I have lived in Seattle since 2009, first working at Microsoft and now working remotely for a Bay Area company. For people who aren&#x27;t familiar with the Seattle area, it is cleaved into 2 parts:<p>1) The city of Seattle or the &quot;west side&quot;. This area is increasingly dominated by Amazon, local startups and engineering offices for Bay Area companies like Facebook and Google.<p>2) The cities to the east of Lake Washington (Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland) or the &quot;east side&quot;. This is the domain of Microsoft, Expedia, Concur and a smaller set of startups.<p>Most of the intense change has occurred in Seattle and <i>specifically</i> in the South Lake Union area where Amazon is located. Yes, there has been change and growth elsewhere, but nothing that I would consider alarming.<p>I&#x27;m personally optimistic that Seattle will find a balance between growth and continuing to have an enviable culture and cost of living.