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One is home to legacy automakers, the other is home to Amazon and Microsoft. Seems like an easy bet
To add to the above posts, Washington state's built-in advantages will only continue to increase. We have a strong tech start-up ecosystem in Seattle that will continue to grow and likely spread to Tacoma, Vancouver, WA, and maybe Bellingham. Legacy tech in Seattle keeps getting stronger and we don't have the total breakdown in local governance and real estate of Silicon Valley. Also, strong trade and research cooperation links to China, Japan, and Vancouver B.C. helpful for continued growth along with an innovative agriculture scene, tourism, international development, health care, and biotech. Geographically WA state is in such a favorable position to exploit these advantages. Biggest downsides are terrible system of state taxation, stark rural/urban divide, legacy of libertarianism, and severe underinvestment in higher education - plus we don't have a premier private research university. Also hurts to be far from DC and the old legacy of natural resource-based industries has held back a lot of the state outside of the Puget Sound.
San Fran has a shuttle flight so getting there is easy.
Being from the east coast, the current state and future of Taoma, Spokane, Boise and Portland are better than Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and the upstate cities in NY that have been gutted.
Pittsburgh has pivoted well.
As a Michigan native who now works in Washington, sorry to say it's definitely Washington. Here are the stats on employment for either state, which is one way to look at the growth of the economy (obviously doesn't take into account factors like productivity though):
* Pre-COVID Michigan employment levels were still 5% below what they were in 2000 - in the same period, US employment rose by 15%
* Pre-COVID Washington employment levels grew by 30% since 2000, over double the growth of the national average
* The post-COVID Michigan employment drop was 21%, almost twice the Washington employment drop of 12%
Basically, Washington has rapidly grown over the past two decades while Michigan hasn't even recovered from the jobs it lost in the automotive industry. On top of that, Michigan was more significantly impacted due to COVID and will have more ground to make up over the next few years.
New York or Wyoming? See, I can do it too.
I would highly suggest reading the last few years of Jon Talton's columns in the Seattle Times. He has the best handle on a 360 degree view of the economy in the greater Seattle area, though not necessarily Washington State. He also tends to link to a lot of good research reports for further reading.
The one yesterday related to city council is spot on.
Seattle is levying a tax at the worst possible time. I was already mainly remote and traveling as necessary for my role. I could just as easily pivot to Bellevue or Redmond.
If Amazon pulls out of Seattle, the nearby businesses and tax base will be devastated. Amazon already has one foot out the door towards Bellevue and now has leased space in Redmond.
While Amazon has sought to not move to a campus model, covid changes everything and Seattle between taxes, the homelessness and recent shooting, and high cost of stacked real estate, is shooting itself in the foot.
Seattle also doesn’t have a funding problem, it has a poor record of managing its finances.
Living in Washington, on the whole I don’t see any state doing better top to bottom.
The Seattle area represents the majority of the state population and has strong employment. With tech being able to more effectively adapt and paying higher wages, the area economy is strong. This extends to real estate and other large capital purchases (auto, construction, etc.)
July 15th is a major vesting day and with share prices up, this will be a shot in the arm to an area that is already doing well.
The challenge like all cities will be that restaurants and retail that depended on foot traffic arent likely to survive.