[mhays]

Seattle:

Getting the light rail starter line completed, and starting the first major addition.

Getting some heavy commuter rail going, though just rush hour service.

Starting the 1.7 mile Highway 99 tunnel project, to eliminate an existing surface, elevated, and tunnel freeway through Downtown.

Completing Sea-Tac Airport's third runway, giving it finally the ability to land two streams in low-visibility.

The new Amazon headquarters in 15 buildings and counting, beteen purpose-built and new leased space.

The Gates Foundation Headquarters.

That's only six. It's hard to think of the next four. But the city has transformed. Not on the level of some cities, but certainly to a high degree, particularly in and near Downtown.

Seattle has undergone a massive amount of civic investment, including probably a billion in school renovations and hundreds of millions for libraries, fire stations, and parks. City hall and the city, county, and federal courts are all new or partly/totally renovated. Same with football stadiums.

On the private side, we've always had buildings going up around Greater Downtown and elsewhere. Greater Downtown (2,000 acres or so) is back in boom mode with 20 tower cranes or so currently. That area has added maybe 10,000 housing units based on 10 years of starts, of which over 3,500 are now underway. It's added thousands of hotel rooms, several million square feet of offices, and some major museum and performing arts projects. Also quite a few lab buildings and hospital buildings.