Seattle — you complicated, gorgeous, coffee-scented chimera — why do we stay with you?
As of the 2010 Census, 80 percent of U.S. citizens lived in urban areas. Human beings are drawn to cities for work, culture, camaraderie and hipster coffee shops (among other things).
Every city starts somewhere. Some plug along, while others take off with growth most inhabitants never imagined. Seattle has been both types of city, from the home of the last person leaving turning out the lights, to construction-crane magnet.
Like every place, our once sleepy, now burgeoning city has charms and issues. So what keeps us here specifically? A recent gathering of Seattleites addressed that question. The storytellers are Jasmine Allred, Greg LaVielle, Melissa Lee, Bridget Quigg, Jeffrey Robert and Michael Perera.
This “Why We Stayed Here” event took place at Theatre Off Jackson on January 17. KUOW’s Jeannie Yandel produced and hosted the event. Sonya Harris recorded the talks.
Listen to the full version below:
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John O'Brien
Producer
John O’Brien is a KUOW newsroom producer. He works with the Morning Edition and All Things Considered teams to schedule, record, and edit interviews and stories on a variety of topics, from politics and public health to arts and culture. He learned to make radio in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation and is a former host of KUOW's Speakers Forum.
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