Seattle: Again The Place To Be
Seattle nears pre-pandemic visitor levels in impressive turnaround
Visit Seattle released preliminary figures for 2023 at its annual meeting Wednesday, and found that the region hosted 37.8 million visitors last year, an 8.9% increase from 2022. That’s just 10% less than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
Foot Traffic Rises Again in Downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle Association: Slow recovery continues
Nearly 1.9 million visitors came downtown last month. Downtown averaged 85,000 daily workers, a 16% increase from February 2023. That, however, is only 57% compared to the same period in 2020, right before the pandemic.
Hayden Homes: A Culture of Caring | Sponsored
Giving back, changing lives
Since 1989, Hayden Homes has worked hard to build a reputation for the quality of our homes and the passionate support we give to the communities in which we live and work. The balance of building and giving is essential to who we are. It’s what connects our people, passion, and purpose. We believe in…
Seattle’s Neighborhoods: Creating Purpose and Place
The March/April issue, out now, highlights why the city is such a special place
In more than three decades as a journalist, I’ve never yelled “stop the press.” But I will say “hot off the press,” which leads me to the new issue of Seattle magazine. In our March/April issue, we continue on our mission to elevate and celebrate Seattle’s position as a world-class city by emphasizing one of…
The Upside of Downtown Seattle
Activity is up, crime is down, people are returning
More than 106,000 residents now call downtown Seattle home. Thirty-one construction projects are underway. More than 3.5 million out-of-town visitors spent time in the city’s core last summer, a post-pandemic high. Those are just a few of the numbers cited at Thursday’s annual State of Downtown summit held by the Downtown Seattle Association. While challenges…
A Delicious Start to Women Making History Month
Start by supporting these women-owned restaurants, wineries, and breweries
March has long been observed as Women’s History Month, with International Women’s Day being celebrated on March 8. Here in Washington state, March is now “Women Making History Month” for the first time. National Women’s Day was first observed in the United States on Feb. 28, 1908, to honor the garment worker’s 1908 strike in…
Women Making History Month
Grace Yoo seeks to reshape the Washington Women’s Commission
Grace Yoo sums up the mission of the Washington Women’s Commission in five seemingly simple words: “When women thrive, Washington thrives.” Yoo, a former Starbucks executive and diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service, took over as director of the Women’s Commission 10 months ago. Her mission: to raise its profile. It was created on a…
Jon Jones: The Mindful CEO
Jon Jones isn’t your ordinary boss, and Brighton Jones isn’t your ordinary company
Jon Jones is a business executive by trade and a guiding light by nature. The culture at the wealth management firm he co-founded with Charles Brighton 25 years ago, Brighton Jones, is a mix of spiritual, practical and, when appropriate, lighthearted. Acronyms such as “MESI” and “RLP” spill from his tongue like a free-flowing river….
Downtown’s ‘It’ Man
Jon Scholes is leading the effort to bring downtown Seattle back. It’s working
For Jon Scholes, the state of downtown Seattle is deeply personal. As a longtime resident, he’s keenly invested in downtown’s post-pandemic recovery. As president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, he’s inarguably the neighborhood’s most fervent advocate. He keeps close tabs on store openings, crime rates, transportation issues, and public policy decisions. And he’s…
‘It’s Not About the Visitors’
Visit Seattle CEO Tammy Blount-Canavan reveals some secrets about tourism
Tammy Blount-Canavan calls herself a “travel evangelist.” Visit Seattle calls her its CEO. Blount-Canavan had big shoes to fill when she took over the regional destination marketing organization last year from Tom Norwalk, who served as CEO for almost 14 years. Blount-Canavan, who lives in downtown Seattle just blocks from her office, has a long…
How Four Letters and AI Can Create a Cure
François Vigneault’s Shape Therapeutics seeks to find answers for incurable disease
The impetus for François Vigneault’s decades-long love affair with biology was actor Dustin Hoffman. Vigneault watched the movie Outbreak in 1995, in which Hoffman plays an Army epidemiologist searching for a cure for a quickly spreading and deadly virus. “That’s what I want to do,” he thought. The movie motivated Vigneault, who was serving in…
The Fixer: Alicia Crank
Seattle CityClub executive director Alicia Crank wants to inject respect into civic discourse, one conversation at a time
