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SEATTLE: WHERE LIBERAL ISN'T A DIRTY WORD
05/19/2010
The first things you notice when you visit Seattle are the colors.
Green is everywhere in “The Emerald City.” Oak, Maple, Pine, Fir, Dogwood, Birch, Cedar, Magnolia, Willow and Alder trees line streets, fill out parks, and populate front and back yards. But the most colorful trees of all are the Japanese Maples, ranging in hue from yellow-green to purple-red. Seattle takes tree preservation seriously and a city arborist makes sure no one cuts down trees indiscriminately. This is ironic as Seattle was founded as a logging town.
In the spring and summer, bright reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples, punctuate the lush green. Shopping centers, freeway slopes, and front yards are overflowing with hostas, geraniums, ferns, columbines, asters, lilies, fireweed, honeysuckle, silverweed, camas, iris, huckleberry, lilacs, and everywhere, the magnificent red, pink, purple and fuchsia rhododendrons. One can almost breathe better just knowing how much oxygen these plants are releasing into the atmosphere.
Then, there is the color blue. Barely a location in Seattle doesn’t boast a view of water. From the Pacific Ocean to Elliott Bay, Green Lake and Lake Washington, the city is surrounded by water. Kayaks, canoes and sailboats come out in abundance on the weekends, while a number of lucky Seattleites get to live on the water in floating houses. Seattleites love water and water sports, and you can’t spend a week here without experiencing a desire to get out there with them.
And finally, there are the grays, silvers, whites, tans, and blacks, the colors of high rises, because Seattle is not only one of the greenest places on the West Coast, it is also a vibrant city, home to Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing. The low rises, also home to thriving businesses, are more likely red, made of bricks—the preferred building material from seventy or more years ago.
As you become accustomed to the natural and man-made beauty of the city, you notice the people. Seattle, like its neighbor to the south, Portland, is a young city. Students from University of Washington, Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University mingle on the city’s streets with tech geeks who make a good living here. You can tell the difference by what they use to carry their books and papers. Students wear backpacks. Workers carry messenger bags.
Nine months of the year, the people wear layers of clothing in the cold and rainy climate, a climate that makes Seattle so green. The residents don’t seem to mind. They wear their hoodies, boots, and heavier coats, and once the sun comes out and the temperature reaches 65, they shed layers and walk around in shorts and sleeveless tops.
This is a city of slim and healthy people for a number of reasons. For one, medical buildings, hospitals, cancer research centers, and state of the art treatment facilities are everywhere. Seattle has one of the best medical systems in the country and one of the fastest, if not the fastest, ambulance response times. For another, people eat healthier. Restaurants and markets offer sustainable and locally grown foods, free of pesticides and growth hormones. Many young people are vegetarian or vegan, and everyone exercises. There is a good public transportation system for the longer treks, but for shorter ones people walk or ride bicycles. Residents own cars, but don’t use them as much, as parking is often hard to come by. Because Seattle is an old city, many of the residential streets are narrow, and one often has to pull to the side to let the car coming from the other direction drive past, but drivers are mostly patient and courteous. Hybrids are everywhere, and while I’ve seen gas guzzlers up here, they are much rarer than in Southern California, where I live. In this and so many ways, (for example, large numbers of residents bring their own re-usable grocery bags with them to the stores) Seattle is an environmentally friendly city.
Of course, there are residents over the age of thirty here, from the professionals who tend to the medical needs of the residents to executives who run the large companies, to teachers and dentists, and small business owners who have lived here for decades. They may or may not dress up for work (Seattle is a casual city) but on their days off you’ll see them roaming the city in natural, relaxed clothing: cotton, linen, hemp. While many of the younger woman sport short hair, the older women often have long, gray hair, looking a bit like aging, but dignified hippies.
You’ll notice something else here: Obama for president bumper stickers. Nearly eighteen months past the election, Seattleites are still proud they voted for Obama and are not willing to take off the stickers. And if you’re tempted to buy the stereotype that democrats are all secular, and think Seattle is a godless city, you would be wrong. There are churches everywhere, and when you drive past them on Sunday, you see people streaming in.
This is a Democratic city, a model of what the country might look like if liberal policies and attitudes were adopted nationwide. We would be greener, environmentally friendlier, healthier, thinner, and better educated. We would know how to live together with more grace and patience, and we would be able to combine the secular with the spiritual, the entrepreneurial with the environmentally conscious, the love of cerebral and artistic pursuits with the love of athletic ones.
If after reading this brief characterization of Seattle, you are tempted to think of it as out of the mainstream, not as patriotic, or not as “American” as Midwestern towns or the Southern cities or even the large industrial cities of the East, you would be wrong. I was here two days after September 11, 2001, and I saw the city’s response. My husband and I, along with a friend, drove to Seattle Center, where a massive impromptu memorial was unfolding. Covering the entire spiral shaped fountain, now drained of water, were bouquets of flowers, photographs, poems and tributes to the victims of the tragedy. Moving to the Cathedral, we saw the front steps covered with lighted candles. Statues on the city streets were draped with red, white and blue, and everywhere, people mourned.
Seattle is a great American treasure, one of the many places I can imagine myself living should I ever leave Southern California. It’s a testament to how well liberal policies work to promote a vibrant business community and allow citizens to live the American dream, while still preserving the environment and promoting community. Seattle may be a large city, but it its residents are proud of its many small “neighborhoods” and tend to by loyal to their own, frequenting local eateries and businesses, walking their dogs, greeting their neighbors, and accompanying their children to school each morning—on foot.
In Seattle, people don’t just believe you can live in harmony with others, share resources, protect the planet, live a healthy lifestyle, and make a good living. They do it every day.
All content © 2005 outragedcitizen.com
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