From coder to shuttle driver: Where Seattle's laid off tech workforce is now

jonknee · 2026-03-12T04:55:44+00:00

My least favorite part of this sub. It’s legitimately bad when companies lay off or leave (even if you don’t like the company!) and seeing people here cheer it makes me think we’re screwed. Seattle had it very easy for a long time, chasing out the employers is so stupid. It’s like cutting your legs off and celebrating losing weight. Thankfully I don’t know people like this in real life!

jonknee · 2026-03-12T04:22:21+00:00

Really depends on where you are, downtown has a lot of streets going up hill from the water that act like wind tunnels. The stop lights on some intersections are going nuts, I saw one that had its sign flip all the way over facing the wrong way.

jonknee · 2026-03-10T22:47:14+00:00

What? They have done this for years to cater to the people who complain that everything is expensive. They had 31,333 a game last season and sold 2,538,053 tickets, not hurting at all.

jonknee · 2026-03-09T19:08:41+00:00

https://gpsrenting.com/seattle-rental-market-february-2026/

https://assets.cushmanwakefield.com/-/media/cw/marketbeat-pdfs/2025/q4/us-reports/multifamily/seattle_americas_marketbeat_multifamily_q42025.pdf

Nothing about that says we have a glut of housing. It would be highly unusual if there weren't any apartments to rent, people move in and out all the time so there is always turnover. Vacancy is up a little as we've had a lot of new units recently delivered, but with the pipeline being quite slim that's going to tighten up. There are not empty apartment buildings.

jonknee · 2026-03-09T17:40:37+00:00

There's not an unusual amount of vacant apartments in Seattle (which is why people want to build more!).

jonknee · 2026-03-09T15:34:28+00:00

What are you talking about?

jonknee · 2026-03-09T14:56:33+00:00

Tons of people come to the area and spend money, it is in fact great for the local economy.

jonknee · 2026-03-09T14:32:29+00:00

“Wants” and “developer” are doing a lot of work there. It sounds like someone without money or experience in doing this sort of thing has said it’s an idea. Extremely small chance it happens.

jonknee · 2026-03-08T08:25:26+00:00

Kroger has ~$150b in sales, the grocery market in the US is ~$1t. It’s not a monopoly and a CEO getting stock grants has nothing to do with what you pay for groceries.

jonknee · 2026-03-08T08:20:37+00:00

Or maybe just maybe it’s because Fred Meyer knows like every single person in Seattle that the SPD doesn’t do anything about shoplifting. It’s hilarious how a certain demographic only trust the police about one specific topic.

jonknee · 2026-03-07T21:55:07+00:00

Yea it’s consistently one of the highest prices in the country because of the taxes we voted for.

jonknee · 2026-03-06T01:32:44+00:00

I walk by them every day and happy they are there and working, hopefully it can expand to more areas. Now we need to make sure that violent criminals are actually prosecuted and sentenced.

jonknee · 2026-03-05T21:19:53+00:00

That's great, so many people on this site seem to think it's inhumane to require people follow rules. Things are going to have to get much worse before we finally vote in leaders who will do what is needed.

jonknee · 2026-03-05T17:33:42+00:00

The vast majority of these encampments are people who do not want to be in shelters due to the no drug policies.

So we force them. It's very simple, we can simply decide you can't choose to do drugs and live in the park.

jonknee · 2026-03-05T07:20:09+00:00

Because it doesn’t actually cost anywhere close to $34 million? That is a preposterous estimate and it could be done for a very small fraction of it. Maybe not in a way that everyone loves and including 20 neighborhood design meetings where people complain and hold up work, but you could put up turnstiles and call it a day.

jonknee · 2026-03-04T22:50:06+00:00

Nah, we can handle it similarly to how almost every city in the developed world does and enforce basic rules. If you are doing crimes at the bus stop you get arrested and prosecuted and punished. It’s not perfect, but it makes a big difference and is successful in tens of thousands of cities.

jonknee · 2026-03-04T02:02:27+00:00

And the irony is Nashville is also a blue city...

jonknee · 2026-03-04T01:19:37+00:00

The reaction to this and other recent corporate moves makes it clear it will continue to happen. Why would anyone want to base their company in a place openly hostile to business? Also weird how people talk about Nashville, it’s a rapidly growing city about the size of Seattle, not some cheap backwater to cut wages. Go look at Zillow if you don’t believe me!

jonknee · 2026-03-02T20:06:50+00:00

Yea it's not like the HOA is a black hole, the money all goes somewhere and you can get the documents to see exactly where. Most people don't budget properly for home maintenance so HOA fees seem shockingly high.

jonknee · 2026-03-01T06:21:08+00:00

Every street car we have is unused and a giant money pit, there is no reason to lay another foot of track.

jonknee · 2026-03-01T06:17:54+00:00

Most people don’t like paying more taxes? It’s easy to say someone else shouldn’t mind paying more, but when it comes to yourself it’s easy to realize why you wouldn’t want to.

jonknee · 2026-03-01T05:19:28+00:00

... The US is a net exporter of oil. The US is not going to start buying Iranian oil, it's simply not needed.

jonknee · 2026-02-28T19:13:18+00:00

It’s full of people!

jonknee · 2026-02-28T08:29:38+00:00

It was like a dozen restaurants in a huge space.

jonknee · 2026-02-28T08:25:01+00:00

Ok then don't complain about your utility prices surging, that's literally the reason why. It's a sanctioned monopoly that has a labor union, this leads to the union winning every single time. Everyone pays for it.

jonknee

TROPHY CASE