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You know the narrative by now. Seattle is dying. The CVS downtown is closing. Starbucks is making itself scarce. The Seattle of yesteryear is gone. Instead, we are all living in hell. Leafy green hell. The way the Chamber of Commerce tells it, we’re on the brink of becoming a bust town. People are one straw away from packing it up and moving to Idaho (or at least Bellevue).
Except, that’s not true. Their feelings are not the facts, or the cold, hard data from the new and exciting world of Stranger polling. The pollsters (kind, sapiosexuals) at DHM Research, a reputable, non-partisan PNW-based public opinion research firm surveyed 600 people in Seattle on their thoughts and feelings about this city, its politics, and its issues.
We found nearly 70 percent of Seattleites are satisfied with their quality of life in this city. Seattle is, by all metrics from the people who actually live in it, thriving. When we called a few of them up, they gave us the strong sense that they were grateful to be in this city and state while Donald Trump is in office. Plus, it’s a nice place to be. This is a city of transplants, but it’s also a city of simple pleasures. The water. The trees. The rats. It’s bursting with life.
“They’ve been saying Seattle’s been dying for long enough that I’m pretty sure it’s not, unless it has a long-term condition,” says Lucas Combos, 33.
Of course, a minority of people are dissatisfied with their lives in Seattle—and they are way overrepresented by the richest and the poorest in our sample.
The richest, most conservative, most unhappy people are primarily voting for institutional candidates to keep things as they are. The most satisfied people were neither the richest, or the poorest. They were comfortable-ish, and generally progressive.
But in a city of transplants, “progressive” is not a one-size fits all term. To a Floridian, Bruce Harrell seems very progressive. The difference between him and Katie Wilson, while substantial, is not the yawning gap between Bruce Harrell and Governor Ron DeSantis.
Why ask these questions at all? When the powerful are telling you that this place is a shithole and that everyone agrees with them, this data helps cut through their bullshit, and raises important questions about the narrative that is guiding city policy and shaping our lives in major ways. We’re not very good at saying what we think in Seattle. But we’re really good at answering surveys.
Here’s what we found.
Follow the Money
Other than political leaning, which is the biggest difference on almost any question, DHM told us, money is the most dramatic indicator of satisfaction in our sample. People who make less than $75,000 are 58 percent satisfied, and 38 percent dissatisfied. People who make $75,000 to $100,000 are 73 percent satisfied and 19 percent dissatisfied. People who make $150,000 to $200,000 are 86 percent satisfied and only 11 percent dissatisfied. This is peak happiness, which drops off a shelf when salaries break $200,000. Let’s call it the gold ceiling.
Among the $200,000 to $350,000 group, 68 percent are satisfied with their quality of life in Seattle, and 25 percent are dissatisfied. The $350,000+ group is 56 percent satisfied and 36 percent dissatisfied. Presumably, they’re frowning with a lakefront view.
So, generally speaking, those who have enough to live comfortably, but not excessively are the happiest—and most progressive—here.
Amy Bates is one of them. She’s in her late 50s, living the You’ve Got Mail life without the threat of Tom Hanks. She worked for Amazon in the tech boom, got her bag, opened up Madison Books in Madison Park Beach and lived “very satisfied” ever after. Though she is “one of the gentrifiers,” something she didn’t realize when she moved to the Central District in the 1990s. She makes between $100,000 and $150,000, or peak happiness.
“I was younger and an idiot and didn’t realize what I was doing,” she says, guiltily.
“I really like being here because the community is coming together to support each other, and the arts and foodbanks,” Bates says. “It gives me hope with everything going on.”
Seattle politics are a dream compared to what lurks in the forest, beyond the borders of King County (Republicans, guns, other counties, oh my.) Bates recognizes that our bubble is blessed, and so is she.
“All feelings of Amazon aside, I wouldn’t be here if I wouldn’t have had that early tech opportunity and gotten that money from that,” Bates said. “I would be priced out.”
Loving a place is not the same as being satisfied with your life. Lifelong Seattleite Ana Erikson is preparing to move to Portland. Not because she wants to, but because she has to. Erikson is a young mother with a 3-year-old who makes between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. Her husband is a pre-school teacher, so their child’s tuition is free. If he wasn’t, “I don’t think we’d be able to afford rent,” she says.
And they don’t even want to be renters. But home ownership in Seattle is out of reach. In Portland, they’d at least have a shot.
“I feel like housing affordability has been getting harder and harder for the last two decades and nothing has significantly been done and it’s only been getting worse,” she says.
We wanted to talk to a sad, rich person, but Mayor Bruce Harrell wasn’t available. Neither were the sad rich people who answered our survey.
But we did talk to a happy one.
Christopher Cowart is in his 40s, “somewhat satisfied” with his life in downtown Seattle, and he’s “filthy tech money” fucking rich. He reports a household income of over $500,000 a year. Based on our survey, he should be a glowering conservative. He’s progressive. When our pollsters asked explain what that meant to him, he answered: “This isn’t a philosophy exam.” Right, it’s a poll.
