked the region. Damage was minor, however in areas such as Pioneer Square (built on fill dirt) damage was considerably more severe; nevertheless the event served as a reminder that the coastal Pacific Northwest — and the area around the Seattle Fault, in particular — is under threat of an earthquake.
Seattle suffered its worst mass-killing since the 1983 Wah Mee massacre when a 28-year-old man named Kyle Aaron Huff committed the Capitol Hill massacre on March 25, 2006, followed later that year by an attempted spree killing by Naveed Afzal Haq that left one dead at the Jewish Federation building in July. Both were unusual, given that Seattle is relatively safe for a city its size. Its murder rate peaked in 1994 with 69 homicides. In 2004, Seattle's murder rate hit a 40-year low with 24 homicides. Seattle's crime rate has seen an increase in 2006, as have the crime rates in Tacoma and Lakewood, Washington.
In December 2006, the Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm brought very heavy rain and disrupted power to much of the city.
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Seattle East Side Weather
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Seattle has a mild climate that is usually classified as Marine west coast (Cfb). However, due to its wet-winter dry-summer pattern, it shows some characteristics of a Mediterranean climate (Csb), and is sometimes classified this way. Temperature extremes are moderated by adjacent Puget Sound and Lake Washington as well as the more distant Pacific Ocean. The region is partially protected from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the city of Seattle has a reputation for frequent rain. In reality, the so-called "rainy city" receives an unremarkable 37.1 inches of precipitation a year, which is much less precipitation than New York City, Atlanta, and Houston and most cities of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Seattle's worldwide reputation for rain derives from the fact that it is cloudy (not rainy) an average of 226 days per year (vs. 132 in New York City). Most of the precipitation falls as drizzle or light rain, with downpours happening only occasionally. The spring, late fall, and winter are filled with days when it does not rain but looks as if it may because of cloudy, overcast skies. As for temperature, winters are cool and wet with average lows around 35–40 °F on winter nights. Colder weather can occur at times, but seldom lasts more than a few days. Summers are dry and warm, with average daytime highs around 73–76 °F. Hotter weather can also occur, but usually only during a few days of the summer. Seattle's hottest official recorded temperature was 100 °F on July 20, 1994; the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F on January 31, 1950.
To the west 80 miles, the Hoh Rain Forest, in Olympic National Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains, receives an annual average rainfall of 142 inches, and the state capital, Olympia, south of the rain shadow, receives an annual average rainfall of 52 inches. Snowfall is infrequent, especially at lower altitudes and near the coast, and is usually light and fleeting, lasting only a few days. Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea-Tac Airport, is 13 inches. On January 13, 1880, Seattle's record for snowfall was set at 49 inches. Sunnier and drier "California weather" typically dominates from mid-July to mid-September. An average of 0.8 inches of rain falls in July and an average of 1.0 inches falls in August. Although the summer climate in the Seattle area is considerably drier and less humid than areas with humid continental climates, a slight dampness can be occasionally felt, usually when temperatures reach above 80 °F. This dampness is typically more noticeable during the evening when the temperatures have dropped. Because of this, Seattle does experience occasional summer thunderstorms.
The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving in the area from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle's west, then reunited by the Cascade Mountains to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection.
Thunderstorms caused by this activity can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives worse weather than occasional thunder and ice pellet showers. Thunderstorms in the Cascades sometimes produce frequent lightning, which makes for a brilliant light show for those in town.
An exception to Seattle's dampness often occurs in El Niño years, when the marine weather systems track as far south as California and little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area. Since the region's water comes from mountain snowpacks during the drier summer months, El Niño winters can not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydro-electric power the following summer.
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