Greetings from Seattle First I want to thank wxman for sharing his reactions to Seattle with those of us on the Seattle bldg forum. Its always interesting to hear what others think of your city. I really cracked up over your comments about people smoking blunts and guys holding hands. If you had been here in the summer, you might have seen dudes in skirts........with full beards. As for hoodies and jeans, there are lots wearing them......but more in the neighborhoods. As for the construction, yeah, its out of control. We're thinking of making the bldg crane the city bird. Seattle has been bldg to this intensity for the past 20 years. That's roughly when DT started to really revive. After years of bldg, there are probably around 75K living DT and more moving in every week. Most of the hi rises are between 20-40 stories but as the bldg boom continues bigger bldgs are getting announced. Why Seattle is Vancouver lite? Seattle is bigger population wise but Vancouver has a much more spectacular skyline partly because its surrounded by water on three sides. Having said that, most cities in the northern US and Canada founded by Nordic types tend to have strong DTs. Other examples are Portland, Madison and MPLS. In addition, Seattle is surrounded by lots of water and mts.....yes, there are mts to the east and west of the city and Mt Rainier, an active volcano, is to the southwest. However, they are pretty hidden when its rainy. There are a couple of reasons why Seattle's bldg boom may have started earlier than Houston's. First, Amazon moved its headquarters DT after the recession and they have eaten up close to 3 million sq ft of office and brought with them thousands of millennials looking to live DT. Secondly, other tech companies have opened offices DT.......twitter, facebook, F5, google and a few others........mostly since the recession. Thirdly, still other companies are moving in from the suburbs. Finally, DT has always been the heart of the city and all the pieces finally have fallen into place. And yes, the feel here is very Tolkein.......lots of trees, hills, green grass and water. And I also am particularly proud of the active port and the industrial feel as well.........Seattle is a working city. That's why foot traffic dies off at early at nite DT although its more busy during the weekends. And about Houston........I have been a few times on business. IMO one of the better looking cities in TX......more interesting than Dallas for sure. I think you'll will get your DT together and have it become more active. At least it looked that way to me the last time I was there. I liked your lite rail too. Cheers!
