State of Downtown 2023: Keynote Speech by Ed Glaeser

Keynote speaker Ed Glaeser, chairman of the department of economics at Harvard University explained how cities are still the place we go to find opportunity and unleash our creativity. He also described why he expects downtown Seattle to continue to be a place that enables us to collaborate, enjoy life and make humanity’s future.

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I've warned my family from Canada and Idaho NOT to come to Seattle to celebrate a family reunion. It is a city with human feces on the sidewalks; homeless tents everywhere with drug induced derelicts ROAMING AROUND ATTACKING PEOPLE RANDOMLY. It is not a city that is safe or welcoming. I've been coming to Seattle since 1980 and a patron of the arts for decades. I have given up my season tickets as a patron of the Northwest Ballet. Parking anywhere near those venues is dangerous for car jackings, robbery and assaults. Even UBER is not a choice you can count on for safety. It is not a town where ladies can go to lunch and enjoy the ballet, opera or Chihuly’s glass exhibit anymore. I was a patron of the Seattle Aquarium and took my grandchildren for many summers. But today I wouldn't walk them down Alaska Way to the Aquarium lined with beggars and drug perverts who reach out to touch them
I don’t care how John Scholes creates the illusion of wellbeing in Seattle. He should be removed from this job for miss-representing the true nature of the degree that commercial and business deterioration has occurred and personal safety of visitors.
Will Seattle have to deteriorate down to the level of Chicago before we vote bad governmental oversight and city council out of office? Just look what Lori Lightfoot did to destroy Chicago (my home town) in such a short time.