[Bear]

State gains 103,899 people
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - 9:30 AM PST Friday

The state is a little more crowded these days, as 103,899 people moved here between July 1, 2005 and July 1, 2006.

That was the seventh-biggest population gain in the nation during that period, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Washington now has 6,395,798 people, according to the latest census estimate.

Texas gained the most people from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006, adding 579,275 people. Florida was next, adding 321,697, followed by California, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina.

The fastest-growing state, percentage-wise, during that time was Arizona, which increased in population by 3.6 percent, followed by Nevada at 3.5 percent and Idaho, by 2.6 percent.

[JiminyCricket II]

I wonder when we're going to pass Massachusetts. I'd have to say easily by next year... Only to be passed by Arizona within a decade, unlucky #13.

[mSeattle]

Interesting. We all still could fit into Chicago or Houston with room to spare.

[PuyoPiyo]

I am not surpised. Why? It's just normal for so many people to move to Washington, making Washington so patheic expensive alike California. I would say this is a sad news I ever heard. :(

[bgwah]

Washington and Oregon could both get another congressional district after the next census.

[mhays]

Washington has probably passed Mass already. Arizona I'd say by the 2009 count.

I saw bring them on! Just do it using infill rather than sprawl. Luckily our growth is much more in this direction today.

These numbers represent a significant speeding up of inmigration relative to outmigration. We had a few years of much slower growth recently.

We'd get another congressional seat already if it were based on today's population. We just missed it in 2002 using 2000 numbers.

[Black Box]

Yes, we'll probably stay at lucky number 13. The growth has been noticeable in the past 3 years (since I've been here). I can only imagine what it must be like in Arizona or Georgia. WOW! We'll get another seat, I'm sure. During the early 1990's when the state gained another seat, it was from Massachusetts. The state (MA), maybe Congressional Representatives and other interested parties tried to prevent it from happening. Lawsuits? Well, here we are, nearing another census and I wonder who we will get another seat from this time around?

[mhays]

We'll be 13 briefly before going back to 14 for the long term.

Massachusetts' lawsuit was something about the accuracy of the Census. It was a razor-thin edge that gave us the 9th seat.

Washington will be way past the threshhold for a 10th seat after the next census. Our seat won't be "from" another state, since numerous states will gain and lose seats at the same time.

[JiminyCricket II]

Louisiana might even lose a couple... I think we should also be coming up on Virginia within a couple decades if I remember the projections correctly.

Also, about the seats, there is a chance that we could get 2, no? I mean, if we keep growing at 100,000 plus it could be possible. For one, I western washington needs another seat. And area code 509 should be split up, (i know i know, it will give the Republican'ts another seat, but eastern washington is growing very fast. Tricities-Yakima is at least as many people as Spokane.

[mhays]

No chance at 2. The first 10% of our growth just keeps us up with the country. The increment beyond that is "up 1" territory. We'd have to grow way over 20% to get 2.

Louisiana won't lose 2. Look at the other thread about state-by-state population change, and you see that their shrinkage is actually pretty minor, like 5%. I don't know how they fall in the equations, but it's probably enough to lose 1, and (not knowing where they stand) they could even keep what they have.

[pdxtex]

so "who" is moving to washington? is it a flock of californians or just mobile, under 40 college educated types? not to stereotype but that seems to be the only people moving to oregon too. i fall into the under 40 category myself though ive been here 10 years.

[MarkDaMan]

a little off topic but maybe the influx of peeps is feeding the freenzy...

I just read that the value of Washington's annual pot grow is more valuable now than the apple crop. :P

[seaskyfan]

Pot is still second but not by much - Apples are $1.15 Billion/year and pot is $1.03 Billion/year. Wheat is #3 at $500 million (Seattle Times 12/23).

Apparently WA is the 5th largest pot producer in the US.

Maybe if we could come up with a pot/apple combo? Something like the HoneyBaked or Jonahash?

[seapug]

^ wanna be business partners?

[UncleRando]

Washington and Oregon could both get another congressional district after the next census.

Hell lets hope so. Go ahead and have some of SW Ohio's conservative congressional districts...I would much rather have those seats in the hands of Washington or Oregon voters. :tup:

[Dr. Smoke]

The South and the PacNW gained the most.

I think what's going on is clear: conservatives are fleeing to the South, and liberals are fleeing to the NW.

Welcome, brothers! It's the Great Bush Bifurcation Migration.

Next step is for the Blue States to secede, and leave Red States with this unpayable national debt they voted for.

