My two thriving home towns, summer report

Umeå in Sweden, Seattle in the U.S. My two cities.

Both my home towns are blossoming during the summer. The greenery, the water, Seattleites and Umebor coming out of the drizzle and the snow, tourists visiting. Restaurants and parks crowded with people having a meal and a drink, soaking the sun. Umeå has even been in the neighborhood of Seattle temperatures this week, it’s absolutely wonderful!

And Umeå is hot in more ways this summer! New York Times has appointed Umeå one out of 52 destinations to visit this year! And Expressen, one of the leading evening magazines in Sweden is asking if Umeå is the hottest city in the country right now. The numbers of foreign visitors are increasing by the week, look at these numbers for 2014: Finland 56%, Norway 62%, (although they are hardly foreign to us) Germany 146% and Great Brittan 221%! It’s all because of Umeå being the European Capital of Culture of course. 

Seattle is hot all year round though. Last year, Seattle grew faster than any other major American city, according to population estimates released by Census Bureau. From July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2013, Seattle grew by 2.8 percent — the highest rate among the 50 most-populous U.S. cities.  2,8% is a lot. But Umeå is actually one of the fastest growing cities within the European Union (!), more than 1% a year since 1994.

Seattle is now the 21st biggest city in the U.S and Umeå the 12th biggest in Sweden. My two home towns are thriving, building cranes are everywhere. It’s a long time since “Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights”-era in the 1970s and Umeå feeling like the northern Sweden (Norrland) underdog compared to Sundsvall and even Luleå. The Umeå population growth was 36% in 1985-2010.

My two cities have more similarities. One is the desire to turn the city face towards the water, Elliot Bay and the Umeå River. Downtown has been cut off from the water, in Seattle by the Alaskan Viaduct Highway 99 and Umeå by Strandvägen. The areas facing the water has to a large degree been ugly and unfriendly.

So, there are these two projects. In Umeå The City Between the Bridges  (Staden mellan broarna) and A Waterfront for All in Seattle. Both are reconnecting downtown to the water and both are transforming to the City and the designers’ goal: shaping up a big forgotten grey zone to become the cities' front porches where people can hang out, play, relax and feel safe. 26 blocks in Seattle and 9 in Umeå. It’s only the scales that are different.

In Umeå several parks are in the waterfront design, and this week the most central one was inaugurated. Rådhusparken (the City Hall Park) now stretches from the old City Hall (well, there is still Storgatan cutting off right at the Hall, that’s in the pipe line for next year) all the way down to the river. The new park is modern, strict and open,  and speaks well with the next door neighbor Väven, the new building for cultural arts designed by Norwegian Snöhetta, and just about to be inhabited by the cultural life of Umeå.

The exterior of Väven is glass, inspired by the black and white graphic stem of the birch, the Umeå land mark tree. The materials in Rådhusparken is light grey granite, black wood and grass in flat terraces walking down the slope. What used to be a big parking lot has been transformed by Ulf Nordfjell, the Umeå born and bread world famous landscape architect, to the welcoming front porch it was waiting to be. And already this first warm weekend you could tell the citizens of Umeå found it and just loved it!

In October it is three years since I first started telling stories about Umeå and Seattle, my two home towns. By that time the water front plans were dreams not quite put on paper yet. Seattle is still in the process, but there is the fabulous Great Wheel at Pier 57 and parts of the Viaduct is gone. The transformation in Umeå is remarkable and it won’t be long until the City Between the Bridges is fulfilled and the 9 blocks a land mark and a postcard instead of a shameful eye sore. I am so proud and happy!

Umeå/Seattle - historic weekend!

My two cities are on fire this weekend! Umeå is going on red and white, Seattle blue and green. And both cities are vibrating from the excitement of making history!

So, this is the thing: Umeå is the European Capital of Culture 2014 and the Seattle football team Seahawks has made it all the way to the Super Bowl this season! Yesterday was the big inauguration of the ECC in Umeå and today is the thrilling game between Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey!

The preparations for the inauguration in Umeå have been a contest between man and weather, a stake as high as any big game. The plan was to have the opening show on the Umeå River. As the premiere was set to the first weekend in February, that wouldn’t be a problem. This is the time of year when nature is all frozen and white and the river is covered with thick ice. Downtown Umeå is extended with extra area to walk, ski and have fun on. Although some eye brows were raised at the ambitious and somewhat crazy plan, the concerns didn’t have anything to do with water turning to more solid substance.

