Seattle, WA

Seattle (pronounced /siˈætɫ/) is the largest city by population in the U.S state of Washington and the Northwestern United States. The encompassing Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan statistical area is the 15th largest in the United States, and the largest in the Pacific Northwest.² A port city, it is located in the western part of the state between Puget Sound, an arm of the Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington, about 96 miles (154 km) south of the Canada – United States border. A major economic, cultural and educational center in the region, Seattle is the county seat of King County.

The Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years,⁶ but European settlement began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent white settlers—Arthur A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny Party—arrived November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were called "New York-Alki" ("Alki" meaning "by and by" in the local Chinook Jargon) and "Duwamps." In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed "Seattle," an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes.

According to the Washington State Office of Financial Management's April 1, 2008 estimate, the city has a municipal population of 592,800,⁷ and a metropolitan area population of 3,424,441.⁸

From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen City."⁹ Seattle's current official nickname is the "Emerald City", the result of a contest held in the early 1980s;¹⁰ the reference is to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska," "Rain City,"¹¹ and "Jet City", the latter from the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.

Seattle is the birthplace of grunge music¹² and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption;¹³ coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks,¹⁴ Seattle's Best Coffee,¹⁵ and Tully's.¹⁶ There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes.¹³ Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city of America's sixty-nine largest cities in 2005 and 2006 and second most literate in 2007, after Minneapolis.¹⁷ Moreover, analysis conducted by the United States Census Bureau of 2003 survey data indicated that Seattle was the most educated large city in the U.S. with 51.6 percent of residents 25 and older having at least bachelor degrees.¹⁸ Based on per capita income, in 2006 the Seattle metropolitan area ranked 17th out of 363 metropolitan areas in a study by the Census Bureau.¹⁹

History

Main article: History of Seattle

Founding

What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last ice age. Archaeological excavations at West Point in Discovery Park, Magnolia, confirm that the Seattle area has been inhabited by humans for at least 4,000 years.⁶ tohl-AHL-too ("herring house") and later hah-AH-poos ("where there are horse clams") at the mouth of the Duwamish River in what is now the Industrial District has been inhabited since the 6th century AD.²⁰ By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, the Dkh^w'Duw'Absh and Xachua'Bsh people (now called the Duwamish Tribe) occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay.²¹

The first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area were the Collins Party, who filed legal claim to land at the mouth of the Duwamish River on September 14, 1851.²² Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party were on the way to their claim when they passed the scouts of the group of settlers that would eventually found Seattle, the Denny Party.²³ The scouts for the Denny Party, Lee Terry, David Denny, and John Low, would lay claim to land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851, with Lee Terry returning to Portland, Oregon carrying a message from David Denny telling his brother, Arthur Denny, to "Come at once."²⁴ Following the instructions of David Denny, the rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland and landed on Alki during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851. The landing party's first sight of their new homestead was the roofless cabin that David had been unable to complete because of a fever.²⁴

After spending a winter of frequent rainstorms and high winds on Alki Point, most of the Denny Party moved across Elliott Bay and settled on land where present day Pioneer Square is located and established the village of "Dewamps" or "Duwamps."²⁴ The only members of the party that did not migrate to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay were Charles Terry and John Low, who remained at the original landing location and established a village they initially called "New York," after Terry's hometown, until April 1853 when they renamed it "Alki," a Chinook word meaning, roughly, by and by or someday.²⁵ The villages of New York-Alki and Duwamps would compete for dominance in the area for the next few years, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.²⁶

David Swinson ("Doc") Maynard, one of the village's founders, was the primary advocate for renaming the village to "Seattle" after Chief Sealth (si'áb Si'ahl) of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.²⁷ Doc Maynard's advocacy bore fruit, because when the first plats for village were filed on May 23, 1853, it was for the Town of Seattle. In 1855, nominal legal land settlement were established and the city was incorporated in 1865 and again in 1869, after having existed as an unincorporated town from 1867 to 1869.²⁴²⁸

The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition had just over 3.7 million visitors during its 138-day run²⁹

