WHY MILLENNIALS ARE AVOIDING SMALL-TOWN AMERICA

[LisaM]

4. This is happening in Seattle - big time - it's not the city I moved to.

The downtown retail core - what's left - is mostly bland chains. The Bon Marche and Frederick and Nelson are long gone. The only bookstore in the downtown area proper (other than used bookstores which, yes, I like too) is Barnes & Noble (Elliott Bay moved from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill a while ago). The working waterfront is diminished. The old union halls are becoming luxury housing and boutique hotels. The music scene is almost extinct. Places like 7-11 and Jersey Mike's (a sub chain) will suddenly open up 5 locations simultaneously while the mom and pop delis disappear. People are being evicted all over and their affordable housing knocked down. You should see the banks of I-5 driving in to downtown from the North end - where there aren't clusters of people living in tents, there is their detritus - a lot of trash, ripped blankets, food containers, bags.....

I don't really know where to go from here. When I moved here (late 80s) there was a vibrant music scene, not just the famous bands, but Pioneer Square was hopping with jazz clubs and a joint cover. There were still lots of dive bars. You could get a cheap breakfast. The bus system was still run by the city. And there was still a pro basketball team.

Millennials are pouring into the city and while I appreciate some things - particularly their tolerance on social issues - I can't make out what they want the city to be. A huge suburb? (There's a big Target in the middle of downtown that gets a lot of business). A place that pulls down the shades at 10:00 p.m. (downtown is pretty dead by that point)? Just luxury apartments where they can den while the streets are quiet, or worse, dangerous? A place where income disparity seems to grow by the minute?

I moved here to be in a relationship, but the things I appreciated about the city when I came are vanishing so quickly it's not even funny. Gone are the longshoremen who you might see in a bar after work, gone are the 24-hour diners (they call them "broilers" and there used to be a few of them), long gone is the original music scene, gone is any semblance of this being a place for the working class, gone are the bookstores, gone are the little jazz clubs, gone are the affordable hotels (moved for Amazon HQ), gone is affordable rent, gone is the ride-free zone that used to welcome people downtown, gone is almost everything that gave this city its character. And for what? Where do people shop and eat? I don't want to live in a town where everyone shops online (this used to be a great place to shop), and where new restaurants with $15 craft cocktails pop up and then leave because they're priced out, while there's nowhere to go get a couple of cheap beers with friends after work. Almost gone is the wonderful quirky "gayborhood" that used to be Capitol Hill - I have seen people literally stepping over evicted and now homeless people to go into the latest bar or restaurant and the vibe that area used to have has vanished. And disappearing are the wonderful neighborhoods that used to be a hallmark of the city.

Seattle was built on unions and on labor. I feel as if the newer workers are trying to turn it into something else, but I can't even figure out what.