Jeffrey Craig Sanders . Seattle and the Roots of Urban Sustainability: Inventing Ecotopia . (History of the Urban Environment.) Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2010. Pp. xiii, 288. $30.00.

Abstract

What makes Seattle the “Emerald City”? To some the label merely refers to the abundance of evergreen fir trees in the vicinity, and to others it refers to the environmentally sensitive urban population that ranges from skiing, mountain biking, kayaking yuppies to tree-hugging, unshaven, eco-raiding hippie throwbacks. Jeffrey Craig Sanders clearly explicates and defends the proposition that Seattle residents are indeed environmentally sensitive and argues that the postwar environmental movement originated in such grassroots, local, political, and social initiatives as occurred in Seattle after World War II. How Seattle became green is the topic of his book. The author describes several instances of urban activism and rising environmental awareness, beginning with a description of the effort to preserve Pike Place Market. The market had started as a viable commercial link between the agricultural hinterland and the urban population in the early twentieth century. By the post–World War II period, the market had declined in popularity and usefulness as agricultural areas fell to suburban development and urban residents shifted their shopping habits from specialty shops and stalls to the increasingly ubiquitous grocery stores and shopping centers. The increasingly dilapidated Pike Place became the target of urban renewal and development efforts, but urban activists seeking to preserve and restore the market's value as a Seattle cultural icon, viable commercial center, and tourist attraction thwarted the efforts to tear it down.