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| Seattle is a pretty city with lots of interesting things to see. |
Seattle is a beautiful vibrant city with an interesting history.
During our recent visit to Seattle, I have learned that it is the fastest growing city in the US.
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| Our tour guide helping us to learn more about Seattle |
From our two historian and professional tour guides in Seattle, we learned that Seattle has gone through two big economic booms.
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| Learning to read the map from the manhole cover on the ground in Seattle |
The first one was the lumber boom in the 1850's.
People harvested the trees, built timber mills/ saw mills to process the lumber. This boom started the arrival and settlement of people into Seattle.
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| Iron Pergola, Pioneer Square, Seattle |
The second economic boom Seattle experienced happened in the 1890's fueled by the Klondike Gold Rush.
Tens of thousands of gold seekers came through the city buying supplies for their journeys to the Yukon. Outfitting these fortune seekers helped the merchants' businesses in Seattle flourish and bringing much economic growth in the area.
Seattle is experiencing its third boom - the High Tech Boom.
Many high tech companies located in Seattle and its suburbs such as Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing which hire thousands of tech and skilful people to work for them.
The week we were visiting Seattle, Amazon opened its first
(and America's first) cashier free grocery store in the city.
Using technology on their cell phones, customers can shop in the store and pay for their shopping without going through any cashiers
It is evident that there is an economic boom in the city with many building and construction projects happening all over the place.
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| Building cranes are lit up in downtown Seattle at night |
Everywhere we turned, we saw cranes and heavy machinery in use building new high rises, office buildings or doing road construction work.
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| One of many new condo buildings, Seattle |
There are about 1000 people are moving into the city of Seattle every week.
Therefore, the demand for housing is pretty high. Unfortunately, economic progress also brings with it the rapid increase in rent, shortage of affordable housing for many and and consequently, homelessness.
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| Donwtown Seattle |
There are homeless problems in many big cities in North America. Toronto, our home town is no exception to this problem.
However, we were surprised to see how many homeless people scattered throughout the city of Seattle.
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| Lots of construction projects going on in the city currently |
We were approached directly by panhandlers no less than three times during our 5 day visit to the city. Harmless and polite, the homeless can be seen everywhere in Seattle especially in the downtown area.
Respecting the dignity of those less fortunate folks, I did not wish to take any pictures of those seeking shelter on the streets.
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| Many beautiful and manificnet buildings abound in Seattle |
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| New buildings near the Seattle Waterfront |
We saw wealth; we saw poverty on this visit to the city.
As Seattle is experiencing its third economic boom in the city's history, many of its residents are getting wealthier.
I sincerely hope that its less fortunate people would not be left behind or be forgotten to sleep in the cold at night.
R.T.
A Recent Visitor to Seattle
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
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