Major events

Major events in Seattle's history include:

The Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which destroyed the central business district (but took no lives)³⁰
The anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886³¹
The Klondike gold rush, which made Seattle a major transportation center
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of the University of Washington campus³²
The Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country³³
The 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair³⁴
The Wah Mee Massacre of Chinatown 1983
The 1990 Goodwill Games³⁵
The APEC leaders conference in 1993
The Grunge movement of the 1990's
The Battle in Seattle: The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, marked by street protests and a series of riots³⁶
The Seattle Mardi Gras Riots in 2001 followed by an earthquake the next day.³⁷

Economic history

Seattle has a history of boom and bust cycles, common to cities near large areas of natural and mineral resources. Seattle has several times risen as a company town or through economic specialization, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to successfully rebuild infrastructure.³⁸

The Seattle Central Library, designed by OMA

The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, was fueled by the lumber industry. (During this period the road now known as Yesler Way was nicknamed "Skid Road"³⁹ after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler's sawmill. The term later entered the wider American vocabulary as Skid Row.) This boom was followed by the construction of an Olmsted-designed park system.³⁸

The second and most dramatic boom was the direct result of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, which ended (for Seattle) the national depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for those heading north.⁴⁰ The boom lasted well into the early part of the 20th century and funded many new Seattle companies and products. Finance company Washington Mutual was founded in 1889, in an attempt to save Seattle's economy after the Great Seattle fire. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later UPS). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.⁴¹

Next came the shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century, followed by the unused city development plan of Virgil Bogue. Seattle was the major point of departure during World War II for troops heading to the North Pacific, and Boeing manufactured many of the war's bombers.

The local economy dipped after the war, but rose again with the expansion of Boeing, fueled by the growth of the commercial aviation industry.⁴² When this particular cycle went into a major downturn in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading "Will the last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights."⁴³

Westlake Center, a Downtown mall and southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail

Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company announced a desire to separate its headquarters from its major production facilities. Following a bidding war among a number of major cities, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago.⁴⁴ The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrow-body plant (where the 707, 720, 727, and 757 were assembled, and the 737 is assembled today) and Everett wide-body plant (assembly plant for the 747, 767, 777 and the upcoming 787 Dreamliner), as well as BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union.

Next, technology companies, including Microsoft, Amazon.com, RealNetworks, McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility), VoiceStream (now T-Mobile USA), and biomedical corporations such as HeartStream (later purchased by Philips), Heart Technologies (later purchased by Boston Scientific), Physio-Control (later purchased by Medtronic), ZymoGenetics, ICOS (later purchased by Eli Lilly & Co.) and Immunex (later purchased by Amgen), found homes in Seattle and its suburbs. This success brought an influx of new citizens with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between the 1990 and 2000 Census⁴⁵ and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country.⁴⁶ Many of these companies remain relatively strong, but the frenzied dot-com boom years ended in early 2001.⁴⁷⁴⁸

Geography

Topography

See also: List of Seattle parks, Bodies of water of Seattle, and Regrading in Seattle

Downtown Seattle is bounded by Elliott Bay (lower left), lower Broadway (from upper left to lower right), Royal Brougham Way (lower right), and Denny Way (obscured by clouds).

Seattle is located between an inlet of the Pacific Ocean to the west called Puget Sound and Lake Washington to the east. The city's chief harbor, Elliott Bay, is an inlet of the Sound. West beyond the Sound are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains, on the Olympic Peninsula; east beyond Lake Washington and the eastside suburbs are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range. Lake Washington's waters flow out through the Lake Washington Ship canal, a series of two man-made canals and Lake Union, to the Hiram C. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay, to Shilshole Bay, which is part of Puget Sound. The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies.⁴⁹⁵⁰ Opportunities for sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking are nearby and accessible almost year-round.

