Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb invited us to see his city after I warned Seattle risked the same decline. The gap in hustle and leadership runs the wrong direction.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb read my piece comparing Seattle's trajectory to his city's decline. He did not argue. He invited us to come see what Cleveland looks like now.
GeekWire publisher John Cook and I took him up on it. We spent a packed week touring the city. We met with startups, established manufacturers, elected officials, and institutional leaders. Nobody threw anything at me, despite the piece that started this conversation. The welcome was genuine.
The trip changed how I think about my own city. The gap between Cleveland and Seattle on hustle, leadership, and civic partnership is wide. It runs the wrong direction for Seattle.
At every level Cleveland is fixed on jobs and economic growth. Those words barely register in our local policy debates. The contrast is not subtle.
Seattle spent the last 15 years riding a wave that felt permanent. Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks made the region the global center for cloud computing, e-commerce, and specialty coffee. The population grew. Housing got expensive. The city felt invincible.
Cleveland lived through the flip side. Its Great Lakes manufacturing economy collapsed. The population shrank by half from its 1950 peak. The city became the national poster child for urban decline.
That experience leaves a mark. The Cleveland I saw this week operates with a sense of urgency Seattle has lost. When a company threatens to leave, Cleveland responds. When a startup needs a permit, the city finds a way. The default posture is yes, not maybe.
The cities have similar raw materials. Both have major research universities, a strong philanthropic base, professional sports, and a Great Lake on one side. Cleveland even has an emerging tech scene in healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
The posture is different. Cleveland leaders talk about jobs and economic growth the way Seattle leaders talk about affordable housing and equity. Neither set of priorities is wrong. The problem for Seattle is that when you stop talking about the economy, the economy stops growing.
We asked everyone we met the same question: what can Seattle learn from Cleveland? John Cook has the full set of answers posted at GeekWire. The consistent theme: stay hungry.
The comparison is not academic. Washington State just got a credit rating downgrade. Seattle has record office vacancies. Amazon is pulling back its real estate footprint. The state government is scrambling to close a budget shortfall.
Those are Cleveland-style headwinds. Seattle has not faced them in decades. The question is whether the region has the institutional memory to respond.
Cleveland had to rebuild from nothing. Seattle still has most of its advantages. It is burning through them faster than it should.
I failed to open every meeting with "Hello Cleveland." I got it in a couple of times. Not every one. Next trip.
We also recorded a GeekWire podcast episode at the former Westinghouse light bulb factory, a reminder of what Cleveland used to build. The episode posts this weekend.
For Seattle, the lesson is simple. The fall from great to cautionary tale does not take that long. Cleveland knows. Seattle should learn before it has to.
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