Click here for Seattle’s Future World: Our Crystal Ball Predictions, Part 2

The Melting of the Seattle Freeze
In 30 years, the climate will be a little nicer and the Seattle Freeze will have melted. All that will be left of our purported Nordic lack of camaraderie will be a few puddles of aloofness and a spattering of social anxiety. Our combined sense of entitled cocooning and disdain for even the hint of an emotional scene cannot withstand the bustling sidewalks, the bursting clubs and the quixotic fixation on beard trimming. 

What is the Seattle Freeze, anyway? 

Are we really so different from any other city where new folks are moving in and the longtime residents are feeling pinched? 

The complaint has been that it is hard to make friends because so many people have already formed tight-knit groups. But high school eventually does give way to house, car, job and cocktail lounging rather than beer bonging.

One friend, who sort of believes in the Freeze, told me that making a connection isn’t hard here (e.g., “Let’s grab a few drinks together”), but taking the next step is (“Sure, let’s share a few whiskey sours, but I’m not ready to go kayaking with you—and don’t drop by the house”).

That’s right, we don’t allow anyone to just drop by.

In just the past few decades, the boomers, the yuppies and the millennials have turned the whole “my home is my castle” notion into a pinched pillar of our decorous ways, complete with moat and drawbridge raised at the end of every maddening day.  

Well, our parents would be shocked. Mrs. Nelson could come over anytime, and my mom would be ready for a chat with coffee and the cake on the table. 

Now, it’s text me anytime, but hold on there, fella, don’t even think about coming over. I got stuff I gotta do, fish to feed and feet to pumice. 

But that’s not a Seattle Freeze; that’s the whole ego-laden culture of self-absorption. That’s too much TV time and too much navel-gazing. You really aren’t all that precious, you know. 

Get over yourself. You want to make a friend, push your way right in there. Don’t take anyone’s supposed slight to heart. Most of the folks you know are just uptight, freaked out, unable to open up. It’s just poor training and bad manners—most likely just a vestige of all those weird high school shackles many of us want to shake off. Buy a drink, or two, get to a putt-putt course, sing a little karaoke. 

By the 2050s we will all be strangers in a strange post-Trumpian dystopia anyway. Robots will be doing most of the work, so rather than muttering to ourselves from our curtained living rooms, we will need to join clubs, go clogging or take up skeet shooting just to keep our minds off our lack of accomplishments. 

But everyone will be in the same leaky boat. Better to have a few laughs. 

We may as well start now. I am thinking of making eye contact on my next bus ride. Maybe, just maybe, even at the risk of a baleful stare, I might start up a conversation. I know. How dare I make you take out your earbuds, but heck, you might just have an interesting story to tell. And I’m buying the first round. STEVE SCHER, part-time instructor at the University of Washington. His podcasts include “That Stack of Books” and “The Overlook.” For many years, he hosted Weekday on KUOW-FM

Is There A Doctor in the House?
Have you waited too long with your sick child at an urgent care facility? Maybe your aging parent didn’t make it in to see his or her doctor because of a transportation issue. And perhaps you have a friend who is worried about covering the bills from a newly diagnosed illness and is considering just giving up on his or her medical care.

Health care of the future will build new ways for patients to receive care more conveniently and affordably, and Seattle—as a technology and research hub—is likely to be at the forefront of innovation. Expect to see even more places offering retail walk-in health clinics; more availability to health advice via online and video services; and remote monitoring of health conditions via wearable technology. Health care in the future will adapt services so that they deliver better outcomes; so that many, many more people can use them; and to make already good services even better. ELIZABETH FLEMING and WELLESLEY CHAPMAN, M.D., lead the innovation and development team at Group Health

Educating Our Kids
Here’s how education will evolve in Seattle, especially if corporate education reform takes hold, moving education further toward privatization and technology-based learning. 

Personalized learning. More time on a computer for students with software that guides their learning. Whether more than an hour a day on a computer without a teacher is the best way for student to learn remains to be seen. 

Charter schools (publicly funded independent schools). Given the issues throughout the country with charters today—more segregation and fewer special education students and English language learners served—Seattle will not have as many charters as most big cities, but the presence of those schools will be noticeable.

Diversity. If current housing challenges continue, it’s unlikely we will see schools that are more diverse. And, unless the climate around teacher pay and morale improves, diversity in our teaching corps will not increase.

Reaching every child. Our city will improve outcomes for students of color via “whole child” programs focused on those youths and their families. MELISSA WESTBROOK, moderator of and a writer for the Seattle Schools Community Forum blog

Seattle’s Front Door—Our Waterfront—Will Be Constantly Evolving
James Corner, the landscape architect and lead designer for Seattle’s new waterfront, doesn’t believe it will ever be finished. He is not handing in a finished design at the end of his contract. 

He is designing a canvas that future generations will shape and reshape through their use. He once said that the idea for the waterfront is really that of a classic Pioneer Square loft: a large space that new generations of residents will change and reorganize to accommodate the needs, demands and trends of their own time. 

So Seattle’s new waterfront really is not about what it might look like. Sure, it will be green and open to the sky and the water and the mountains. And open to the crowds—the hustle and bustle of people at play or at rest or just passing through the big city. 

It is more about how the waterfront will be used by succeeding generations: locals, newcomers and visitors, young and old, the fit and the not so fit, all seeking to contribute to the mix of activity in a place that encourages a changing use. 

Think of a lot less stressful noise and more happy noise. Music. Laughter. Even healthier fish and a cleaner Elliott Bay. 

I hope for what we have dreamed of. A waterfront for all. To use as each person chooses. CHARLES ROYER, former mayor of Seattle and cochair of the Central Waterfront Committee