The city itself is hilly, though not uniformly so.⁵¹ Like Rome, the city is said to lie on seven hills; the lists vary, but typically include Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and the former Denny Hill. The Wallingford and Mount Baker neighbourhoods are technically located on hills as well. Many of the hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between Elliott Bay and Lake Washington. The break in the ridge between First Hill and Beacon Hill is man-made, the result of two of the many regrading projects that reshaped the topography of the city center.⁵² The topography of the city center was also changed by the construction of a seawall and the artificial Harbor Island (completed 1909) at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway.

The man-made Lake Washington Ship Canal incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, and Union Bay, connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington.

Seattle is in an earthquake zone and has experienced a number of significant quakes, most recently (as of 2007) the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually Earthquake, February 28, 2001, which did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on reclaimed land, as are the Industrial District and part of the city center), but caused no fatalities.⁵³ Other strong quakes occurred on December 14, 1872 (estimated at 7.3 or 7.4 magnitude),⁵³ April 13, 1949 (7.1),⁵⁴ and April 29, 1965 (6.5).⁵⁵ The 1949 quake caused eight known deaths, all in Seattle;⁵⁴ the 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly, and one more by heart failure.⁵⁵ Although the Seattle Fault passes just south of the city center, neither it⁵⁶ nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city's founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill.⁵⁷

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 369.2 km² (142.5 mi²),⁵⁸ 217.2 km² (83.9 mi²) of which is land and 152.0 km² (58.7 mi²) water. The total area is 41.16% water.

Climate

Seattle averages only 58 clear days a year, with most of those days occurring between June and September⁵⁹

Seattle's mild climate is usually classified as Marine west coast (Cfb).⁶⁰ However, its wet-winter/dry-summer pattern shows some characteristics of a Mediterranean climate (Csb), and it is sometimes classified this way.⁶¹ Temperature extremes are moderated by adjacent Puget Sound, the greater Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. The region is partially protected from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the city has a reputation for frequent rain.⁶² This reputation derives from this frequency of precipitation as well as the fact that it is cloudy an average of 226 days per year (cf. 132 in New York City).⁵⁹ Nonetheless, the so-called "rainy city" receives a smaller quantity of actual precipitation annually, at 37.1 inches (94 cm)⁶³, than New York City, Atlanta, Houston, and most cities of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Seattle was also not listed in a study that revealed the 10 Rainiest Cities in the continental United States.⁶⁴ Most of the precipitation falls as drizzle or light rain, with only occasional downpours. One of these downpours occurred in December 2007 when widespread rainfall hit the greater Puget Sound area. It became the second wettest event in Seattle history when a little over 5 inches of rain fell on Seattle in a 24 hour period. The rain also caused five deaths and widespread flooding and damage.[1] Spring, late fall, and winter are filled with days when it does not rain but looks as if it might because of cloudy, overcast skies. Winters are cool and wet with average lows around 35–40 °F (2–4 °C) on winter nights. Colder weather can occur, but seldom lasts more than a few days. Summers are dry and warm, with average daytime highs around 73–80 °F (22.2–26.7 °C). Hotter weather usually occurs only during a few summer days. Seattle's hottest official recorded temperature was 100 °F (37.8 °C) on July 20, 1994; the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F (-18 °C) on January 31, 1950.⁶³

Between October and May, it is cloudy or partly cloudy six out of every seven days⁵⁹

Eighty miles (130 km) to the west, the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains receives an annual average rainfall of 142 inches (361 cm), and the state capital, Olympia—south of the rain shadow—receives an annual average rainfall of 52 inches (132 cm). Snowfall is very infrequent, especially at lower altitudes and near the coast, and is usually light and fleeting, lasting only a few days. Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea–Tac Airport, is 13 inches (33 cm).⁶⁵ Seattle's record snowfall was 20 inches (51 cm) on January 13, 1950.⁶⁶ Sunnier and drier "California weather" typically dominates from mid-July to mid-September. An average of 0.8 inches (2.0 cm) of rain falls in July and 1.0 inch (2.5 cm) in August. Although the summer climate is considerably drier and less humid than in areas with humid continental climates, a slight dampness can be occasionally felt, usually when temperatures reach above 80 °F (26.7 °C). This dampness is typically more noticeable during the evening when the temperatures have dropped. Because of this, Seattle experiences occasional summer thunderstorms.⁶⁷

