Hawaii

Like Hawaii, the Seattle has volcanoes around it's area. The closest would be Mount Rainer which is fifty four miles away. The volcano is considered one of the most dangerous in the world. It contains lava deposits that are more than 840,000 years old! The volcano has not erupted since 1840 but is still technically an active volcano. If it erupts at any time great damage would be done to the surrounding areas, it could easily reach Seattle! When Mount ST Helen erupted it

Information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier

Picture from: Bschool.com

The North Pacific Coast

Seattle is actually located in the North Pacific West. The city came about as a logging center than became "The largest company town"(Page 331). As it was home to the Boeing Aircraft company since world war one and provided bombers to the war effort in both world wars. It created the Jet and the whole city was heavily employed. During the 70's up until the 90's the economy for the jet plane was hit hard. Since then the city has done much better. Culturally the city is pretty famous for Microsoft but also for the "grunge" scene. Which was popularized by Nirvana and included other bands such as Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, The Melvins, and Screaming Trees to name a few.

Resource: Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada Page(331), by Birdsall, Palka, Malinowski, and Price.

Nirvana from Seattle spawned the grunge culture that affected pop culture. Image by: Universal.

California

Seattle has an urban city much like that of Los Angeles. As both cities have been a prime spot for music, sports, and other cultural endeavors. However Los Angeles has a very high population over nine million, while Seattle doesn't even hit the million mark, at around 600,000. Seattle is majorily white with a somewhat prominent Asian population as well. Unlike the mixing pot of Los Angeles not much diversity lies in Seattle.

Picture of a non typical Seattle resident, from: Nicholas Stix Blogspot

The Southwest Border Area

Seattle's sea channel brings it very close to the Canadian border. I am noting this because unlike the US-Mexico border. It much easier to get across with no questions asked. For instance the U.S. conducted an undercover test in which they deemed the border, "failing a terrorist test".(Reported by CNN) In which they went through with a duffel bag and no questions asked.

You can take a ferry from Seattle to Victoria, Canada. (picture from: Victoria Lodging)

The Empty Interior

The wildlife in Seattle consists of anything from coyotes to hawks to sea life. It is not uncommon to see a whale, sea otter, or seal along the shores. Seattle makes an effort to co-exist with the habitat around them. For instance, they installed lights at a harbor so birds would not fly into the power lines. A bird nest nearby was annihilated due to the power lines. Photo and info from: West Seattle Blog

The installation to reduce bird deaths.

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Great Plains And Praires

Seattle's soils are located in depressions on glacial till plains. They form around organic materials. The type of soils that grace the land include; Buckley, Alderwood, and Everett. All the soils are poorly kept. They are primary drained and used for pastures in croplands, growing Corn silage and many other truck crops. and interesting note that all these pastures our mostly located outside of the actual city of Seattle. Information acquired through Seattle's governmental research

However local backyard farms have become a big thing in Seattle. Picture below from: Grist.org

The Agricultural Core

Being a city with a port life, Seattle has a big interest in fishing. The liberal city has a board that decides when exactly it is safe to fish each specie. Limits need to be put on what to fish to ensure no one sea creature becomes extinct. For instance around this time clam season has begun and restrictions have been raised. Mark Yausa of the Seattle Times reports, " The coastal clam dig, is now in full season, and reports have indicated some excellent digging".

A picture of a Seattle fish from a flood.Photo from: www.democraticunderground.com

The Southern Coast lands: Hazzards

Heavy winter storms sweep through Seattle which can cause bad traffic accidents sometimes resulting in death. Also it is not uncommon for residents to occasionally get snowed in. A 2001 Nisqually Earthquake caused millions in damages. In 1700 the Cascadia earthquake which tallied at 7.1, had Seattle(not formed yet) in its grid. It caused a tsunami that hit Japan(not the current one). Seattle lays in proclaimed, "earth quake country"


Cascadia earthquake on grid.

