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Space Needle Envy: A Bostonian’s Ode to Seattle

Wade Roush 6/20/08

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historical photo and film archives; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which, aside from its massive philanthropic activities in areas like global health, is a huge supporter of housing and community grants in the Northwest; and, of course, Vulcan, the organization that manages both the charitable endeavors and the multi-tentacled businesses of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. (It’s truly impossible to imagine today’s Northwest without Paul Allen operations like the Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum, the Flying Heritage Collection, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Portland Trailblazers, and the Seattle Seahawks.)

And I haven’t even mentioned Boeing and its penumbra of aerospace and defense companies. One could certainly make similar lists of great companies, influential institutions, and visionary technologists in the New England area—in fact, that’s what we do on a day-to-day basis here at Xconomy Boston. But I still envy Greg and Luke, because I know they’re going to meet some amazing people and come across tons of great story material as they dig into Seattle’s high-tech economy, with its unique mix of expertise in consumer-facing software, multimedia communications, e-commerce, computer networking, telecommunications, and transportation.

Before I wrap up, I thought I’d pummel you with a few intriguing, semi-random pieces of trivia highlighting the similarities and contrasts between our two hometowns—Beantown and The Emerald City.

•    Boston and Seattle are almost identical in population. Boston has a slight edge: 590,000 within the city limits, according to Census Bureau estimates for mid-2006, as opposed to 582,000 in Seattle. (The Boston Metro area, with 4.5 million people, is also slightly larger than the Seattle Metro area, with 3.9 million.)

•    Both cities are largely built on landfill. The heart of colonial Boston, the Shawmut peninsula, was once connected to the mainland only by a narrow isthmus, but landfill projects more than tripled the city’s acreage between 1630 and 1890. Downtown Seattle originally sat in a tidal marsh, but after the city was destroyed by fire in 1889, it was rebuilt one to two stories higher than before—partly to reduce flooding and partly to keep the newfangled flush toilets from backing up at high tide.

•    Seattle has a reputation for dampness, but Boston actually gets more precipitation: 42.9 inches per year, according to Weather.com, compared to 37.1 inches for Seattle.

•    Seattle boasts a significantly higher median household income than Boston ($49,300, according to CityData.com, versus $42,600) and a much lower poverty rate (12.3 percent versus Boston’s 22.3 percent).

•    Frasier Crane started off as a malcontent barfly in Boston, and ended up as a malcontent talk-show psychologist in Seattle.

Don’t take my paean to Seattle the wrong way—I’m glad to be staying here in Boston. I once saw someone comment on a message board that “If you take Boston and extract all the bad stuff, you get Seattle.” I disagree. It’s true that Boston can feel crowded, dirty, and hostile compared to newer, Western cities like Seattle. But in other ways—its outstanding cultural institutions, its tolerance for radical ideas, its commitment to democracy as a big multiethnic brawl—Boston really does live up to its nineteenth-century nickname as the Athens of America. And, of course, thanks to its huge student population, Boston has a youthful cast and the sense of perpetual optimism and renewal that goes along with it. (The average Bostonian is four years younger than the median Seattleite—31.1 years old versus 35.4.)

And there are two things I definitely don’t envy about Greg and Luke’s new location: the cloudy weather (226 overcast days per year, compared to Boston’s 164) and, frankly, the proximity to Mount Rainier. While it’s certainly pretty to look at, it’s an active stratovolcano that erupted as recently as 1854 and will eventually go off again, sending a flood of boiling mud and ash directly into Tacoma and southern Seattle. (That would make for an interesting season-ending cliffhanger on Grey’s Anatomy.)

On the other hand, Boston was badly damaged in the Cape Ann Earthquake of 1755, and is periodically battered by hurricanes and Nor’easters, so we definitely have our share of natural hazards. Still, I’m content to wander in New England for a while.

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