Alicia Crank wants you to know this: She’s on a mission to elevate civic discussion in Seattle and beyond. Crank, a long time fundraising executive who has worked at AtWork!, YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish, and CityYear Seattle, took the executive director role at Seattle CityClub 18 months ago. The nonprofit seeks to improve…
Community, Coffee, Culture
Darnesha Weary has big plans for Black Coffee Northwest. Many don’t even involve caffeine
DarNesha Weary first bonded with her husband, Erwin, over coffee. Their first date was in a coffee shop. It makes sense, then, that the couple — married for 25 years — now own Black Coffee Northwest. Caffeine, though, isn’t the most important part of the growing company. The Wearys launched Black Coffee Northwest in June…
Building a Better Nugget
Rebellyous Foods founder Christie Lagally is bringing plant-based chicken to the masses
As the name of her company implies, Christie Lagally believes that rules are meant to be broken. Lagally in 2017 founded Seattle-based Rebellyous Foods, a company whose proprietary technology allows it to produce plant-based chicken nuggets, tenders, and patties at a fraction of the cost of competitors. Lagally, a former mechanical engineer at The Boeing…
A Passion for Many Missions
KD Hall has racked up a long list of accomplishments. She’s not done yet
KD Hall launched her own eponymous communications firm. Two years later, she founded the KD Hall Foundation, a nonprofit that offers educations and workforce preparation and workshops for women and girls. She is also a four-time Emmy nominee who has produced several short films and a 10-episode television talk show series. She was recently appointed…
On Reflection: Don’t Write Off Seattle’s Commercial Core Just Yet
The city makes big gains in real estate trends report
Thanks to Seattle’s battered but still significant tech sector, the region ranked an impressive No. 10 among metros in all states in the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2024 report. “Ratings have been volatile in recent years, mostly due to the changing fortunes of the tech sector,” the annual report from the Urban Land Institute…
Washington State Statshot: Economic Snapshot 2024
Aerospace jobs are on the rise, but building permits are declining
Nobody has a crystal ball. Economists with the state of Washington, however (and everywhere else), are analyzing what they think the economy will soon look like. Here are projections for the statewide economy in 2024 based on sophisticated analytical models. They do not necessarily reflect current market conditions. 5.3%: State unemployment rate. 5.4%: U.S. unemployment…
Catching up with Michelle Li
Very Asian co-founder remains a fan of Seattle
Michelle Li lives and works in St. Louis now, but the former KING-5 broadcaster will always consider Seattle a second home. Li famously created the Very Asian Foundation after a viewer in St. Louis left a racist voicemail telling her to “keep her Korean to herself” and accusing her of being “very Asian” after she…
Statshot: Talking Tech
High salaries, remote workers make Washington state the nation’s top tech employer
Watch out, Silicon Valley. Yet another study pegs Washington as the top state for tech. Business consulting firm Venture Smarter analyzed median hourly wages, the number of people employed in tech roles per 1,000 jobs, and also added the percentage of remote workers to devise a “Tech-Friendly Index.” Washington has the highest number of remote…
Empowering Black Seattleites in Pursuit of Homeownership
How Seattle’s lack of affordable housing is affecting its Black residents
As a Black woman and financial advisor deeply engrained in Seattle’s community, I’ve witnessed firsthand the struggles many Black individuals face in securing affordable housing…
The Battle Against Bias
How to create an inclusive, psychologically safe workplace
Creating inclusive spaces for folks with expanded gender identities can have a profound impact on both mental and physical health, and the workplace should be no exception. Employers have the unique opportunity to create a sense of belonging for individuals who might not feel inclusion in other areas of their lives. How do you create…
Second-Chance Hiring
Would your organization hire formerly incarcerated individuals?
Even though many studies show that formerly incarcerated talent has equal-to-better job performance stats when compared to peers, some organizations still have systemic bias against employees and applicants with a criminal history. If employers are truly committed to infusing DEIB into their practices, instituting intentional fair-chance hiring practices must be considered. Here are some frequently…
Respect, Not Agreement
We can agree to disagree. Let's just be civil about it
“Can we all get along?” While not an uncommon phrase, it became part of the American fabric on May 1, 1992, when Rodney King posed this question at a press conference after his beating from four police officers went viral. I was a senior in high school at the time, and it was both a…