Seattle

"Seattle" redirects here. For Suquamish chief, see [[:Chief Seattle]].

Seattle, Washington
Flag of Seattle, Washington Flag Official seal of Seattle, Washington Seal
Nickname:  The Emerald City
Location of Seattle in King County and Washington
County	King
Government
• Mayor	Greg Nickels
Population  (2006)
• City	580,089 [2]
• Metro	3,810,856 [3]
Time zone	UTC-8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
Website	http://www.seattle.gov/

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, nearly 108 miles (174 km) south of the United States–Canadian border in King County, of which it is the county seat.

Seattle was founded in the 1850s and named after Chief Seattle, also known as Noah Sealth. As of 2005, the city had an estimated population of 573,000 and a metropolitan population of around 3.8 million. Seattle is the hub for the Greater Puget Sound region. Its official nickname is the Emerald City because of the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area; it is also referred to as the Rainy City, the Gateway to Alaska, Queen City, and Jet City, due to the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.

Seattle is known as the birthplace of grunge music, and it has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption: locally founded coffee companies include Starbucks and Tully's Coffee. Seattle was also the site of the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization, and the attendant demonstrations by anti-globalization activists, which were in keeping with Seattle's Democratic history and reputation for liberal politics. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city in America in 2005.

Based on per capita income, Seattle ranks 36th of 522 studied areas in the state of Washington.

History

Main article: History of Seattle

Founding

Most of the Denny Party, the most prominent of the area's early Caucasian settlers, 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. They relocated their settlement to Elliott Bay in April 1852. The first plats for the Town of Seattle were filed on May 23, 1853. The city was incorporated in 1869, after having existed as an unincorporated town from 1865 to 1867. [4]

Seattle was named after Noah Sealth, chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes, better known as Chief Seattle. David Swinson ("Doc") Maynard, one of the city founders, was the primary advocate for naming the city after Chief Seattle. Previously, the city had been known as Duwamps (or Duwumps), and a variation of that name is preserved in the name of Seattle's Duwamish River. [5]

Major events

Visitors to Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill can see the Space Needle, the Downtown Seattle skyline, and Mount Rainier (to the right).

Major events in Seattle's history include the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which destroyed the central business district (but took no lives)[6]; the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the current layout of the University of Washington campus[7]; the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country[8]; the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair[9]; the 1990 Goodwill Games[10]; and the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, marked by street protests and a anarchist riot.[11]

On February 28 2001, a state of emergency was declared after the Nisqually Earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, rocked the region. [12] Damage was moderate, but served as a reminder that the coastal Pacific Northwest — and the area around the Seattle Fault, in particular — is under a constant threat of earthquakes.

Economic history

Seattle has a history of boom and bust, or at least boom and quiescence. 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 Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is the result of a public vote on the "Libraries for All" bond measure approved by Seattle voters on November 3, 1998.

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" [13] 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. Arguably, the Klondike Gold Rush constituted a separate, shorter boom during the last years of the 19th century, funding Nordstrom's initial growth.

This site in downtown Seattle is one of many construction projects in the area.

Next came the shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century, followed by the unused city development plan of Virgil Bogue. After World War II, the local economy was marked by 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 in which several cities offered huge tax breaks, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrowbody plant (where the 707, 720, 727, and 757 were assembled, and the 737 is assembled today), and Everett widebody plant (where the 747, 767, and 777 are assembled, and the upcoming 787 Dreamliner will be assembled); and BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union.

File:Downtown Seattle.JPG

Downtown Seattle is composed of a tightly-packed financial district along with residential areas and a panaromic waterfront.

The most recent boom centered on Microsoft & other software, Internet, telecommunications companies (such as Amazon.com, RealNetworks, McCaw Communications (later acquired by AT&T and renamed AT&T Wireless), and VoiceStream (later acquired by Deutsche Telekom and renamed T-Mobile USA), and biomedical corporations such as Philips, Boston Scientific, & Zymogenetics. Even locally-headquartered Starbucks held investments in numerous Internet and software interests. Although some of these companies remain relatively strong, the frenzied boom years had ended by early 2001.

Geography and climate

Geography

Map of Seattle

Seattle is located between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. West beyond the Sound, Seattle faces the Olympic Mountains; across Lake Washington beyond the Eastside suburbs are the Issaquah Alps and the Cascade Range.

