Seattle’s Economy Transformed: Capitalist Success Story or Democratic Socialist Experiment in Progress?

In this discussion we’ll explore the implications of the rapid transformation of Seattle from the old Boeing-driven Jet City into a tech wealth bastion of the knowledge economy. 

What has this economic transformation and the rapid growth it has spurred meant for the city and its residents? Seattle is undoubtedly more prosperous now than it ever was, but it is also more unequal. As the city marches forward, are the great engines of the Seattle economy up to the task of solving the “problems of success” or will it cause those problems to deepen? Is the Seattle economy likely to keep booming for the foreseeable future or are there storm clouds on the horizon? And what lasting impacts will COVID have on Seattle’s prosperity?

Joining Folio Board Trustee and political commentator Sandeep Kaushik on the panel are Seattle Times Business Reporter and Author Paul Roberts,  General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union Katie Wilson, and CEO of Greater Seattle Partners (GSP)  former Executive Director of LISC Puget Sound Brian Surratt.

About the panelists:

Paul Roberts is a business writer at The Seattle Times where he is focusing on the Seattle-area’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Before coming to the Times in 2018, Roberts wrote for national publications, including Politico, National Geographic and Rolling Stone, and is the author of three books. He lives in Lower Queen Anne, which he will never call Uptown.

Katie Wilson is the General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union, a Seattle-based grassroots membership organization advocating for improved public transit, affordable housing and other progressive urban issues. She was formerly a contributing columnist for Crosscut, from 2019 through 2021, covering local politics and economics.

Brian Surratt is the newly appointed president and CEO of Greater Seattle Partners, a public-private regional economic development organization. He is the former executive director of the Puget Sound office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and prior to that was vice president for real estate development and community relations at Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Surratt has also served as the director of the City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development and at Seattle’s Office of Policy and Innovation, where he was the policy lead on Seattle’s historic effort to establish a $15 per hour minimum wage.

Sandeep Kaushik is a political and public affairs consultant in Seattle, and a  partner at Sound View Strategies (SVS). Prior to that he worked as a political columnist/writer for Seattle’s alt-weekly, the Stranger, and as Seattle correspondent for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. Sandeep currently serves on the board of Folio.