The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle's west, then reunited by the Cascade Mountains to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection.⁶⁸ Thunderstorms caused by this activity can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives worse weather than occasional thunder and ice-pellet showers. Nonetheless, the Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm in December 2006 brought heavy rain and winds gusting up to 69 mph (111 km/h). One Seattleite drowned in her collapsed and flooded basement; power failures were widespread, with some left without power for up to eleven days.⁶⁹

An exception to Seattle's dampness often occurs in El Niño years, when the marine weather systems track as far south as California and little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area.⁷⁰ Since the region's water comes from mountain snowpacks during the drier summer months, El Niño winters can not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydroelectric power the following summer.⁷¹

Weather averages for Seattle, Washington
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	67 (19)	70 (21)	78 (26)	87 (31)	93 (34)	98 (37)	100 (38)	99 (37)	98 (37)	89 (32)	74 (23)	65 (18)	100 (38)
Average high °F (°C)	47 (8)	51 (11)	55 (13)	61 (16)	67 (19)	72 (22)	77 (25)	78 (26)	72 (22)	62 (17)	52 (11)	46 (8)	62 (17)
Average low °F (°C)	35 (2)	36 (2)	39 (4)	42 (6)	47 (8)	52 (11)	55 (13)	56 (13)	51 (11)	44 (7)	39 (4)	35 (2)	45 (7)
Record low °F (°C)	0 (-18)	1 (-17)	11 (-12)	29 (-2)	16 (-9)	38 (3)	47 (8)	44 (7)	35 (2)	19 (-7)	0 (-18)	6 (-14)	0 (-18)
Precipitation inches (mm)	5.1 (129.5)	4.2 (106.7)	3.8 (96.5)	2.6 (66)	1.8 (45.7)	1.5 (38.1)	0.8 (20.3)	1.0 (25.4)	1.6 (40.6)	3.2 (81.3)	5.9 (149.9)	5.6 (142.2)	37.1 (942.3)
Source: Weather.com ⁶³ July 2007

Neighborhoods

Main article: Seattle neighborhoods

Downtown Seattle includes a tightly-packed financial district along with residential areas and a panoramic waterfront.

Seattle has grown through a series of annexations of smaller neighboring communities. On May 3, 1891, Magnolia, Wallingford, Green Lake, and the University District (then known as Brooklyn) were annexed.⁷² The town of South Seattle was annexed on October 20, 1905.⁷³ Between January 7 and September 12, 1907, Seattle nearly doubled its land area by annexing six incorporated towns and areas of unincorporated King County, including Southeast Seattle, Ravenna, South Park, Columbia, Ballard, and West Seattle.⁷⁴ Three years later, after having difficulties paying a $10,000 bill from the county, the town of Georgetown merged with Seattle.⁷⁵ Finally, on January 4, 1954, the area between N. 85th Street and N. 145th Street was annexed,⁷⁶ including the neighborhoods of Maple Leaf, Lake City, and Northgate.

Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is among those who have called Seattle "a city of neighborhoods,"⁷⁷⁷⁸ although the boundaries (and even names) of those neighborhoods are often open to dispute. For example, a Department of Neighborhoods spokeswoman reported that her own neighborhood has gone from "the 'CD' (Central District) to 'Madrona' to 'Greater Madison Valley' and now 'Madrona Park.'"⁷⁸

Over a dozen Seattle neighborhoods have Neighborhood Service Centers, originally known in 1972 as "Little City Halls"⁷⁹ and even more have their own street fair and/or parade during the summer months.⁸⁰ The largest of the city's street fairs feature hundreds of craft and food booths and multiple stages with live entertainment, and draw more than 100,000 people over the course of a weekend.⁸¹ In addition, at least half a dozen neighborhoods have weekly farmers' markets, some with as many as fifty vendors.⁸²

The residents of White Center, an unincorporated neighborhood between Seattle and Burien, are in the process of deciding by which of the two cities they will be annexed.⁸³

Cityscape

Queen Anne Hill (left center), Lake Union (center), the Downtown Seattle skyline (right center), and Elliott Bay (right) are important aspects of Seattle's cityscape viewed from the Space Needle.