[77e]

so "who" is moving to washington? is it a flock of californians or just mobile, under 40 college educated types? not to stereotype but that seems to be the only people moving to oregon too. i fall into the under 40 category myself though ive been here 10 years.

About half of the in-migration comes from California, followed by Oregon. There are also many migrants from Texas, Arizona, and Idaho. Of course, there is some foreign immigration too.

On the flip side, Washington loses the most residents to California, but not as many as California sends to Washington.

Oregon gains the most from California, but loses the most to Washington. I am not 100% sure, but I bet Washington is Oregon's second largest source of newcomers.

Unfortunately, there really does not seem to be any good data on age, education, or income of migrants to the state. The census bureau might have detailed migration data and estimates each April, but I could not find any on their website.

[77e]

I just found this 'Homeland Security' 2005 yearbook of immigration statistics (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2005/OIS_2005_Yearbook.pdf) [130-page PDF].

You can see the foreign immigration to each state for the years 1996 to 2005 on Table 4 (page 16).

Washington gained over 26,000 immigrants in 2005. Oregon gained over 9600.

But I did not see a breakdown for each state of where those immigrants come from. I am sure Mexico is number one, but how many from the Philippines? China/HK/Taiwan? South Korea? Vietnam?

I wonder if any state agencies (like the Office of Financial Management (http://ofm.wa.gov), Office of Economic Analysis (http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/OEA/demographic.shtml), or Portland State University's Population Research Center (http://www.pdx.edu/prc/)) have that kind of data.

[Hoodrat]

:rolleyes: Another bump

[Black Box]

Did anyone read Pacific Northwest Magazine's feature on the changing face of Seattle and the population growth that is causing it? The guy was a grump about it. Well, if anyone decides to post a response about it, I'd be glad to keep the population-demographic shift conversation going. Anyone? Anyone?

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
I still have a Seattle Magazine article from the early 90's about Seattle's changing demographics from the 1990 census!

[Black Box]

Yikes! So, did you read the most recent article? It's probably more dramatic now than then. Could you scan it and print it for all of us? It would be interesting to see what they had to say back then.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Yikes! So, did you read the most recent article? It's probably more dramatic now than then. Could you scan it and print it for all of us? It would be interesting to see what they had to say back then.
Yeah that would be a neat idea. I'll try to scan it in the next few days and post it here.

[Black Box]

Yes, please do and if you could get the current story up to see how the point of view has changed, that would be great. Back in 1990, it was more just Californians, but nowadays, it's a free for all. Are you from Spokane or are you from Western Washington? I know I've seen you mention Spokane and also that you lived in other areas in Western Washington. I'm just curious.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
I'm actually from New Jersey, I just spent a few years in Spokane.

[Black Box]

Oh, so, have you been here for awhile, or do you collect back issues of PNW Magazine?

[seaskyfan]

Here's the article from Sunday:

'Our Town'
Defining Seattle's evolving soul

ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL SCHMID


SOMETIMES I WISH you'd all just go away.

Northwest newcomers, I mean. The driven who are striven toward condo-livin' and who want to remodel our soggy Eden into an urban, glossy facsimile of wherever rat cage they escaped from.

You know who you are. Hip, Botoxed fashionistas in $250 jeans and $350 Goretex, with a restaurant of the week and book of the month you might not even read, piloting a luxury 4x4 to "camp" in a four-star within frenetic Wi-Fi range of the stock market, Wine Advisor and e-mailed sushi alerts. Condescending workaholics who carry the Robb Report in their daypack. Eastern eggheads out to gauge native sentiment. Cozy covens of corporate transferees who give each other outrageous executive salaries to downsize Northwest companies into cautionary bureaucracies and are rewarded with steroidal McMansions of such hideous architectural pomposity that they only confirm that undeserved wealth, no matter how ostentatious, cannot confer taste.

A pox on all of you!

I don't really know anyone like that, of course.

It just seems like I do. Our Northwest has been taken over by an invasive species, as pernicious as tansy ragwort, Scotch broom and Himalaya blackberry.

We had a net increase of 81,000 newcomers in 2006 — about 38,000 of them from California, judging by driver's license data. Throw in the babies, and we added about 130,000 people last year.

Enough, already!

I know I'm weird. I was actually born and grew up here, or rather there: South Tacoma, circa 1950s. The B&I Circus Store was as exciting as it got, and our house in the McChord Air Force Base flight path shook from the mammoth military transports that screamed overhead. My town, like most Northwest towns, stank of pulp, sulfur, creosote and fish. We were not cool. Culture was something you traveled a thousand miles to see.

In retrospect, of course, being from Hoquiam or Everett has acquired a cachet. Back then, we knew we were hicks.

