Sixth and Westlake

 

2/27/21 6th and Westlake, Seattle

After dropping Greg off at the Virginia Mason/Amazon SuperVax site for his vaccine, I drove around the corner to Sixth and Westlake. In the canyon of buildings, an orange trolley waited; behind it, the monorail track. An ordinary downtown scene that I would not have chosen if I’d had free rein, it thrilled me to pieces: my first sketch downtown in more than a year. I am filled with hope that someday soon, I’ll be safe enough to sketch from the sidewalk again, choosing whatever view I want.

Between news reports of poorly treated employees and other unethical practices, I’ve had mixed feelings about Amazon for a long time now. During the past year, however, I have been grateful each time that the retail monster has delivered something – from kitchen towels to avocadoes to Pepto-Bismol – to my door, sometimes within hours, without my having to risk exposure in a store.

It takes that same level of corporate muscle to partner with a healthcare organization and pull together a “pop-up” site that can efficiently vaccinate thousands a day. Greg said that it was a well-oiled machine. Ambivalent as I may be, today I have another reason to be grateful.