So Here's a Strategy: Seattle-as-Hellhole
By Joel Connelly
Seattle basked in the national limelight some years back. We were Americas most livable city, gorgeously located and with a booming, technology-fueled economy. We placed near the top as a place to be young and to find rewarding employment or even romance, in most of those magazine best places nationwide surveys.
People magazine depicted a young architect and family on a Saturday morning trip to the Pike Place Market. The cover of Newsweek was decorated with a picture of transplanted Washington, D.C., pundit Michael Kinsley wearing rain gear. He wore it when we went on a subsequent backpack trip to Twisp Pass.
We were the host city for an Asia-Pacific leaders summit. Arriving in America, Chinese leaders made us the first stop. With the demise of the Soviet Union, we were headquarters for three entities bent on world domination Amazon.com, Microsoft, and Starbucks.
Nowadays, however, right-wing media and Trump are sullying our reputation and depicting the Emerald City as a crime-infested hellhole. Theyre working to generate fear and are pretty damned artful at it. We are the target of the dark arts of disinformation.
https://www.postalley.org/2025/09/11/so-heres-a-strategy-seattle-as-hellhole/