Fifty years after the Boeing bust, Seattle faces another recovery challenge

“Will be the last person to leave SEATTLE – turn off the lights.”

The words appeared on a single billboard for just two weeks in April 1971, the idea of ​​two real estate agents. However, the term went “viral” before the word was applied to such things, and it remains iconic. (Among the best spin-offs: “Will be the last person with ethics on Wall Street …)

“It got weird for Jim and me,” real estate agent Bob McDonald told my colleague Erik Lacitis in 2009. “We picked these people up at the airport and on the way downtown they were so surprised that it was even a city with people walking around and shops. I think they expected something from World War II. “

McDonald and Jim Youngren came up with the billboard as a jape for the dominant national image of Seattle after the Boeing bankruptcy. Incoming visitors would see the sign – near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport – but then head into town and find a much better situation here.

Now, half a century later, Seattle faces another historic economic challenge that no billboard can capture. In this grumpy, irritable age, no one would dare try.

In 1971, Seattle was much more dependent on Boeing, which had shed more than 62,000 mostly local jobs since its peak employment in 1967. This is due to weak sales for the new 747, declining orders for other models and the cancellation of federal aid for the planned supersonic transport.

Back then, Seattle was the heart of Boeing, not just an outpost viewed with suspicion by another headquarters. Microsoft was four years before it was founded and eight years before it moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bellevue. Jeff Bezos only founded Amazon in 1994.

Today, in many ways, our situation is almost the opposite of what it was 50 years ago.

People still come here. Two of the five big tech giants are headquartered in the region and are doing well, at least in terms of local employment and stock price.

Boeing’s future in the region is more uncertain with the consolidation of its 787 assembly in South Carolina, the aftermath of the 737 MAX issues, and a slowdown in certification of the new 777X. But the region’s economy is much less dependent on the aircraft manufacturer.

Instead, Seattle is awakening from what some economists aptly referred to as a medically induced coma – the shutdown to fight the pandemic. Restaurants, stationary retailers, cultural organizations and tourism were particularly affected. This is a challenge for cities across the country. And some of the losses will be permanent, especially in retail and hospitality.

But Seattle’s comeback is made difficult by factors not all cities face. The riots and looting that spanned peaceful protests against a police officer’s murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have been particularly detrimental to small businesses here. Crime is increasing. Homelessness and camps are out of control despite hundreds of millions being spent on the problem.

Unlike almost any other city, our activist majority on the city council is anti-business, particularly to Amazon, Seattle’s largest private sector employer. Hardly any member has any experience in the private sector.

It’s not that Seattle is alien to violent protests. In 1970 alone, weeks of student protests followed after President Richard Nixon extended the Vietnam War to Cambodia and the Ohio National Guard killed four students at Kent State University. The Seattle police force was uncompromisingly tough.

Other comparisons and contrasts:

In 1971, Seattle was not homeless per se. It had a skid row and plenty of one-room occupancy hotels for the down and out. There were tramp laws – no camping on sidewalks or in city parks. The mentally ill had been institutionalized.

Today’s complex situation has its roots in the 1970s when the Supreme Court overturned the tramp laws and most people with mental illnesses were released from asylums. Changing fire regulations and deadly fires in SROs have severely depleted the supply of very low-income accommodation that was conveniently located near social facilities.

City council members in 1971 were very different than they are today. For example, Wayne Larkin, a former Seattle firefighter and police officer, helped start Medic One. An accomplished violinist, Jeanette Williams was a park champion and an early advocate of rail transport. Liem Eng Tuai, an Air Force veteran, later became a district attorney and superior court judge. George Cooley was a businessman.

This council consisted of both Republicans and Democrats. They were part of a reform movement that, as a 1993 Seattle Times editorial said, “helped transform a sleepy corporate town into a city known for its quality of life.”

Boeing gradually recovered in the late 1970s, but most importantly, the city’s economy diversified over the next few decades, culminating in its robust tech sector.

Seattle bounced back from the loss of local banks and the retail apocalypse in the early 1990s when Frederick & Nelson and I. Magnin department stores closed.

Nordstrom has turned the former Frederick’s into its flagship store. A new headquarters were built in Seattle, including Starbucks, which culminated on the Amazon campus. Small street-level retail continued to operate.

As a result of this resilience, the 1999 World Trade Organization riots and the loss of Washington Mutual in the Great Recession were relative speed bumps.

In recent years, a left-wing council has issued further burdens on businesses. Some, like a higher minimum wage, were made possible by Seattle’s wealth. Others, like the JumpStart tax for larger companies, hurt the city’s competitiveness.

The council majority’s priorities are “justice,” funding homeless services, shifting funds from public safety and a host of other left-wing proposals. It shows little understanding of the damage the pandemic has done to businesses – the tax base for their aspirations – or a willingness to encourage businesses to rebuild and return to offices.

Superstar cities like Seattle have perks built in (talent, headquarters, etc.). They don’t send their best fortune to the heartland. But few face Seattle’s political and social headwinds (New York’s likely next mayor is a former police captain who ran on a law-and-order platform, a sharp contrast to politics here).

Fifty years later, the lights are still on in Seattle. But the city’s ingenuity will be put to the test in the years to come.