The Room That Built a City: Seattle’s Desperate Hunt for Business Space
As the population swells and applications for commercial space hit record highs, city leaders warn that without immediate construction, Seattle will lose its economic dominance to rivals who can offer room.
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Again are we reminded of the urgent and paramount necessity of the time, namely, the necessity of house-room for expending business. Before this imperative demand other demands fall to in abeyance. Every day men of capital and business energy who would be glad to connect themselves with and add to the fortunes of this city, are turned away because they cannot find house-room for business. It is not one case, but many of which we now speak. Within months no less than one hundred instances of this kind have come to our personal knowledge, some of them involving small things to be sure, but all important in connection with the business prospects of the city.
The tide that turned this way last summer and fall is still swelling, and applications for business space are more numerous than at any former time. The in-coming grows greater week by week, and it is evident that where scores are coming now, there will be hundreds by mid-summer. It is also evident that the buildings planned for erection during the spring and summer will not answer the pressing and growing call for room. We must have not only the buildings already planned but others if we are to meet in any sufficient way the necessity of the time.
This necessity is Seattle's great opportunity. If we meet it promptly and fully we can easily retain the trade supremacy upon which the present fortunes of the city are based and to which we look as the source of yet greater things in the future. And if this supremacy is to be retained, we must invest it. We cannot afford, through neglect, to allow any other point to gain advantages which could not be gained in fair commercial competition.
Once more Seattle is called upon to fight for her birthright. This time, the terms are easier than ever before. All that is required is to make room for those anxious to come and strengthen our forces and if we don't do it we don't deserve to prosper. Every man who puts up a business block will do a public service; and every man who, owning any business property, does not build his standing in the path of public progress.
This editorial captures the anxiety of Seattle’s early boom years, where the lack of commercial infrastructure threatened to stall growth. It mirrors modern debates over zoning, density, and the 'housing' crisis for small businesses, where high rents and lack of space force local enterprises out or prevent new ones from starting.
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