Landmarks

See also: List of tallest buildings and structures in Seattle

Pike Place Market, a popular destination for tourists and locals

The Space Needle, dating from the Century 21 Exposition (1962), is Seattle's most recognizable landmark, having been featured in the logo of the television show Frasier and the backgrounds of the television series Grey's Anatomy and iCarly, and films such as Sleepless in Seattle. The fairgrounds surrounding the Needle have been converted into Seattle Center, which remains the site of many local civic and cultural events, such as Bumbershoot, Folklife, and the Bite of Seattle. Seattle Center plays multiple roles in the city, ranging from a public fair grounds to a civic center, though recent economic losses have called its viability and future into question.⁸⁴ The Seattle Center Monorail was also constructed for Century 21 and still runs from Seattle Center to Westlake Center, a Downtown shopping mall, a little over a mile to the southeast.

The Smith Tower was the tallest building on the West Coast from its completion in 1914 until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962.⁸⁵ The late 1980s saw the construction of Seattle's two tallest skyscrapers: the 76 story Columbia Center (completed 1985) is the tallest building in the Pacific Northwest⁸⁶ and the fourth tallest building west of the Mississippi River;⁸⁷ the Washington Mutual Tower (completed 1988) is Seattle's second tallest building.⁸⁸⁸⁹ Other notable Seattle landmarks include Pike Place Market, the Fremont Troll, the Experience Music Project (at Seattle Center), and the Seattle Central Library.

Starbucks has been at Pike Place Market since the coffee company was founded there in 1971. The first store is still operating a block south of its original location.⁹⁰ Starbucks Center, the company's current headquarters, is the largest building in Seattle by volume at just over 2,000,000 square feet (186,000 m²). The building, once Sears' Northwest catalog distribution center, also contains a Sears and an OfficeMax store.⁹¹

The National Register of Historic Places has over 150 Seattle listings.⁹² The city also designates its own landmarks.⁹³

Culture

Main article: Arts in Seattle

The Moore Theatre has been a performing arts venue in Downtown Seattle since its construction in 1907.

Seattle has been a regional center for the performing arts for many years. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's most recorded⁹⁴ and performs primarily at Benaroya Hall.⁹⁵ The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, which perform at McCaw Hall (opened 2003 on the site of the former Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center), are comparably distinguished,⁹⁶⁹⁷ with the Opera being particularly known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner⁹⁸⁹⁹ and the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three ballet training institutions in the United States.⁹⁶ The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States.¹⁰⁰

The 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, stages Broadway-style musical shows¹⁰¹ featuring both local talent and international stars.¹⁰² Seattle has "around 100" theatrical production companies¹⁰³¹⁰⁴ and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated with fringe theatre;¹⁰⁵ Seattle is probably second only to New York for number of equity theaters¹⁰⁶ (28 Seattle theater companies have some sort of Actors' Equity contract).¹⁰³ In addition, the 900-seat Romanesque Revival Town Hall on First Hill hosts numerous cultural events, especially lectures and recitals.¹⁰⁷

Seattle is considered the home of grunge music¹² because it was home to artists such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Mudhoney all of whom reached vast audiences in the early 1990s.¹⁰⁸ The city is also home to such varied musicians as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, Heart, heavy metal bands Queensryche and Nevermore, and such poppier rock bands as Harvey Danger, Goodness, Dave Matthews and the Presidents of the United States of America. Such musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, Nikki Sixx, and Quincy Jones spent their formative years in Seattle.¹⁰⁸

Since the grunge era, the area has hosted a diverse and influential alternative music scene. The Seattle record label Sub Pop—the first to sign Nirvana and Soundgarden—has signed such non-grunge bands as Band of Horses, Modest Mouse, Murder City Devils, Sunny Day Real Estate, Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service.¹⁰⁸