But we were smug! Our climate was among the world's most temperate. Our geography was the most beautiful. Our power rates were the nation's cheapest, our schools the nation's best-funded, our blue-collar wages the nation's most generous. My dad could rent a kicker boat at Point Defiance and catch a salmon after work. You could drive to a popular state park on a Friday evening and score a good camping spot.

Everything was post-World War II-new: the freeway, parks, rest stops, bridges. The dams were a tourist attraction. Hundreds of gillnetters twinkled like fairy lights at night on Puget Sound, and razor clams were plentiful whenever you wanted them. Some highways were still slits of shadow down eerily glorious, 200-foot-high corridors of trees.

Like the children of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, everyone was above average.

Not that we knew what we had. Shortly after high school my father pointed out a $20,000 duplex and suggested it might be a good investment. I thought it was too expensive. After all, my folks had passed on a $2,000 water-view lot in Anacortes.

Washington state was so far from everywhere that it was kind of exotic to live here. Really. The state also seemed two or three times bigger than it does now. I don't know what happened.

I'm 55, and the state's population has risen 2 ½ times in my lifetime: from about 2.4 million in 1951 to 6.5 million today. If I can make it another 18 years, Washington's population will have more than tripled, to 8 million. Most of that growth has been concentrated in the Puget Sound basin. King County's growth rate has matched Washington's, and surrounding counties have exceeded the state rate.

It isn't population alone that has changed things, however.

One is money. We have more of it on display. This used to be a place of blue-collar labor and middle wages, a union stronghold. At least by popular myth, the rich had a Northwest reticence about their good fortune: Mansions were discreetly tucked away in places like the Highlands. The wealth disparity has since exploded, and success is in-your-face. Yet more stuff hasn't increased contentment, it has intensified greed and jealousy. The recent bidding up of housing, some of it fueled by speculators, is corrosive, bad for young families.

Another is a loss of regional identity, which is a planetary phenomenon, not just a Northwest one. It's hypocritical to complain about chain stores and mega-businesses when you come from a region that exported Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nordstrom, REI, Eddie Bauer and Costco, to name just some. Still, you find the same formula stores, restaurants and hotels everywhere: comforting, yes, but creepy, too. Fewer and fewer own more and more.

A third change is the collapse of traditional resource industries as an economic mainstay. This isn't newcomers' fault, we simply overfished and overcut as the economy matured. But few of us are brawny manly-men striding the world in calk boots anymore. We inhabit someplace a lot more like TV's "The Office," and have more in common with Dilbert than Paul Bunyan. It's hard to write legends about crunching code.

Even the weather has changed. Maybe it's global warming or maybe it's the "Pacific Decadal-Oscillation," but the Northwest has been warmer, drier and less miserable, as if Californians dragged sunshine in with them. The Paradise ice caves have melted. The glaciers are receding. We create our own heat islands.

That's bad? newcomers are asking. Do I really want to turn the clock back to wigwam sawdust burners, chainsaw white-finger, a skyline that consisted of the Smith Tower, Ivar Haglund as the epitome of Northwest wit, and hydroplanes as the premier spectator sport? Can you spell p-r-o-v-i-n-c-i-a-l?

For one thing, complaining about immigration sounds racist. The numbers of non-white Washingtonians have zoomed from 16 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2003, and are projected to hit 32 percent by 2030. And yes, they've made Seattle and the state much more interesting and vibrant. Let's face it, all white people is boring.

Another sneaky fact is that many of the most interesting people I know — the most ambitious, the most artistic, the most creative and the most visionary — are from someplace else. Their "otherness" gives them new perspective, and their willingness to re-invent themselves in a new place gives them drive. I admire them, even when I stick pins in little wax dolls of their likeness.

I also have the problem of being a complete hypocrite on the subject of newcoming. My wife and I moved from King County to Skagit in 1998, inflicting our presence on Anacortes just as so many others have sloshed into Seattle and Redmond. I'm chasing a receding Northwest, using relocation as a time machine, and I can't blame people from Jersey or Indianapolis for wanting to do the same. Next stop, Omak.

The Northwest tribes are laughing at my lament. My family ancestry here only goes back to the 1930s, theirs several thousand years. There goes the neighborhood? Join the club, white boy.

In countless ways Seattle and Washington are better places, not worse. For every traffic jam there's a new theater, or sports venue, or museum. And sometime around 2000, the post-war trend of sprawling outward finally reached its impossible, two-hour-commute limit, and migration back to the center began, sparking an urban renaissance in Seattle that is still playing out.

