Seattle, R.I.P.

When you’ve lost Amazon….

Now, Amazon, a leading corporate occupant of downtown Seattle is relocating workers from one of its downtown offices. The reason: crime and crime and more crime.

From the Epoch Times:

Amazon is temporarily relocating employees from its downtown Seattle office due to an increase in violent crimes in the area, the company said on March 11.

“Given recent incidents near Third and Pine, we’re providing employees currently at that location with alternative office space elsewhere,” an Amazon spokesman said in an emailed statement to The Seattle Times. “We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so.”

How bad is it? Very bad indeed:

Amazon’s decision to relocate employees comes after a string of violent crimes in the area, including one that claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy on March 2. Police are still searching for the suspect and have appealed to the public for help identifying the attacker.

Since Feb. 21, there have been at least three shootings, two stabbings, and one carjacking in the area, according to information from the Seattle Police Department’s Twitter account. 

To expand on the picture of Seattle’s destitution, we turn to Kevin Downey, Jr. in Pajamas Media ( via Maggie’s Farm.)

Downey reports in detail about the fine work done by former Mayor Jenny Durkan, an incompetent leftist who was mayor until the end of last year. One remarks that Seattle’s new mayor has promised to clean up the crime problem. If the Amazon situation means anything, it tells us that he has not been doing a bang up job.

Downey offers a timeline of violence, beginning a few weeks into the George Floyd riots:

July 7, 2020–11 Weeks Into the “Pandemic” and Six Weeks into the George Floyd Riots

Here is what the Seattle City Council did: they increased taxes.

The City Council of Seattle, like the obedient commies they are, voted to tax businesses even more than usual. This was at a time when businesses were struggling from COVID-19 lockdowns and BLM and their spinster sisters in Antifa were gutting the city. The “CHOP” or “CHAZ” commie central zone had been established for one month.  A $1 billion business owner described both San Francisco and Seattle as “some of the worst places to raise a family, practice a faith, or even think freely. This hurts my team and the business.” He moved his company to Texas.

A month later, the city government decided to defund the police:

August 24, 2020–18 Weeks Into the “Pandemic” and 13 Weeks After the Start of the George Floyd Riots

Between the Bat Stew Flu and chaotic crime, over 100 businesses had permanently closed in downtown Seattle. The city responded by threatening to defund the police, which would result in roughly 100 fewer cops in the now-insanely violent city. Three local businesses–Simply Seattle, Seattle E-Bike, and Steepologie Teas–bailed on Seattle amid concerns about the insane crime and the city council’s unwillingness to deal with it.

Here was the state of play at the beginning of the Biden presidency:

February 11, 2021–Roughly 43 weeks Into the “Pandemic” and 38 Weeks Into the George Floyd Riots

No fewer than 160 businesses had left Seattle. Some because of the Hong Kong Fluey and some because of the commie-condoned violence.

TRInternational’s CEO, Megan Gluth-Bohan, said the obvious out loud:

“Downtown started off as a vibrant place to be. Over time we became embarrassed. We had one female employee chased into a Starbucks. Business partners coming in for meetings were dodging human fecal matter and homeless people on the sidewalk. We had an employee paying for parking after work. She had her driver’s side window down working the parking machine, and someone attempted to enter her car.”

“Seattle’s problem has grown aggressive,” Gluth-Bohan continued. “It is everywhere and there does not seem to be any effort to curb it, stop it, or slow it.”

A year later, Amazon has moved out of its downtown offices.

Great job, Seattle.