Tell me about Seattle

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’ve lived in the Seattle area for 43 years. Seen sh_tloads of slugs (thinks snails without the charm). Heck, the banana slug is the state bird; or at least it ought to be. :wink:

There are other bad things besides crazy housing prices and horrible traffic:

Psychologically, the long dark winters are hard on some people. And the damp can be hard on people with arthritis.

Also, Seattle is not really a friendly city; it wouldn’t take much Googling to find a number of articles by NooYawkers who moved out here and complain that nobody ever invites them anywhere. The basic city culture is midwestern Scandinavian self-contained repression.

There’s also a pretty strong self-righteous streak.

22

Uptight Seattleite?

23

It’s hard to explain how one day of snow in Seattle is more bothersome than two weeks of snow somewhere else.

Like Hunter Hawk said, Seattle is very hilly and they don’t have enough plows and sand. Streets in many neighborhoods are narrow with cars parked on both sides, so if the snow sticks around, those streets won’t be cleared.

Plus, you can’t prepare for it because the weather people can never tell you when and where the snow’s gonna fall and how much you’ll get.

Then there are the heavy snowfalls followed by quick warming and rain – we bailed water out of our basement more than once.

In other parts of the country, you’ll often have a couple days warning of a snow event and you can plan accordingly.

I’d rather have two weeks of snow in Iowa than two days of it in Seattle. It’s so much easier to deal with. One winter there was snow on the ground from November through March. It was no problem.

24

Uptight any-ites exist everywhere. :smiley:

Odd experiences those New Yorkers have, unless mine is the odd one. I’ve never had more of a social life - I’ve been invited to dozens of events or outings, often by people I’d just met. Of course, it takes two to tango, so if one isn’t being receptive to it…

However, it could just be because I’m from such a small, uptight town, making Seattle appear in my eyes as the social polestar of the entire universe. :wink: To be honest, I’m not very social, and I turn down many invitations out of sheer social anxiety. Maybe some of those no-gos would have been a disaster.

Depends on your interests, I suppose, though.

I do, however, notice the mental toll the “long” winters take on some people (I haven’t noticed them, I think they’re amazingly short, but again, depends on where you’re from), mostly those who have lived here all their lives. Again, that is something that happens everywhere. Me, I love the cool rain, and the fact that cherry blossoms come into full, beautiful bloom in February!

Just throwing in a minor case for the defense to balance out some of the negative. This is all from the point of view of someone who is enchanted with the place, however; and the fact that I’ve made stronger, more tangible friendships here than I had made back home, have more to do, and enjoy the beauty of the mountains, which I’d never seen before.

Bumpkin opinion of the city, in other words. :wink:

25

Seattle Weekly reference. :wink:

Y’all never invite me to parties! Uptight bastartos! :wink:

26

Yeah, but I’m small-town Canadian - mouse-like and American-fearing. :stuck_out_tongue:

Come on down to the Jolly Roger after 6:15pm on any day besides Sunday or Wednesday, I’ll buy you a microbrew! And heaven forbid if there’s an Irishman named Peter Duffy there, who treats our crew regularly…

27

They are as common as pigeons here. Local people will hang a geoduck feeder from their tree (an avacodo painted pink, with button mushrooms stuck to it with toothpicks) and watch them flock around. Very cute :slight_smile:

We also have the annual Geoduck Steeplechase around Green Lake, where local breeders show off their specimens hoping for the Best of Clam ribbon. The agility course is the most fun, seeing those cute little guys trying to jump the barrels…

28

Any idea which bus I take from 3rd & Lenora (or Blanchard) to the pub; and later, from the pub to the Northgate Park & Ride?

29

grunts oh, lordy, I’m lucky if I can catch the right bus to take me to the bottom of the hill here in Ballard!

The pub is a hop-skip next to Miller Paint on NW 15th and Leary. I’ll see if I can find out what bus gets there. And out again. If Duffy’s in, you’d need it, regardless. :smiley:

30

dont forget the weather…
There is weather everywhere, of course. But in most places, you just dress appropriately and then get on with your life. The weather doesn’t have to affect you. But in Seattle, the weather does affect you.

It has some good aspects–no snow, mild temps all year round, etc.

But Seatle has something that I had never encountered before–nonstop rain. Nonstop rain with dull gray skies, and no hope of seeing sunshine for months on end. Nonstop gray…nonstop fog… nonstop dripping… the air is saturated with wetness. A wetness that seeps into your bones.
And after seeping into your bones, it seeps into your emotions.