Cowart has his criticisms, but he’s an optimist.
“Some of the things I’m happy with are the way the city seems to be trying to improve itself,” Cowart says. “We often have our heart in the right place even if we don’t have the execution down.”
We have buses and trains, but they’re unreliable, he says. He’s noticed that an “army” of people are caring for the streets downtown, but stop when they reach Capitol Hill.
“That vibrant neighborhood is way less taken care of,” he says.
We need to make the hard decisions. Piss off the drivers and build a dependable system, which actually makes their lives better, too. Plan comprehensively in our Comprehensive Plan.
“Can we pretty please have a progressive income tax already? Pretty please?” he says.
Shiny Happy People
According to the poll data, more Wilson voters (79 percent) are satisfied with their lives than Harrell voters (66 percent). This is also true of Dionne Foster and Erika Evans voters, compared to people voting for their more conservative counterparts. Happier people are voting progressive, and for change. The people who are unhappy are voting for more of the same.
Duane Duval, 69, describes himself as “pretty affluent.” He’s fed up with Seattle and he supports the politicians who’ve been running Seattle for the last four years, he says. They include Bruce Harrell, City Council President Sara Nelson, City Attorney Ann Davison, and city council hopeful Rachael Savage.
“The city’s gone from almost crime free to almost a crime spree,” Duval says. He grew up in Detroit, so he knows about crime, he says. “The city council has rolled out the welcome mat for drug addicts in this city. ”
Despite them being the powermakers in charge of the city he sees falling apart, Duval wants to give them another shot. He thinks Harrell has some good ideas. If things don’t change, Duval’s not sure he’ll stay.
“There was gunfire in my neighborhood and I’m pretty affluent,” he says. “That’s scary to me.”
He’s been intending to buy a home in his neighborhood, but isn’t sure if that’s in the cards now. “I don’t want to get shot for my wallet or whatever.”
Mostly, he doesn’t believe any type of social programs will work because people don’t take care of things that are given to them, he says. Additionally, making the city affordable “never works,” according to Duval.
“What we need to do is build people up, not tear the city down,” Duval says.
Max, who didn’t want to use his last name, moved to Seattle from Philadelphia eight years ago. His wife grew up here. Happy wife, happy life, right? But also happy Max, happy Max… right?
Max is a socialist who is “somewhat satisfied” with his life here, which is about the most you can ask of a socialist living under capitalism. He loves the climate, the people, the history, the nature—the usual public goods that lure outsiders to this provincial hamlet. He’s fortunate, he says, with caveats. Philly is phunky. Seattle is sterile. The affordability crisis is choking out offbeat places, pushing out families, and eroding his quality of life year by year. He grew up in a neighborhood community. He doesn’t think his sons will have that, he says.
Jade Myers, 28, Minneapolis transplant moved here less than two years ago and she loves it, with a few caveats.
“Most of my positive feelings come from the access to nature,” Myers says. She loves camping and hiking and that Seattle is green year round. Also, she loves the transit. Myers sold her car before she moved and gets around by biking and busing.
“Overall, I mostly love living in Seattle and plan on staying here,” Myers says.
What “deducts points” away from Seattle in Myers’s book is the cost of living—and the restaurants.
While progressive politics won’t fix the dismal food scene, she’s optimistic they’ll help the city’s affordability crisis and create better housing and transit. It’s why she voted the way she did—for change.
Undecided Voters, They’re Among Us
We don’t know what the hell to do with political anomaly and Florida man Chris Adragna, but he entertained us. He was the election personified, and he’s only lived here for 16 months.
“I’m extremely progressive, very affirming toward people,” he says. In our poll, he wrote that his biggest issue was the “Effect of drug-addicted zombies.”
He’s in his late 50s. He makes between $150,000 and $200,000 a year. He gave all his democracy vouchers to Katie Wilson’s campaign, gave her an additional $100, but planned to vote for Harrell. At least that’s what he told our pollsters. He’s done a lot of polls and gives different answers each time. Over the phone, he said he didn’t know whom he planned to vote for. We asked if it was going to be a game-time decision for him. He didn’t know that either.
What’s crazy is he doesn’t even seem to like Harrell.
“I think Bruce is Mayor Quimby from the Simpsons,” Adragna says. “He’s just a doofus, he does things ceremonially, he’s smitten with his own self and doesn’t realize it. The whole thing with the basketball…” Adragna trailed off, referencing Harrell’s sike-out Supersonics non-announcement during his State of the City address. Yet, even though he aligned with Wilson on the issues, he wasn’t sure she had the experience to hack it in the mayor’s office, even if the alternative is a hack.
Dudes rock. Democracy is awesome. Answer your pollsters. As of press time, we don’t know whom Adragna voted for. Hopefully, he’s happy with the results.
Learn more about Stranger Polling here.