Appalachia and the Ozarks

Seattle's river system has been charged with much pollution. the EPA claimed the Duwamish river had been 80 percent contaminated in the year 2000. Since then the public has got into the issue trying to fight for a clean up. They have spent 75 million dollars trying to fix the river but still pollution contaminates it. At this point only 2 percent of the original river flow is left. More restoration is on the way, but it's to little to late.

The Bypassed East

"Liberal tourism" is huge in Seattle. They host many festivals including the Seattle Film Festival, Gay Pride Festival(100,000 people in attendance), and Hemp Fest. Also they have anime festivals. The cruise industry has grown recently with cruises making it's way to Alaska they stop by Seattle. Over 850,000 people come through Seattle as cruise tourists.

The Changing South

Regional Organization and Continental Integration.  Seattle's location provides access to many waterways which have created many harbors. In fact they have created a complete man made island, entitled the greatly original title "Harbor Island". They have vast fish markets, in which some throw fishes around bolstering around like car salesmen. Harbor Island was created with 24 million pounds of earth taken from the banks of a lake.

The Economic Character Of The Region Cities

Along with being a port city with access to harbors, lots of the economic prosperity has come from software and hardware developers. Microsoft is the most famous example of a start up company that rose to corporate power. a huge video game company Valve software spawned from Microsoft employees. Nintendo of America is located in Seattle.Many start up companies have come out of Seattle besides software, Starbucks coffee came out of this city. As well as music company, Sub Pop Records which was the first to sign Nirvana. The financial success can be attributed to 54% of the citizens having college degrees, the highest in all united states cities.

Gabe Newell of Valve, an ex Microsoft employee started his own company.  A prime example of the entrepreneurship of Seattle.

Problems in Megalopolis

A big problem Seattle faces is traffic congestion. It is number one in the country! Railways that dominated Seattle in the early 20th century were built over with routes for buses which then became routes for cars. Similar to early Los Angeles that also had railway cars. It has become a huge public issue that has had PSA's played on TV.  Through this they created a new commuter rail system to help fight traffic, It connects Seattle to Everett to Tacoma. In  the 1990's cult film Singles  one of the main protagonists can be seen trying to pitch a railway system to the mayor in an attempt to help fight traffic.

Fun on a Seattle freeway.

Foundations of Human Activity

The city of Seattle itself is named after an Indian, Chief Seattle. Seattle sought to bring peace in between the white settlers and the Indians. He stayed neutral during the Battle of Seattle(1856), which was an attack on a settlement by Native Americans.  Much controversy surrounds Chief Seattle, as he gave a famous speech welcoming governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens. in which it has been interpreted many different ways.  Some people claim he was helping the peace, while others claim he "gave in to the man". Statues reside in Seattle to this day commemorating Chief Seattle.


Chief Seattle statue.

Geographic Patterns Of The Physical Environment: Climate

Seattle is known for its damp climate. It rains pretty frequently however not as much as east coast cities like New York. The big difference between other rainy cities is the sky itself. When rain stops on the east coast the sky becomes clear, while in Seattle it stays cloudy. This has lead to Seattle having one of the highest suicide rates in the entire country. During the summer it does heat up however, into the low 90's.  The average precipitation per year is 37.07 inches.

Region and Themes

In 1950 Seattle had 150 square miles of urbanized land. By 1980 the amount was at 485. however within the ten year span to 1990 the amount had grown to 588 square miles(blame Nirvana).

Seattle's political board, consists of nine city council members and one mayor.  Seattle leans to the left side of the political spectrum. The democratic party usually reigns supreme in elections. But third party's have actually had success in the election. Republican never fare well. The city was nearly the first to elect a  Jewish mayor, and was the first city to elect a female into office.

An example of minor political activity in Seattle on election day 2008.

Seattle's skyline.

Similar to LA, New York, or Tokyo. Seattle has huge sky rise buildings. The signature building is the Space Needle which  houses a classy upscale eatery at the top.

Seattle as my Choice

I chose Seattle Washington. The fairly rainy city has a special place in my heart, due to family visits. Seattle has water access on two sides and is joined by bridges that go over the water. It's one of the few major cities that is actually named after a native american, being Chief Seattle.