Looking for the latest headlines surrounding the Seattle tech community? Seattle in the Spotlight is the right place! This week’s articles include: Another Airport in Seattle? There’s a Push for It, Seattle Area’s Life-Science Sector is on the Upswing and It is Scrambling to Fill Jobs, Seattle Tech Leaders Push for More Middle-Income Housing to ‘Move the Needle’ on Affordability, and more.

Another Airport in Seattle? There’s a Push for It

Q13 Fox | Q13 News Staff | January 31
https://q13fox.com/2019/01/31/another-airport-in-seattle-theres-a-push-for-it/

“There’s a push to bring another commercial airport to the Seattle area, with some hoping it could be flying passengers in just 20 years. A move for an additional airport is in the very early stages, but it’s happening on a couple of fronts. A bill proposed in the state legislature would create a state commercial aviation coordinating commission. Part of the commission’s job would be to build a timeline for a new commercial airport to be finished by the year 2040.”

Seattle Area’s Life-Science Sector is on the Upswing and It is Scrambling to Fill Jobs

Seattle Times | Paul Roberts | January 30
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/seattle-areas-life-science-sector-is-on-the-upswing-again/

“In a quiet Bothell business park far from booming South Lake Union, players in the Northwest’s “other” tech sector are coping with growing pains of their own…Five years ago, the sector was in the doldrums…Today, it’s a different story. According to Life Science Washington report, the local sector is booming once again, thanks to a roaring global economy, a health-care industry desperate for cost-saving innovation, and a new generation of products.”

Seattle is the Only City to Not See a Drop in Ridership. Here’s What Researchers Think

Seattle PI | Zosha Millman | January 30
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportation/article/Seattle-transit-statistics-uber-lyft-transport-13571052.php

“Researchers in the study examined the effects of the introduction of ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft in 22 cities, and found that when ride-hailing services enter a city, rail ridership fell by 1.29 percent each year, and bus ridership fell by 1.7 percent. And the effect was cumulative, meaning that in cities like San Francisco, bus ridership fell 12.7 percent since app-based taxis entered the market in 2010. And declines like that are present in every city — except Seattle. “What we’re finding is we would expect, by standard values — gas price, population, employment, transit service — we’d expect it to be going up in these cities, and it’s not,” Gregory Erhardt, one of the three authors of the study, said about the other results of the study.”

Seattle Tech Leaders Push for More Middle-Income Housing to ‘Move the Needle’ on Affordability

GeekWire | Monica Nickelsburg | January 30
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-tech-leaders-push-middle-income-housing-move-needle-affordability/

“Tech and business leaders in the Seattle region are proposing a new plan to build middle-income housing and alleviate the city’s affordability crisis. They laid out their proposed solutions in a report published Wednesday by Challenge Seattle, a group representing the CEOs of Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, Marona Venture Group, Zillow, and other companies in the area. Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire leads Challenge Seattle as CEO. The report includes 15 recommendations that its authors say would “materially move the needle” on affordable housing in the Seattle area.”

U.S. Video Game Sales Climb 18% in Past Year; Washington State Third with 242 Active Studios

GeekWire | Thomas WIlde | January 26
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/u-s-video-game-sales-climb-18-annually-washington-state-third-242-active-studios/

“Video games generated $43.4 billion in overall sales in 2018 in the United States, growth of 18 percent over the prior year, and Washington state ranks third in the country in the total number of active video game studios, according to the latest numbers from the NPD Group and the Entertainment Software Association. We’d already known that 2018 was a big year for gaming, with October breaking records for consumer spending, but the new 2018 report wraps it up with a bow. “Console, PC, and mobile platforms all saw significant growth, while developing portions of the market like subscription and streaming services gave us a peek into a future full of possibilities for the industry and gamers,” said Mat Piscatella, NPD Group analyst, in a statement. The total revenue was generated based upon all four major platforms — consoles, PCs, portable systems, and mobile devices and included physical media, digital sales, and in-game purchases.”