Isn’t it funny though how Universe is playing it’s trick on us? At Christmas the lawns were still as green as in June and there was hardly no ice on the river. Therefore they started producing a big circle of ice at the place which was planned as the stage (I never really figured out how) and in mid January a headline in the local newspaper declared “we are pretty sure the ice will hold up”. Promising and reassuring!

The weather gods stopped laughing though, the temperature dropped to 14°- -4°F (-10° - -20°C) and in a few days the ice was good for the 9 metric ton equipment needed for making the set for the show.

I am passing the river every time I am going to Umeå for my treatments and watching what’s going on on the ice has been interesting. Riding back home after my choir rehearsals in the evening these last weeks has been exciting, as they have been testing the lights and illuminations for the show. I have sensed this extreme desire to be at the inauguration, I really wanted to be a part of this once in a lifetime event!

It was an impossible dream though. I can’t stand for hours in the cold. And I can’t walk. Since downtown would be closed for traffic, walking was the only option to get to Rådhusparken (the City Hall Park) which was the place for watching the show. So; impossible.

But what if? What if I could borrow a wheel chair? I could! Trouble 2 promised to drive me into town , my friends Mats and Agneta would meet up with me and push me around, and my neighbors Jenny and Hannes offered to come pick me up after the show and get me back home. Friday evening, surrounded by good people, I had all the pieces that would give me my impossible dream!

I woke up with my back in a painful mess. Rephrasing: I didn’t sleep because of the pain so I didn’t really wake up, but painful it was and I had to drop my dream. Just like that. It was the worst back day in a couple of months on this once in a life time-day, and I had to call around and cancel that little organization of mine. It was a bitter moment.

I set my mind on thinking that my view would be a lot better watching the whole thing on TV and I would be nice and warm under my big blanket. And Jenny would join me, how fun! Swedish Television (PBS) would stream the inauguration on the web, and later in the evening there would be a show in the programming. We made the streaming work on my TV set (yes!), but than the streaming itself didn’t work (no…) and the whole thing turned into a disappointment. Okay, I’ll just watch the late show in the programming. Then my TV went dead. It didn’t want to make the change from the web to actual TV. By that time I was close to tears, and I ended up watching the spectacle on my lap top. 

I dreamt about being one in the crowd this very special evening, being a part of Umeå on this historic day, watching the red fire on the white ice in Burning Snow, the inauguration of Umeå the Capital of Culture 2014. Instead I was lying on my couch with my laptop. 

Well well. Trouble 2 and Audrey came over this afternoon giving me the reality check I needed. It had been very cold. And extremely crowded. They didn’t really see anything, they actually left in the middle of it because of those factors. And the show was so slow people lost focus, started talking and weren’t a part of it.

I can understand the slow problem. I, who was on the front row (it turned out!) found it slow and then there was nothing around making me loose focus. The show was beautiful and spectacular, but it was slow. Really slow. I can totally understand why people wondered off in the cold evening.

As a start of the Capital of Culture year I am sure it was a success though. We’ve had a very unusual winter with warm temperatures until only a few weeks ago only a thin white layer of snow. But then the night until the big day it started snowing. Cold, fluffy snowflakes, like they were ordered for the occasion! It was 14°F (-10°C) and the ice on the Umeå River was covered with 4 inches of snow that looked like the fake version they use in Hollywood! The setting must have been very exotic for foreign guests and international journalists. And they say 55000 people were gathered to be a part of this historic event. So congratulations Umeå!

http://www.svtplay.se/video/1742593/invigning-av-kulturhuvudstadsaret

In just a few hours it is Seattle that is up to the evidence. Like Umeå (which is the smallest and on the map most insignificant city being chosen as Capital of Culture) Seattle has been the underdog. And the Seahawks are playing for not only a Super Bowl championship but Seattle's sports psyche. A victory would help erase years of disappointment and provide a lift to the city, just as ECC is lifting Umeå. If Seahawks returns to Seattle with a Super Bowl ring, it will be the first in it’s 38 year’s history. 

I hear a snow plow outside my house, the premiere one this winter. In Seattle the Space Needle is lit up in blue and the Great Wheel is spinning blue and green. Thousands and thousands are cheering for the upcoming game just as Umeå is cheering for the upcoming year. I can’t even imagine what Seattle will be like if it’s team takes the Super Bowl, but however it is, I would have loved being a part of it. Well, there is always my laptop! I might choose one more night of no sleep and join the fun.

So, go Seahawks go, go make history!