I spotted a sticker on the wall of a Seattle bar restroom recently. It stuck with me — more than it did on that bathroom wall — because I peeled it off and kept it.
“Billionaires are the reason everything sucks,” the shiny silver sticker reads.
I think it needs a Paul Allen asterisk.
It’s a bold statement to blame everything sucking on about 3,000 people in the world. But I get the sentiment for a number of reasons, especially after relieving myself of a couple $10 pints of beer.
Billionaires are a mostly easy target to be angry at these days, whether it’s misguided resentment over everything costing too much for regular people or a lingering bad taste over the richest billionaire, Elon Musk, and his recent stint in politics.
Seattle has a history of venting its anger at wealthier people in town, mostly in the form of more stickers and graffiti badmouthing the city’s tech workforce. Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos was a frequent target, for reasons ranging from taxes to traffic, as an influx of his company’s workers and others transformed the city, impacting affordability and the look and feel of much of the place.
While Bezos has since bolted for Miami — and a lifestyle and space pursuits that are far beyond his bookish start in Seattle — a hometown billionaire continues to cement a different kind of legacy from beyond the grave.
Seven years after his death at age 65, Allen’s estate announced the creation this week of a new nonprofit fund — with an initial $3.1 billion endowment — aimed at accelerating progress and championing bold ideas in science and technology.
The news serves as another reminder of what the Microsoft co-founder has meant to Seattle, from the world-changing causes he directed his money toward in health, science and environmental research, to the cultural touchstones he created or rescued because music, art, sports and movies meant as much to him as Microsoft.
Allen’s childhood buddy — and fellow local billionaire — Bill Gates has been no slouch in spreading his wealth around to worthwhile causes. While the two have equally managed to get their names on schools at the University of Washington and elsewhere, Gates’ focus and his foundation looked beyond Seattle in taking on poverty, disease and education equality across the world.
Bezos, too, has focused predominantly on causes with national and international impacts, including the Bezos Day One Fund and the Bezos Earth Fund.
And local billionaires Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott are using their charitable dollars to improve the lives of people in different ways around the globe.
Allen’s directive to sell off much of what he owned and built after his death, with proceeds going to charity and this new fund, does seem to strengthen his local legacy. In fact, while the new Fund for Science and Technology will eventually fund projects nationally and internationally, its inaugural $15 million in grants are strategic investments in Allen’s hometown.
While his estate may not have an everlasting hand in owning and operating a myriad of ventures — from the Seattle Seahawks to the Cinerama (now SIFF) movie theater — they are here because of Allen, and that’s a good thing.
There’s something rare and prideful about seeing and experiencing the tangible and lasting impact of a local billionaire with a vision, in the city that that person loved.
- Walking around the swooping, colorful curves of the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle elicits smiling thoughts of Allen and his love for Jimi Hendrix, rock music and science fiction. Paul Allen built that.
- Hearing the roar of 68,000 people at a Seahawks game, and remembering the crush of people that filled downtown for a parade after the team’s first Super Bowl title, brings new hope each season. Paul Allen saved that.
- Pondering the potential science and tech breakthroughs happening inside the Allen Institute or at Ai2 helps spur a belief in long-sought cures or spark an intrigue about future possibilities. Paul Allen envisioned that.
- Watching a movie inside a 62-year-old theater made over into a state-of-the-art venue, film fans enveloped in the sights and sounds (and smells of chocolate popcorn) can escape into a true cinematic experience. Paul Allen believed in that.
None of that sucks.
