I completely agree. However, Microsoft can't pour money into changing zoning (at least, not in a direct way like this). We absolutely do need to be fixing our zoning, both in Seattle and on the Eastside. The problem is, it can't just be one city or a few cities doing it. We need the region to pull together. Right now, there's a huge gulf between people who want this to happen and people who are, for their own reasons, vehemently opposed. You can see some of this divide in this very thread, with words like "Seattlized" being thrown around.
Manhattan becoming Manhattan at first required inhumane levels of crowding, in tenements that would only have a single bathroom per floor. Today’s Manhattan is well below population peak.