The city itself is hilly, though not uniformly so. Some of the hilliest areas are quite near the center, and Downtown rises rather dramatically away from the water. The geography of Downtown and its immediate environs has been significantly altered by regrading projects, a seawall, and the construction of an artificial island, Harbor Island, at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway.

The rivers, forests, lakes, and fields were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. Today, a ship canal passes through the city, incorporating Lake Union near the heart of the city and several other natural bodies of water, and connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington. Opportunities for sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking are close by and accessible almost all of the year.

An active geological fault, the Seattle Fault, runs under the city. Although neither the Seattle Fault nor the Cascadia Subduction Zone have caused an earthquake since the city’s founding, the city has been hit by four major earthquakes: December 14, 1872 (magnitude 7.3); April 13, 1949 (7.1); April 29, 1965 (6.5); and the Nisqually Earthquake of February 28, 2001 (6.8). The Cascadia subduction zone poses the even greater threat of a 9.0 or greater earthquake capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, particularly in the downtown area.

Seattle is located at 47°37′35″N 122°19′59″W (47.626353, −122.333144)¹, which is a spot in the middle of the Marriott Residence Inn at 800 Fairview Avenue N, on the south end of Lake Union.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 369.2 km² (142.5 mi²)Template:GR, 217.2 km² (83.9 mi²) of which is land and 152.0 km² (58.7 mi²) water. The total area is 41.16% water.

See also: Seattle neighborhoods, List of Seattle parks, Bodies of water of Seattle, Seven hills of Seattle

Climate

Looking southeast from Queen Anne toward Downtown; Mt. Rainier is visible in the background, KeyArena in the foreground, and the Space Needle in between.

Seattle's climate is mild, with the temperature moderated by the sea and protected from winds and storms by the mountains. The city of Seattle has a reputation for its frequent rains. Though "rainy city" receives an unremarkable 38 inches (970 mm) of precipitation a year, less than most major Eastern Seaboard cities. For example, New York City averages 47.3 inches (1200 mm). Seattle's worldwide reputation for rain derives from the fact that it is cloudy an average of 226 days per year (vs. 132 in New York City) and the fact that most of its precipitation falls as drizzle or light rain, as Seattle is in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains. While it rains regularly, in other words, it usually doesn't rain very hard. Average temperatures range from the mid-to-upper 30s (just above 0 °C) at night in winter to the mid/upper 70s (mid 20s °C) for summer highs. Seattle's hottest recorded temperature was 100 °F (37.7 °C) on July 20, 1994; the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F (-17.7 °C) on January 31, 1950. 80 miles (130 km) to the west, the Hoh Rain Forest, in the Olympic National Park, records an annual average rainfall of 142 inches (3600 mm), and the state capital, Olympia, south of the rain shadow, receives 52 inches (1320 mm). Snowfall is infrequent, especially at lower altitudes, and is usually light and short-lived; on one occasion, however, 12 inches (304 mm) of snow fell in a single day. Since most winter precipitation in Seattle is liquid, complainers about the constant winter drizzle are sometimes reminded that at least they don't have to shovel it. Sunnier "California weather" typically dominates from mid-July to mid-September, arriving later and leaving earlier than in Portland, Oregon to the south.

Seattle on a treasured sunny afternoon.

The Puget Sound convergence zone[14] is an important feature of the Seattle area's weather. In the 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. An active convergence zone results in rain at the very least (snow in the Cascades), and sometimes more severe weather such as thunderstorms and hail. Usually the zone forms north of Seattle in the Edmonds/Lynnwood area, but depending on the relative strengths of the winds it can range as far south as Pierce County or as far north as Skagit County.

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 snow packs during the drier summer months, El Niño winters not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydro-electric generated power the following summer.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Seattle

City of Seattle Population by year [15]
1900	80,671
1910	237,194
1920	315,312
1930	365,583
1940	368,302
1950	467,591
1960	557,087
1970	530,831
1980	493,846
1990	516,259
2000	563,374

As of the U.S. Census of 2000, Seattle had a population of 563,374 and in all the Greater Puget Sound metropolitan area is home to almost 3.8 million people. The population today is approximately 73.40% white, one of the highest percentages of whites for a major American city. The city also has one of the nation's highest percentages of multiracial ancestry: 4.70% claim ancestry from two or more races. [16] According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 13.71% of Seattleites are Asian Americans, 8.44% are African Americans, 1.10% are Native Americans, 0.50% are Pacific Islanders, and 6.84% are from other backgrounds. 5.28% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race. Seattle's robust economy and multi-cultural backgrounds has attracted immigrants from all over the world.

