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Economic relationships amid COVID: The K-shaped recovery

In a K-shaped recovery, there is a separate trajectory for different segments of the economy. Economic and political relationships play a role in shaping that trajectory. So, what happens when those relationships become disconnected?

On the final day of the Wire’s series on the COVID economy and Washington’s K-shaped recovery, we take a look at what economic and political relationships are impacting recovery in urban and rural Washington.

Downtown Seattle Association President Jon Scholes says that about 70 percent of the 350,000 people who worked downtown stopped frequenting the area during the pandemic. Throughout that the public health crisis, Scholes says that a fractured relationship between the City Council and the private sector has made recovery more difficult.

Across Lake Washington, Robert Wallace, CEO of Wallace Properties, a Bellevue based commercial real estate firm, says Seattle’s posture toward business is misguided. Why the different approach? He traces it back to more private sector experience among city leaders.

This is a story about pandemic-era market relationships in urban Washington– between business and government, the public and the private sectors. In rural Washington, a relationship of concern is the one between the state and foreign markets that receive exports from agricultural producers.   

Jon Devaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, says these relationships have been impacted by years of trade disputes, retaliatory tariffs, and now a global pandemic.

Watch the video above or click this link.


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