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Category Archives: Seattle

This week’s city reading: dying alt-weeklies, recanting Richard Florida, and anti-urbanist Margaret Atwood

What Cities Lose When an Alt-Weekly Dies (David Dudley, Citylab) “The thing the Voice and its descendants gave readers was something more important than the occasional scoop: They served as critical conveyors of regional lore and scuttlebutt and intel. Dailies may have told you what was going on; alt-weeklies helped make people locals, a cranky cohort united by common […]

This week’s city reading: how Angelenos evolve, what “ghost signs” reveal, and the weakness of “best cities” lists

Why the ‘best cities to live in’ list rewards the safe and the clean (Gavin Haynes, The Guardian) “The Economist’s clientele are exactly the people David Goodhart characterised as the ‘Anywheres’ in The Road To Somewhere, his take on the populist revolt that gave us Brexit, Trump and global politics’ present weirdness. Unlike the more geographically immobile […]

The History of Cities in 50 Buildings: The Original Starbucks

With more than 21,500 stores in 64 countries and territories, the Starbucks coffee chain has enjoyed the image of omnipresence for so long that jokes about walking across the street from one branch straight into another have themselves become clichéd. In certain cities, it’s simply the reality: Seattle, for instance, where the now universally recognised […]

Just 24 hours left to fund Notebook on Cities and Culture’s Year in Seattle on Kickstarter

As of this writing, just 24 hours remain in the Kickstarter drive to fund Notebook on Cities and Culture‘s sixth season, A Year in Seattle. But we still need to raise more than $3300 before the show can go on. If you haven’t backed the season yet, you still have an opportunity to help make it happen, get postcards […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture’s Year in Seattle Preview: The Young Cynic with Peter Bagge

This is a special preview episode of A Year in Seattle, Notebook on Cities and culture’s upcoming sixth season. Or rather, it will come as long as we raise its budget on Kickstarter by Saturday. Check out its Kickstarter page to find out how you can help make it happen. Thanks. In downtown Seattle, Colin talks with […]

The Notebook on Cities and Culture Guide to the Pacific Northwest

The Notebook on Cities and Culture Guide to the Pacific Northwest indexes all the show’s Pacific Northwest city-recorded and Pacific Northwest city-related interviews. But 52 more Seattle interviews could appear over the next year if we successfully Kickstart season six, A Year in Seattle, before Saturday morning. Check out its Kickstarter page to find out how you can help […]

Notebook on Cities and Culture’s Year in Seattle Kickstarts Now!

As I announced last week, Notebook on Cities and Culture‘s sixth season will take place in Seattle — for an entire year. As we together explore the city of grunge, Microsoft, Amazon, the Space Needle, Buddy Bradley, Archie McPhee, sleeplessness, and Starbucks, we’ll discover how much there really is to it in at least 52 in-depth conversations […]

And Notebook on Cities and Culture’s next destination is…

Over its past five seasons, Notebook on Cities and Culture has taken you to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Osaka, Kyoto (see the show’s guide to Japan), Seoul, and Busan (see the just-completed Korea Tour), to name only a few extremely interesting Pacific Rim cities. Next season, the show has another one in its sights for […]

Guardian Cities: Visiting South Lake Union, the Seattle Downtown Amazon Built

I often told myself in adolescence that, even though I’d had to grow up in a none-too-exciting Seattle suburb, at least my particular none-too-exciting Seattle suburb boasted the headquarters of both Microsoft and Nintendo of America. Though I had to ride my bike for the better part of an hour to reach so much as […]

Guardian Cities: To Know a City, Simply Know its Transport

My recent, first trip to London presented me with two surprises: the reach, convenience, and frequency of the tube, and the volume of Londoners’ complaints about the reach, convenience, and frequency of the tube. English friends had explained to me, not without pride, the importance of grumbling to the national character, but I still want […]