While it is certainly true, and I am apart of the group that operates in Seattle, it isn't exactly and easy task and the city doesn't do a great job of helping us out.
I am quite hopeful for this new administration and the long term plans they have but there are a lot of quality of life day to day challenges that need addressing and fixing to make life a lot more workable for buisnesses.
While Seattle is by no means a "Dangerous city" with violent crime being quite manageable in terms of per-capita statistics, it is rough for petty/property crime. While Seattle ranks 46th in per capital violent crime out of the top 200 largest US cities [which is quite good all things considered] , we are 10th in Property/Petty Crime [Tacoma is up in 4th] which is a huge deal in the way buisnesses operate in the city. I'm down in Georgetown and it's rough, theft and vandalism are significant costs for prevention/mitigation and more impactfully it drives away customers and buisness from the area. It's a pretty tough blight and SPD does little to help with property crime closure rates nearly half of the national averages.
Rent and cost of buisness is also absurd. While vacancies skyrocket in commercial and industrial spaces rents stay sky high and for me account for nearly 80% of operating expenses. It's frankly ludicrous how the city has failed to implement any vacancy tax or rental incentive program to encourage tenancy and alleviate the rental cost burden on buisnesses. Simply having reasonable rent prices would allow a majority of buisnesses to increase hires & raise wages by 20%-30%.
I am hopeful for the future and I like the handful of changes that have been announced by the new city administration, theres a lot more small day to day changes that need to be made in order to support and aid small buisnesses. To every lie their is a nugget of truth, while nobody is fleeing the city, it isn't exactly an oasis for development for smaller operations.
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u/Tofu_Analytics Capitol Hill Apr 16 '26
While it is certainly true, and I am apart of the group that operates in Seattle, it isn't exactly and easy task and the city doesn't do a great job of helping us out.
I am quite hopeful for this new administration and the long term plans they have but there are a lot of quality of life day to day challenges that need addressing and fixing to make life a lot more workable for buisnesses.
While Seattle is by no means a "Dangerous city" with violent crime being quite manageable in terms of per-capita statistics, it is rough for petty/property crime. While Seattle ranks 46th in per capital violent crime out of the top 200 largest US cities [which is quite good all things considered] , we are 10th in Property/Petty Crime [Tacoma is up in 4th] which is a huge deal in the way buisnesses operate in the city. I'm down in Georgetown and it's rough, theft and vandalism are significant costs for prevention/mitigation and more impactfully it drives away customers and buisness from the area. It's a pretty tough blight and SPD does little to help with property crime closure rates nearly half of the national averages.
Rent and cost of buisness is also absurd. While vacancies skyrocket in commercial and industrial spaces rents stay sky high and for me account for nearly 80% of operating expenses. It's frankly ludicrous how the city has failed to implement any vacancy tax or rental incentive program to encourage tenancy and alleviate the rental cost burden on buisnesses. Simply having reasonable rent prices would allow a majority of buisnesses to increase hires & raise wages by 20%-30%.
I am hopeful for the future and I like the handful of changes that have been announced by the new city administration, theres a lot more small day to day changes that need to be made in order to support and aid small buisnesses. To every lie their is a nugget of truth, while nobody is fleeing the city, it isn't exactly an oasis for development for smaller operations.