What do I want? Glamour without the gridlock. Vibrancy without the rudeness and road rage. Glittery towers without the Yuppie pretension. Interesting food, but dishes I can actually afford, and which aren't piled into a leaning tower that topples and bleeds raspberry sauce when I poke at it.

That never happened at Ivar's.

We native Northwesterners have a way of finding our own nest. Folks I know have wound up in the Methow, Port Townsend, Bellingham and the Willapa Hills. If we could do that, and the rest of you could get better at clustering, maybe it will all be OK.

But the Seattle I knew is as gone with the wind as the antebellum South, a lost artifact in a nation that just hit 300 million.

The one that is replacing it looks a little too much like Boston or Soho to me.

William Dietrich is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. Paul Schmid is a Seattle artist.

[Black Box]

^ Thank you so much, seaskyfan.
Does anyone want to take a poll or do a roll call of where they grew up and how long they haved lived in the Greater Seattle-Puget Sound area? Anyone? Maybe it's a lame idea, but it has relevance to this thread and certainly if the writer of this article were to read this, it would irritate him. I'm also just very curious.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Oh, so, have you been here for awhile, or do you collect back issues of PNW Magazine?
I first moved to Seattle in '88. I was in Spokane from '98 - '00.

I just happened to save this particular issue. Don't ask why, I just did.

[seaskyfan]

You're welcome, Black Box!

I moved here in 1989 from the Boston area. Snce then I've lived in Ballard, Wallingford, Capitol Hill, Green Lake, Wallingford (two different places), Ballard, Poulsbo, and Wallingford again. Still shooting for Downtown some day.

[Black Box]

Okay, now I'll go.
I was born in Stuttgart, Germany, but I hail from the land of Neko Case. I grew up in the millitary confines of Ft. Lewis and in a gritty, working class rambler, ranch house, split-level, occasional bungalow filled neighborhood in Tacoma's South End. I moved to Portland, left it for Minneapolis and eventually landed in New York City for a few years. I returned to the Pacific Northwest three years ago and decided to stick it out in Seattle. Nowadays, my job requires that I spend more time in NYC, but I'm going to give that up very soon. I've been at this routine since September. But really, I primarily reside in Seattle. That man needs to get over the change. Maybe he should just move to Arizona or Florida and experience the flip side. Oh, and I will be shooting for downtown as well. I guess I'll be in manly company, sincehow the majority of buyers in downtown are men and the majority of women are buyers in the outlying neighborhoods. That was also another interesting real estate oriented article.

[mSeattle]

Yea, it isn't like we're the only area that has had to change. Look at parts of the South. No way in hell Florida was always like that. Even California has grown over time.

It's good that he and those he knows have moved on to places they like, preferrably clustering wherever they've gone and not sprawling out.

Oh, they can blame Walla Walla for bringin me to Washington. Should close down these colleges and universities that are attracting people not only to study, but to stay. :D

[Black Box]

For real! Also, what about Georgia? It has changed dramatically. I read up on an article in the NYT about the new Latino South. The demographics of this whole country has shifted dramtically in my lifetime. That fella can cluster away elsewhere, but so far, I think Seattle is balancing out fine. I'm a bit concerned, but for now, today, I like how the city is holding up. I guess I've been all postmania tonight. Hoodrat, if you ever place your eyes on this, tonight, the Puget Sounders took heed and posted like crazy. Well, I did. Oh, and Karen O was not the greatest DJ back then either.

[mSeattle]

Another thing. He can blame people like him who wanted no change, for the high cost of housing. Every squat building built to preserve someone's special scenic view from their home (I'm not talking about those views from much lacking public civic spaces) means less supply/more demand and more sprawl/less forest.

[Black Box]

^ Uh huh. Maybe he's more concerned with his own mortality. I'm much younger than him, so as someone who grew up around these parts, my attitude in regards to the influx around here is much more positive. I'm sort of like re-influxed, I traded places with somebody else and I returned and someone left. I dunno, the whole gripe of his own making is ridiculous. Bond, I hope you scan and post that old article soon. I hope to scan and post some relics of the Old Seattle that this man is moaning over. Old Seattle brought new Seattle.

[bgwah]

I was born in Spokane and lived there for about six years before moving to suburban Seattle.

Anyway, I kind of laugh when people complain about things changing. Honestly, how long were things like that, anyway? 150 years ago* this was Indian land... Give me a break.

*Don't be too picky about how many years ago, please. :P

[Black Box]

^Totally. He did mention that in his article, but this man has to get over it. I'm a bit sad about the block I hang out on disappearing by this year's end (the E. Pine Street Blockbuster), but some of these places will sprout anew in another location. Times change faster, or so it seems.

