Seattle and Spokane, Wash., may be on opposite ends of the state, with tech industries at very different stages of their evolution, but there’s still plenty for the state’s two largest cities to learn by comparing notes.
Speaking at a Technology Alliance event last Friday, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown addressed the city’s attempts to maintain affordability and quality of life in the face of its recent population growth, fueled by the rise of remote work.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, appearing with Brown on the panel, reflected on Seattle’s growth over the past 15 years — acknowledging that he would have focused more on the impact of the tech boom on housing and affordability if he could go back to 2007, the year he was first elected to the Seattle City Council, and do it all over again.
Looking forward, Harrell called on the audience of tech and business leaders in Seattle to use the rise of artificial intelligence as an opportunity to address the inequities in the tech industry and broader society.
Brown discussed Spokane’s work to leverage the U.S. Chips and Science Act to encourage economic expansion through the planned American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center. She also outlined Spokane’s efforts to address economic inequality and bolster early childhood education in the region.
As moderator of the panel, I encouraged the mayors to reflect on the evolution of the innovation economies in their regions, and to consider the obstacles and opportunities ahead. As I noted at the outset, Brown and Harrell seemed destined for their current roles, based on their backgrounds:
- Brown worked as a professor at Eastern Washington University and Gonzaga University, before serving as chancellor of Washington State University’s Spokane health sciences campus. A former state legislator, Senate majority leader, and director of the Washington State Department of Commerce, she took office as Spokane’s mayor in January with an ambitious agenda in areas including housing and the economy.
- Harrell is a Seattleite through-and-through, a football star and academic standout, and University of Washington Law school graduate, who was first elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007 and elected as Seattle’s mayor in 2021. The first chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Standing Committee on Technology and Innovation, he was recently named to the Department of Homeland Security’s new AI safety and security board.
Continue reading for highlights, edited for context and clarity.
Q: I’ve been reporting on Spokane as part of a “Geekwire On the Road” series over the past couple of months, and I’ve been struck by how tight-knit the business and tech community is, pulling together for the greater good. What should people in Seattle know about the innovation economy and the community in Spokane?
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown: The most important thing to know about Spokane right now is that its affordability and quality of life is very, very high. So much so that we’ve had a bit of an in-migration that has overwhelmed our housing market a little bit, but it is a testament to really just how great life can be in Spokane. Eighty-five percent of us live a 10-minute walk from a park. And it is a rather tight-knit community when it comes to tech.
Our clusters are actually not just in one area. I’m sure many of you are already familiar with our life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing economy, which has recently expanded with Jubilant HollisterStier‘s expansion.
But you may not be aware that we were recently designated as one of 31 tech hubs. We’re really thrilled with the work by Sen. Maria Cantwell in the Chips and Science Act to put this tech hub program together. [Cantwell was also in attendance and spoke at the event.]
This is an advanced manufacturing aerospace materials hub. There are companies and, of course, higher ed institutions in the room who have joined with this consortium. We’re very excited about the designation, and we’ve got our fingers crossed for the second level of the competition, which we hope to hear about this summer. We’ve got the site identified. It’s a former Triumph plant, and 50 acres of site in the West Plains, very close to transportation.
We’re working on those workforce issues that Laura [Ruderman, Tech Alliance CEO] talked about. It’s really a regional effort that spans the border from Spokane well into North Idaho, and even into Montana.
And then finally, I would add that we also received, again, through the Chips and Science Act, an NSF designation for an economic engine, and this is in smart grid.
So what you have in Spokane are not huge clusters, you have small innovation clusters. But it’s an exciting place to be. We have probably some of the most forward-thinking policy right now for housing. You can build lots of housing all over. And we’ve, in the last four years, permitted as much housing downtown as we had in the previous 20. So it’s a very exciting place to be with the quality of life and with the tech industry as it applies to all these different clusters.
Q: In many ways, Seattle is a runaway success story. And in others, it’s a cautionary tale. Mayor Harrell, what would you do differently related to tech if you could go back to the year that you were elected to the Seattle City Council? And how does that inform your approach today and looking forward?
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell: I’ll interpret that question as, where did I screw up 10 years ago? [Laughter.]
Number one is, we welcome the talent in this room to the city of Seattle. We welcome the intellect, the competitiveness, the drive. This is what has made this area great. The impact on housing is something that perhaps we just didn’t openly talk about. We are one of the wealthiest cities in the country, one of the most rapidly growing cities in the country, and I brag about you all the time. I’m proud of that.
But the fact is … we worry about the social worker, we worry about the teacher, the person on a fixed income. This is not your problem. You didn’t sign up for that. Heck, we’re in a meritocracy. You work your tails off, I get that. I was in telecom and technology most of my professional life. But as elected leaders, we have to embrace those impacts.
That’s the first piece. The second piece is, for example, in the gaming industry. We’re in the top three markets in the gaming industry, that’s almost a $12 billion impact, about 50,000 jobs. We are very good at that.
But almost 90% of our teenagers are experiencing aggressiveness and bullying. [A large percentage] of our youth, they’re killing all the time, virtually. And did we openly talk about the impacts of that? The treatments, or the counseling, or the open discussions in our quest to make it very, very entertaining?
Conversely, I’ll put it a different way. Have we openly talked about how we can use these rich tools to increase positive behavior in our youth? When I read about these violent crimes committed by 12 year olds, and 13 year olds, and I’m not blaming the industry, but I don’t think we’ve had open and transparent discussions on the impacts, because at some point, it goes beyond just entertainment.
So I would have talked about housing and the impacts a little more had I known about this 10-15 years ago. I don’t mean that as a criticism, and hope that what I said is well-received. [Applause.]
Q: What’s your biggest aspiration for your city, the biggest obstacle to achieving it, and how can the people in this room help?
Mayor Brown: Our biggest challenge is that about a third of our families in Spokane are really economically challenged. They are living paycheck-to-paycheck. And when you combine that with a very tight housing market, and the lack of affordable childcare, we definitely have a significant issue.
My number one aspiration for my community, that I hope we can launch this summer, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Expo ’74 … we want to launch a collective impact initiative for early learning.
We have one already for moving young people into post secondary or workforce training. It’s called LaunchNW, and it’s having a great impact.
But on the other end of the spectrum, only about 30% of our kids are ready for kindergarten. And we’ve got to change that. That’s the most transformative thing that we could do to impact our future and, frankly, the future of our state and the planet.
Mayor Harrell: The one challenge is still the inequity in our industry. There’s a recent book out called “The End of Race Politics,” by Coleman Hughes, and I encourage you to read it. I think many of you know, I’m biracial. … I’m very happy to see so many women here today because 15 years ago, it might not have been like this. …
The inequities in our industry are still very apparent. For example, I know that the discussion you’re going to have about artificial intelligence and machine learning is going to be a rich discussion. I’m hoping that as opportunities present themselves — and we’re gonna get really, really good at this space, by the way — that each of you think about causes you’re concerned about, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s income quality, whether it’s racism, whether it’s gender unfairness.
There’s going to be some smart plays in this room. You’re going to think about some creative financial plays to make. And I hope someone at the table says, you know what … maybe we could bring some people in that don’t look like us, that aren’t invited to our usual meetings, and let’s increase that diversity as a means to achieve equity.
Now, full disclosure, I’ve been in some of those meanings. I was a technology attorney and telecom attorney. At the end of the day, it’s about a great return on investment. I get it. … I’m hoping that the conversation changes a little. That’s the opportunity right here in front of us. … I’m hoping we all embrace the opportunity of inclusion at unprecedented levels. Therein lies the opportunity.
