Billionaires, good and not yet good

One of my earliest memories is of going to the Carnegie Public Library every week for story time and to pick out a book.  I loved that place, it was like a cathedral to me.   The building still exists, it is no longer a library, but it is beautiful building and I still have an emotional reaction when I see it.  I had no idea who Andrew Carnegie was or why his name was on the building.  I learned a little bit later in life when I was at Carnegie-Mellon (And I learned how to correctly pronounce it).  He was a pretty sharp-elbowed robber baron and probably accumulated a lot of detractors.  But he also committed himself to philanthropy and had huge impact on communities — 3000+ libraries alone, and that was just a small part of his giving.  

I’ll never know what it is like to be a billionaire but I would imagine at some point business creation and chasing the incremental dollar lose their attraction and they start to think about their community and their legacy in the community.  Certainly that is where Carnegie’s brain went.

In our own Seattle community, Paul Allen was incredibly fortunate and earned billions from his work to establish Microsoft and to grow the PC industry.  And then he shifted focus and used a good deal of his fortune to make a difference in Seattle.   He invested in real estate, the arts, sports, commercial ventures, healthcare, education:

• The EMP, now MOPOP, in that unforgettable building, which has probably helped to keep the Seattle Center relevant and vibrant. 
• The Living Computer Museum, sadly closing now.
• The Cinerama, now SIFF Cinema.  Chocolate Popcorn alone has changed my life.
• The redevelopment of SLU.  Huge huge impact on the city.  Would have been amazing if his original dream, the Seattle Commons, had been built, but still an incredible impact.
• Seahawks and Seahawks Stadium.   Required a ton of community support as well, but a huge source of connection and pride in the city.  A Super Bowl winner, Pete Carroll’s energy, a huge practice facility on the Eastside on an unbuildable superfund location, additional commercial development around the stadium which is still ongoing.
• Founding of the Seattle Art Fair, which is a fabulous event if you haven’t been.
• The Upstream Music Festival, sadly also not continued.
• UW donations including the new building for the CS department, which has helped drive the CS department into the top 10 in the country.
• The Allen Institute, now 700 researchers doing great work in bioscience
• And more I have probably missed.

Not all of these were successful.  He tried a lot of things, and some failed, and some had to evolve and morph.  He didn’t do them all alone — taxpayers kicked in, other developers had to follow, lots of people had to work on these efforts — but he did lead.  You can’t drive anywhere in Seattle without seeing his impact.  And this doesn’t count all his contributions in Portland — the Trailblazers, their venue, Oregon Shakespeare Theatre.  Life is just a lot fuller in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest thanks to Paul.

These weren't completely altruistic investments.  The SLU development made a lot of money for Paul, the Seahawks have appreciated dramatically in value.  But they have meant a lot to the city, and Paul persevered thru adversity to get these things done — the fighting around the stadium project and around the Seattle Commons took years.  And there is criticism of some of Paul’s other investments, for instance the Yesler Terrace area which has impacted a lot of affordable housing.  But he put a lot of effort and money into the city, and there have been a lot of huge positive impacts, and he was always in the conversation about the city.  Years from now, people will still be enjoying his contributions.  

Now I have been reading this week about Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who have decided to direct a lot of political donations to the Trump campaign.  Reportedly they have come to this position in part because of some grievances — San Francisco is struggling with a lot of urban problems and can’t seem to solve them.   And some people have been critical of some of the local San Francisco billionaires — billionaires have not been treated as "pillars of the community". 

As billionaires, Andreessen and Horowitz are probably never going to be loved universally by the community.   That is their burden to bear, they will have to tolerate it as they sit on the decks of their yachts.    

But more to the point, if they want to be treated as a pillar of the community, they probably need to invest a lot in the community and take risks to improve the community. How much direct effort and investment have they put into the community, how much of their billions did they direct to real estate redevelopment and cultural institution support or other community improvements?  Google would suggest they have made modest donations – not on the scale of their political donations.  And Andreessen at least has pulled up stakes and is moving to Southern California.

At the risk of being simplistic, these two have not done the work to be community leaders.  They haven’t rolled up their sleeves, committed money to their communities, and worked through the fractious process of making a difference in their communities.  Instead they are making national political donations (which will do very little for their communities but may help them make even more money), donating to libertarian dreams of new cities, and moving away.  

Perhaps some day they will evolve their thinking and their involvement. The community could use their backing, energy, and leadership.