Are people going crazy?

Who do you think the likely target patrons of the breweries and bars are?

 

No. The answer is all the people flooding into Seattle to work at Amazon, and all the other tech companies. There's a housing shortage, which drives up rent, but these folks are making nice bucks, so they can afford to out bid long time residents. Plus, they have the disposable income for $8-10oz pours of "fancy" beer alongside those $15 burgers. Those folks are the target patrons of the bars, breweries, and restaurants. Yes, the majority of those workers are likely white, but certainly not all of of them are.

 

So

I think we may be getting the cart before the horse on this issue. In Kansas City, we had an "urban revitalization" project around five to ten years ago and as a resident I can tell you that craft beer was already a pretty big scene here and it never came up as an issue at all in the gentrification conversation. I agree to some extent with having an issue with bars and breweries owned by big corporations taking advantage of this situation, but I don't think this necessarily has anything to do with small breweries and locally owned bars, which is a huge part of the article.

 

Well, one of our "locals" sold out to Inbev, Lagunitas just opened an outpost in one of the hottest neighborhoods, Red Hook (partially owned by Inbev) is opening a "neighborhood" brewery, in addition to their production spot out in 'burbs, and there's a seemingly endless string of new breweries opening in the area. Safe to say all these folks see something that's available for the taking, and it can't all be the established craft beer fan base.

 

I wish I knew more about what is currently happening in Seattle and believe me I will do research. At the same time I would encourage you to visit Kansas City as an example of how huge an impact a community can have in supporting small business in the midst of a corporate landscape.