The median income for a household in the city is $45,736, and the median income for a family is $62,195. Males have a median income of $40,929 versus $35,134 for females. The per capita income for the city is $30,306. 11.8% of the population and 6.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 13.8% are under the age of 18 and 10.2% are 65 or older.

Seattle has seen a major increase in legal and illegal immigration in recent decades. The foreign-born population increased 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. [17] Hispanics are believed to be the most rapidly growing ethnic group in Washington, with an estimated increase of 10% just in the years 2000 to 2002 [18], though they have tended to settle outside the city, in rural areas where agricultural jobs are abundant.

It is estimated that 1.25% of the population is homeless, and that up to 14% of Seattle's homeless are children and young adults. Seattle Non-profit organizations dealing with poverty and related issues include the Fremont Public Association [19], the Asian Counselling and Referral Service [20], and the Seattle Indian Center [21]. In September 2005, King County adopted a "Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness", one of whose near-term results is a shift of funding from homeless shelter beds to permanent housing. [22]

In 2005, Men's Fitness magazine named Seattle the fittest city in the U.S.

Government and politics

Main article: Government and politics of Seattle, Washington

File:Fremont Lenin.jpg

The statue of Vladimir Lenin in the Fremont neighborhood. The statue was brought to Fremont as an art display after the collapse of communism in what is now Slovakia. [1]

Seattle is a charter city, with a Mayor-Council form of government, unlike many of its neighbors that use the Council-Manager form. Seattle's mayor and nine city council members are elected at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions. The only other elected office is the city attorney. All offices are non-partisan.

The city government provides more utilities than many cities – either by running the whole operation, such as the water, sewer, and electricity services, or by handling the billing and administration, but contracting out the rest of the operations such as trash and recycling collection. In most neighboring cities, for example, electricity is provided by either a private company such as Puget Sound Energy, or a county public utility district. See the Utilities section for more details.

As with most U.S. cities, the county judicial system (courts and jails) handles felony crimes — the Seattle Municipal Court deals with parking tickets, traffic infractions, and misdemeanors. Seattle does not have its own jail, contracting out inmates it convicts to either the King County Jail (which is located downtown), the Yakima County Jail, or (for short-term holdings) the Renton City Jail. In 2004, there were only 24 murders in Seattle, the fewest since 1965. Violent crime has declined by nearly 42% since 1994, to a rate of approximately seven per 1,000 people. Auto theft has increased about 44% in the same period; the Seattle Police Department has responded by nearly doubling the number of auto theft detail detectives, and is starting a "bait car" program. A Money magazine table, using 2001 statistics, ranked Seattle 18th highest in crime rate in the U.S., with 80.5 crimes per 1,000 citizens.

Seattle's politics lean famously to the left compared to the U.S. as a whole, although there is a small libertarian movement. Only two precincts in Seattle—one located in the famously exclusive Broadmoor community, and one encompassing condos within neighboring Madison Park—voted for Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Bush won the Broadmoor precinct by a moderate margin, although much smaller than in the 2000 presidential election. Madison Park was very close, also much closer than in 2000. The remaining precincts carried by Bush in 2000 all went for Kerry in 2004. In partisan elections, such as for the State Legislature and U.S. Congress, most elections are won by Democrats, with Greens getting more votes than in many other cities.

Official nickname, flower, slogan, and song

In 1981, Seattle held a contest to come up with a new official nickname to replace "the Queen City," which had been used since 1869 and was also the nickname of: Cincinnati; Denver; Toronto; Buffalo; Bangor, Maine; Helena, Montana and Charlotte, North Carolina. The winner, selected in 1982, was "the Emerald City". Submitted by Californian Sarah Sterling-Franklin, it referred to the lush surroundings of Seattle that were the result of frequent rain. Seattle has also been known in the past as "the Jet City"—though this nickname, related to Boeing, was entirely unofficial. (This nickname is the origin of the title of the song "Jet City Woman" by Seattle progressive metal band Queensrÿche.)

Seattle's official flower has been the dahlia since 1913. Its official song has been "Seattle the Peerless City" since 1909. In 1942, its official slogan was "The City of Flowers"; 48 years later, in 1990, it was "The City of Goodwill", for the Goodwill Games held that year in Seattle. The official bird of Seattle is the Great Blue Heron, named by the City Council in 2003.

Seattle mayors of note

Seattle's current mayor is Greg Nickels. He took office in 2002.

