I hail from Lynnwood, part of Snohomish county, just north of Seattle. My life has been dominated by news, etc, focused on the city ~20 miles to the south. I knew the mayor of Seattle before I knew that Lynnwood had a mayor. Living in the shadow of such a large city has made me wonder how to break free.
Washington is a large state, but you’d think it entailed one city: Seattle. Yet we’re so much more. Bellevue is just across a floating bridge, and quite a different place. Then there’s Spokane, or Yakima, or Walla-Walla, or Everett or Bellingham, or….
These differences are significant. Politically, socially, culturally, even ecologically; each region is different, and dramatically so. The main differentiator, in Washington, seems to be east/west of the Cascade mountain range. Climate-wise, west-side has the rainy disposition that Seattle is famous form. Yet, on the east-side, we have desert; some of the driest places in the country. Economically the east is predominately agrarian. West is subdivided by Seattle’s influence. The Puget Sound basin is mainly industrial and post-industrial urban work. The rest seems a balance of extraction (timber, mainly) and fishing.
My goal is to expand on the stereotype of this region. Show how diverse we are as a state in all manner. I’m glad to have you join my journey.
