6 ms·

The chart is a little deceiving considering Redmond (Microsoft) and Everett (Boeing) are within the metro area of Seattle and just a few minutes drive. It would

The chart is a little deceiving considering Redmond (Microsoft) and Everett (Boeing) are within the metro area of Seattle and just a few minutes drive. It would be like publishing a stat about Manhattan but skipping companies in Brooklyn and Queens.

mulmen 9y ago
You forgot to mention Bellevue which is home to Microsoft, Expedia, Tableau, Concur, T-Mobile, Pokemon, Valve and others. All of those companies are more closely related to Amazon than Boeing. The chart is also deceiving because they label the next 40 companies as "everyone else" which is simply false. Also I don't see the definition of "prime office space". As far as I can tell the definition is "convenient for the purpose of this story".
- deegles 9y ago
  Microsoft's "home" is in Redmond. Tableau's "home" is in Fremont. The offices in Bellevue are just satellites.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    Microsoft has offices in Bellevue as well. If Tableau is in Fremont they moved and I missed it. They're still comparable to Amazon and in the Seattle metro area yet outside the "prime" locations.
- peatmoss 9y ago
  Tableau is entirely in Fremont is it not? And also Expedia is moving to Interbay, which should make the area along 15th to Ballard... interesting. Long winded aside: Provided we can get some more high-capacity, high-frequency, separated-infrastructure transit going, I'm all for more concentration in Seattle proper. Amazon catches flak for their South Lake Union campus, but as a person with a background in urban planning, they did the responsible thing. A suburban office park would have been the irresponsible thing. In the ~decade that I've been here, Seattle is already vastly changed from what it was. In general, I think that's fantastic, we just need to do better at making sure that our rising tides raise all boats—in other words, we need to do better at housing affordability for everyone note working in tech. In the Bay Area, we have a cautionary tale. We can do this.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    I'm almost certain Tableau started in Bellevue, I just didn't know they moved. When I was working on the eastside they had a big office downtown by the Microsoft towers. Expedia is moving to the old Amgen campus but currently they are still in Bellevue. I agree with your aside completely. What do you think of the light rail addition on I-90?
    - peatmoss 9y ago
      Connecting downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue is a grand idea—a far better idea than connecting the airport to downtown. Both are major centers of employment. My understanding is that there are some technical / engineering challenges to running light rail across via I-90, but smarter people than I seem to think that they are surmountable. In principle, I think that light rail is just another transit technology, and an expensive one at that. BRT could easily be done in lieu of light rail. In practice, however, Seattle seems to do a terrible job at BRT. Rapid Ride got watered down to the point where I simply call it "bus red transit." So, maybe we can't actually build good quality BRT, and we need the huge capital expenditure of light rail to do it right.
hobls 9y ago
I dunno about "a few minutes." Everett is at least an hour north of Seattle at most times of day. Redmond is also 30-45 minutes outside Seattle; it's very much not part of the city.
- banku_brougham 9y ago
  Large parts of Brooklyn and Queens are 90 minutes out of Manhattan during much of the day.
- mulmen 9y ago
  Redmond and the rest of the eastside are very much part of the Seattle area. Many people commute both ways. I agree that when you go as far North as Everett and as far south as Tacoma those are different areas.
  - hobls 9y ago
    I agree. But they're not at all part of the city.
    - mulmen 9y ago
      That's not really true. Seattle doesn't exist in a vacuum, they are all part of the same metro area. So sure, Portland is not the same city but you can't say Bellevue is entirely separate.
      - hobls 9y ago
        Of course it's true. The city of Seattle is a thing, and it doesn't include the eastside. And sure, they're part of the metro area, but so is Tacoma. Eastsiders are always trying to pretend they live in Seattle.
        mikestew 9y ago
        Eastsiders are always trying to pretend they live in Seattle. Don't flatter yourself, Eastsiders "pretend" out of convenience to those that don't obsess about Washington geography. I say "Seattle" because I don't expect someone from Iowa to have any clue where Redmond is. Just like I'd tell people "Charlotte, NC" when I really lived in Gastonia; nobody knows where the hell Gastonia, NC is, and being 20 miles away, "Charlotte" is close enough. I otherwise am quite content to have nothing to do with the city of Seattle proper, nor pretend that I am a resident.