Among Seattle's notable past politicians is Bertha Knight Landes, mayor from 1926 to 1928. She was the first woman mayor of a major American city.

Another, Bailey Gatzert, was mayor from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, narrowly missed being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city (Moses Bloom became mayor of Iowa City, Iowa in 1873), and has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle to date.

See List of mayors of Seattle for a list of Seattle's mayors going back to 1869.

See also: Current leaders of Seattle, Washington

Sister cities

Seattle is internationally partnered with a number of sister cities to promote global cooperation, cultural exchange and economic collaboration. See List of Seattle sister cities for a complete list.

Economy

Five companies on the 2004 Fortune 500 list of the United States' largest companies, based on total revenue, are currently headquartered in Seattle: financial services company Washington Mutual (#103), insurance company Safeco Corporation (#267), department store Nordstrom (#286), Internet retailer Amazon.com, (#342) and coffee chain Starbucks (#425).

Prior to moving its headquarters to Chicago, airplane manufacturer Boeing (#21) was the largest company based in Seattle. However, due to its largest division still being headquartered in Bellevue and large manufacturing plants in Everett and Renton, Boeing remains one of the largest private employers in the Seattle Metropolitan area.

Other Fortune 500 companies popularly associated with Seattle are based in nearby Puget Sound cities. Warehouse club chain Costco Wholesale Corp. (#29), the largest company in Washington, is based in Issaquah. Microsoft (#46), the American Division of Nintendo, Nintendo of America, and cellular telephone pioneer McCaw Cellular, prior to being bought out by AT&T Wireless (#120) in 1994 and then merging with Cingular in 2004, are all located in Redmond. Weyerhaeuser, the forest products company (#95), is based in Federal Way. Finally, Bellevue is home to truck manufacturer PACCAR (#250) and international mobile telephony giant T-Mobile's U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile USA.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has announced a desire to spark a new economic boom driven by the biotechnology industry. Major redevelopment of the South Lake Union neighborhood is underway in an effort to attract new and established biotech companies to the region, joining current biotech companies such as Corixa, Immunex (now part of Amgen), and ZymoGenetics. The effort has public support and some financial backing from Paul Allen (his contribution has resulted in some calling the neighborhood "Allentown").

See List of companies based in Seattle for a more detailed compilation.

In 2005 Forbes magazine ranked Seattle as the most expensive city in the US for buying a house based on the local income levels.

Education

Main article: Education in Seattle

Seattle has an educated population: of Seattle's population over the age of 25, 47.2% (vs. a national average of 24%) hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 93% (vs. 80% nationally) have a high school diploma or equivalent. In fact, 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.

Like most urban American public school systems, Seattle Public Schools have been subject to numerous controversies. Seattle's schools desegregated without a court order, but continue to struggle to achieve racial balance in a demographically divided city (the south part of town being much more ethnically diverse 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.

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.

Postsecondary education in Seattle is dominated by the University of Washington. With over 40,000 under-graduates and post-graduates, it is the largest school in the Pacific Northwest and is ranked among the top research universities in the United States. Most prominent of the city's other universities are City University, a private secular school, Seattle University, a Jesuit university, and Seattle Pacific University, founded by the Free Methodists. There are also a handful of smaller schools, mainly in the fine arts, business and psychology. Seattle is also served by North Seattle, Seattle Central, and South Seattle Community Colleges.

Culture

Landmarks

Howard Dean and Vanna White have both caught the "flying fish" at the Pike Place Market, one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations.

The Space Needle is Seattle's most recognizable landmark, having been featured in the logo of the television show Frasier and the backgrounds of the television series Grey's Anatomy, not to mention countless films. The Needle dates from the 1962 Century 21 Exposition. Contrary to popular belief, the Space Needle is neither the tallest structure in Seattle nor is it in Downtown. This misconception results from the Space Needle often being photographed from Queen Anne Hill, where it is closer to the viewer than are the downtown skyscrapers. The fairgrounds surrounding the Needle have been converted into Seattle Center, which remains the site of many local civic and cultural events, such as Bumbershoot and the Bite of Seattle.

A monorail runs from Seattle Center to Westlake Center, a downtown shopping mall -- a distance of about a mile. The monorail is currently out of service following an accident on November 26, 2005.

