Compared to Portland, transit in Pugetopolis is just teh suck. If you actually live in Seattle, maybe not so bad, as long as you are tooling around in Seattle or not much further than Tukwila or Burien, but if you live across the lake or down the valley or travel outside the bounds of commute hours, expect to be using a car.
Portland, on the other hand, has this 60-mile-long wind tunnel to the east. There are calm days, but when that wind ramps up, it is relentless. The wind in the Seattle area is more sporadic and tends more toward gusty than steady.
Yeah, the amount of rain really is overhyped. It does get a lot of rain, it’s true, but don’t think that Seattle/Portland are fine if you “don’t mind rain.”
I don’t mind rain either. In fact, I rather like rain. But it’s the GREY that kills you. And yeah, I love the 4 seasons post above. It really does feel like that! Early Winter, Winter, Late Winter and Road Construction. That’s perfect.
Also, I absolutely love the point about “chance of sunbreaks.” This is another thing people just don’t realize. Our weather updates include when we have a chance of seeing the sun on a given day. A CHANCE. I’d bet these sorts of weather forecasts don’t happen anywhere else in the country.
I remember visiting Oregon during Christmas, and we had like 2 or 3 sunny days in a row (this was Southern Oregon btw which doesn’t have it nearly as bad as Portland/Seattle), and EVERYONE I knew kept making a big huge deal about how nice the weather was. Even strangers. It was a flashback and I was like, “Oh yeah, everyone makes a big fucking deal when they get a sunny day. I had almost forgot about that.”
It REALLY IS THAT BAD. I am not exaggerating. So like I said, if you are a vampire or you just hate sunshine and blue skies, you’ll be quite happy in the PNW.
This fall, we had blue skies up to the second Saturday in October. It got to be a bit unnerving. Clear as nothing, solid blue, for 5 weeks on end (between early August and mid October, there was one day that we have a wimpy dribble of that stuff that is kind of like rain but not quite). The day the rain started, I was getting some stuff at Fred’s and everyone I encountered there was in an upbeat mood, as though the world was put to rights again. A lot of the people who live here are not suffocated by the grey. And if you do need a break, there is the rainshadow up by PA. We went up there to see the Transit of Venus last spring because it was cloudy here.
If you are going to work virtually, choose the Portland metro area. That means you live in Washington State across the river from Portland. You get all the benefits of Portland but pay no state income tax. You make your big ticket purchases in Oregon (other than vehicles), then contract with a local delivery service to deliver to your home in Washington State; you pay no sales tax that way.
Got kids? The local school systems in Washington Stare are better, more effective and fully funded compared to Oregon. College-age kids? Washington hands down. Neither Oregon nor Oregon State rank anywhere near the University of Washington (domestic and international rankings). In dollar value, Oregon ranks as one of the worst state schools in the country.
Climate and weather. Dryer and warmer in Portland. Both cities rank in the top five for cloud cover in the USA; Seattle is more cloudy. When the local weather people hint at the threat of snow and ice, schools close. Whimps.
The clouds are overhyped. Portland can have clear skies with no rain from April thru September. But climate change is changing that. Last summer almost wasn’t a summer. Most people don’t know the PNW has been in a critical drought for almost a decade.
The rain is overhyped. Boston and New York receive more rain (annually) than Portland or Seattle. It’s mists here a lot (see clouds above). On the other hand, that mist moisturizes some great vegetation. Think thousand year old old growth trees within two hours of Portland. Seattle is closer to the temperate rain forests.
Driving is easier in the Portland area compared to Seattle, but Seattle drivers are more polite.
Culture/Dining. Portland is more laid back. Eclectic. Micro-brews.
Portland has the NBA [del]Jail[/del]Trailblazers. Seattle is getting the new Sonics (from Sacramento). The Seahawks are the PNW football team.
Scenic Wilds. Portland cuz you can have the best of Seattle (a few hours north), the Gorge, the coast, the Cascades, the desert, etc.
Oh, I forgot about sports. Beyond the above (and the Mariners, whom I shudder to mention) there’s actually the absolutely unique (for the US) soccer rivalry between the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders. Having grown up a fan of the EPL, and having visited many European soccer stadiums, I can tell you that if you’re interested in soccer in the slightest, these two cities actually give an authentic soccer experience, particularly in games against each other.
There’s also a really healthy minor league hockey league in the area, and a suprisingly popular roller derby scene, if that’s your bag.
Do you really think they will call them that? That name, taken from the failed SST project, is really out of date and has no particular sentimental value. And, you know, Seattle is in King county.
Portlanders are only mostly nominal Seahawks fans. My friend, born and raised in Portland, is an avid Packers fan (traditionalist). For NFL and MLB, Portland really is in a, ahem, grey area.
Seattlites do a lot of skiing but I’ve never been here. Not sure how winter sports stack up between the two.
Summers are freaking wonderful in Seattle starting from July 5. It’s light out until after 10 pm. This past summer we had, what, 100 days with zero rainfall.
This is the only place I’ve lived where you swim all year (indoor at a club) except for summer. And in the summer few people swim because it rarely gets hot enough. And you think long and hard about actually putting in a central AC system because it costs $5k, and you end up putting it in more for the resale value than because it’s needed.
I’m very familiar with both Portland and Seattle, and have lived in both.
Portland has a vastly superior city quality of life. Alternate transit that works, light traffic, less commercialization, and a lower cost of living standard. The extra hour per day that you *don’t/i] spend in traffic makes a difference.
Seattle has a vastly superior outdoorsman and recreational quality. Beaches, mountains, skiing, hiking, boating, all easy access. Otherwise, your quality of city life depends on what your immediate local area has to offer, otherwise your enjoyment of the city needs to be opportunistically scheduled around the ridiculous difficulty of traffic times and the embarrassingly poor transit options.