mulmen 9y ago

You forgot to mention Bellevue which is home to Microsoft, Expedia, Tableau, Concur, T-Mobile, Pokemon, Valve and others. All of those companies are more closely related to Amazon than Boeing. The chart is also deceiving because they label the next 40 companies as "everyone else" which is simply false. Also I don't see the definition of "prime office space". As far as I can tell the definition is "convenient for the purpose of this story".

deegles 9y ago
Microsoft's "home" is in Redmond. Tableau's "home" is in Fremont. The offices in Bellevue are just satellites.
- mulmen 9y ago
  Microsoft has offices in Bellevue as well. If Tableau is in Fremont they moved and I missed it. They're still comparable to Amazon and in the Seattle metro area yet outside the "prime" locations.
peatmoss 9y ago
Tableau is entirely in Fremont is it not? And also Expedia is moving to Interbay, which should make the area along 15th to Ballard... interesting. Long winded aside: Provided we can get some more high-capacity, high-frequency, separated-infrastructure transit going, I'm all for more concentration in Seattle proper. Amazon catches flak for their South Lake Union campus, but as a person with a background in urban planning, they did the responsible thing. A suburban office park would have been the irresponsible thing. In the ~decade that I've been here, Seattle is already vastly changed from what it was. In general, I think that's fantastic, we just need to do better at making sure that our rising tides raise all boats—in other words, we need to do better at housing affordability for everyone note working in tech. In the Bay Area, we have a cautionary tale. We can do this.
- mulmen 9y ago
  I'm almost certain Tableau started in Bellevue, I just didn't know they moved. When I was working on the eastside they had a big office downtown by the Microsoft towers. Expedia is moving to the old Amgen campus but currently they are still in Bellevue. I agree with your aside completely. What do you think of the light rail addition on I-90?
  - peatmoss 9y ago
    Connecting downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue is a grand idea—a far better idea than connecting the airport to downtown. Both are major centers of employment. My understanding is that there are some technical / engineering challenges to running light rail across via I-90, but smarter people than I seem to think that they are surmountable. In principle, I think that light rail is just another transit technology, and an expensive one at that. BRT could easily be done in lieu of light rail. In practice, however, Seattle seems to do a terrible job at BRT. Rapid Ride got watered down to the point where I simply call it "bus red transit." So, maybe we can't actually build good quality BRT, and we need the huge capital expenditure of light rail to do it right.

hobls 9y ago

I dunno about "a few minutes." Everett is at least an hour north of Seattle at most times of day. Redmond is also 30-45 minutes outside Seattle; it's very much not part of the city.

banku_brougham 9y ago
Large parts of Brooklyn and Queens are 90 minutes out of Manhattan during much of the day.
mulmen 9y ago
Redmond and the rest of the eastside are very much part of the Seattle area. Many people commute both ways. I agree that when you go as far North as Everett and as far south as Tacoma those are different areas.
- hobls 9y ago
  I agree. But they're not at all part of the city.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    That's not really true. Seattle doesn't exist in a vacuum, they are all part of the same metro area. So sure, Portland is not the same city but you can't say Bellevue is entirely separate.
    - hobls 9y ago
      Of course it's true. The city of Seattle is a thing, and it doesn't include the eastside. And sure, they're part of the metro area, but so is Tacoma. Eastsiders are always trying to pretend they live in Seattle.
      - mikestew 9y ago
        Eastsiders are always trying to pretend they live in Seattle. Don't flatter yourself, Eastsiders "pretend" out of convenience to those that don't obsess about Washington geography. I say "Seattle" because I don't expect someone from Iowa to have any clue where Redmond is. Just like I'd tell people "Charlotte, NC" when I really lived in Gastonia; nobody knows where the hell Gastonia, NC is, and being 20 miles away, "Charlotte" is close enough. I otherwise am quite content to have nothing to do with the city of Seattle proper, nor pretend that I am a resident.