Other notable Seattle landmarks include the Smith Tower, Pike Place Market, the Fremont Troll, the Experience Music Project (which is at Seattle Center), the new Seattle Central Library, the Washington Mutual Tower, and the Columbia Center, which is the fourth tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River and the twelfth tallest in the nation. (On June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001 attacks included the Columbia Center as one of ten targeted buildings.) [23]

Starbucks Coffee has been at Pike Place Market since the coffee company was founded there in 1971. The first store is still operating a block south of its original location.[24]

Annual cultural events and fairs

Among Seattle's best-known annual cultural events and fairs are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival, Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events throughout the summer months (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration to hydroplane races), the Bite of Seattle, and Bumbershoot over the Labor Day weekend. All are typically attended by over 100,000 people annually, as are Hempfest and two separate Independence Day celebrations.

Several dozen Seattle neighborhoods have one or more annual street fairs, and many have an annual parade or foot race. The largest of the street fairs feature hundreds of craft and food booths and multiple stages with live entertainment, and draw more than 100,000 people over the course of a weekend; the smallest are strictly neighborhood affairs with a few dozen craft and food booths, barely distinguishable from more prominent neighborhoods' weekly farmers' markets.

Green Lake Park, popular among runners, contains a 2.7 mile trail circling the lake.

Other significant events include numerous Native American powwows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals associated with Festal at Seattle Center.

As in most large cities, there are numerous other annual events of more limited interest, ranging from book fairs; the premier anime convention in the Pacific Northwest, Sakura-Con; and specialized film festivals to a two-day, 8,000-rider Seattle-to-Portland bicycle ride.

Performing arts

Main article: Arts in Seattle

Seattle is a significant center for the performing arts. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's most recorded orchestras [25] 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. [26], [27] The Seattle Youth Symphony is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States, and among the most distinguished.

In addition, Seattle has about twenty live theater venues, a slim majority of them being associated with fringe theater. 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 musicians like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Temple of the Dog, 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 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 the neighboring suburb of 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, The Postal Service, and The Shins. Other Seattle-area bands of note in this period include Death Cab for Cutie (Bellingham), Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse (Issaquah), 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 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.

Spoken word and poetry are also staples of the Seattle arts scene, paralleling the explosion of the indie 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 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, Ismael Reed, Seku 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.

Seattle also hosts an annual Gay Pride Parade and Celebration. In the past, the activities have been centered on the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Starting in 2006, festivites will be held city-wide.

Museums and art collections

Prominent Seattle buildings circa 1893

The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, making it the first museum in Washington. The main Seattle Art Museum opened in 1933. Art collections are also housed at the Frye Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Regional history collections are at the Museum of History and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry-specific collections are housed at the Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include Nordic Heritage Museum and the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

In addition, Seattle has a thriving artist-run gallery scene, including 10 year veteran Soil Art Gallery, and the newer Crawl Space Gallery.

See also: Museums and galleries of Seattle

Other attractions

The Woodland Park Zoo, opened as a private zoo in 1889, is the oldest on the West Coast, and has been a leader in innovations in naturalistic zoo exhibits. The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977. The Seattle Underground Tour, visiting places that existed before the Great Fire, is also popular. There are also many community centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, and Loyal Heights north of the Canal.

Media

Main article: Media in Seattle

Seattle's leading newspapers are the daily Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer; they share their advertising and business departments under a Joint Operating Agreement, which (as of 2004) the Times is seeking to terminate or renegotiate.[28]

The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly and the Stranger. Both of these consider themselves "alternative" papers; the famously irreverent Stranger has a reputation for carrying a younger and hipper readership and carries an adult dating section in the back that is commonly used for entertainment purposes, while the more staid Weekly has a longstanding reputation for in-depth coverage of arts and local politics. There are also several ethnic newspapers and numerous neighborhood newspapers.

Seattle is also well served by television and radio. Seattle's major network television affiliates are KOMO 4 (ABC), KING-TV 5 (NBC), KIRO 7 (CBS), KCTS 9 (PBS), KSTW 11 (UPN), KCPQ 13 (FOX), KONG 16/6 (Ind.), KTWB 22/10 (WB), and KWPX 33/3 (i); five of them can be seen across Canada via digital cable or satellite. Seattle cable viewers also receive CBUT 2 CBC from Vancouver, British Columbia, often as cable channel 99.