As a young graduate, I had a great job for 6 months in Seattle, got a great start to my career. But the memories that remain are of a permanently grey fog covering everthing, and sadness.

31

True dat. Spring comes early and it’s truly beautiful. I’d be on the phone with mom in March and she’d be telling me about the daffodils and tulips, and I still had a month of frozen ground to look at.

I almost bought an azalea at the greenhouse last week, but I would have had to bring it inside for the winter. I miss azaleas and rhodies.

32

I know a lot of people love Seattle with all their heart and I respect that. However, I have often heard how great it is for the last 20 years or so without knowing much about it. It sounds like hell (or the anti-hell hell). I don’t drink coffee and I can’t stand sustained rain or cloudy skies or being pushed in by geography and traffic. The descriptions make Boston sound attractive in its negative qualities. Is depression a big problem there? Do people do many outdoor activities like outdoor hiking and camping? Don’t worry, I won’t move there but do people just stay mostly indoors for months at a time?

33

I’ve lived in eastern Washington for the last 24 years, but I grew up in Western WA (Vancouver). My baby sister (who turns 30 in September) pretty much grew up over here on the dry side - we moved here when she was 5 and I was 17. But she packed up and moved to the Seattle area for a few years (though she’s back here now), and she was constantly e-mailing me about how I needed to move to Seattle too. One thing she repeated over and over was “It doesn’t rain as much as everybody says it does!” Heh. Since she was so young when we moved to the dry side, she didn’t really remember that I grew up on the wet side. I know how much it rains!

And, well, I like the rain. I miss it. I miss the relatively consistent temperatures throughout the year. Eastern Washington is a case study of “in the winter you freeze and in the summer you fry”. It’s supposed to get to 99 degrees here today, and 100 tomorrow. Six months from now, the temperature will be 3 degrees.

And I miss all the green of Western Washington. Year-round green. Over here, it’s green for a five or six week stretch from late March to early May. The rest of the year everything is brown or gray (or as I put it in my blog a while back, my town alternates between sepiatone and grayscale).

34

It is the Evergreen State - many people here hike, camp, mountain climb, etc. Most of the funnest stuff to do is outside and enjoying nature.

I’ve been to Boston, and compared to that, Seattle is clean and bright and a breath of fresh air. I really don’t get all the rain people keep talking about. Granted, I’ve only been here 3.5 years, so maybe there’s something I’ve missed… it can get rainy, but I’ve never seen months of it without end, or lots of fog, or anything like that. I’m not sure what I’m missing, or I’m just lucky in living in the area I live in. Here it is, the 4th of July, there’s not a single cloud in the sky, it’s 78 degrees out there, I just got back from my FIL’s BBQ. The landlord’s kids are in the back right now, splashing in the pool. It’s been like this all week - it did rain a bit, off and on last Saturday, but the sun peeked through frequently.

There are awesome parks here, outdoor playing fields, hiking trails… if people are staying inside, depressed, complaining about “long, dreary” winters, they’re only doing it to themselves, and that’s weird. But it’s certainly not the norm, from what I can see. My husband, who has lived here all of his life, has read my post and adds his stamp of approval; it’s not that rainy, studies show there are much rainier cities than Seattle, you’re only as social as you allow yourself to be, and all the fun to be had is to be had outside.

I don’t drink much coffee, either. :wink:

ETA: I don’t know how reliable this cite may be, but a cite it is, and maybe some food for thought: MSN shows that WA state doesn’t even enter the charts until #24 - and that’s in Olympia.

35

If you’re interacting with geoducks in your everyday life, you need to change jobs! :smiley:
Here is a virtual tour of the Seattle area.
I was born here. I’ve lived pretty much all over the country, but I keep coming back.
Yeah, it’s expensive to live here, but, you get what you pay for.

36

:smiley:

Actually, while I knew of their existence prior, I really feel like I got to know the humble geoduck whilst watching an episode of Dirty Jobs featuring geoduck harvesters and a woman who cooks them in her restaurant. Yeah, I think all of them need new jobs. Yuck!

37

What about the salaries? Do they keep up with the rents, food, etc.? Or, it is a case of no one can afford housing without a duel income?

38

I’ve been following this thread with some interest, as I’m moving to Seattle (specifically, Redmond) in the middle of August.

Yeah, I’m nervous as hell about it- I live in my idea of paradise right now, here in the Oregon high desert, so moving to rain kinda worries me.

39

All I know about Seattle is that Tom Hanks doesn’t get a lot of sleep there

40

I forgot to mention that if you’re lucky, you might encounter an endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus!