High expectations and healthy skepticism

Ha, at least that’s a comfort! I am learning that it’s been more rain in Seattle this far this June than the full month a normal June. Ha! Because in Umeå the sun is still cold. Unfortunately June can be a pretty crappy month in both my cities.

So, we have to look beyond the weather to find what’s good. And believe me, there is good stuff! At least that’s the idea. We won’t know until it’s all there. And even at that point we won’t agree on everything. Hopes are high and doubts are deep rooted.

So this is what’s going on: Seattle and Umeå are both working focused on their front porches, the design of the new waterfronts. The visuals from those are very different right now though. The most central part of the Umeå waterfront, right at the feet of the historic Stora hotellet (The Grand Hotel), is a huge busy and loud hole, the preparation for the new building for cultural arts, Kulturväven. In Seattle a new gigantic ferris wheel is changing the familiar water front scene. The Seattle Great Wheel on Pier 57 makes a new frontline and creates a fresh landmark in between green and white ferries and orange port cranes. But this is what’s before our eyes. What’s happening behind the scenes is even more exciting.

This spring has been about processes in both my cities. In Umeå, a group of about 70 has been thinking, discussing and expressing the content of the new cultural arts building, Kulturväven. People from the City, non-profit organizations and representatives from the grass root arts have been engaged in the process of creating a new kind of meeting point, a cultural melting pot not seen in Sweden before.

The creative process in Seattle hasn’t been about one building but the whole waterfront. 2011-12 the project Waterfront for All is focusing on concept design, and the calendar this spring has involved public discussions titled Climate and Context, Mobility and Access, Environment and Ecology, Setting the Stage and Uniquely Seattle. Discussions, which will be important for the final design of the new waterfront.

So, a lot of crucial work for the development of Seattle and Umeå has been accomplished this spring. Umeå has a deadline close enough, being the European Capital of Culture 1014. The time plan for Seattle Waterfront for All is a longer stretch. High expectations and healthy skepticism, that’s how we are awaiting the realization of these big plans, Seattleites and umebor - residents of Umeå. The very same way we are waiting for the summer.