Like others in her generation, Mrs. Bigelow, 53, a Seattle native who was trained as an accountant, was inspired by Julia Child.

"I'm scared as hell," said Priscilla Turner, a 33-year-old Seattle native who remembers the 1965 earthquake here, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale of ground motion.

Bill Gates, a Seattle native who has gradually been elevating his political profile, even went so far as to gather signatures in the successful effort that put the initiative on the November ballot.

On August 5, 2010 Minus the Bear opened for fellow Seattle natives Soundgarden, in their pre-Lollapalooza warm up show in Chicago, Illinois at the Vic Theatre.

"I think the cause is good," said Doug Tolliver, 36, a Seattle native who was sipping regular drip coffee outside a Starbucks in the Wallingford neighborhood the other day.

Yamamoto played in several cover bands before forming a band in 1984 with his roommate Chris Cornell, a Seattle native who had previously played drums in several bands.

A group of Seattle natives, anxious to preserve the city in which they grew up, came together to institute the Metropolitan Problems Committee, or METRO, intended to manage and plan the metropolitan area.

"There's a lot less nature and a lot more junk," said Al Kropotkin, a blues musician and Seattle native who lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Less than four months before we arrived, the hotel was taken over by Jeff Butcher, a 30-something professional hotel manager and Seattle native who had bought it for $750,000 in a foreclosure auction.

Choreographed by Ms. Carter, a Seattle native who works chiefly in Germany, it casts Spanish flamenco dancing in a modern light.