Dear Paul,

We never met. Your money supported my work early on. Then we kind of broke up. I mean, your people supported a policy I didn’t support. Whatever.

Years ago, I was campaign manager for a City Council candidate that supported the Seattle Commons. That was your plan to create new development and a big park, common space for everyone. A great vision. I didn’t get it back then, but it sounded good.

It died.

Then that idea got voted down twice. Now I realize what fools we were. You went ahead and created the  South Lake Union we know now, a global hub of innovation and development of new ideas. Yes, lots of wealth, but also lots of benefit.

Your Vulcan company has been mischaracterized over and over again. My guess is that you cared more about sports and brain science than vacancy rates in a building you owned.

You weren’t the billionaire anyone in this town wanted. They wanted and thought you tipped the scale. You didn’t. I wish you had. One lunch or one dinner or a few drinks and I think I could have turned you around. You’d have made a big show of punishing Seattle for its stupid land use and housing policies after I had persuaded you. But you were never the big time developer goon some people thought you were.

But I’m a small thinker. I think about today’s problems. My problems. This one city’s problems.

I feel like you had a bigger vision. Money was a way of making that happen. It was all mixed together. Innovate. Benefit. Innovate. The smarter and more innovative you are, the more money you make. Lots of people resent that.

That doesn’t matter now.

Thank you for the commons idea. Thank you for all the other things you did.  You turned ideas into wealth. You turned wealth into innovation.  You’re gone way too soon. But we’re all just behind you a bit as always.