John Levesque
Final Analysis: Dont Follow the Money
If the Mariners were smart which isnt a club tradition theyd forgo the big payday and name their stadium Niehaus Park.
Dont do it, Mariners! Reject the big payday the way youve assiduously rejected sports supremacy. Thats right. Take a pass on that fat check for $50 million or whatever amount some corporate entity is willing to shell out for naming rights to Safeco Field. Leave it all on the table and strike a blow for…
Final Analysis: Political Pointers
What Seattles 21 mayoral candidates should do to win the primary.
Perhaps you have heard. Twenty-one people want to be mayor of Seattle. Actually, there may be even more people who want to be mayor, but 21 have formally filed to have their names placed on the primary election ballot next month. The top two finishers go head to head in November. Why anyone would want…
Final Analysis: Battling Drug Abuse
Would you like your Harvoni prepared al dente?
If this journalism thing doesnt work out, I have a backup plan: helping the pharmaceutical industry come up with names for their new drugs. Im supremely confident I can devise something as good as maybe even better than Harvoni and Entresto. I know what youre thinking. Werent Harvoni and Entresto a vaudeville magic act? Or…
Final Analysis: And Now for the (Fake) News
Stories we'd like to read on April Fool's Day.
Contrary to what the current presidential administration would have you believe, real journalists spend their time looking for the truth and reporting it fairly. So the opportunity to have some fun on the one day of the year when fake news is actually expected proves irresistible to some in the media. For instance, on April…
Final Analysis: Would You Go to Work for Donald Trump?
Or would you rather end up on his enemies list?
Imagine getting a call inviting you to work for your country. Now imagine your new boss is Donald J. Trump. Would you move to Washington, D.C., to work for the president of the United States? For this president of the United States? From what we know through simple observation, Donald Trump suffers from chronic narcissism,…
Final Analysis: The Improbable Marriage
Alaskas union with Virgin America seems odd, but the outcome will ultimately be unsurprising.
Despite its origins in the rugged north country, Alaska Airlines is a button-down shirt and wingtips. As recently as five years ago, it distributed Bible verses with its in-flight meals. Virgin America, meanwhile, with a provenance linked to the flamboyant entrepreneur Richard Branson, is more T-shirt and flip-flops. Its aircraft have leather seats and 12…
Three Predictions for the Coming Year on a New Arena, an Old Arena and the Mariners
Hey, it could happen!
As every first-year business student knows, a citys economy is not considered world class until said city has erected at least four shrines to professional sports and these shrines remain empty and unused most days of the year. Seattle is knocking on the door of world classiness because it already has KeyArena, Safeco Field and…
Final Analysis: Wont You Come Home, Bill Boeing?
How can we celebrate such a momentous birthday when the honoree doesnt even live here?
Elsewhere in this month’s issue youll find congratulatory notes honoring The Boeing Company on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. Allow me to add my own felicitations. I just wonder if we all might get a little more jazzed about this upcoming centennial the actual date is July 15 if Boeing were still an honest-to-goodness…
Final Analysis: Am I Ready to Share a Bike? Not exactly.
Not until I can be sure Im safe on the streets of Seattle.
On a recent visit to New York City, I marveled at the sheer bravery of the people using Citi Bike, New Yorks bike-share program. Or maybe it was their audacity that struck me. Many of these helmetless people weaving around delivery trucks and taxicabs and metro buses seemed to be my age which equates to…
Final Analysis: The Buddy System
When the desultory style of Seattles mayor leaves you wishing for a felon.
Friends and I were talking recently about one of Seattles infrastructure problems dont remember if it was the abysmal traffic, rising homelessness, the messy waterfront and I said, as I often do in these situations, Maybe its time for Buddy Cianci. All told, Vincent A. Buddy Cianci, who died in January, was mayor of Providence,…
Letters to the Editor
Our readers weigh in.
THE YEAR OF THE CRANEKudos to John Levesque on his Year in Business column in the December issue of Seattle magazine (published simultaneously as Final Analysis in Seattle Business). Its a tour-de-farce of acerbic and accurate insight into Seattles growing pains from the tunnel not being dug by Bertha to the Potola Pit just a…
Final Analysis: Change the Corporate Climate
Because wouldn't you rather live on a sexy planet?
Lets hear it for the Breakthrough Energy Coalition! Its rad. Its rockin. Its righteous. Its a bunch of rich guys pledging to invest billions to find a faster way to meet the energy needs of a growing planet without contributing to climate change. Bill Gates announced the coalition on the eve of the United Nations…
Final Analysis: The Year in Business
Observations from Boomtown, U.S.A.
Please disregard the Chinese calendar. Turns out that 2015 was the year of the crane. At least in Seattle. Looks as if 2016 will be, too. And on and on until boom goes bust. You know it will. Go bust, that is. It always does. But for now, the business of Seattle is developing the…