[Black Box]

Oh, and bgwah, I love visiting Spokane.

[JiminyCricket II]

did you guys read the whole article? the whole point of him bitching in the first 3/4 was to set up him saying that change is good, he just wishes all the negative didn't come with it.

[Black Box]

Yes, I got that part, but way to make someone feel welcome. Hello, welcome to Seattle, now I'm going to move to another cluster that reminds me of how the Pacific Northwest used to be.

[mSeattle]

Yea, the loss of regional identity happens because people are running away and not staying. They are the ones with the history/stories/roots and they take them when they leave. Not everybody should have to stay where they don't like, but maybe some people can still find enough that they like that will make them choose to stay - or at least help those who stay behind to preserve some of the stories/history/identity of a place.

I do totally get wanting less congestion but that can't happen with less alternatives (non-road rapid mass transit). I wish people had stopped fighting change and gotten it right a few years ago already.

[Black Box]

Well, here's a brief story. That store, the B&I that he mentions...... That was a circus themed department store. My family went there just about every weekend. My parents liked to take us to go see Ivan, the former gorilla resident that lived inside of the department store. There was no natural light, the concrete walls were painted up like a "jungle", he had a swing tire, toys and a black and white television set. There was also a chicken that was cooped up in cage that was outfitted as a tic-tac-toe game. You could play tic-tac-toe with the chicken and if you won (which rarely happened), the machine would lay an egg. When the chicken won, bird feed would come sprinkling down and the chicken would just eat. Don't ask me how that chicken won, but I think it had something to do with the lighting system on the chicken's side. After all that, you could go to the pet store, have an egg roll, go for a ride on the carousel, play videogames, go down the water slide, look at comic books, clothes, baseball cards. From golashes to guns, the B&I had it all, even an outdoor, remote control automobile racing track and a place to fly kites in the huge parking lot. I'm glad those days are long gone.

[mSeattle]

Anyone remember the "Blob" in Lower Queen Anne?

[mhays]

Yeah, I used to live a block from it, at First N & Mercer, second story on the corner. Four years.

I was born on First Hill and have lived here all my life except for 6.5 years in Boise from ages 9-16.

I love the infill/upward growth, and look forward to each year bringing more of it.

[mhays]

The writer got plenty of stuff wrong. Here's one: Within Seattle, the infill growth really gained steam in the late 80s, not 2000. Our population bottomed out in 1986. Growth has been fairly constant since, despite a continued reduction in household sizes.

[seapug]

i moved here from connecticut in 2003. i plan on staying here or moving back to the bay where i am originally from and i'm considering brazil and new york. i love all the change. one thing i wish they'd change though is all the homeless people downtown. i understand that they'll always be here, but damn this city just lets em take shit over

[mSeattle]

I wish that the city/county had homes, jobs, or mental health facilities for some of the worst off of the homeless. There are a lot of homeless we never "see" because they work in the next cubical to us and have college degrees...

[JiminyCricket II]

yeah, we need to take care of the people who truly are disabled and cannot work... but I have no sympathy for the 20 something panhandlers who just want to be lazy, worst p.o.s.'s in the world by far, get a job.

[mSeattle]

^I agree. The trouble is that no one is posting job information on the street where people can see, or advertising on radio/TV like they do consumer commercials, and the strands (expectation/accountability/responsibility) that connect person to person in the city are much weaker than they are in the small town or country.

[mhays]

Walk into restaurant anytime except during rush. Ask whether they need a dishwasher. Fill out application. Get $8.00/hour plus a free meal every day.

That might appear daunting if you don't speak English or can't write. But I suspect many of those high school grads from Mountlake Terrace can make it work if they want to.

[VillageIdiot]

Born in Jersey (Dad was in the AF) Moved to Washington in 1976 at the age of 1 1/2 and have been here ever since. However, both my parents were born and raised in Washington and the earliest of my ancestors moved to Washington when it was still a territory (mid 1870's).

Funny though, my wife and her family have all moved up here from California since 2001. They were sick of the stuck-up, out-do-the-Jones', over-spend way of life those that live in California are part of.

[bgwah]

Funny though, my wife and her family have all moved up here from California since 2001. They were sick of the stuck-up, out-do-the-Jones', over-spend way of life those that live in California are part of.

If suburban Pierce County is anything like Sammamish (which I would guess it is) then there are more Californians than Washingtonians anyway. :P

[mSeattle]

The elite attitude is everywhere. That's why there are exclusive communities (lateral or vertical) pretty much anywhere.