Tag: lifestyle

Some thoughts on Seattle’s growth  

Carl Setzer

Lately I’ve been considering growth. Seattle’s been growing in a huge number of ways: jobs, cost of living, rents, population. This growth changes things: traffic, greater economic fragility, more economic stress on nearly everyone. I

I read an article yesterday saying that San Francisco’s poverty line income was a bit above $114k. Seattle is getting close. 

With this growth and pressure on finances, I see this region’s density increasing. I expect the single family home will slowly vanish as land costs continue to climb. Eventually, multi-family will be the only way to earn enough return on land investment for builders. 

I expect well see lots of Seattle neighborhoods becoming predominantly multi-family, actually a region of apartments condos stretching from the center out to the burbs. 

I do wonder if there’s an equilibrium. Will we get to a point where things will stabilize? 

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

Cars

Carl Setzer

As a “true” American, I have a deep love for the automobile. However, I’m a bit urban in my love. Though I have a deep respect for the historical American auto (watch my head turn after a Hudson or Packard), for my Modern car passions, I turn to Europe.

German cars, mostly Volkswagen, garner my focus (It is important to note that I currently drive a Honda Accord; necessity, not passion). (I don’t know if I would have a wider range of loves if my wallet were fatter.) Comically, my favorite VW has been the van. Though discontinued in the US, the Multivan still exists. The fact that I covet one of these, and would be willing to ship it to the States (with a few years of saving my pennies, of course) marks me as a geek (as if I needed another marker). I guess I’ll need to put the Linux penguin on the back window.

What I find fascinating is the “why”. I can’t put my finger on a particular wow factor. Some of it comes from my cyclist/outdoorsy days, where the VW van was so cool…I could transport my bike and not need to pull the wheels off! I get to my destination, pull out bike and ride. Woo hoo! Perhaps it’s the link between the hippie and the bus. I think that it’s pretty deep, deeper than the cool lines and advanced design. Because, let’s face it, even the Multivan is not radically designed.

Well, who knows. I do love the things, though. And, yes, I’m planning my trip to the holy land of Wolfsburg someday.