We're Not In Washington Anymore

Gotham. Motown. The Big Easy. The Windy City. The City of Angels… The Emerald City?

Writers too often use "Emerald City" to avoid redundant usage of "Seattle," and though we've mentioned it before, we feel it's high time to remind ourselves of the term's lame origins.

It's not the sort of organic, grassroots phrase arising from street slang, a local poet, or a crusty columnist's typewriter. Instead, in a cheap bid to promote tourism, the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau ran a nickname-seeking contest in 1982. The winning entry was submitted by a California woman; her prize was not only a one-week stay in her newly christened Emerald City, but also a week in sunny Acapulco. And she didn't really coin the term so much as co-opt it from a certain Judy Garland musical. Sure, Seattle is surrounded by lovely green foliage and is often considered environmentally "green," but in the merry old land of Oz, damn near every single person and building and thing is plastered in the same cheery, unnatural shade of green. (Compare that to 2002's The Ring, in which all of Seattle was bathed in an eerie, dark-green light.)

Seattle's gay and lesbian community might've been amused with the Oz connection, though they were probably fine with Seattle's first official nickname, the Queen City of the Northwest, coined in 1869 by Portland real-estate agents.

Taking off in the '60s is Seattle's best nickname -- the Jet City -- mainly due to the presence of a certain aircraft manufacturer. Though its exact origins remain unclear, the high-flying moniker aptly reflected Seattle's forward-thinking mindset, cemented with 1962's Century 21 World's Fair. The tag has also served our rock scene well: KJET spun new-wave discs on the AM dial in the '80s, and in 1990, Bellevue metal dudes Queensrÿche released the power ballad "Jet City Woman". Today, a local band paying tribute to a certain songstress of ill repute calls themselves Jett City (incidentally, they play The Rainbow this Saturday, October 29).

Seattle has also been referred to as the "Gateway to Alaska" and "Gateway to the Orient," and in Alan Rudolph's 1985 film, Trouble in Mind , Seattle was renamed "Rain City." Unfortunately, "Emerald City" took immediate hold in 1982, both locally and nationally. In 1984, a "yellow brick road" was painted on the asphalt outside the Kingdome, encouraging NCAA hoopsters to "follow" it to the dome's Final Four.

Nowadays, the phone book lists dozens of Seattle businesses with "Emerald City" in their names, but only four use "Jet City" (Pizza, Label, Messengers, and Road Service), and a mere three use "Queen City" (Sheet Metal and Roofing, Yacht Club, and Grill). So, we've resigned ourselves to "the Emerald City, but let's use it sparingly.