Leading radio stations include NPR affiliates KUOW-FM 94.9 and KPLU-FM 88.5 (Tacoma). Other notable stations include KEXP-FM 90.3 (affiliated with EMP), 91.3FM (affiliated with Bellevue Community College), and KNHC-FM 89.5, which broadcasts an electronic-music format and is owned by the public school system and operated by students of Nathan Hale High School. Many Seattle radio stations are also available through internet radio, with KUOW, KNHC, and KEXP being notable web radio innovators. Popular commercial radio stations in Seattle include KUBE 93.3, KMPS 94.1, KNDD 107.7, KVI-AM 570, KIRO-AM 710 and KOMO-AM 1000. Seattle is also home to KING-FM, one of the last classical music stations in the United States.

On the Internet, Seattle is covered by the blogs Seattlest, Seattle Metroblogging and Slog, among others.

Sports

Club	Sport	League	Stadium
Seattle Mariners	Baseball	Major League Baseball - AL	Safeco Field
Seattle Seahawks	Football	National Football League (NFL) - NFC	Qwest Field
Seattle Sounders	Soccer	USL First Division (men's) W-League (women's)	Qwest Field
Seattle Storm	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)	KeyArena
Seattle SuperSonics	Basketball	National Basketball Association (NBA)	KeyArena
Seattle Thunderbirds	Ice Hockey	Western Hockey League	KeyArena
Rat City Rollergirls	Roller Derby	Women’s Flat Track Derby Association	Magnuson Park Hangar 30

Major Professional Teams

The first professional team to play in Seattle was the PCHA Seattle Metropolitans that played in the Seattle Ice Arena between 1915 and 1924.

In 1967, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics (more commonly known as the "Seattle Sonics") became the first modern day, major professional sports franchise in Seattle. Two years later the Major League Baseball team, Seattle Pilots arrived, but only played one year in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both team names reflected the local importance of the aerospace industry. The Pilots' sole season was immortalized in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. It wasn't until 1976 that Seattle got another professional sports team, in the form of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. One year after that and following years of legal wrangling over the move of the Pilots, the MLB awarded Seattle a new baseball franchise, the Seattle Mariners. From 1978 to 1985, all three teams played in the Kingdome, with the Seahawks and Mariners continuing to play in the Kingdome until it was imploded in 2000. The final professional team to arrive in Seattle was the WNBA's Seattle Storm in 2000. The Sonics and Storm currently play in Key Arena, the Seahawks in Qwest Field, and Mariners in Safeco Field.

Championships

The city's first professional sports championship was brought to the city by the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917, when they became the first American team to win the coveted Stanley Cup by beating the Montréal Canadiens three games to one. They returned to the Stanley Cup finals twice more. Their first return, again versus Montreal, was in 1919; that series was cancelled due to an outbreak of influenza with the two teams tied at 2–2–1. The Metropolitans last went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1920, when they lost to the Ottawa Senators.

Beginning in 1978 the SuperSonics, with Lenny Wilkens as coach, began a two year period of making it to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, they lost to the Washington Bullets in seven games the first year, but redeemed themselves by defeating the Bullets four games to one in 1979 to win the NBA Championship. The next time the Sonics made it to Finals was in 1996 when they met the juggernaught known as Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls, to whom they lost in six games.

Another basketball championship trophy arrived in 2004, when the Seattle Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun two games to one to win the WNBA championship.

In 2006, the Seahawks won the NFC Championship only to be defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL.

Other Professional Teams

The Seattle Thunderbirds are a minor league ice hockey team that plays in Key Arena that arrived in Seattle in 1977 as the Seattle Breakers before changing to their current name in 1985.

Originally arriving in 1974, the men's soccer team Seattle Sounders played in Seattle until 1983 when the North American Soccer League collapsed due to overexpansion. The current Seattle Sounders men's team was founded in 1994 and plays in the USL First Division in Qwest Field. Six years later the men's team was joined by a women's team of the same name (now known as the Seattle Sounder Angels) which actually plays in a nearby suburb, Tukwila.

Championships

The Seattle Sounders won the A-League championship 1995 and 1996 and the US First Division championship in 2005.

The Seattle Thunderbirds were the Western Hockey League champions in 1997.

Collegiate Sports

In addition to professional sports, the University of Washington, Seattle University, and Seattle Pacific University field teams in a variety of sports, including football, basketball, and rowing. Their teams are known as the Huskies, Redhawks, and Falcons, respectively. The Husky football team has a following that ranks with those of the major professional teams in the city. In 1991, the Huskies shared an NCAA Division I collegiate football championship with the Hurricanes of the University of Miami.

Other Sports

Seattle is home to an all-female flat track roller derby league called the Rat City Rollergirls.

The Seattle Dojo, which was founded in 1902 is the oldest Judo Academy in the United States.

