First, there is this post, "Redfin releases workforce diversity data, CEO calls current levels 'unacceptable,'" by Ashley Stewart, a staff writer for the Puget Sound Business Journal. What it explains is this: Redfin, a Seattle web company that gathers and distributes information on real estate markets, conducted a study of its employees and found that it lacked diversity, particularly with its "technology workforce," which "is mostly white and male." Redfin, however, is not at all exceptional in this regard. Writes Stewart: "...women make up fewer than 14 percent of software engineers in the state. Fewer than 1 percent are black or Hispanic." Most of those tech jobs are in King County, and they pay very well indeed. (According to PayScale, the annual salary for a Seattle software engineer is around $100,000.)

With this in mind, let's turn to Link, which is experiencing a boom in boardings due to the recent addition of two stations (Capitol Hill Station and University of Washington Station) to its system. One of the interesting things about Link's success is found in the racial diversity of its riders. Though one cannot determine with any certainty the class status of each of these riders, one can draw general observations from the manner of their dress. And in a city like ours, a city whose citizens tend to be mediocre when it comes to clothes, smart dressers do stick out. They are like shiny blue objects in a black-green forest. You just can't miss them. And so it is with Link riders. There are those who look much like the rest of Seattle (bland black, white, Native, Asians of all sexes), and those who bubble with new money. Haute couture is the mode of the well-heeled hipster. And those in this mode tend to be white, male, and youngish (mid-20s to early 40s). It only takes a few rides on Link to notice this pronounced pattern.

Now, if there is any substance to this casual observation, can it be connected with the hard facts about tech jobs in Seattle? That white and youngish males dominate these high-paying jobs? Is the tech boom creating a new class of white males with access to the best clobber in the global fashion market? And keep in mind that only 10 years ago, the city was, thread-wise, a race of peahens. Only recently, only with the rise of companies like Amazon, have these peacocks of Link appeared.