Earlier Seattle-based popular music acts include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four; The Wailers, a 1960s garage band; The Ventures, an instrumental rock band; the Allies and the Heaters (later "the Heats"), 1980s teen-pop bands; from that same era, the more sophisticated pop of the short-lived Visible Targets and the still-performing Young Fresh Fellows and Posies; and the pop-punk of The Fastbacks and the outright punk of The Fartz (later 10 Minute Warning), The Gits, and Seven Year Bitch.¹⁰⁹

Spoken word and poetry are staples of Seattle arts, paralleling the explosion of the independent music scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Seattle's performance poetry blossomed with the importation of the poetry slam from Chicago (its origin) by Paul Granert. This and the proliferation of weekly readings, open mics, and poetry-friendly club venues like the Weathered Wall, the OK Hotel, and the Ditto Tavern (all now defunct), allowed spoken-word/performance poetry to take off. Seattle annually sends a team of slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself home of some of the most talented performance poets in the world: Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ;¹¹⁰ Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ;¹¹¹ and Danny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ.¹¹² Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry.¹¹³

The city also has a large number of movie houses showing both Hollywood productions and works by independent filmmakers. Among these, the Seattle Cinerama stands out as one of only three movie theaters in the world still capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films.

Religion

Washington has been named the most "unchurched" state in America, while Seattle has been named the most "unchurched" city in the country, having more Atheists and Agnostics than any other major city in the US.¹¹⁴¹¹⁵ Regardless, Mars Hill Church is one of the largest churches in America,¹¹⁶ and there appears to be a relatively large diversity in religion.¹¹⁷

Tourism

See also: Museums and galleries of Seattle

Almost two hundred cruise ship visits brought an estimated 750,000 passengers to Seattle in 2007.¹¹⁸

Among Seattle's known annual cultural events and fairs are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival,¹¹⁹ Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events throughout July and August (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration to hydroplane races), and the Bite of Seattle. Bumbershoot programs music over the Labor Day weekend, as well as other arts and entertainment. All are typically attended by 100,000 people annually, as are Hempfest and two separate Independence Day celebrations.¹²⁰¹²¹¹²²

Other significant events include numerous Native American powwows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals (many associated with Festál at Seattle Center).¹²³

There are other annual events, ranging from the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts Show;¹²⁴ an anime convention, Sakura-Con;¹²⁵ Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention;¹²⁶ and specialized film festivals, such as the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival,¹²⁷ to a two-day, 9,000-rider Seattle to Portland bicycle ride¹²⁸ and a Gay Pride parade and festival. In the past, the Gay Pride parade and festival have been centred on Capitol Hill. Since 2006, festivities have been held city-wide, and the parade has followed a route in Downtown to Seattle Center.¹²⁹

The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, the first public art museum in Washington.¹³⁰ The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened in 1933; SAM opened a museum downtown in 1991 (expanded and reopened 2007); since 1991, the 1933 building has been SAM's Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM).¹³¹ SAM also operates the Olympic Sculpture Park (opened 2007) on the waterfront north of the downtown piers. The Frye Art Museum is a free museum on First Hill.

Regional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry collections are at the Center for Wooden Boats and the adjacent Northwest Seaport, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the Northwest African American Museum.

Seattle has artist-run galleries,¹³² including 10-year veteran Soil Art Gallery,¹³³ and the newer Crawl Space Gallery.¹³⁴

Woodland Park Zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889, but was sold to the city in 1899.¹³⁵ The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977 (undergoing a renovation 2006).¹³⁶ The Seattle Underground Tour, an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire, is also popular.¹³⁷ There are also many community centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights north of the Canal, and Meadowbrook.¹³⁸

Sports

Main article: Sports in Seattle

Club	Sport	League	Venue	Established	Championships
Seattle Seahawks	Football	NFL	Qwest Field	1976	0
Seattle Mariners	Baseball	MLB	Safeco Field	1977	0
Seattle Thunderbirds	Ice Hockey	WHL	Kent Events Center	1977	0
Seattle Sounders	Soccer	USL-1	Qwest Field	1994	4
Seattle Storm	Basketball	WNBA	KeyArena	2000	1
Seattle Sounders FC	Soccer	Major League Soccer	Qwest Field	2009	N/A

Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners

Seattle's professional sports history began at the start of the 20th century with the PCHA's Seattle Metropolitans, which in 1917 became the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.¹³⁹ Today Seattle has three major professional sports teams: The National Football League's Seattle Seahawks, Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners, and the 2004 Women's National Basketball Association champions, Seattle Storm.¹⁴⁰ From 1967 to 2008 Seattle was home to an NBA franchise, the Seattle SuperSonics, who were the 1978-79 NBA champions; the team was relocated to Oklahoma City after the 2007-08 season.¹⁴¹ The Seattle Sounders currently play in the United Soccer League, but will be replaced by Seattle Sounders FC, which will play in Major League Soccer in 2009.¹⁴² The Seattle Thunderbirds are a major-junior hockey team that plays in the one of the Canadian major-junior hockey leagues, the WHL (Western Hockey League). The Thunderbirds currently play at KeyArena, but beginning in the 2008–2009 season will play in nearby Kent, Washington.¹⁴³

Seattle also boasts a strong history in collegiate sports, the University of Washington and Seattle University are NCAA Division I schools. The Major League Baseball All-Star game was held in Seattle twice, first at the Kingdome in 1979 and again at Safeco Field in 2001. The NBA All-Star game was also held in Seattle twice, the first in 1974 at the Seattle Center Coliseum and the second in 1987 at the Kingdome.¹⁴⁴

In 2006, the new Qwest Field (Seattle Seahawks Stadium) hosted the 2005-06 NFC Championship. In 2008, Qwest Field hosted the first game of the 2007-08 NFL playoffs, in which the Seahawks defeated the Washington Redskins, 35 - 14.

Outdoor activities

Green Lake Park, popular among runners, contains a 2.9-mile (4.7 km) trail circling the lake.

Seattle's cool mild climate allows outdoor recreation including walking, cycling, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, boating, team sports, and swimming.¹⁴⁵ In town many people walk around Green Lake, through the forests and along the bluffs and beaches of 535-acre (2.2 km²) Discovery Park (the largest park in the city) in Magnolia, along the shores of Myrtle Edwards Park on the Downtown waterfront, or along Alki Beach in West Seattle. Also popular are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascade or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia.

Media

Main article: Media in Seattle

Seattle's two major daily newspapers—the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer—share their advertising, circulation, and business departments under a Joint Operating Agreement.¹⁴⁶ There is also a Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce,¹⁴⁷ and the University of Washington publishes The Daily, a student-run publication, when school is in session. The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger. Both consider themselves "alternative" papers.¹⁴⁸ Real Change is a weekly street newspaper that is sold mainly by homeless persons as an alternative to panhandling. There are also several ethnic newspapers, including the Northwest Asian Weekly, and numerous neighborhood newspapers, including the North Seattle Journal.

Seattle is also well served by television and radio, with all major U.S. networks represented, along with at least five other English-language stations and two Spanish-language stations.¹⁴⁹ Seattle cable viewers also receive CBUT 2 (CBC) from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Leading non-commercial radio stations include NPR affiliates KUOW-FM 94.9 and KPLU-FM 88.5 (Tacoma). Other notable stations include KEXP-FM 90.3 (affiliated with EMP), KBCS-FM 91.3 (affiliated with Bellevue Community College), and KNHC-FM 89.5, which broadcasts an electronic music format and is owned by the public school system and operated by students of Nathan Hale High School. Many Seattle radio stations are also available through Internet radio, with KEXP in particular being a pioneer of Internet radio.¹⁵⁰ Seattle also has numerous commercial radio stations, including KING-FM, one of the last commercial classical music stations in the United States.¹⁴⁹

On the Internet, Seattle is covered by Seattle Indymedia, a co-op started in 1999 which has since spread to many cities around the world, by Seattle24x7.com, a local online business community since 1999, by Crosscut.co

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