Sporting Events

Seattle has been host to number of important sporting events, the NFL Pro Bowl in 1977, the MLB All-Star Game in 1979 and 2001, the NBA All-Star Game in 1987, the Goodwill Games in 1990, and the NCAA Final Four in 1995.

In 1998, the Seattle City council failed to pass a resolution that would have allowed Seattle to be considered for the 2012 Olympics.

Infrastructure

Downtown Seattle at night

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Seattle

Even though Seattle is old enough that railways and streetcars once dominated its transportation system, the city is now largely dominated by automobiles. Seattle is also serviced by an extensive network of bus routes and two commuter rail routes connecting it to many of its suburbs.

Public Transportation

The first streetcars appeared in 1889 and were instrumental in the creation of a relatively well-defined downtown and strong neighborhoods at the end of their lines. Unfortunately, the advent of the automobile proved to be the death nell for rail in Seattle. Tacoma-Seattle railway service ended in 1929 and the Everett-Seattle service came to an end in 1939, replaced by inexpensive automobiles running on the recently developed highway system. With the removal or paving over of the rails on city streets and the arrival of trolleybuses, 1941 brought the end of streetcars in Seattle. This left only an extensive network of buses to provide mass transit within the city and throughout the region. [29]

Seattle is serviced by three transit authorities. King County Metro provides frequent stop bus service within the city and surrounding county, of which about fifteen of it's bus routes serving are hybrid buses using a combination of diesel fuel when outside the downtown area and overhead electrical wires while in the downtown area. Like Vancouver, British Columbia and San Francisco, California, Seattle is one of the few cities in North America that use electric trolleybuses.

The second transit authority that services Seattle is Sound Transit, which provides express bus service between the suburbs and downtown Seattle. Beginning September 18, 2000, Sound Transit began operating "Sounder", a commuter rail system that connects Seattle to Tacoma and another of other suburbs to the south and Everett other suburbs to the north. [30] Sound Transit also began construction on the 15.7 mile Central Link Light Railin November 2003 that will connect downtown Seattle to SeaTac Airport. Ultimately the Link Light Rail system will connect downtown to University of Washington (already funded) and Northgate Mall to the north, Bellevue and Redmond to the east, and Federal Way, Des Moines, and possibly as far south as Tacoma. [31]

The third, and possibly most interesting, transit authority is the largest network of ferries in the United States, third largest in the world, that connects Seattle to Bainbridge Island and Vashon Island in Puget Sound and Bremerton and Southworth on the Olympic Peninsula. This ferry system is operated by Washington State Ferries and consists of 10 routes (4 servicing Seattle), 20 terminals (2 in Seattle), and 28 vessels (8 servicing Seattle).[32]

A monorail line constructed for the 1962 Exposition still exists today between Seattle Center and downtown and is used by tourists and by commuters from the north, who often find it cheaper to park at Seattle Center and take the 1 mile route to work rather than taking their car downtown. On November 26, 2005 the monorail's two trains collided on a curve near Westlake Center where a design flaw made it impossible to pass safely. Both trains are currently being repaired at an estimated cost of $3-4 million and are not expected to be in operation until summer 2006.[33]

In the 1990s the city proposed building a longer monorail as a real commuter service replacing the existing tourist attraction, but nothing came of two voter approved initiatives in the 90s. Ultimately Seattle voters approved the creation of the 14 mile Green Line connecting West Seattle and Ballard to downtown in November 2002. Controversy over scope, governance, financial difficulties, and other issues led to two additional votes with the final vote, November 2005, bringing the Green Line to an end.[34]

The South Lake Union line of the Seattle Streetcar passed full City Council on June 27, 2005. The streetcar is "on track" to be built and operating by 2007. The 2.6 mile (4.2 km) streetcar line will run between Westlake Center in downtown Seattle and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Property owners along the right-of-way will pay about $25 million of the $45 million total capital cost through a local improvement district.[35]

Major Highways

While Seattle has its share of interstates, I-5 and I-90, and state routes, SR 99, SR 509, SR 520, SR 522, and SR 523, the most interesting features of its roadway system are the floating bridges. Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge, and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge are the 1st, 2nd, and 5th longest floating bridges in the world and connect Seattle to Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond across Lake Washington.[36] Another interesting feature is a double decked elevated structure called the Alaskan Way Viaduct that runs along the Seattle waterfront between the football and baseball stadiums to the south and the Battery Street Tunnel to the north.

