SEATTLE WORKS HARD FOR THE TOP SPOT

A money man gave me the short history of how important places draw the right people to them, how they work.

In the emerging Industrial Revolution world London was the center of the universe.

Anyone with dreams and aspirations of being somebody, of one day being The Man, moved to London.

Things changed with America rising as a world leader and turning the tide in WWI and WWII.

Post-war, the smart money aimed for New York City.

A new question echoes the old: New York or London.

Or?

Add another destination for ambitious millennials and over achievers of every stripe in 2017: Seattle.

Why? Because Seattle works harder for the money.

It’s easy to point to the way Seattle works with huge brands like Microsoft and Amazon dotting the landscape.

A peek under the cloud cover shows another story.

Not everyone in Seattle works with an Ivy League diploma in their back pocket.

Some of the big money names in Seattle attended east coast schools before settling things in the west.

Did they do it all by themselves? That stopped a while ago. Once the money builds and builds and builds there’s a risk of it falling over.

Then you need the Right People.

If Paul Allen’s pile of dough falls over, it falls close to home. The Vulcan crane in the top image might not be Paul Allen’s Vulcan, but if you look to connect names, there it is.

The Vulcan crane is one of many looming over the Seattle skyline prepping the city infrastructure for new arrivals. ‘Build it and they will come’ has turned into, ‘They’re coming so let’s be ready.’

City planning by industrial titans? Seattle works toward a future to celebrate.

Who isn’t looking forward to a Seattle version of 30 Rock and an outdoor ice rink like Rockefeller Center, or Carnegie Hall?

Seattle works for more name recognition. Why not hang names on the new building boom to fix them for history.

Too often researchers don’t look under the cloud cover of current history. And that’s today. What will they do in the near future?

Like the revered names that echo from the past, a new Seattle is being built on the labor of unknown workers.

For them Seattle needs a new landmark.

Will it start with Vulcan? Microsoft? Amazon?