History of Seattle Since 1940 - Boeing Bust: 1970 - 1985

1985

Due to changing external demand and the cancellation of the SST program, "the Boeing workforce was cut from 80,400 to 37,200 between early 1970 and October 1971". After 1973, Seattle was in good company for its recession, since the rest of the country was also experiencing the energy crisis. However, Seattle was hit harder than most cities due to its over-reliance on Boeing as an employer, and had the worst post-Depression unemployment for any major US city, nearly 12%. As with most periods of downturn, there was not much private investment or construction. However, despite the crushing unemployment and the infamous billboards saying "Would the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights," the outflux of people was "never more than 15% of those laid off," and was promptly countered by new arrivals taking advantage of the now-underpriced housing stock.

Quite likely, Seattle evaded the fate of Detroit through being a port city with a large number of highly educated, skilled workers. Seattle industry did slightly better than the national average during the rest of the 1970s; nonetheless the boom decades of the 1950s and 1960s had been brought to a decisive end.

The Pike Place Market, arguably Seattle's most significant tourist attraction, gained its modern form in the aftermath of the Boeing crash. The market had been founded in 1907 with a great deal of early success, but, like most public markets in America, had suffered a decline as corporations took over food distribution. The deportation of the Japanese from Seattle during World War II hit the market particularly hard, since 80% of its "wet stall" vendors had been ethnically Japanese. The city council wanted to make a "Pike Place Plaza" by demolishing the mostly derelict market and replacing it with "a new hotel, a 32-story apartment building, four 28-story office buildings, a hockey arena, and a 4,000-car parking garage." A "Keep the Market" initiative, led by architect Victor Steinbrueck, was passed in 1971, pushing for adaptive reuse. A promotional committee was created, historical district status attained, and vendors were convinced to move in and sell wares. The project was wildly successful, and today the Pike Place Market pulls nine million visitors each year.

A similar story occurred with Pioneer Square. An old neighborhood, largely built after the Great Seattle Fire, it had fallen into derelict status after the war. However, with a reenergized downtown, businesses started to look for buildings that could be acquired cheaply. When offices moved into renovated buildings, suddenly there was a market for facilities to service them, leading to a "flood of other restaurants, galleries, boutiques." Seattle was definitely recovering from the blow dealt by the Boeing recession, refilling areas that had threatened to become slums.