{"id":661157,"date":"2026-05-23T21:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661157\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:37:21","slug":"seattle-business-exodus-raises-economic-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661157\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Business Exodus Raises Economic Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seattle\u2019s socialist-in-chief\u00a0is no longer laughing<\/a>\u00a0about chasing away businesses and wealthy residents. But the attitude adjustment may be too little, too late.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks ago, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson infamously giggled when asked if she was concerned about wealthy residents fleeing Seattle because of her policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown. And if\u2014the ones that leave, like, bye,\u201d Wilson said to applause at Seattle University.<\/p>\n

As I wrote at the time, this flippant attitude toward a potential wealth exodus was remarkably foolish.<\/p>\n

Businesses and the \u201crich\u201d were already leaving Seattle, but hitting the accelerator on leftist policies is causing a full-blown economic meltdown. The result will be a loss of hundreds of millions\u2014likely even billions\u2014of dollars in future tax revenue.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t take a genius to figure out that a political program based on taxing the rich doesn\u2019t even begin to work if there are few rich to tax. But here we are. Reality is setting in.<\/p>\n

Now for the consequences.<\/p>\n

In November, Wilson stepped into a labor dispute between Starbucks and its employees, saying that she was \u201cproud\u201d to join the picket line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not buying Starbucks and you should not either,\u201d\u00a0she said<\/a>\u00a0of Seattle\u2019s signature brand.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t go well with Starbucks management, which has announced plans to effectively leave the state of Washington.<\/p>\n

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz even took to the\u00a0pages of The Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0to blast city and state leaders for making a bad situation worse.<\/p>\n

Schultz wrote in early May that Seattle faces \u201cserious\u201d problems, including \u201cchronic homelessness, disorder in core business districts, persistent budget deficits, declining public-school outcomes, and a slowing technology hiring cycle.\u201d He lamented that Washington and Seattle have failed to meet those challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeattle\u2019s mayor, Katie Wilson, has chosen to cast business as a foil rather than a partner,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHer socialist rhetoric vilifies employers, even while she continues to rely on them for revenue. She has encouraged residents who disagree with her policies to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t find Schultz to be all that sympathetic\u2014he\u2019s been seemingly happy to back idiotic causes in the past to\u00a0appeal to woke leftists<\/a>\u2014his sudden turn against the Democrat powers that be suggests that Seattle is in real trouble.<\/p>\n

Now, the mayor seems to regret her anti-Starbucks line.<\/p>\n

In an interview\u00a0with The New York Times<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday, she admitted comments calling for a Starbucks boycott were \u201cnot productive in the sense that they caused more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

Other Seattle leaders have expressed dismay at how things are going too.<\/p>\n

Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka,\u00a0a Democrat<\/a>\u00a0who once fully supported Wilson, said to The New York Times that he\u2019s \u201cgravely concerned\u201d about Starbucks pulling the plug and moving to Nashville. \u201cThis is real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jon Scholes, the president of the Downtown Seattle Association, who was on Wilson\u2019s transition team, said\u00a0to KOMO News<\/a>\u00a0that \u201ctone and tenor and words matter if you\u2019re leading a city.\u201d He warned that Seattle\u2019s business climate was \u201cat a bit of a tipping point, and we should take nothing for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

His association recently released a report that highlighted the issues facing the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cDowntown lost an estimated 13,000 jobs in 2025, the steepest decline since the pandemic outside of 2021,\u201d the report said, according to KOMO News. \u201cOffice vacancy rates remain stubbornly high at more than 30% overall, with Seattle\u2019s central business district exceeding 32%. Some of downtown\u2019s most valuable office towers have lost more than half their assessed value since 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

This makes Wilson\u2019s comments about saying \u201cbye\u201d to businesses even more egregious. Seattle was already facing a crisis, and she just made it a lot worse.<\/p>\n

As radio host Buck Sexton wrote on X, the socialist tough talk may have tickled the fancy of purple-haired activists, but they aren\u2019t the ones paying the bills.<\/p>\n

Idiot lib class warriors like to sound tough in front of their purple-haired, nose-ringed fans until they realize non-profit workers and commune baristas don’t pay the welfare bill- capitalism does https:\/\/t.co\/9yLHB1Ct1D<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) May 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Whatever pivot Wilson makes, and I imagine it will be a rhetorical one at best, is not likely to get her out of the hole that she and fellow Democrats have dug in the city.<\/p>\n

Seattle has become a poster child of Left Coast zaniness, a hotbed\u00a0of crime and disorder<\/a>, an example of the human cost of allowing\u00a0mass open-air drug use<\/a>, and a warning about how a beautiful city can be mismanaged to oblivion.<\/p>\n

Wilson should have been doing everything in her power to assure businesses and residents that she would create a more suitable climate for them to thrive in. She didn\u2019t, and I don\u2019t blame businesses for throwing up their hands and moving along.<\/p>\n

Jarrett Stepman<\/a> is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of \u201cThe War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America\u2019s Past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal<\/a> \u2013 By Jarrett Stepman<\/p>\n

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/a><\/p>\n

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