Airports

Seattle's commercial airport is Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located in the city of SeaTac, which is named for the airport. It is operated by the Port of Seattle and provides service to many destinations throughout North America, Europe, and East Asia. The airport is a hub for Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary Horizon Air. Seattle is also a focus city for United Airlines.

Seattle's general-aviation airport is Boeing Field. Southwest Airlines recently requested permission to move its services from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field but did not receive permission.

Street layout

Main article: Street layout of Seattle

Seattle's streets are laid out in a cardinal-direction grid pattern, except in the central business district: early city leaders Arthur Denny and Carson Boren insisted on orienting their plats relative to the shoreline rather than to true North, so streets meet at unusual angles where Denny's plat meets "Doc" Maynard's to the south and Boren's to the north. This inconsistency creates frequent confusion for visitors and newcomers when they attempt to navigate the streets at the edges of the business district. Largely as a result of Seattle's topography, only one street, one highway, and one freeway run uninterrupted entirely through the city.

See Seattle neighborhoods for articles on individual neighborhoods, including information on major thoroughfares.

Medical centers and hospitals

Main article: Medical facilities of Seattle, Washington

Group Health Cooperative was one of the pioneers of managed care in the United States, the University of Washington is consistently ranked among the country's top ten leading institutions in medical research, and Seattle was a pioneer in the development of modern paramedic services with the establishment of Medic One in 1970.[37] In 1974, a 60 Minutes story on the success of the then four-year-old Medic One paramedic system called Seattle "the best place in the world to have a heart attack".

Most of Seattle's hospitals are located on First Hill. Harborview Medical Center, the public county hospital, is the only Level I trauma hospital serving Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Swedish Medical Center, Providence Medical Center and Virginia Mason Medical Center are also located in this part of Seattle. This concentration of hospitals resulted in the neighborhood's nickname "Pill Hill."

Located in the Laurelhurst neighborhood, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center is the pediatric referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Finally, in the University District is University of Washington Medical Center which, along with Harborview, is operated by the University of Washington.

Utilities

Seattle Steam Company

Main article: Utilities of Seattle

Unlike most neighboring cities, water and electricity are provided by public city agencies: Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light. Privately owned utility companies serving Seattle are Puget Sound Energy (natural gas), Seattle Steam Company (steam), Qwest (landline telephone service), and Comcast (and to a lesser extent Millennium Digital Media) (cable television).

Gallery

• 
  Looking down the Pike Street Hillclimb
• 
  Pike Place Market, main arcade
• The Seattle skyline, as seen from Lake Union
  The Seattle skyline, as seen from Lake Union
• A big Seattle skyline panorama view
  A big Seattle skyline panorama view

See also

• Arts in Seattle
• List of famous Seattleites
• List of Seattle parks
• List of Seattle sister cities
• Music of Washington, especially grunge music
• Seattle metropolitan area
• Seattle neighborhoods
• Seattle Police Department
• Port of Seattle
• Seattle Public Library
• Seattle Underground
• List of representations of Seattle in popular culture
• List of United States metropolitan statistical areas by population

References

• Jones, Nard. Seattle, Doubleday and Co., New York City, 1972
• Sale, Roger. Seattle: Past To Present. University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1976.
• Shear, Emmett. "Seattle: Booms and Busts". Author has granted blanket permission for material from that paper to be reused in Wikipedia. This article is no longer available.
• Speidel, William C. Sons of the Profits. Nettle Creek Publishing Company, Seattle, 1967.
• Speidel, William C. Doc Maynard, The Man Who Invented Seattle. Nettle Creek Publishing Company, Seattle, 1978
• Sara Clemence, Most Overpriced Places In The U.S. 2005, Forbes magazine online, 14 July 2005. Retrieved 11 Nov 2005.

External links

• Official Website
  • Seattle Datasheet (in several languages)
  • Seattle Channel - government and community TV (live streaming)
• History
  • Historylink.org provides an unparalleled collection of articles on the history of Seattle and Washington. See especially their history of Seattle and King County.
  • Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
  • National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
  • Seattle Times Seattle Timeline
• Directories
  • Open Directory Project: Seattle
• Guides
  • Seattle travel guide at Wikitravel
  • Seattle Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Traffic and Weather
  • Seattle Area Traffic (includes camera links)
  • National Weather Service Seattle office
• Community
  • Seattle Community Network
  • SeattleWiki
• Imagery
  • Photo gallery of Seattle
  • VR Seattle - Virtual Tour of Seattle