They married on the day he graduated from law school — a double celebration scheduled so his father would have to pay for only one plane ticket.

[citation needed] In New York, Schell took a position at the Dewey Ballantine law firm, where he specialized in corporate finance.

[citation needed] He joined other urban activists with Allied Arts of Seattle in the 1971 campaign to save the Pike Place Market from a proposed redevelopment.

He left legal practice for civic affairs in 1973, when Mayor Wes Uhlman appointed him as director of the Seattle Department of Community Development.

Mayor Schell also participated in the design charrette for the new Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Traffic Control Tower, commissioned in 2004.

[6] A particularly violent Mardi Gras celebration in 2001 left 20-year-old Kris Kime fatally injured; Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske ordered officers not to intervene.

[7] Arguably, the WTO meeting and the Mardi Gras violence played a role in Schell's coming in a distant third behind two other Democrats in the 2001 mayoral primary election,[8] as did Boeing's relocation of its headquarters to Chicago.

[10][11][12] His mayoral predecessor Charles Royer assessed Schell's term in a January 2002 interview in The Seattle Times; "Paul is smart.

He led the effort to fund a record $200 million in new parks, rebuilt the aging Opera House, and in a stunning victory that future generations will celebrate, preserved the 90,000 acres of the pristine Cedar River watershed.