Virgin on Business: The Big Easy

As big-city mayoral gigs go, Seattles is one of the cushiest.

Unlike New York and Chicago, the mayor of Seattle is not responsible for the city school system, thus freeing him from that slough of dysfunction (although Seattle mayors, apparently feeling they dont have enough to do, keep making noises about adding that collection of headaches to their portfolio).

The public employee unions are relatively placid. Ditto the assorted special interest and neighborhood groups, which, despite a reputation for vocal uproar and gumming up the process, can usually be soothed with a few understanding if noncommittal words.

Weather is usually not a challenge, although it can bite if attention to detail lapses (ask Greg Nickels about that). Outbreaks of civic violence are rare, although they, too, can punish if complacency and naivete set in (ask Paul Schell about that).

Even better, the city is nowhere near being an economic basket case on the order of Detroit. If anything, it might be on the other end of the urban-economics spectrum. While people talk of whether theres any point in keeping Detroit going, they also talk of Seattle as the model of what post-industrial, 21st-century American cities can be if they just put their minds to it. What might be the best part of being mayor of Seattle is coming up with and carrying out an economic-development strategy. The secret is you dont have to!

Oh, sure, its always nice to show up for the groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings, and to make periodic speeches before the downtown lunch clubs, mouthing the expected pieties about how much you love business and value its contribution to civic life and well-being.

But beyond thatmeh. Its not as though youll be punished by the business community for what you say or do, not effectively anyway. Mumbling and grumbling, sure. But you get that from everyone, and the business sector more than most groups is likely to do its mumbling and grumbling quietly and then sacrifice its complaints to the broader interest of getting along in the hope that it might someday win some concession or support.

And its not as though economic disaster can be pinned on a mayor. Boeing goes through a cyclical swoon or makes threats to leave? Even when it was a local company, Boeings physical headquarters was just outside the city limits, and the major production plants are in Renton and Everett (the latter in a whole other county). As mayor, you get to reap the benefits of having Boeing around and let someone like the governor take the fall if things go wrong.

Washington Mutual implodes? Wasnt anything you didand here comes Russell Investments scurrying up I-5 to fill some of that vacant space.

Better still, how about Amazon and its ravenous appetite for employees and office space, a company you didnt have to lift a finger to bring to town? Or all the high-tech firms that have set up shop locally? Heck, when it comes to economic development, the place practically runs itself.

Let other mayors indulge in the grubby business of business recruitment. Youve got your days free to save the planet and reorder peoples lives, all financed with the business communitys money.

All of which tends to add to the general (but, of course, quietly expressed) sense of unhappiness in the business community, especially among small businesses that dont have the revenue, margins or personnel to deal with the cost of the planet-saving initiatives emanating from City Hall. Theirs is the sense that the general attitude of city government toward them and their problems ranges from If you were any good, youd be bigger than you are now to We dont need you to be here but we know you need to be here or, for more industrial operations, Wouldnt you really be happier in Kent?

Whos to say those attitudes, from a

realistic, if cynical, perspective, are wrong? Not the electorate, to judge from the slate of candidates in the August primary (whoever you voted for, you were likely to wind up with some variation of the current mayor) and recent voting trends. As long as the voters keep voting that way, and as long as the economy continues to sustain itself, the best many businesses can hope for from the local political community is benign neglectand the occasional appearance at ribbon cuttings (if youre fortunate enough to have one).

BILL VIRGIN is founder and owner of Northwest Newsletter Group, which publishes Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News.